Joined on 05/02/06
2 TB NAS!
Pros: For the price, this is fastest NAS I could find, and according to my measurements, actually does writes at a sustained 13.5MB (a single drag-drop multi-file copy in windows). It works just fine with two Seagate 1TB drives. It was VERY easy to install. I had the drives installed in seconds and had it formatting them in less than 3 minutes (Now I could do that in seconds as well).
Cons: With the latest firmware (1.03 at this time): 1. The security used is NTLMv1, not NTLMv2, so to use from a Vista client you have to change the Local Security Policy settings (search for "Local Security Policy" in the start menu, select Local Policies/Security Options on the left pane, scroll down to Network security: LAN Manager authentication level, and change to "Send LM&NTLM - use NTLMv2 session security if negotiated). 2. There doesn't seem to be a way to set the volume name, and the share is always the name of the directory (with numbers appended if there is already a share by that name), so I just created a directory with the name I wanted and use that as the main share. There is also no way to assign R/W access to one group and R only access to another group on the same share, so you have to have different share names for each access type.
Overall Review: I'm very pleased so far. Hopefully the built-in backup will be as pleasant and functional as the rest is when I set that up tonight.
Cables will cost you
Pros: Appears to be a nice KVM. All connectors are on the back.
Cons: No cables included, and requires MALE-MALE VGA KVM cables which will cost you another $100--the cheapest ones here are MALE-FEMALE so you can't use them.
Great for Dish Hopper
Pros: This is the perfect drive for the Dish Hopper DVR. It is one of only a few 3TB drives that will be recognized and fully usable by the Hopper.
Cons: Not the cheapest 3TB drive.
Flaky
Pros: The drives still function intermittently, so I may be able to get my data off of them.
Cons: The primary drive stopped booting about a month ago. Now that I've got some time to attempt a recovery, the backup (because they wouldn't work mirrored) is failing intermittently, making restoring the data very painful. Here's hoping I don't lose most of the data.
Overall Review: I've had two of these drives for just over two years. I originally tried to set them up as a mirrored pair, but that failed spectacularly. They do not support RAID.
Delayed Illumination
Pros: Inexpensive LEDs, decent brightness.
Cons: Not quite soft white--a little blue. Takes about 1/4 second to light up--noticeably slower than most lights, especially if mixed in the same fixture.
Nice Enclosure
Pros: USB Powered, Fast
Cons: Requires two USB ports instead of just one