If you want more ports than power and ethernet on your NAS, IMO, you're doing something wrong. A box with a lot of disks and sufficient cooling to keep them from overheating won't be quiet enough to keep in your living room.

But then, I'm definitely not in the target market for these things. I think they're hugely underfeatured and overpriced.

Really really enjoying my nas + raspi combo, all controlled from iPhone or iPad from the comfort of the sofa. I did consider making a home server instead of the nas but I found the synology much easier to gain SWMBO approval. It just sits amongst the electonic gubbins near the tv, is on 24 7 and just kind of, well, works!

I would say though, get the synology if you will be sitting in the same room. A noisy nas in this case would make as much sense as a noisy DVD player

Agreed. I love my Synology NAS! Super quiet and i havent had one issue other than a little slower speeds (30meg) From a 211j box!