Synology has announced two dual-bay NASes, one for only $160.
The DS214se "single-role edition" NAS uses the non hot-swappable enclosure found in its other "Personal and Home Office" products.
As you might expect, it is Marvell powered, using an 800 MHz single-core Armada 370 SoC with only 256 MB of DDR3 RAM and 8 MB of flash.
Other features are suitably spartan to match its $159.99 MSRP, with only two USB 2.0 ports and a single Gigabit Ethernet LAN port. It also requires optional 2.5" disk holders if you choose to not use 3.5" drives.
Synology’s "single-role edition" messaging is a bit odd, since the se supports all the features in the company’s current DSM 4.3 OS. These include Cloud Station and File Station Remote access, DLNA server, and Video, Audio and Photo Stations.
The DS214se should start shipping "over the next couple of weeks".
Synology DS214se
Also announced today was the DS214+. It anchors the dual-bay low end of Synology’s Small and Medium Business line by not being expandable like its DS713+ sibling.
The DS214+ is powered by a 1.33 GHz dual-core Marvell XP SoC with floating point and hardware encryption engines mated with 1 GB of DDR3 RAM. Ports include dual aggregatable Gigabit Ethernet, one USB 2.0, two USB 3.0 and one eSATA. The lockable, hot-swappable dual bays accept 2.5" and 3.5" solid state and hard drives up to 4 TB.
The NAS supports the full feature set of Synology’s DSM 4.3 OS, with performance spec’d at over 200MB/s and over 150MB/s for write with link aggregation used.
The DS214+ should start shipping in "early December" in the U.S. with pricing "under $390".
