Build Quality Qnap vs. Synology

[thr-x1]

I created the Qnap forum...

What's the build quality like in QNAP versus Synology?
I've seen some reviews that say the Synology looks like cheap and nasty plastic?

 

[thiggins]

Synology's dual-drive NAS cases are plastic. But it is sturdy and the build quality is good.

 

[thr-x1]

How easy is drive insertion / removal?
Have not seen much info / step threough photos of the process anywhere on the web? (I'm thinking here of 1 and 2 disk models).

 

[Dennis Wood]

Having taken a few of the QNAP products apart now I don't see any cause for concern. The enclosures/chassis are metal, faceplate plastic, and the chassis/backplane are very well designed. Cables are minimized internally with the use of backplanes so the case internals are very clean. I've always had a pet peeve with crappy PC cases, but found QNAPs just fine, particularly for access to the SODIMM RAM slots and the backplanes. In one of the products there were no less than ten screws holding the backplane to it's sliding chassis rail. I like to see this as the backplane is of course what all the drives connect to. If it's not perfectly placed and supported, the end result would be drive insertion issues. I'd say they did their homework in this department.

 

[thr-x1]

Thanks Denis. Good to know.
I've also seen some great photos showing exactly what you just told me:
http://www.ozhardware.com.au/index2.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=127&pop=1&page=3&Itemid=26
http://www.barrys-rigs-n-reviews.com/reviews/2008/hardware/ts209pro2/1.htm

Do you have any experience with Synology at all to compare?
thiggins coments give me confidence as I'm sure he tells it like it is, however I've only seen 1 or 2 photo's of the inside of Synology (some from thiggins himself) and none showing the step by step process of putting in drives etc.

 

[thiggins]

Download a Quick Install Guide.

 

[thr-x1]

Download a Quick Install Guide.

Thanks thiggins.That was very useful / good.
Dunno why I missed that when I was looking around for info.

Have done more searching and found the following:http://www.modders-inc.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=206 More a blog than a review as such, but lots of photos and 'gorey detail' of what the 'new toy' will be like.

 

[dogdob]

Synology 409+

1) sata cables sent with box too short to use on 3 drives, worked on the lowest one only, rest were garbage.
2) case requires more than one drive to hold the frame together! I tried one drive (4screws) in the top and it amost vibrated off of my desk. Adding a second drive seemed to solve the problem.

3) the lights are pretty bright and distracting....make sure its not in the same room with you if you are on your computer in the dim.

 

[PowerMAC]

I have opened the case of my QNAP TS-509 Turbo NAS, which is made of metal by the way and was very impressed with the build quality inside and the way it was assembled, really very clean and neat inside my TS-509.
I opened it up because I upgraded the internal memory from 1GB to 4 GB! And yes, many Synology models are made of plastic, that was yet another reason for me to go for QNAP (another one was the lack of Wake-On-LAN support of Synology which is a big disadvantage IMO). Also, the harddisks are very easy to insert and remove in QNAP NAS devices because many models are hot swappable!