Synology RackStation RS422+

An affordable short-depth rack NAS with decent speeds and data protection but limited upgrade options

- DAVE MITCHELL

PRICE Diskless, £558 exc VAT from broadbandbuyer.com

Stepping in at the entry point of Synology's general-purpose rack NAS family, the RackStation RS422+ offers SMEs an affordable storage solution that will slot into the smallest of spaces. Measuring only 290mm deep, this 4-bay 1U high chassis will fit comfortably in a wall box or a standard 2-post rack cabinet.

Costing £558 for a diskless unit, the RS422+ is good value but businesses looking for a NAS with lots of upgrade options should look away now, as these are in short supply. A redeeming feature is the new 2.2GHz AMD Ryzen R1600 CPU, but the base 2GB of DDR4 ECC memory is embedded on the motherboard and there are no spare SODIMM slots for upgrading this.

There's a clue in the model name about storage capacity: the '4' indicates the maximum number of drives supported. Unlike the higher-end RS822+, this appliance doesn't offer any eSATA ports so you can't add Synology's RX418 external 4-bay disk shelves and it doesn't have any internal M.2 SSD slots, either.

Activelnsight On the plus side, the RS422+ offers a pair of gigabit network ports and a proprietary PCI-E slot at the rear for Synology's E10G22-T1-Mini card.