Power

Now we've reached the point where the NASync DH2300 offers a real and tangible benefit, power consumption. Not only is it the most power efficient NAS we've tested to date, but it also has the lowest standby power of any NAS we've tested. Although we're not familiar with GVE as a power brick manufacturer, they appear to make very good power adapters when it comes to standby power, and the one supplied here both meets and exceeds the EU standby power regulation. At a mere 0.2 W in standby, this is a product ideal for anyone that wants a basic NAS that they don't keep on 24/7. Even powered up—but with the drives asleep—we're looking at a mere 3.1 W, so even if you never turn this NAS off, it won't ruin you. In active use it's also very power frugal, as even during heavy drive activity we didn't see it go over 15 W, although we did see the odd peak of 25 W when waking it up from sleep or power on the NASync DH2300. In normal use, you can expect a power use of 10-13 W and the only device that we've tested that comes close to that is the TerraMaster F4 SSD, which doesn't rely on mechanical drives. If you're looking for a power frugal NAS, then maybe this is what you've been waiting for.

Noise

In typical use, the NASync DH2300 doesn't really produce any audible noise, it really comes down to the type of hard drives you use. The fan was normally only spinning at between 600-700 rpm, without producing any kind of annoying noise. However, if you enabled the full power fan mode, it gets very loud, hitting almost 54 dB(A) with the noise meter placed on top of the NAS. We can't see any reason why you would enable the full power mode, since the automatic fan mode kept the noise low and everything within reasonable operating temperatures, as you'll see below. Regardless, in everyday use the NASync DH2300 is very quiet for a hard drive based NAS, and it's unlikely to disturb anyone, as long as the hard drives aren't too noisy.

Temperature

The cooling system in the NASync DH2300 seems to be doing its job, as the hard drive temperature never exceeded 40 °C during our testing, and the Rockchip SoC normally stayed around 40–45 degrees, occasionally peaking at round 50 °C. The ambient temperature during our testing was round 22 °C. These results were with the fan spinning at around 600-700 rpm. At full speed the fan spins at a surprisingly high 3330 rpm, which as noted above produces a fair amount of noise, but at the opposite side of the scale it spins at a mere 420-450 rpm in quiet mode.