Networked storage is a great idea for homes with small networks and small businesses. It offers a way of centralising important files and keeping them secure and the latest NAS boxes offer a whole range of media-centric functions to keep consumers happy.
Acer’s latest NAS box – the easyStore – is aimed at this overlap market, but at first glance looks pricey at £599. However, this does buy you 2TB of capacity, which comes in the shape of four 500GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 disks.
These can be slotted in and out of the chassis thanks to springy hinges that allow easy access to the racks, although the thumbscrews holding the front panel in place are annoyingly stiff.
The disks are adequate performers, but speed of transfer will be limited by the speed of your network long before the drives come into play.
Either way, it fairly whipped through smaller files and larger sizes weren’t too much more trouble. Processing power is provided by a 500MHz CPU with 128MB of SDRAM, and the whole unit runs at a carbon footprint-friendly 24W.
Complementing this solid starting point is a good range of features. RAID is supported, with the zero, one and five standards offering varying stages of security in exchange for reduced capacity.
These settings can be modified from the well-designed and comprehensive browser-based setup utility that also allows each user to have an account that defines their personal privacy settings and data limits.
As well as Gigabit Ethernet, the easyStore acts as a Wireless access point. And among other nice-to-have features are iTunes and UPnP AV support, too, allowing a wide variety of media devices to communicate with the server.
The software installed on this box supports the core music formats: MP3, WAV and WMA for music (plus AAC via the iTunes server), and AVI, MPEG2 and 4, and WMV9 for video streaming.
The unit can be set up to send out email alerts too, triggered by certain key events such as a disk reaching capacity, failing, if the administrator password has been changed or the unit is overheating.
With 2TB of storage included in the price it’s an attractive option for a home or small business network – and not just because of the stylish black case and column of blue status lights.
Its RAID features offer a decent level of security in the face of drive failures, it’s easy to setup and use, and has a comprehensive range of multimedia options too. But you can’t ignore that price, which is a touch on the expensive side.
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