SYNOLOGY DS220j

Our work processes at GADGETS involve a lot of file sharing. First, there’s the document file of the article. Then there are the accompanying photos and other supporting graphic elements that our creatives need, to put together the key visuals. There are also footages that our video team edits to produce our semi-weekly digital newscasts. To manage all these, our team has relied on NAS devices as well as cloud storage for a smooth and efficient workflow. We check out the new Synology DS220j to see how well it performs.

- Maribelle Alba

DESIGN

The DS220j is a very compact unit, and the white plastic casing is a refreshing change from the usual drab black of most NAS devices. Instead of the usual slide-in drive bays, the two halves of the casing cleverly pull apart to reveal the two drive slots inside. In front is a column of LED indicator lights to show Status, LAN, Disk1, and Disk 2. At the bottom is the On/Off switch.

Much of the back is occupied by the circular fan vent, below which are the 1GbE LAN port, two USB 3.0 ports, the power supply jack, and the reset pinhole.

HARDWARE

The DS220j is powered by a 64-bit 1.4GHz quadcore Realtek RTD1296 processor complemented by DDR4 512MB memory. As mentioned earlier, it has two drive bays that can accommodate 3.5” SATA hard drives or 2.5” drives with optional Type-C disk holders. Each drive can have a maximum 16TB capacity, so depending on your requirements (and budget), you can have up to a total of 32TB on your personal cloud storage.

USER EXPERIENCE

Perhaps the one thing that most impressed me about the DS220j is how fast it is able to accomplish file transfers. Backing up a folder containing 15GB worth of files took only 15 minutes, definitely faster than my current NAS.

As the device does not come with hard drives pre-installed and I didn’t have any fresh drives on hand, I simply swapped out a couple of drives from my current NAS and popped them in. It was pretty much plug and play, with the DS220j showing up quickly on my network.

For those starting with a totally fresh unit, you can download the Synology Assistant on your PC or the DS Finder app on your smartphone to quickly locate your device. It’s then a simple matter of following the steps to complete the setup tasks.