Today many of us are faced with an ever escalating amount of personal data that can at times seem like a major hassle to manage and maintain. Sure, the cloud is becoming an increasingly convenient way to store messages, emails, photos and even your lowly mp3 collection, but when it comes to the larger file sizes involved with maintaining your HD media collection, the emergence of the Home Cloud and Network Attached Storage takes on much more significance.

Storage device manufacturers are wise to the dilemmas that consumers face, and the fact is that not all of us are geeks that are willing to build our own storage device from the ground up using old PC parts as we perhaps were in the past. And why would you when there are some many great options out there from a wide variety of vendors?

Today we have a chance to hone in on a Home Cloud solution from renowned storage device vendor Thecus with a review of the company’s N2560 NAS (Network Attached Storage).

The Thecus N2560 Network Attached Storage

In the broader NAS world of 2015 you can identify two distinct categories of NAS; those based on the proprietary Windows Home Server OS and those based on a Linux (usually Debian) derived OS. The Thecus N2560 belongs in the latter category and is positioned as a the ideal solution for Small or Home Office environments. It features two SATA 3.5 inch hard drive bays, an Intel Atom processor, 2GB of RAM, lots of connectivity options, all housed in a compact sleek design that is optimized to look the part in your living room as well as your home office.

The Thecus N2560 can be found for retail at a price point of around $230-$240 USD which means that it is by no means the cheapest two-bay NAS option out there. Thecus are not aiming for the entry-level however, bringing together a storm of advanced features that includes low power and low noise operation, a HDMI output so it can be used as a straight up media streaming device, plus a plethora of apps and utilities designed to help you get the most out of your NAS.

Thecus N2560 NAS: Full Specifications

• Intel Atom CE5335 processor (1.6GHz Dual-core)
• 2GB DDR3
• 2 x SATA 3.0
• Supports RAID 0,1 and JBOD
• Hot-swappable HDD support
• Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000 Base-TX
• Wake-on-LAN Support
• 2 x USB 2.0 host port (rear)
• 1 x USB 3.0 host port (front)
• HDMI Port (rear)
• SPDIF (rear)
• Power, USB Copy and Reset Buttons
• 166mm x 114mm x 210mm

The retail package contains an Ethernet cable, power adapter plus power cord, quick installation guide, warranty card and the ubiquitous All in One Driver DVD. There are also four white plastic strips which you use to mount the hard drives.

If we consider the basic specification list of the N2560 we can immediately see that the device actually has a reasonable amount of performance packed into a small form factor device. Intel Atom processors used to be regarded as offering the bare minimum when it came raw horsepower, but the newer CE5335 is a low power multi-media processor that packs a PowerVR Graphics Processor from Imagination Technologies. The platform delivers solid playback of Full HD video streaming content and enough grunt to keep things snappy. The Dual-core Intel Atom chip is backed by a reasonably solid 2GB of DDR3 and manages to offer read and write speeds that are well within our expectations. In terms of pure hardware components, it’s difficult to find fault.

The post Thecus Can Do Better: N2560 NAS Review appeared first on VR World.

With so much media available today the need to either backup or store it creates the need for external storage.  Samsung’s D3 Station line is out to provide storage at a good price point while not having much extra “fluff” in the package.   It has some simple functions via software that is for both OSX and Windows like automated backups and password protected partitions.  In testing we hope to see just how fast this thing can be for a 4TB hard disk with USB 3.0.

Samsung D3 Station drive enclosure

Samsung D3 Station STSHX-D401TDB 4TB specifications

• Windows 8/7/Vista/XP SP2, Mac OS X 10.4.8 or later
• SuperSpeed USB 3.0 (Max): 5.0Gb/s
• Temperature (operating): 5° to 40°C (41° to 104°F)
• Temperature (nonoperating): –20° to 65°C (–4° to 149°F)
• AutoBackup personal backup solution
• Secure Drive for worry-free data security
• SecretZone™ can encrypt data on a virtual drive
• 7.11″ x 5.09″ x 1.85″
• Length: 180.6mm
• 3-year limited warranty

Contents
• D3 Station External Hard Drive
• USB cable
• Power adapter
• Quick Install Guide
• Software preloaded on the drive
• Electronic User Documentation (PDF)

Samsung D3 Station underside

Design

The enclosure is very simple but looks very nice for something that will be sitting on most peoples desks. The drive is in a simple external enclosure with just USB 3.0 and port ports, and an indicator light on the front. The actual 4TB hard disk at the heart of the unit is made by Seagate, a version of their ST4000DM000. The D3 Station comes with a 3 year warranty, which is a year more than the hard drive were to have if you bought it to put inside your system. The bare drive can be found at a price higher than this external solution, though demand for bare drives is most definitely the reason for that higher price.

The D3 Station’s accessories

The drive comes with a power adapter that will work in many different countries, which is likely a way to easier package one drive for sales in various locations.  This also means that it will be nice to have in case you are visiting another country and want to take the drive along with you.  The USB 3.0 cable that comes with it is a little short and makes positioning the drive a bit harder, so it would be advisable to get a longer cable.

Samsung Drive Manager Software

 Software

The D3 Station comes with a couple folders on the drive with installs for the included Samsung Drive Manager software.  The software comes with a few useful features such as automatic backup scheduler, SecretZone, disk diagnostics, and disk management.  The SecretZone is a utility that allows you to create a partition that is password protected and it has the ability to make multiple password protected partitions.  The utility allows you to select either a normal set size partition or one that is dynamic and will expand automatically if needed.

Performance

With the proliferation and adoption of USB 3.0 into devices slow transfer speeds are no longer an issue with many external drives having taken to the standard. USB 3.0 has a maximum speed of 5Gb/s as opposed to the older 2.0’s 480 Mb/s, which is a huge improvement. This means that the SATA 2 hard disk drives that you find in most every external drive will not be limited by the connection anymore since SATA 2’s max speed is 3Gb/s (which hard disks will never come close to saturating any time soon).

The D3 Station’s read and write are very fast and are on par with speeds of an internal hard drive.  This is a great solution since you can add a full speed storage solution to your computer and not have to worry about it being slower.

The drive is showing that it is getting 160MB/s read and write in ATTO as well, which means that this will make quick work of your file transfers to the drive and off of it.

Value

The drive can be found at Newegg on sale for $119.99 on sale and is normally at $139.99 . If you have only plans for just one drive for your storage needs this is by far a better value than installing a bare drive.  You will still have the speed with USB 3.0 and you will have a year more warranty on the drive.  With the drive being from Samsung you can rest assured that if you ever need to use the warranty service that the company will stand by it.

Is it worth it?

The drive is definitely worth the money you will spend, especially if you get it on sale.  The downside of the external drives over internal drives is that they will take up extra space and ports on your computer while requiring another power outlet to be used.  All in all the drive is a standard external hard drive without any extras, but at a great price and with good speeds.  I am personally very satisfied with the drive and can see myself buying another if I need one down the line after I consolidate my media onto this drive from my others.

The post Samsung D3 Station 4TB Review: Affordable, Fast Storage appeared first on VR World.

HyperX, (a division of Kingston) recently released its new series of flash drives, the HyperX Fury USB 3.0 Flash Drive line. The flash drives are designed to appeal to budget-conscious gamers and enthusiasts, while providing solid performance. This review will be taking a look at the 64 GB version of the drive (model number HXF30/64GB).

The Fury drive feels solid in the hand. It has a lanyard loop on the back to attach to a lanyard or keychain. It also has a cap, as opposed to utilizing a slider to protect the USB plug. The cap can snap onto the back of the flash drive when the drive is in use to help prevent the user from losing the cap. It is this reviewers opinion that it would be better if USB drive caps had some sort of attachment to the body of the drive, in case the cap were to accidentally fall off the top of the bottom of the drive. However, in the case of the Fury, the cap appears to attach solidly to both the USB plug as well as the back (though not quite as securely on the back).

In order to test the Fury’s performance, two benchmarks were run: AIDA64 Disk Benchmark and CrystalDiskMark. The tests were run both while the drive was plugged into a USB 3.0 port as well as a USB 2.0 port. It should also be noted that the chipset used for the benchmarks was an Intel X79 board, which does not support native USB 3.0. It is possible that speeds would be slightly better in a USB 3.0 port on a newer chipset.

First up are the CrystalDiskMark results:

The Fury managed a sequential read speed of 186.8 MB/s and a sequential write speed of 144.0 MB/s while plugged into the USB 3.0 port. Both of these numbers far exceed the expectations of the listed specifications for the drive, but it is expected that the drive will lose some speed after some usage. Also, since most typical usage of a flash drive is not simply sequential reads and writes, the speeds will be diminished in general use cases.

In the USB 2.0 port, the drive had a sequential read speed of 34.50 MB/s and a sequential write speed of 30.26 MB/s. These numbers show that the limiting factor here was clearly the USB 2.0 specification, and those are approximately the speeds a user can expect from any drive running on USB 2.0 that would otherwise have higher speeds.

Next up are the AIDA64 Disk Benchmark results:

In the USB 3.0 port, the Fury 64 GB USB drive performed admirably, putting out linear reads of approximately 177 MB/s and a random read of just under 190 MB/s. It also had an average read access time of 0.81 ms, which is quite impressive.

The Fury plugged into the USB 2.0 port again performed as expected, with linear read speeds almost exactly 33 MB/s and a random read speed of 33.5 MB/s. The average read access time also took a hit in the USB 2.0 port, coming in at 1.22 ms, a 50% increase.

The HyperX Fury USB 3.0 64 GB flash drive currently retails at a price of $49.99. Other 64 GB USB 3.0 flash drives can be purchased online for as cheap as $25, but that does not mean the Fury is not worth it. Attributes to consider other than price include durability, warranty, reliability, fit and finish, and performance. Even though Kingston itself has other 64 GB USB 3.0 flash drives available for approximately $30, those tend to have a target audience of general consumers, whereas the Fury is marketed towards gamers and enthusiasts.

The drive itself is clearly nicer and more aggressive in appearance than a typical consumer flash drive. Also, as stated earlier, the drive itself feels very well made and sturdy. It also has solid performance, far exceeding its listed specifications. However, considering there are so many options available at under the $50 price point, it makes it difficult to suggest the difference in price is worth it for the Fury 64 GB USB 3.0 drive. Time will tell as the drive gets used, and its reliability will be tested. Also, the drive will eventually start to drop in price.

Considering the drive individually, it’s a solid product with great performance and this reviewer would highly recommend it. For those wanting to save more money, they can easily find some cheaper drives that may share similar performance and specifications.

The post Kingston’s Fury USB Drive: A Solid, Robust Storage Solution appeared first on VR World.