Competitively priced and very good NAS

The NAS is located for about a week in my possession. It replaces a Maxtor Central Axis, which I had previously in use and is excreted prematurely due to a defect (after 2 months). Thus, I will compare over Rezenzion on a little between these two products.

Commissioning and installation
The NAS comes in a simple cardboard with the most necessary accessories. An AC adapter, an installation CD, and a network cable are included. In addition, a quick guide is.

The NAS is kept completely in white and makes a high quality impression. As it is hidden deep in my living room cabinet, but plays the outer not matter to me.

At the back of the NAS are three connections: power, network (1000 Mbit) and a USB port.

The NAS is set up, connected to electricity and network and turned on. After just a few seconds it is up and visible among network devices on my Windows 7 PC. Very easy! Theoretically, it is already usable. Using the Installation CD or for experienced users on the IP address of the other device then goes through the Web browser.

The web interface is very tidy and includes the essential functions. There is also an expert mode by includes additional features that are not overwhelmingly for a mid-range device. More about this later.

The default view can be user accounts and shares set, and set the network name of the device. In addition, the access can be on the media server (fully licensed, albeit eingeschränkger Twonky!) Set. Access to MioNet, a system for remote access from the Internet to the hard disk can be deactivated also.

After passing through these settings, the system is already fully operational. Data can be copied.

Power
The performance of the NAS is good to excellent for the home user. I use it in a 100 Mbit network (Fritz box!). Thus, the transfer rate is limited at about 12 MB. This is achieved without any problems.

Compared to the previous Maxtor device itself also shows that the opening of Shares and many operations can be handled much better performance of small files. Also of WiFi devices (54g) are shares and subfolders promptly opened. In Maxtor NAS This has always lasted a few moments.

If you want to copy large amounts data, this can also be done from a second USB hard drive. To this end, it is simply connected to the USB interface of the hard drive. In the web interface, there is then the possibility to copy data between the NAS internal and connected hard drive. Alternatively, these functions can also be started via the SSH shell.

RAM and CPU apparently got over time upgrade. On the Internet there are reports according to which the device is to have only 32 MB RAM. My unit definitely has 128MB. The CPU is the type ARM926EJ-S rev 5. The clock rate reaches 183 Bogomips and should therefore have about 200 MHz. That's very little, but fortunately this seems to take no negative impact on performance.

Heat / noise
The unit is fitted up and back with plenty of cooling slots. In connection with the hard drive from WD Green 1TB, the device is barely warm. Even in continuous operation in the cabinet, the device is just slightly warm. That's outstanding. The Maxtor device previously was important, even if not critical warm.

The noise is absolutely suitable living room. Defakto I hear it not out of the closet. And even with the door open only minimal noise is heard. Even read and write accesses are barely audible. So overall a great performance. Although Maxtor was not loud, but has acknowledged access to the plate with slight vibrations. Both plates switch off after a period of idling.

Power Consumption
The disk I have connected to a Stromprüfgerät. The power consumption is in the range of 5 watts (standby plate, to 15 watts at full power - eg Twonky reads a directory). I think that's absolutely fine and allows a continuous operation and without pain in the electricity bill.

Modding
For a mid-range device, this device has pleasing many ways of modding. What is possible with other devices (Buffalo, Maxtor) only via firmware hack is allowed here per se. Thus, for the expert mode of FTP, NTP Server or Enable SSH shell access. Especially last allows full access to the features of this Linux NAS. Herewith it would be possible for example to make a bigger Download night to perform from the NAS. I have used this access to install Twonky 6:01 on the NAS. Since I had already bought the version for the previous Maxtor NAS, I had already. Thus an unlimited Twonky now runs on the NAS which allows SHOUTcast Webradio and function.

Conclusion
Absolutely recommendable device with a very extensive functionality, good performance and a fair price. Just right for those looking for an affordable network backup or Streaming NAS.