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Synology Announces 4-bay NAS with Support for Apple's Time Machine

Ryan Whitwam — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 20:50:10 -0600

Synology has a history of making excellent NAS boxes, and the new four bay DS410j is no exception. Front and center on the spec sheet is support for Apple’s Time Machine backup system, a rarity on third-party NAS units.

The unit is designed for home and entry-level business use. The four drive bays can take up to 2TB 3.5 inch drives. The DS410j also supports multiple RAID configurations when loaded with multiple compatible drives. Automated backup and DNLA support come standard as well. The DS410j can be purchased with or without hard drives preinstalled, but either way it’s going to be pricey. If you look around, the driveless version can be had for a bit under $400.

ASUS Announces TS Mini Windows Home Server for 10-computer Backup

Bart Salisbury — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:02:20 -0600

When you got to back-up, you gotta back-up. And ASUS has just trotted out a product to help do just that: the TS Mini Network Attached Server (NAS).

Set-up in a tower profile, the TS Mini is chocked-full of back-up goodies any home owner might need (and perhaps a few more). It is powered by an Intel Atom N280 processor running at 1.66 Ghz. Can handle up to 2Gb of DDR2 800 memory. Has 2 3.5-inch drive bays, and comes configured with 500GB, 1TB, or 2TB of hard drive storage. Gigabyte ethernet, naturally. Six USB 2.0 ports. Two eSATA ports. And a bag of screws.

The TS Mini is capable of handling back-up chores for ten computers. It also can serve as a streaming media platform, sending content to multiple attached devices, including receiver boxes and game consoles.

Pre-orders are being taken, with prices starting at $349. And, like early Model T Fords, you can have any color you want so long as it is black.

Image Credit: ASUS

D-Link DIR-685 Xtreme N Storage Router

Michael Brown — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 20:30:30 -0500

Love the features; hate the performance—and the price tag

D-Link’s DIR-685 Wi-Fi router generated a lot of buzz at CES this past January. And when we took a gander at its spec sheet, we thought it a contender for Best of the Best in the router category; something that would finally displace the Linksys WRT600N, which is becoming hard to find. Alas, ’twas not to be.

The problem certainly isn’t with the DIR-685’s feature set: This router is absolutely loaded with goodies. The 3.2-inch color LCD can inform you of the router’s status and configuration; present digital photos from Flickr, Picasa, and Facebook; display RSS feeds, such as sports scores, weather reports, and stock quotes; and a lot more (this is one router your significant other won’t insist be hidden in a closet).

Next up, there’s a 2.5-inch internal SATA hard drive bay, which can turn the router into a NAS box (complemented by a built-in FTP server and BitTorrent software). There are two USB ports featuring D-Link’s SharePort technology, which allows you to plug in both an external hard drive and a printer and share these devices with any computer on the network. The router’s four-port gigabit switch automatically powers down any ports not in use to save a modest amount of energy.

You won't find a prettier wireless router, but you'll encounter plenty that are much, much better.

The rest of the features are just as valuable, if not as unusual. You can set up a password-protected guest zone, for instance, with the option of limiting access to a set schedule. And there’s both a UPnP server and an iTunes server. Lastly, there’s a Quality of Service engine to help eliminate lag for VoIP and media-streaming applications.

But our enthusiasm over all those whiz-bang features is tempered by the DIR-685’s slug-slow wireless throughput and NAS performance. We’ve been using the aforementioned Linksys WRT600N for comparison for more than a year, but we always retest its performance within a few hours of benchmarking a new contender, just to make sure both products are tested under the same environmental conditions.

The DIR-685 lagged far behind the Linksys in our Kitchen test, where the client is 20 feet away from the router and separated by an insulated wall and a set of plywood cabinets: It delivered TCP/IP throughput of just 45.4Mb/s compared to the Linksys WRT600N’s 98.9Mb/s. The D-Link turned in a particularly poor performance in our Media Room test, where the client is located in a double-insulated room-within-a-room 35 feet from the router, managing TCP/IP throughput of just 4.54Mb/s.

The 2.5-inch drive bay limits your choice of hard drives to notebook models, and D-Link provided us with an 80GB Seagate Momentus 5400.5 hard drive for this evaluation. But we find the router’s lethargic NAS performance more troubling than this physical limitation: The DIR-685 took a full 8:53 (min:sec) to copy a single 3GB file from a PC. Compare that to the Qnap TS-209 Pro II—our Best of the Best NAS pick—which copied the same file in just 2:27.

We won’t complain about a high price tag if a product’s features and performance justify it, but the DIR-685’s $300 price tag—which doesn’t include a hard drive—just rubs us the wrong way.

Iomega Announces Storcenter ix2-200 NAS with Built-in Torrent Support

Paul Lilly — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 11:30:00 -0500

Iomega today announced the next generation of its double-drive desktop NAS box, the StorCenter ix2-200. The box comes available in 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB capacities, each with a four-step setup process, and sports a few noteworthy tricks, such as built-in torrent support.

It also touts multiple IP security camera support, RAID 1 configurations, device-to-device replication, VMWare certification, Time Machine support for Apple computer backups, Bluetooth, remote access, and a bunch more marketing bullets.

"The new StorCenter ix2-200 is definitely the easiest to use small office and consumer network storage appliance in the marketplace today," said Jonathan Huberman, president of Iomega and the Consumer and Small Business Products Division of EMC.

Both the 1TB and 2TB models are available now for $270 and $370, respectively. The 4TB NAS box will debut later this month for $700.

Image Credit: Iomega

LG Unveils New 2TB NAS with Built-In DVD burner

Ryan Whitwam — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 21:16:24 -0500

LG has chosen CEDIA as the venue to show off its new N2R1 NAS box. The product’s aim, according to the press release, is to protect digital media files. The unit is capable of up to 2TB of RAID storage, and has a built-in DVD burner. Other specs include DLNA, Ethernet, and WiFi. Unfortunately, the wireless networking is limited to 802.11g. With 2TB of storage, you might want to wire this one in via Ethernet.

The system has remote access support, allowing consumers to access their files from any internet connection. The N2R1 is fully compatible with Windows, Linux, and Mac operating systems. LG’s new NAS will be available sometime this fall with a price of $299 for the 1TB version, or $399 for 2TB.

Xtreamer Announces 4TB NAS with Steep Loyalty Discount

Paul Lilly — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 13:30:50 -0500

Xtreamer on Thursday announced its new eTRAYz 2-bay NAS unit with support for up 4TB in storage. Best of all, existing Xtremer Media Player owners are eligible for a sizable introductory discount, bringing the price down from 99 EUR ($141 USD) to 59 EUR ($84) plus shipping.

Price doesn't include drives -- you'll have to bring your own HDDs -- but otherwise the eTRAYz NAS comes with Windows 7 and Mac OS X Snow Leopard support, RAID 0/1, torrent management, 802.11n, and a surveillance webcam to keep tabs on the unit from a remote location.

Pre-ordering starts on November 1, 2009 with no word yet on a projected ship date.

Image Credit: Xtreamer

Iomega Releases Four-Drive StorCenter NAS

Paul Lilly — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 06:33:34 -0500

Iomega has announced a quad-drive desktop NAS appliance (StorCenter ix4-200d) aimed at small to medium sized businesses the company promises will offer oodles of storage without thrashing your piggy bank.

On the setup side, Iomega says you can be "up and running in a matter of four mouse clicks and a few minutes." Once configured, you'll have access to up 8TB of networked storage (4TB and 2TB capacities also available).

The StorCenter works with Windows, Mac OS, and Linux PCs and supports a number features. These include iSCSI block-level access, device-to-device replication to network targets (useful for file recovery), various RAID configurations, Windows Active Directory support, remote access and management, IP security camera support, and a new front-panel LCD and QuickTransfer button for one-touch copying duties.

The 2TB, 4TB, and 8TB models are all available now for $700, $900, and $1,900 respectively.

Image Credit: Iomega

Backing up 2TB?

The Maximum PC Staff — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 11:25:46 -0500

I have 2TBs of movies that I’m afraid I’ll lose if the NAS device they’re stored on fails. Is it possible to recover the files on these hard drives by putting them in another device, or do I have to have the same product I’m using now? Making DVDs for 2TB of files is not realistic and I don’t really want to buy another 2TB of hard drives just for backup. How long can I expect a typical hard drive to retain data before it fails? One year? Five?

—Norm

This is a problem that’s going to crop up more and more often now that storage size is increasing so rapidly—how do you back up 2TB worth of data? Depending on how your NAS formats its internal drives (for example, if they’re in a RAID), you might not be able to just stick the hard drives in a different device and expect them to work. If the NAS tanks, rather than the disks themselves, you’d think you’d be able to put the drives in a new unit of the same model, but rebuilding RAIDs on different controllers is an iffy proposition.

We know you don’t want to plunk down a few Franklins on backup drives, but we honestly think that’s the best course of action—stick a few large drives in your main rig and back up your NAS to them. You can grab a couple 1.5TB drives for about $130 each; that’ll give you room to back up and room to grow. And although it may seem counterintuitive to back up your NAS to your desktop, what else are you going to do?

As to your second question, hard drives can fail at any time, but we usually expect them to last around five years. It’s not a bad idea to upgrade every few years anyway, as storage gets faster, better, and cheaper.

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