Synology's success owes much to its web top GUI, accessed through a browser, which is now polished and mature and, thankfully, doesn't suck up system resources. If you can't remember the IP address you've allocated to the box and port (5050) you'll need to download the DSAssistant app for Windows or Mac. This finds the servers on your network and also you to monitor their status.One minor glitch it threw at me was complaining that it needed the latest version of Java. Tech support established this wasn't a complaint about the DiskStation, but about the Mac client I was using.The DS214 I received as a test unit carried the 4.2 software, but not so long ago Synology made the 4.3 update available as a download. In this, the PhotoStation photo streamer gets spruced up, and some other useful features are bundled. At long last, Diskstations now support Mac-formatted (HFS+) disks, something Synology's great rival Qnap has been able to boast for ages.
I was also pleased to see bandwidth throttling per user and per protocol added, although 4.2 had already made ground here. Microsoft's Offload Data Transfer (ODX) file protocol is also added, allowing servers to transfer files between iSCSI partitions faster with lower CPU and IO strain. It's supported in Windows 8 Explorer.For users with more money than sense, the SSDs are better supported than before, thanks to support for the TRIM command. Of course, you saturate the bottleneck of the network I/O far sooner than you'll soak up the disk I/O bottleneck, in which case why use an SSD in a NAS unit? Perhaps if you've got very acute hearing and the low noise of the disks starting up is still too much.Running a home server may have once sounded ludicrous, but the low power consumption of the ARM board and aggressive power management of modern drives make them very unobtrusive. They can be set to power up and down to a schedule. The official power consumption is 22.64W in access mode, 20.7W when idle, and 9W in hibernation.
That's a little more than its predecessors the DS212 drew 18.2W access/6.8W hibernate and the DS213 18.48W access/8.28W hibernation. For comparison the beefy two year old reference unit (the 712+) draws 27.5W active and 17.6W idle.Synology claims network write speed of 100MB/s in mirrored RAID mode for the new box. To test this I set up a RAID 1 array with two WD Red 3TB disks, and created two test sets of just under 2GB each, one containing a handful of large media files, and one a more typical mix of 1,600 files. I used a 2013 Apple Airport Extreme router - not the fastest - and Gigabit Ethernet.Sure enough, the DS214 matched the claimed performance, recording 108MB/s in write mode for the large files and 103MB/s for the typical mix. Read speeds are considerably slower, and show a degree of divergence: with 46MB/s to read the large media files and 32MB/s to read the large mix of smaller files. If you're on Wi-Fi, of course, just fuggedabout it.
Writes trickle in at around 10MB/s and reads trickle out at around 8MB/s. This is typical of performance across manufacturers, and if you're backing up a household of devices you'll want to do the first over a wired connection. And that would be that, normally. However, WLAN network speeds are improving with more use of 5GHz frequencies and the 802.11ac standard - so it's worth returning to the subject once we have compliant hardware.The DiskStation can stream to your telly - Synology claims full 1080p HD is supported despite the modest ARM processor. However it's amazing to find a complete absence of any legal acquisition options either bundled or promoted - instead, the dark side of the internet is promoted as the default supply chain.
The ethics here are dubious and quite avoidable: why not work with the legal supply chain to cache a Netflix stream to avoid stuttering, TiVo style? That kind of innovation must be worth a few pence.
A home NAS box is a bit like an iPad - you don't really need one but once you have one, so many things - from backups to photo sharing - are that much easier. Synology's no-nonsense UI and ever-improving hardware are setting the pace in this competitive market. The webtop UI is getting a bit a long in the tooth, but it hits the sweet spot between dashboard UIs which conceal most of the powerful server features and the DIY approach - exemplified by this Sheeva plug server. No-tools assembly and a low price should make it even more attractive. The main difference here, is this Asus weighs a mere 1.25kg and at 288 x 204 x 19mm is only marginally more bother to lug around than 10in iPad 2 with a cover. So while the future of the PC may well be uncertain, the more we see of these lightweight, light on the wallet, low-power laptops does suggest a rather different future that isn’t in the form of an Ultrabook, if you’re prepared to make a few sacrifices.
Apart from the build quality – which is fine although plastic and the lid is a bit flimsy – those sacrifices aren’t really anything to do with Acer, it’s just providing the hardware for this platform. The C720 is easy to like, but Chrome still has its shortcomings.For instance, you’d think that with Google’s obsession with the cloud you might be able to get somewhere with a NAS box. Apparently Java often plays a part here and your mileage may vary depending on your NAS maker. Hence, using IP addresses from the browser, attempts to connect to Synology DS410 NAS failed but running an Asustor AS-304T worked just fine. This really is the sort of thing you'd hope to have resolved by apps offered in the Chrome store.
You'll void the warranty by opening it up – the memory is soldered on but you can swap the SSD. Note the three-cell battery label states 3720mAh Li-ion, not 3900mAh as quoted in the specs
Incidentally, the built-in speakers are your usual low-fi laptop fare but are quite loud and not ear piercingly bright. The 1.3Mp web cam and mic are perfectly adequate too. The colour balance is all over the place, but the image is sharp enough. I did have some luck with the Pure Connect streaming service too and even managed to get this to hook up wirelessly to a Revo Supersignal, featured in our recent DAB-Bluetooth combo radios round-up, whilst simultaneously browsing Google Streetview.Streetview, of course, uses Flash and Chrome relies heavily on this Adobe plug-in enabler for more than compatibility with popular web sites such as Facebook. A fair amount of software featured on the Chrome Web Store is compiled as self-contained Flash apps. One of the most popular is Pixlr Editor from Autodesk. It’s the closest thing you’ll find to Photoshop for Chrome.
This 16GB Kingston SSD is removable, but there aren't many NGFF (next generation form factor) storage options to replace it with just yet
While it is perfectly functional and actually makes the Chrome experience bearable by providing a comprehensive range of image editing functions for nothing, it does have a rather major flaw. Unfortunately, none of the key commands work even though they’re listed alongside tasks on the various drop down menus. It seems working in this Flash-based walled garden from within Chrome needs some refinement, as the navigation is all point and click.And if image editing from a mobile appeals, then you’ll need to e-mail those pics. I tried an Apple iPhone 4S, a Nokia Lumia 820 Windows Phone and a Moto G Android handset and none of them would mount as USB drives, despite various notifications on their screens recognising a computer connection. Lest we forget printing – you’ll need to go round the houses with Google’s Cloud Print to get a hard copy, even if you’ve a printer sat next to you. As it says in the Settings info “Don't try to plug your printer into your Chromebook--it won't work!”
Swapping over to a full blown Linux alternative is easier than you might think on a Chromebook
Sure there are new printers that support Cloud Print these days, but how often do you replace a printer? Probably not as often as a laptop. Still, you do have the option to run a mainstream Linux distro alongside Google's Chrome, which is also Linux-based. One way is to use Crouton, which is a breeze. After installation, simple key commands switch between them Chrome and Ubuntu without the need for restarts. It's very straightforward to set up with Ubuntu and both share the same Downloads folder, so documents can be interchanged easily.I’ll admit I’m warming to Chrome, but it’s a relationship that’s still far from cosy. The useful app choices remain very limited and the OS still feels rough round the edges in places and the printing limitations are as annoying as ever. Yet, whatever you think about Google’s Chromebook experience, Acer has turned out a respectable, compact notebook at an affordable price with an all day battery life.
Certainly, given the cost of alternatives, such as the Asus T100 Windows 8 touchscreen convertible at £150 more, those working to a rigid budget will be taking a long hard look at this always updated, virus-free Google experience.Indeed, the dual OS set-up running Chrome and an alternative flavour of Linux is definitely appealing and the SD card slot can take care of storage expansion, if required. This combination of functional inexpensive hardware and a level of versatility should ensure the Acer C720 Chromebook will have its share of fans. The Acronis True Image WD Edition software (version 16 from 2013) insisted that I connect a WD drive first, even though the Dual Drive was connected using the adaptor cable. After a little trial and error, I found that Acronis would only play ball once I used Windows Disk Management to create a partition on the new drive. That done, I had the option to clone the original drive, clean up the disk, destroy data and so on.