The Synology RS217 versus The Synology RS214 Rackstation NAS – How do they Compare

The latest Synology 2017 Series arrives with the RS217 NAS Rackstation – But how does it compare with the RS214

 Synology RackStation RS217 is a compact and cost effective 2-bay rackmount NAS with outstanding performance, providing a smart entry into rack-level storage for small, growing businesses to effectively manage, share and sync data. Synology® RackStation RS214 is a 1U 2-bay rackmount NAS. Featuring easy data sharing and management, RS214 is a genuine value specifically designed to serve growing businesses of any size. With Synology’s rich office applications, RS214 is dedicated to enhance working experience and productivity. Both are powered by the award winning DSM software, the RS217 is ready to take your business to the next level. Synology RS217 is backed with Synology’s 3-year limited warranty. Synology RS217 is an affordable and reliable solution for a small office or business. Powered by a fast, Marvell® ARMADA™ dual core processor, Synology RS217 is designed to maximize performance, enabling higher efficiency and cost effectiveness. Synology RS217 delivers an average of over 127.51 MB/s in writing speed under RAID 1 configuration in a Windows® environment, and over 210.87 MB/s in reading , making it one of the best values in 2-bay rackmount NAS devices available today.

Designed for reliability, RS217 comes with dual Gigabit LAN failover support to ensure continual network service in case of LAN failure. The hot-swappable drive tray design allows for easy installation and maintenance for both 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch HDDs without any additional tools. The hard drive tray lock further secures your hard drives from unauthorized or accidental withdrawal. To ensure scalability, RS217 provides an eSATA and two USB 3.0 ports in the back, along with one USB 2.0 port on the front for convenient access.

 Synology RS214 is an affordable and reliable solution for a growing business of any size. The built-in floating-point unit enhances the overall capability of the main CPU, enabling higher working efficiency. Synology RS214 delivers an average over 70 MB/sec writing speed under RAID 1 configuration in a Windows® environment, and over 100 MB/sec reading.1 With RAM twice the size of its predecessor, RS214 exhibits a surprising boost in multi-tasking performance, making it one of the best values in 2-bay rackmount NAS devices available today. Designed with attention to recovery mechanism, RS214 comes with dual LAN failover support to ensure continual network service in case of LAN failure, while hot-swappable design facilitates easy and risk-free hard drive replacement. The brand new hard drive tray lock further secures your hard drives from unauthorized or accidental withdrawal. To ensure scalability, RS214 provides an eSATA and two USB 3.0 interfaces in the back, alongside two USB 2.0 interfaces in the front panel for quick access.

What do both NAS Rackstation units have in common? What can these Synology NAS do?

Both are able to:

Both units are:

• DLNA Certified – so it will be visable to all your network devices for media (Console, Smart TV, Ipod, Smartphone, etc)
• Both can be used for Backup Images – Including the popular Apple Time Machine image software for Mac
• Both do not require RAILS – So no hidden charges to install this in a rack cabinet
• Both support migration with 3^rd Party Cloud Services – Such as DropBox, Google Drive, iCloud and more
• Both support JBOD, RAID 0 and RAID 1 – Keep your data safe from Hard Drive failure with a redundant solution.
• Both are compatible with Windows and Mac Environments – as well as acting as a brigde between systems of different OS’ to communicate
• Both have multiple IOS and Android Apps available – So you can access all elements of your device from your SmartPhone anywhere in the word
• Both have Multi-Lingual Language Support – So no language barriers!
• Both use EXT 4 as their internal File System – So will be visable and accessible with all host systems
• Both use DSM software but only the RS217 uses the latest version – Synology’s popular NAS operating System
• Both have low power, hibernation and fan control – A very important factor for those hjaving this NAS in operating 24/7

 

Hardware Specifications
Model Name	The Synology RS214	The Synology RS217
	£374	£355
The Synology RS217 Rear Ports
The Synology RS214 Rear Ports
CPU Model	Marvell Armada 370 1.2 GHz	Marvell Armada 385 88F6820
CPU Architecture	32-bit ARM	32-bit ARM
CPU Frequency	1.2 GHz Single Core	1.33GHz Dual Core
System Memory	512MB DDR3	512MB DDR3
Storage
Drive Bay(s)	2	2
Maximum Drive Bays with Expansion Unit	N/A	N/A
USB 2.0 Port	2	1
USB 3.0 Port	2	2
eSATA Port	1	1
RJ-45 1GbE LAN Port	2	2
Noise Level*
Power Consumption*	16.7 W (Access)  9.2 W (HDD Hibernation)	21.25 W (Access) 12.9 W (HDD Hibernation)
Read and Write	70MB/s Write 100MB/s Read   In a RAID 1 configuration with 2x LAN	127MB/s Write 210MB/s Read   In a RAID 1 configuration with 2x LAN
Warranty	3 Years	3 Years

The Synology RS217 arrive with quite modest specification and in terms of Upload and Download provides on average over 127.51 MB/s Write and over 210.87 MB/s in Read, whilst in a RAID 1 configuration in a Windows system environment with Synology claiming it is one of the best priced 2-bay Rackmount NAS servers available today. I kind of agree, but the price tag does seem a touch high for the CPU, a Marvell Armada 385 88F6820 CPU (an ARM processor and not a CPU you would use for a Plex Media Server or high end use) which is Dual Core chip running at 1.33 GHz frequency. Likewise the memory at a rather restrained 512MB of DDR3 memory seems a bit restricting. However for a rackmounted storage NAS you will always pay a higher price tag due to it’s ability to fit into a pre-existing Rack Cabinet in most offices. As well as this the construction of a rack is on a bigger scale than a desktop 2-Bay NAS being a factor also, the addition of 2 RJ45 (LAN) ports provide link aggregation support and therefore helping to achieve the read and write speeds mentioned above.

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