This USB 3.1 external hard drive enclosure offers a rugged, high-performance solution for accessing and backing up your important files, while protecting your drive in harsh environments. It comes with two cables, to support both USB-C and USB-A enabled laptops and tablets.

The drive enclosure delivers USB 3.1 Gen 2 performance with data transfer speeds of up to 10Gbps, letting you leverage the high performance of the latest drives while alleviating bottlenecks in your data transfers. With support for SATA I, II, and III, and high-capacity drives, this USB-C enclosure is compatible with virtually any 2.5” SATA SSD or HDD.

IP65 rated for water and dust resistance

Be prepared for the unexpected when you’re out in the field, in outdoor or industrial environments. The rugged hard drive enclosure provides superior water and dust resistance with an IP65 rating, to keep your data safe and secure, even in sudden downpours or dust storms.

The rugged enclosure is military rated (MIL-STD-810G) to protect your drive against environmental hazards such as drops, shock and vibration.

The tough-wearing exterior casing provides shock resistance, while the flexible silicone sleeve provides extra protection, absorbing the impact of bumps, rough baggage handling or drops. Inside, an extra layer of silicone provides drive stability.

The S251BRU31C3 is backed by a StarTech.com 2-year warranty and free lifetime technical support.

• Protect your data with this military-grade portable external storage solution - ideal in rugged outdoor or industrial environments such as construction, agriculture, mining, forest, manufacturing
• Ideal for creative professionals who need to access important data and files while out working in the field
• Take advantage of laptops and tablets that feature ultra-fast USB 3.1 (10Gbps) connectivity
• Share large files between computers quickly and securely without a network
• Back up important data to an external storage device

• Dual front-facing USB 3.0 ports
• Plug-and-play setup that gets you playing in seconds
• High-speed USB 3.0 performance

• DJI Copilot drive
• MicroSD adapter
• USB-C drive-to-laptop cables
• USB-C (USB 3.1)
• USB-C to USB-A
• Phone and tablet connectors
• Lightning cable for iOS devices
• Micro USB cable for Android
• USB-C cable for Android
• Wall charger

MAXIMUM PERFORMANCE ACCELERATION

• Form Factor - FHHL Add-In Card
• Interface - PCIe Gen3 x16, NVMe 1.2a
• Capacity - 7.7 TB
• Sequential Read - 8 GB/s
• Sequential Write  4.7 GB/s
• Random Read - Up to 975K IOPS
• Random Write - Up to 130K IOPS
• Warranty - 5 years

ioSafe 1517 NAS
Powered by Synology® DiskStation Manager
Fireproof. Waterproof

With its fire/water protection, superior performance, scalability, resilience, and comprehensive features, ioSafe® NAS 1517 is the ideal storage solution for your growing business. Featuring a quad-core processor, hardware encryption engine, and flawless software integration, the ioSafe 1517 is a powerful, expandable 5-bay NAS server that delivers outstanding speed and accelerated data encryption. The 1517 can help to simplify disaster recovery, business continuity, data management, sharing storage for storage and backup - with minimal setup and the freedom to expand capacity at any time.

• Protects data from fire up to 1550°F, 30 minutes per ASTM E-119
• Protects data from floods up to 10 foot depth, 3 days, complete submersion
• Quad Core CPU for blazing fast performance | 449 MB/s sequential writing
• Four LAN Ports for failover with Link Aggregation Support
• Built-in hardware encryption engine.
• Scale Up to 180TB with one or two ioSafe X517 Expansion Chassis®
• CPU Passive Cooling Technology and System Fan Redundancy
• High Availability and Automatic Failover between a pair of 1517 systems
• Running Synology DiskStation Manager (DSM)
• Ultimate Security and Protection

Scalable powerhouse for total data protection.
The ioSafe 1517 is a fire- and waterproof 5-bay cloud-enabled NAS, engineered to protect business-critical data, enhance recovery times and deliver optimal reliability. Powered by Synology’s award-winning DiskStation Manager operating system, the 1517 NAS includes easy-to-use apps for collaboration, file syncing and sharing, video surveillance and more.


DataCast Fire Protection
Protects data from loss up to 1550°F for 1/2 hour per ASTM E119.
ioSafe’s DataCast endothermic fire insulation technology protects your data from extreme heat. The DataCast formulation forms a chemical bond with water molecules that, at temperatures above 160°F, releases water vapor to limit the internal temperature of the unit during a fire.


HydroSafe Water Protection
Protects data from loss up to 10 feet for 72 hours.
ioSafe’s HydroSafe water barrier technology is designed to protect data loss from fresh or saltwater damage, including full immersion. HydroSafe technology keeps your data dry and secure in the event of a flood, storm or other natural or man-made disaster, while still allowing heat dissipation during normal operation.

• CPU - quad-core 2.1GHz 
• RAM options - 4GB DDR4 UDIMM, up to 64GB
• Network - 4 x 1GbE port, optional 10GbE NIC support
• Chassis - 3U design, 16 SATA drive bays

Seagate IronWolf

• NAS-optimised hard drive for the best-possible user experience
• IronWolf Health Management in compatible NAS1 systems continuously helps to safeguard the health of your data
• Drive balance with Rotational Vibration (RV) sensors manage multi-bay vibration for long-term consistent performance and reliability
• RAID performance optimised that maximises responsiveness and uptime with NAS-aware Error Recovery Control
• Advanced power management saves energy and delivers the right power at the right time

The QNAP TVS-473e, TVS-673e and TVS-873e NAS

High-performance NAS available in 4, 6, and 8 bays, featuring an AMD RX-421BD quad-core APU, up to 64GB DDR4 RAM, two M.2 SATA 6Gb/s SSD slots, dual 4K HDMI outputs, and hardware-assisted 4K video transcoding acceleration.

It provides dual PCIe slots for flexibly installing 10GbE NICs, QM2 cards or USB 3.1 10Gbps cards to fulfill versatile business needs.

• Built-in Radeon ™ R7 grade GPU, benefit from 4K multimedia storage and playback applications.
• PCIe dual-slot expansion of multi-application, you can install 10GbE NIC, QM2 expansion card, USB 3.1 10Gbps expansion card, or wireless network card.
• Connect the keyboard, mouse, and through the HDMI external monitor, you can use the NAS as a PC.
• Qtier ™ Automated Tiered Storage and SSD Caching technologies provide 24x7 full-time storage acceleration.
• Improve support for virtualization and software container applications, centralized storage, backup, sharing, and disaster recovery; support for storage expansion.
• We recommend NAS users with more than 10 disks using RAID 50/60, taking into account storage capacity, protection and performance requirements.

Specifications of the TS-253Be and TS-453Be NAS

Model	QNAP TS-453Be NAS	QNAP TS-253Be NAS
CPU	Quad-Core Intel® Celeron   J3455 1.5GHz (Burst up to 2.3GHz)	Quad-Core Intel® Celeron   J3455 1.5GHz (Burst up to 2.3GHz)
Memory (RAM)	2GB/4GB SO-DIMM DDR3L   up to 1866Mhz	8GB / 4GB SO-DIMM DDR3L   up to 1866Mhz
Flash	512MB (DOM)	512MB (DOM)
Number of RAM Slots	2 (Max 8 GB DDR3L Install)	2 (Max 8 GB DDR3L Install)
Max. number of HDDs/SSDs	4x 2.5″ or 3.5″ SATA 6Gb/s, 3Gb/s	2x 2.5″ or 3.5″ SATA 6Gb/s, 3Gb/s
Expansion Enclosure Support	1 (UX-800P, UX-500P)	1 (UX-800P, UX-500P)
Rear Ports
Gigabit LAN Ports	2	2
Expansion Slot (PCI-E)	1 x Gen 2 (x2)	1 x Gen 2 (x2)
USB 3.0	5	5
IR Sensor (Infrared Receiver)	(RM-IR004, RM-IR002, & MCE)	(RM-IR004, RM-IR002, & MCE)
HDMI	2 (4K)	2 (4K)
Line Out (3.5mm)	1	1
Speaker	1	1
LED Indicators	Power/Status, LAN, USB	Power/Status, LAN, USB
LCD Display/ Button	OLED with capacitive touch buttons	OLED with capacitive touch buttons
Buttons	Power, USB copy, Reset,   Capacitive touch buttons (select, enter)	Power, USB copy, Reset,   Capacitive touch buttons (select, enter)
Form Factor	Tower	Tower
Dimensions (HxWxD) mm	168 x 170 x 226 mm 6.61 x 6.69 x 8.90 inch	168 x 105 x 226 mm 6.61 x 4.13 x 8.90 inch

The New QNAP TS-128A and TS-228A NAS for 2018

Why should you care about the QNAP TS-228A and TS-128A NAS

• Two M.2 SATA SSDs (2260 and 2280 lengths) are supported for flexible and high-performance storage needs.
• Two USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports and a M.2 A key slot are provided for USB dongles or M.2 modules (2230 length). Wireless capabilities can be added for connecting more IoT devices.
• The powerful AL-314 processor with 2GB RAM are used and various interfaces are provided for combining many IoT devices and applications.
• The App Center provided by the QTS Lite operating system offers users with numerous developer tools for building a smooth and high-performance working environment.
• Container Station is a lightweight and easy-to-use virtualization platform for users to build personalized IoT applications with Docker and LXC.
• Based on populat open-source packages like Node-RED and Freeboard, the exclusive QIoT Suite Lite provides various useful modules and out-of-the-box functionality to accelerate IoT development and service processes.
• Annapurna Labs AL-314 quad-core processor, 2 GB DDR3 RAM

• Thunderbolt™ 3 for lightning fast transfer speeds up to 40 Gbps
• Dedicated DisplayPort for additional monitor to expand the workspace
• 2nd Thunderbolt port supports Thunderbolt 3, USB 3.1, and DisplayPort devices
• USB power delivery provides 60W of power to recharge compatible laptops
• Built-in 500W SFX power supply with an extra pair of 8-pin PCIe power connectors
• 1 PCIe (x16) slot supporting full-length, full-height, double-width cards
• 4 lane PCI Express 3.0 compliant interface
• Wire mesh panel to dissipate heat from cards with on-board fans
• Retractable carry handle to easily transport the device
• No tools required for installation of PCIe card
• 4 lane PCI Express 3.0 compliant interface

Supreme surveillance with the 2-Bay Synology NVR1218 Network Surveillance NAS Server for 2017/18

Synology Network Video Recorder NVR1218 is an all-in-one and energy efficient private surveillance solution with HDMI output for PC-less management and live monitoring. NVR1218 supports up to 12 channels of 720p/30FPS camera streams. Point of Sale (POS) system support combines business transaction records with surveillance recordings.Synology NVR1218 is backed by Synology’s 3-year limited warranty.

The NVR1218 is the newest Standalone, All-in-one Surveillance Solution from Synology

Synology Network Video Recorder NVR1218is an all-in-one surveillance solution with a 1080p HDMI interface for monitoring, managing, and storing surveillance videos. You can watch surveillance recordings and configure IP camera settings directly onSurveillance Station without using a computer. NVR1218 supports up to 12 channels of 720p/30FPS camera streams. NVR1218 can be deployed and setup easily without a computer and Internet connection1 ,which is convenient for first-time system installation in remote or secure locations without external network access. NVR1218 supports Point of Sales (POS) systems via a dedicated COM port, allowing NVR1218 to be integrated with transaction systems to enable video indexing capability against transaction records.

24/7 Security Solution standalone, over the network or the internet with the NVR1218

Synology Surveillance Station offers a centralised interface to manage IP cameras deployed in your workplace. Easily setup and enable secure remote access to Surveillance Station via computers or the DS cam mobile app to monitor real-time camera streams and to view recorded events and snapshots. The hassle-free interface features an optimised live view experience with on-screen controls, smart analytic tools like motion detection, and an alert system that sends notifications through DS cam, SMS, and e-mail.

Rich Compatibility and User-friendly Operation with your existing Surveillance setup

Powered by Synology Surveillance Station, NVR1218 supports more than 5,600 IP cameras from 100 renowned brands and ONVIF Profile S and Profile G, allowing flexible system deployment options.NVR1218 also supports navigating between different camera streams with a USB mouse, keyboard, or joystick.

The audio input and output ports allow microphone and speaker connections for two-way voice communication via audio-enabled cameras. In the event of a power failure, NVR1218 can be paired with an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) for safe power down.

Expandable Storage options for Growing Needs with the addition of the DX517

NVR1218 supports Synology Expansion Unit DX517 to support up to 7 hard drives. With DX517 connected, users are able to create a RAID 5 or RAID 6 volume for enhanced storage resiliency and larger usable space.

Wallet-Friendly and Energy-Efficient Surveillance that is both standalone and highly adaptable

NVR1218 is engineered with energy efficiency in mind. It is extremely quiet and requires only 13.64W during operation. As a PC-less surveillance solution,NVR1218 economizes on both equipment and energy costs in the long-run. All Synology products are produced with RoHS compliant parts and packed with recyclable packing materials. Synology acknowledges the responsibility as a global citizen to continually work towards reducing the environmental impact of every product.

The Synology 2018 UK Event – HUGE Hardware And Software Updates

The big brand in Network Attached Storage once again hosted their annual conference, planning on appearing in 17 different countries, and with China and Taiwan hosted earlier in the month, it is now the turn of London, United Kingdom to host the Synology conference for 2017 and 2018. With promises of direct interaction with their experts to gain valuable experience and knowledge, as well as an opportunity  an opportunity to learn their insights on storage, networking, and application serving industries, as well as to talk to them and give your feedback on products and features, it is has over the years evolved into quite a polished affair (wow, that was quite the running sentence). As much as that sounded like marketing blurb, it should be pointed out that it is at valuable events such as these that the public and private market can learn about how the NAS server industry is changing to compete and (in many cases) integrate more and more with existing public perception of easy cloud storage.

The Desktop and SMB Hardware at Synology 2018 London

As already mentioned, there was definitely a much bigger focus on desktop devices than the previous year and it was great to see many a diskstation NAS on show.
With many devices on display set up and ready to us, as well as a technical expert on hand to show you the finer points and answer your questions, this was very much the Synology conference event that many had signed up for. Several of the devices up and running there were already commercially available and covered here on NASCompares and SPANTV, but it was still never the less great seeing them up and running. Newer units on show such as the DS918+ 4-Bay expandable diskstation, it’s 2-Bay little brother DS718+ NAS drew particularly avid attention (as you would expect), but that was not the be all end of it. The presence of the June released prosumer DS1517+ and DS1817+ was acknowledged, even though I still hear people asking and talking about that CPU still.

Read more on this at NASCompares.com - http://nascompares.com/2017/09/26/the-synology-2018-uk-event-huge-hardware-and-software-updates/

What are the specs of the Synology DS418 NAS Server?

The first couple of improvements that have really caught my eye are related to the CPU and Memory of the device. The older Synology DS416 J arrived with an Annapurna Labs Alpine AL-212 processor. This was a 32-bit dual core CPU with a frequency of 1.4HGz. Not exactly earth shatteringly powerful. However thenew Synology DS418 NAS more than doubled this in so, so many ways. It arrives with the Realtek RTD1296, another ARM based CPU, that arrives in Quad Core AND at a frequency of 1.4GHz. So more cores, more efficient CPU and a better architecture. that isn’t the only big leap. The Memory has been vastly improved too. In the rather lackluster and a pinch underwhelming DS416 NAS it arrived with just 1GB of DDR3 memory (not terrible, but not great). Whereas Synology has really pulled the stops out on the standard unit by including 2GB of DDR4 Memory! So once again, twice the power and twice the efficiency – You really have to give Synology credit on this one, it is an impressive leap from its predecessor.

What else has changed in the DS418 NAS from Synology

Although a number of the other features have remained the same, the other big improvement is in the chassis. Like the Synology DS918+ that was uncovered at CeBit 2017, the Synology DS418 will use the new 4-Bay Tray access chassis. This is a very compact, ventilated case with an emphasis on modernism and i was super impressed with it when i saw it in June and am more so now that Synology are using it more. tHis coupled with those improved specs means that the performance of this unit is far greater than the DS416. Also arriving with dual 1GBe LAN ports, if you enable Link Aggregation enabled, the Synology DS418 delivers outstanding performance with a read speed of 226MB/ s and a write speed of 170 MB/s. Alongside this the unit arrives with hardware-accelerated encryption, So the DS418 provides encrypted data throughput with read speeds in excess of 220MB/s and 130 MB/sec write. An impressive upgrade over the original DS416 NAS.

What can the Synology DS418 NAS do with that new CPU?

The original DS416 NAS was almost exclusively aimed at those have simple file server and low media needs – as you would expect from the modest hardware it arrived with. However the new DS418 NAS features the sort of software abilities you would associate with a PLUS or PLAY series NAS. The DS418 supports 4K H.265 10-bit video transcoding for improved media access between different media platforms and output. In real terms that means that if your network or internet enabled playback device is not capable of 4K video play, the Synology DS418 NAS will provide 4K online video transcoding to 1080p or lower resolution (for iPhones, mobile Android devices and the like) for a smoother video performance, as well as saving data and reducing file sizes for streaming.

The Synology DS418 4-Bay NAS – £330+ without VAT and HDD media

• Expected Release Date – End of 2017
• New Chassis
• 4-Bay NAS
• Realtek RTD1296  Quad Core 1.4GHz
• 2GB DDR4
• In terms of connectivity, this NAS has 3x USB 3.0 ports, 2 Gigabit network ports
• 4K Transcoding
• SHR Support

The Synology DS918+ 4-Bay NAS Official Specifications – The wait is almost over

Originally uncovered as far back as April 2017, theSynology DS918+ was always going to be a real game changer for the big name in network attached storage. This was far from their first 4-Bay NAS server and will almost certainly not be their last. However I think it is fair to say that things were beginning to become a little stagnant. For a start, the latest releases in the form of the 5 and 8 Bay featured a virtually unchanged CPU, as well as rather unimpressive improvements in memory and hardware improvements. That isn’t to say that synology have been coasting it for the last year or two. They have been making incredible improvements in the software side of things and with their DSM software (the NAS equivalent of an operating system like Windows or iOS that is accessed from your web browser or mobile device) is now a much more feature filled and application ready user interface. However the tiny improvements in terms of hardware have been vastly ramped up in the brand new Synology DS918+.

What makes the Synology DS918+ NAS so special?

Synology DiskStation DS918+ is a 4-bay NAS designed for small and medium-sized businesses and IT enthusiasts. Powered by a new quad-core processor, DS918+ provides outstanding performance and data encryption acceleration along with real-time transcoding of 4K Ultra HD source contents. Synology DS918+ is backed by Synology’s 3-year limited warranty.

The DS918+ is a high-speed Scalable Storage Server

Synology DS918+ is a 4-bay network attached storage solution equipped with an quad-core processor and 4GB DDR3L memory (expandable up to 8GB). With Link Aggregation enabled, DS918+ delivers great sequential throughput performance at over 226 MB/s reading and 222 MB/s writing1 . With AES-NI hardware accelerated encryption, DS918+ delivers encrypted data throughput at over 225 MB/s reading and 221 MB/s writing1 . DS918+ newly supports M.2 NVMe 2280 SSDs, allowing fast system cache creation without occupying internal drive bays. DS918+ can support up to 9 drives when connected to one Synology DX5172 expansion unit. Storage capacity can be expanded according to your business needs with minimal effort.

DS918+ features Btrfs, the Next Generation Storage Efficiency

DS918+ introduces the Btrfs file system, bringing the most advanced storage technologies to meet the management needs of modern businesses. Built-in data integrity check detects data and file system corruption with data and meta-data checksums and improves the overall stability. Flexible Shared Folder/User Quota System provides comprehensive quota control over all user accounts and shared folders. Advanced snapshot technology with customizable backup schedule allows up to 1,024 copies of shared folder backups in a minimum 5-minute interval without occupying huge storage capacity and system resources. File or folder level data restoration brings huge conveniences and saves time for users who wish to restore only a specific file or folder. File self-healing: Btrfs file system can auto-detect corrupted files with mirrored metadata, and recover broken data using the supported RAID volumes, which include RAID1, 5, 6, and 10.

Comprehensive Business Applications available on the DS918+ NAS

 Powered by the innovative Synology DiskStation Manager (DSM), DS918+comes fully-equipped with applications and features designed specifically for small or growing businesses. Windows® AD and LDAP support allow easy integration with existing business directory services, without needing to recreate user accounts. Windows ACL support provides fine-grained access control and efficient privilege settings, allowing DS918+ to fit seamlessly into current infrastructure. Internet file access is simplified by the encrypted FTP server and Synology File Station, a web-based file explorer. HTTPS, firewall, and IP auto-block support ensure file sharing over the Internet is protected with a high level of security. Application Privileges controls access to applications and packages based on each individual account, user group, or IP address. MailPlus allows your business to set up a secure, reliable, and private mail server while giving your employees a modern mail client for receiving and sending messages. The powerful Collaboration Suite integrates Synology Office, Calendar, and Chat, ensuring secure and effective private communications and allowing your organizations to easily manage and control relevant contents.

The Synology DS918+ Diskstation NAS is the perfect Virtualization Solution

Synology’s Virtual Machine Manager opens up abundant possibilities, allowing you to set up and run various virtual machines, including Windows, Linux, and Virtual DSM. You can also test new software versions in a sandbox environment, isolate your customers’ machines, and increase the flexibility of your DS918+ with reduced hardware deployment and maintenance costs.

Synology iSCSI storage fully supports most of the virtualization solutions, enhancing work efficiency with an intuituve management interface. VMware vSphere™ 6.5 and VAAI integration help offload storage operations and optimize computation efficiency. Windows Offloaded Data Transfer (ODX) speeds up data transfer and migration rate, while OpenStack Cinder support transforms your Synology NAS into a block-based storage component.

Built your 4K Ultra HD Multimedia Library on the DS918+ NAS Server

Synology DiskStation DS918+ features real-time transcoding for up to 2 channels of H.264/H.265 4K videos at the same time, bringing more powerful support to the latest multimedia formats and contents. With Video Station, you can organize personal digital video library with comprehensive media information, and watch 4K Ultra HD movies and films. The intuitive design of Photo Station allows you to effortlessly organize photos into customized categories, smart albums and blog posts, and link them to social networking websites within a few clicks. Audio Station comes with Internet radio and lossless audio formats support, and provides music playback via DLNA and AirPlay®-compliant devices.

• Expected Release Date –  Late Sept ’17
• New Chassis – from a distance, looks a little like a dice. I definitely prefer this compared with the removable front panel and non-lockable trays of the DS916+
• 4-Bay NAS – Expandable to 9 with DX517 (spread/expand RAID across them as needed)
• Intel Celeron J3455 Quad Core 1.5 GHz (up to 2.3 GHz) – Apollo Lake architecture replacing the previously used Intel Pentium N3710. Although they are both Quad-Core Intel Based CPUs, the J3455 consumes more power (10W vs. 6W compared with the N3710), but is noticeably 1.3 times faster than the N3710 in practice.
• 4GB DDR3 Memory, Expandable to 8GB across two slots
• BTRFS support and SHR / SHR-2 Support
• Two M.2 2280 NVMe slots for SSD caching built into the base of the unit
• In terms of connectivity, this NAS has 3 USB 3.0 ports (including 1 on the front), 2 Gigabit network ports and 1 eSATA port.