Conclusion:

If I had to choose one word to describe my experience with the Synology Disk Station DS409slim NAS, it would be superb. The overall footprint is that of a 3.5" hard drive, in normal operation it is almost silent, data transfers are snappy, and the scalability is amazing. There are a ton of very useful features with the DSM (Disk Station Manager) firmware 2.2, and with the stable version due out in September the future is looking very good. The DS409slim can be used in many situations, being for an audio or video extremist with the DLNA/UPnP Media Server, a casual home user who likes a good backup plan, a web junkie (hosting their own web site/photoblog/mail server), or even a small business (redundant storage & surveillance).

The one downfall to the DS409slim is the fact that it is so small. With the tiny design you must use 2.5" hard drives, either SATA or SSD. Unfortunately the hard drive industry has only recently pushed these smaller drives to higher capacities. The maximum 2.5" hard drive is only 1 Terabyte, although that is a lot of storage, those drives are pricey, and if you have four drives this little NAS system will quickly get very expensive.

Not including the internal drives the Synology Disk Station DS409slim isn't cheap either. It will set you back about $400 (at places like Newegg.com), which is less than the 'full' DS409, but the DS409 does have 256MB of RAM. What's great are the free add on packages available from Synology, not to mention the free firmware upgrades that enhance the modules and even add some new ones.

The list is really too long to explain all of the reasons why the Synology Disk Station DS409slim NAS deserves to earn the "Highly Recommended" award, but it may seem rather obvious why it also earns the "Whisper Quiet" award. With a small footprint, low power consumption, almost silent operation, and fantastic firmware that includes a bundle of great applications it will take a lot of effort for me to change my NAS product of choice.



Pros:

» Small footprint
» RAID Management
» Low Power Consumption
» Hot Swappable Hard Drive Trays
» Near silent operation with 60mm Fan
» Great GUI with Disk Station Manger 2.2
» Tons of useful applications
» Strong set of multimedia features

Cons:

» Price
» 2.5" drives are more expensive than 3.5" drives
» Maximum storage only 4 Terabytes