Small SAN/NAS (up to 8 bays) Reviews

May 1st, 2013 by Josh Shaman

LaCie 5big NAS Pro Review

The 5big NAS Pro is LaCie’s latest NAS featuring the Neil Poulton design users are long familiar with as well as an updated 2.13GHz dual-core Intel 64-bit Atom processor and an impressive 4GB of RAM. LaCie utilizes their own LaCie NAS OS3 in this model, diverging from the Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials in the 5big Office + NAS. The updated OS offers a single user interface for local and cloud storage creating a hybrid cloud via Wuala (the cloud provider with which LaCie merged a few years back). Hardware features include five drive bays, a solid aluminum structure, and plenty of connectivity via USB 3.0 and gigabit Ethernet ports. Designed for small businesses, LaCie's target market is offices with up to 50 concurrent users.

February 11th, 2013 by Doug Crowthers

Synology DiskStation DS1812+ Review

The Synology DS1812+ is a 8-bay NAS designed for a small to medium size business use that features a dual core 2.13GHz processor, 1GB of RAM and Synology's DiskStation Manager (DSM) software. The entry-NAS market for even the SMB space typically starts at 4-bays, Synology has doubled the drive capacity on its DS1812+. Synology sells their NAS units without disks, so users purchasing the enclosure can add any combination of 2.5" or 3.5" drives they wish.

January 5th, 2013 by Kevin OBrien

Netgear ReadyNAS Surveillance Review

The Netgear ReadyNAS line of SOHO and small business NAS systems offers a robust set of management features, recently enhanced by Netgear's video surveillance offering. The surveillance feature can be enabled via license on current ReadyNAS units, or can be bought in a package complete with ReadyNAS, networking gear and IP video cameras. The system supports up tp 16 cameras per ReadyNAS and provides the end user with web-based management and monitoring tools, along with tools for remote and mobile monitoring via iOS, Android and BlackBerry devices.

December 2nd, 2012 by Kevin OBrien

Synology DS1512+ NAS Review

The Synology DS1512+ is a 5-bay NAS designed for small business use that features a dual core 2.13GHz processor, 1GB of RAM and Synology's DiskStation Manager (DSM) software. Synology sells their NAS units without disks, so users purchase the enclosure and add any combination of 2.5" or 3.5" drives they wish. While the entry-NAS market for even the SMB space typically have 4-bays, the 5-bay option from Synology is nice in that the system is better geared towards handling two drive failures with RAID6, offering a little extra data protection in the event a drive dies during RAID rebuild. The DS1512+ is designed to grow as well, with expansion support of 5 or 10 more bays via eSATA and Synology's DX510 expansion units for total capacity up to 60TB.

June 26th, 2012 by Josh Linden

LaCie 5big Office + Review

The 5big Office + is one of LaCie’s latest prosumer NAS devices, updated with a 1.6GHz Dual-core Intel 64-bit Atom processor and 2GB of RAM. LaCie has swapped its standard NAS OS found in other LaCie solutions for Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials in the 5big Office + to better fit into Windows-based environments. This edition of Windows Server caps the number of concurrent users to 25, reflecting the SOHO market LaCie is targeting with its newest 5big system. But with features like five drive bays, 802.3AD link aggregation support, and a super-rugged aluminum chassis, the 5big Office + brings lots of enterprise-grade features to small offices.

February 21st, 2012 by Kevin OBrien

QNAP TS-879 Pro 10GbE Review

The QNAP TS-879 Pro is QNAP's latest entry in the SMB NAS space. The TS-879 Pro is an eight-bay unit that is designed to be used for backups, file sharing, mass storage and the like. While certainly tageted at the SMB, QNAP has loaded the TS-879 Pro with features that may broaden its appeal for VMware, Citrix and HyperV environments; a dual core Intel Core i3 3.3 GHz processor and support for optional 10 GbE for speeds up to 1,000MB/s and 100,000 IOPS.

January 21st, 2012 by Kevin OBrien

Drobo B800i Review

Drobo claims their B800i SAN is the easiest to use iSCSI array on the market. Getting the B800i up and running is as simple as connecting the appropriate data and power cables, sliding in your array of drives, and firing up the setup application on your host system. Total time spent finding a place to put it on your shelf or carefully taking it out of the box is more than actually getting it setup for use. For businesses who know they need storage, but lack the IT staff or inclination to have to configure much of anything, the Drobo family of products tends to rise to the top of the short list. But let's not leave IT out in the cold, just because the Drobo units are easy to configure and use, doesn't mean IT can't like them too.

January 13th, 2012 by Lyle Smith

Iomega StorCenter PX4-300d Review

Iomega’s StorCenter PX4-300d is the successor to the ix4-200d, both of which are specifically built for small businesses that need to store a significant amount of data. All of the models in Iomega’s PX line have similar features but differ when it comes to the number of drives and the form factor. The PX4-300d and the px6-300d are desktop devices that support up to four drives and six drives respectively. The px4-300r model is a rack unit that supports up to four drives.

January 2nd, 2012 by Michael Foster

Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ v2 Review

Netgear's array of products is, in a word, extensive. From home routers to enterprise-grade equipment, it's only fitting that they have a small NAS for power users and small businesses, the ReadyNAS NV+ v2. The NV+ v2 is a 4 bay unit with great performance and built so well you could use one in place of a few bricks in a pinch. Under the hood is a Marvell 1.6GHz single-core processor and 256MB of on-board RAM, which is just about right for individuals and small groups of users.

December 17th, 2011 by Kevin OBrien

Western Digital Sentinel DX4000 Review

Western Digital announced the WD Sentinel DX4000 last month in an effort to bring easy to configure NAS storage to SMBs with fewer than 25 employees. At the core of the Sentinel is Microsoft's Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials, an Intel 1.8 GHz Atom dual-core processor and two or four WD RE4-GP hard drives. Western Digital sells the Sentinel pre-configured with drives in either 4TB or 8TB models right now, with 6TB and 12TB models coming early next year. Given the Sentinel arrives with drives and is ready to roll, all it takes to get going is powering the unit up and connecting to the network, which is great for those who aren't used to dealing with storage appliances. Given the Microsoft software though, there's still plenty to tweak under the covers should SMBs with access to IT professionals care to do so.