X-bit labs

1-Bay SATA NAS Server from Synology: Disk Station DS107+ Review (page 2)

Category: Other

by Platon Scheblykin

[ 02/04/2008 | 10:09 AM ]

Exterior and Interior Design

A good product shows its quality right away like the DS107+ does. Its exterior design concept is nothing new: a white glossy case with rounded-off angles is quite a fashionable thing these days. Synology products and this one in particular show certain individuality, though. And generally speaking, devices designed in this style seldom fail to look impressive. The black front panel of the DS107+ has a sort of a wave on which all of the device’s indicators and buttons are placed. This unusual solution is quite appropriate here: the front panel matches the overall style of the case and is also very ergonomic. The only drawback of the glossy surface of the case is that dirt and dust are going to be perfectly visible on it.

The DS107+ can only be put down upright as is indicated by the rubber feet at the sides. These feet keep the device steady on any surface.

The case is ventilated actively with a 50mm fan located at the back panel.

Cool air is taken in through the vent holes in the bottom panel. Although there are no so many vents in the case, the air temperature inside it (and the temperature of the internal HDD) remains low even when the NAS is utilized heavily.

The DS107+ is almost silent at work save for the noise from the operating HDD. With a quiet HDD inside, it won’t be audible at all. Well, if the internal HDD is noisy, you can only hear it during disk operations as it shuts down after being idle for a while.

The front panel is the way for the DS107+ to communicate with you. It offers the following (from top to bottom):

• Status indicator. It is blinking and shining in orange in case of an error
• LAN indicator
• Disk indicator (reports the activity of the integrated hard disk)
• eSATA indicator (reports the activity of the external HDD attached to the eSATA port)
• USB 2.0 port
• C button with an indicator. If you plug a supported drive into the USB port, the indicator lights up. Then you can press this button to copy all data from the external drive into a special folder on the internal disk.
• eSATA port
• Power button with an indicator.

The indication system is very user-friendly due to several reasons. First, the indicators do not form a solid line as is often the case with other devices. Second, two out of the six indicators are located near the buttons they refer to. Third, the indicators differ in color and size (but all of them are rather large). And fourth, the indicators are bright enough to be visible under daylight, yet not as intensive as to blind your eyes. All of this makes working with the DS107+ a pleasure.

The back panel of the NAS carries the following (from top to bottom):

• 50x50mm fan
• Two more USB 2.0 ports
• Gigabit Ethernet port
• Reset button
• Power connector

Besides that, there are a Kensington security slot and a holder for the power cord there.

You have to dismantle the DS107+ in order to install a hard disk into it. It is easy: you only have to unfasten two screws at the back panel and shift one of the side panels to access the innards of this NAS device. You can see a steel partition here that covers almost the entire PCB. It is on this partition that the fasteners for the internal HDD are to be found. The DS107+ can accommodate almost any 3.5” HDD with a SATA or SATA-II interface and a capacity up to 1TB inclusive. The HDD is secured on the steel partition with four screws and connected to the PCB with two short cables. The screws and cables are included with the NAS.

The quality of the case is very high, by the way. All of its details are fitted together perfectly without gaps or anything.

You’ll need more effort to access the PCB than to install the HDD – the partition and the large number of screws should cool a casual user’s interest in the device’s internals. So we had to unfasten the four screws that secure the PCB with partition to the remaining half of the case and then the four screws that attach the partition to the PCB. After that we could take the PCB of the DS107+ into our hands. We could see then that the fan had three wires, which meant that its speed could be varied as necessary. This explains its quiet operation.

The PCB looks impressively large occupying almost all the free space inside the case. The blue piece of textolite carries a lot of various chips and auxiliary elements. The PCB layout is clever overall, all the components being distributed evenly on the face side of the PCB. The reverse side has some surface-mounted components, a few LED indicators, and connectors. Judging by the uninstalled connectors for a second HDD, this PCB design is also employed for the DS207+ which differs from the DS107+ in supporting two internal HDDs with RAID capability.