The
NSA325 v2 is relatively cheap, but is it cheerful too?
The NSA325v2 is Zyxel’s effort at
making a full-fat NAS box more affordable than the QNAP and Synology boxes. It
sports 512MB of DDR3 memory, a front USB 3 port and rear USB 2 ports, although
it only has a single-core 1.6GHz Marvell Kirkwood 88F6282 CPU, while many of
the latest NAS boxes offer dual-core CPUs. It also lacks the large 92mm fans
common in Synology’s models, opting instead for a 70mm fan.
However, the two tool-free hard disk
bays offer anti-vibration mounts, as well as support for both 3.5in and 2.5in
hard disks.
NSA325 v2 front
The front end of the operating system
is simple but snazzy, using large icons in place of the large menu systems of
high-end NAS boxes. You’re presented with photo, music and video servers, which
enable you to stream content directly within a browser window.
They’re fairly basic tools, but the
music server does allow you to create playlists or filter your library by
artist while the photo server supports most file types, including large TIFF
files, although it can take a few moments to create thumbnails. As a testament
to its ease of use, the Zyxel NSA325 v2 automatically creates shared folders
for each server, which makes it simple to drag your content over to the NAS and
view it from the browser within just a few seconds.
Of course, cloud storage is a hot
topic in the NAS world at the moment. Zyxel, though, has come up with a hybrid
cloud feature that lets you use current cloud services such as Dropbox to send
files to your NAS.
NSA325 v2 inside
You can even upload torrent files, so
they automatically start downloading on your NAS at the other end. You can’t
access your NAS this way, though, as it automatically deletes the files once
they’re uploaded. For this job, Zyxel has teamed up with third-party cloud
service, Polkast, which pretty much does the job, although you can’t stream
files – you can only download them or view thumbnails, which is a little
limiting.
Speed-wise, the NSA325 v2 managed read
and write speeds of 72MB/sec and 53MB/sec respectively when transferring large
video files, falling to 26MB/sec and 17MB/sec when dealing with our 4GB test
folder of photos and documents. These compare favourably with our current
favourite NAS box – Synology’s DS213j, although the latter managed a much
higher 96MB/ sec read speed with large files.
Sadly, however, its main issue is the
small 70mm fan, which made a constant low-level clamour that, while not
horrendously noisy, was still quite intrusive.
NSA325 v2 back
Conclusion
As a basic NAS with a modicum of
network media-sharing abilities, the Zyxel NSA325 v2 does its job well, and the
Dropbox integration makes transferring files to it from other devices easy
wherever you are. However, the whole operating system and many of the features
lack the finesse of Synology’s DS213j, which is easier to use and more
flexible. You pay £60 more for the privilege, but it’s worth it.
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Specifications
·
Features:
FTP server, webserver, photo server, video server, audio server, independent
download (FTP, HTTP.FTPS, SFTP, NZB news server, BitTorrent, RSS), iTunes and
UPnP media servers, DLNA, storage server for external USB hard disks, Time
Backup, Polkast cloud support ·
Dimensions
(mm): 207 x 164 x 123 (W x D x H) ·
Weight:
1.26 kg ·
Drive
bays: 2 x 3.5in / 2.5 in ·
Ports
Front: USB 3, Rear: 2x USB 2, Gigabit LAN
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