Synology on Tuesday introduced its latest DiskStation NAS for homes and small offices, the small DS411slim. It has four 2.5-inch drive bays for a maximum capacity of up to 4TB and uses less than 17W when in use, or just 9.6W in hibernation. Improvements from the predecessor, the DS409slim, include a faster 1.6GHz processor and 256MB of RAM.
Synology’s Hybrid RAID (SHR) tech lets users make redundant volumes up to 3TB in size. The bundled DiskStation Manager (DSM) 3.0 software has an integrated DLNA-certified media server for streaming multimedia. Also included is a Surveillance Station 5 program that can make the NAS become a part of a monitoring system. An Ethernet port, USB connection and eSATA port are standard, but a Wi-Fi dongle is optional.
The upcoming DSM 3.1 software will bring with it a DS File app for the iPhone that will let users manage files on NAS. DS Photo+ and DS Audio apps for the iPad will allow for managing photos and streaming music. Printing from either Apple device will be enabled through AirPrint support.
The DS411slim will arrive in mid-February, with prices announced at that time as well.
