Synology Releases DiskStation DS216j NAS

With the DiskStation DS216j, Synology is launching a new NAS that can accommodate two hard drives. The entry-level model gets a slightly faster dual-core CPU and it is possible to adjust the brightness of the LED lights.

According to Synology, the new NAS achieves a write speed of 97.6MB/s, making it slightly faster than its predecessor, the DS215j, which writes files at 87.5MB/s. The DiskStation DS216j contains a dual-core Marvell Armada 385 88F6820 processor with a speed of 1GHz, combined with 512MB DDR3 memory. There is room for two HDDs with a maximum size of 3.5″ and the maximum storage capacity is 16TB, when using two 8TB HDDs. The drives can be placed in jbod, raid 0, 1 or Synology Hybrid Raid.

In addition to an Ethernet connection, there are two USB 3.0 ports on the DS216j, which are cooled by a 92mm fan. According to the specifications, the NAS has a peak consumption of 14.85W and that is 6.95W when the HDDs are in sleep mode. This means that the consumption is slightly higher than the DS215j, which consumes 13.42W and 5.28W respectively. The cause may be the slightly faster CPU in the new model.

New is the ability to adjust the brightness of the LED lights on the front of the NAS. Four brightness levels are available and it is possible to create a schedule to adjust the brightness throughout the day. The DiskStation DS216j runs on Synology’s DSM software and is available immediately for a suggested retail price of 175.45 euros.