With
NAS, you would be able to gain access to your files via every in-door devices,
and even the Internet. We have tested 4 NAS devices and 6 enclosures.
Buffalo LinkStation Pro 2TB
Ratings:
2/5
Price:
$265.55
Buffalo LinkStation
Pro 2TB
LinkStation
Pro 2TB is a thin single-disk NAS with the size of a typical router. Unlike
bigger devices, the design isn’t supposed to be opened or upgraded. It has a
Gigabit Ethernet port and a USB connector allowing for connecting to external
drives to expand its memory. The ON/OFF switch also has a mode which
automatically turns the NAS off when it’s not in use and immediately turns the
NAS on once a connected PC is trying to browse its contents.
Configuration
is very easy. Pressing a big installing button will radiate and recognize NAS
as the network drive and ask you to install NAS Navigator configuration tool of
Buffalo. It also provides you options to install utilities like Network-USB
Navigator that automatically searches and gains access to USB drives when you
connect them with NAS. Another utility, TurboPC, will
boost transfer speed between NAS and your PC, while TurboCopy
accelerates Windows’s copying files, and NovaBackup
allows you to make backup schedules.
It’s a
pleasure that we were able to detect NAS on the Internet and enter its web
interface from our browser without installing any other software. The web
interface offers all tools that you need for configuring the device, from
formatting hard disks to creating users and granting other particular
privileges in access.
LinkStation
Pro is one of NAS devices which owns various features, provides extra ones,
from the average range such as remote web accessing to the specified one like
popular media broadcasting which allows you to share your saved movies and
music. It also functions as a Squeezebox, DLNA or iTunes servers. The USB port
on the back panel can be used to either share additional storage all over the
network or connect with USB printers. Other features includes uploading photos
in a private folder to Flickr, connecting an Eye-Fi wireless SD card and
backing up data from Apple devices to NAS through Time Machine. Moreover, it
even owns a BitTorrent client application letting you
download folders without starting up your PC.
Unfortuantely, LinkStation Pro is also disrepute for its
extremely slow speed in transferring files. It only performs fastest once you
install Buffalo’s accelerating tools on the PC that is being copied. This
software temporarily uses PC’s memory to stores data during transfer process,
but even when using it, our measure got an average speed of 37MB/s in a large
file-transferring test and 6.4MB/s in a small one. With no help from the
software, the transfer speed dropped to 27.4MB/s and 6MB/s. Although the slow
transfer speed is a problem if you regularly run big backups or share media to
lots of devices, you won’t encounter any problem in streaming standard
definition movies or audio to a single client.
LinkStation
Pro 2TB costs about 9p per gigabyte, and the single 2TB drive means you cannot
set up your back-up storage on the second drive. Despite the moderately low
$265.77 price, we recommend you to buy a 2-disk device ,
like My Book Live Duo 4TB of Western Digital.
Summary
Consideration: This single-disk NAS is
user-friendly but quite slow.
NAS
device:
2TB hard drive, 10/100/1000Mbit/s Ethernet connection, 1 USB port, media
servers for UPnP and iTunes, print server, USB connector, web, FTP.
Freecom SilverStore 2-Drive NAS 2TB
Ratings:
2/5
Price:
$447.
Freecom SilverStore
2-Drive NAS 2TB
SilverStore
2-Drive NAS 2TB of Freecom is not your usual black
box. Instead, its metal case is silver. Sadly, this brave move doesn’t do much
for its look but at least it feels strong. You cannot say the same things for
other hard disk containers because the plastic handle used to pull the drives
out is too short and not comfortable for holding. We are not satisfied with
wasting too much force just to get the disks out.
On the
front is the power switch, a row of status light and a USB3 port. On the back,
there are 1 USB port and 1 regular Ethernet Gigabit port. It is noisier than
most other NAS devices. It created a small rattling sound vibrating our desk
until we put a magazine under it.
The NAS
device appeared in our network as a storage and media device, but its hard disks didn’t pop up as an accessible folder.
First, you had to set it up by using the device’s web interface, which Windows
users could enter by double-clicking the SilverStore
icon on the browser’s screen of their file manager, or a program called Freecom Network Storage Assistant (FNSA) supplied on the
installation disc.
The FNSA
simplifies basic configuration, like changing NAS’s IP address, and has
convenient tools to map the shared folders on the network to your selected
drive, even add connected USB printer. More advanced configuration must be
carried out via web interface, in which the software provides a shortcut. FNSA
is not necessary, because its options are available from NAS device’s web
interface, but the software is useful and well-designed.
The web
interface is also clearly designed, with many features marked under tabs. A
back-up manager allows you to back up the contents of NAS to a connected USB,
and there 1 tab for downloader which is home for the device’s integrated BitTorrent client software. It supports Tonido
remote control letting you enter SilverStone NAS
2TB’s contents through web browsers or mobile apps wherever you are.
SilverStone
also has normal UPnP and iTunes media server plus options limiting accesses and
quota to restrict actions of users as well as groups that you have set up.
Unluckily, it doesn’t work as a print server for USB printers.
The
device’s default setting is RAID 0, but we did run speed tests by using more
secure RAID 1 configuration, which copied exact your data; it provided less
space for storing but more security against data loss if one of the drives
would be ruined. It was odd that SilverStore 2 TB ran
faster in RAID 1 mode. In the RAID 0 mode, the average speed in test of reading
and writing big files was 32MB/s, increasing to 39.8MB/s in RAID 1 mode.
Relatively, small files were transfer at an average speed of 8.6MB/s in RAID 0
mode, and 12.1MB/s when RAID 1 mode was used.
The faster
transfer speed makes it one of the best operating NAS devices we’ve reviewed
but it is bad value in the aspect of storage space. With $447.61, you only have
two 1TB-drives, while you would have two 2TB-drives in Western Digital’s superb
My Book Live Duo 4TB.
Summary
Consideration: This seemingly cheap NAS is much
faster than several opponents, but it is quite pricey for the capacity that it
supplies.
NAS
device: Two
1TB-hard disks, 10/100/1000Mbit/s network connection, 2 USB ports, UPnP and
iTunes media servers, USB, FTP. 
