The Synology BeyondCloud Mirror (BC214se 2300) is without doubt, the best Network Attached Storage device I’ve ever reviewed. It comes with two 3TB Seagate NAS Hard Drives pre-installed and its simple plug-and-play setup will have you up and running in less than 5 minutes. It’s the perfect setup for your personal entertainment center. It is available now for $369.99.
Synology’s BeyondCloud Mirror is actually a pre-configured version of their DS214se diskless NAS system. The main difference with the BeyondCloud Mirror is that it comes with special NAS-specific Seagate hard drives pre-installed, so you don’t have to shop for, purchase, and then install the drives yourself. More on these Seagate NAS HDDs later.
The BeyondCloud Mirror is perfectly designed to be your personal entertainment center with its pre-installed multimedia packages. These multimedia packages include Photo Station, Video Station, Audio Station, and Note Station. The purpose of these packages are pretty self-explanatory; Photo Station gives you a place to store and view your photos from anywhere on your network or remotely, Video Station does the same with your videos, Audio Station does the same with your audio files, and Note station does the same with your notes, recipes, etc.
Everything that comes in the box. The BeyondCloud Mirror, RJ45 LAN cable, AC power Adapter, and AC Power Cord. Not pictured: Accessory screws.
All of Synology’s NAS units can also be accessed using their QuickConnect service, which is a way to completely bypass the complicated networking and port forwarding sometimes required. All you do is create a QuickConnect ID and you can access your DiskStation from anywhere in the world, on a browser or mobile phone, without having to go through complicated router configurations. This is just another example of why Synology’s BeyondCloud NAS systems are perfect for beginners and experts alike.
While talking about simple access to your NAS, let’s not forget Synology’s easy to use mobile app library, which allow you to quickly access your NAS on the go from your mobile phone. Synology’s suites of apps include DS Note, DS Audio, DS Video, DS Photo+, DS Cloud, DS Download, and DS Cam. All of which allow you to remotely access your notes, audio, video, photos, cloud information, downloads, and camera feeds respectively. With these mobile apps, there’s no limit to how much use you can get out of your NAS, even while you’re out of the house.
Let’s talk specs on the BeyondCloud Mirror. It is a beginner-model NAS, with a Marvell Armada 370 88F6707 CPU running at 800 MHz, and 256 MB of DDR3 RAM. Certainly not a high-powered device, but it really doesn’t need more oomph. It has two hard drive bays that will hold either 3.5” or 2.5” SATA HDDs up to 16TB total capacity. The two pre-installed 3TB hard drives are already set up in a RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) so that the 3TB HDDs are mirrored, giving you extra data security. If one of the HDDs fails, you can simply swap it out for a new one while maintaining your data without any loss.
The Synology BeyondCloud also has 2 USB 2.0 ports in the back, which can be used for either additional storage or a WiFi dongle. It’s size is 165 mm X 100 mm X 225.5 mm and weighs a fairly light 0.87 kg with no HDDs installed, and about 2 kg with HDDs installed.
Speaking of HDDs, let’s get back to those special Seagate NAS drives. Seagate’s NAS drives are optimized to run 24/7 in NAS systems and include Seagate NASWorks which improves drive reliability with custom-built error recovery controls, power settings, and vibration tolerance. You also have the option of purchasing Seagate’s +Rescue Data Recovery Service that will protect you against data loss for 3 years. This is on top of Seagate’s standard 3-year warranty. The 3TB Seagate NAS drives cost about $130 each if you were to purchase them separately, so the Synology BeyondCloud is more cost-effective than purchasing the NAS and discs separately.
If you want to talk about performance, all you need to do is check out my past Synology reviews to see how well the Synology BeyondCloud performs. This is because in addition to the ease of setup due to the pre-installed HDDs and the pre-configured software, the BeyondCloud performs just as well as any of their NAS devices, which is to say very well! The BeyondCloud set up quickly and easily as promised and streamed HD video to my HTPC perfectly without any skips or stutters.
Adding to the BeyondCloud’s ease of use is Synology’s DSM (DiskStation Manager) software, which is the operating system for your NAS. If you’ve ever used a Windows or Mac PC, you’ll instantly be able to use and configure your NAS’s software through the DSM OS. DSM also keeps getting better as Synology continually updates it. DSM version 5.2 was released on May 12th, which included better music streaming with Audio Station, upgraded slideshow with Photo Stream, and a slew of other features.
If you’re in the market for an easy to setup and simple to use Network Attached Storage system, you need to check out Synology’s BeyondCloud Mirror. With it’s ease of use, intuitive operating system, and quality Seagate NAS HDDs, it will be extremely difficult to find any competition.
You can purchase the Synology BeyondCloud Mirror from Amazon or other online retailers.
Source: The Synology BeyondCloud Mirror was provided to me as a review sample by the manufacturer.
What I Like: Beautiful design; Pre-Installed HDDs; Pre-Configured software; Quick setup; Intuitive Operating System; Great performance.
What Needs Improvement: If this NAS had more computing power and RAM, it would be great, but it would also increase the price significantly.