50 DECEMBER 2019|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE 382
STORAGE
SYNOLOGY DiskStationDS418j
★★★★★
£284•www.broadbandbuyer.com
ADATA SD600Q480GB
★★★★★
£64•www.alternate.co. uk
When atiny two-bayNAS
won’t cut it, thefast,
high-capacity DiskStation DS418j
is an excellent upgrade,especially as it can automatically convert old
hard disksto be compatible with this NAS’s hardware andfeatures.
Put aside yourfears
about external
SSDs beingtoo
expensive comparedto hard disks
–this 480GB drive is excellentvalue,
and decently quick.
3.5inHARDDISKBAYS(FREE)4(4)•NETWORKING1x10/100/1,0 00Ethernet•DLNAMEDIA
SERVERYes•PRINTSERVERYes•DIMENSI ONS184x168x230mm•WEIGHT2.21kg•
WARRANTYTwoyearsRTB•DETAILSwww.synology.com•PARTCO DEDS418j•
FULLREVIEWJan2018
CAPACITY480GB•COSTPERGIGABYTE£0.13p•INTERFACEUSB3•CLAIMEDREAD440MB/s
- CLAIMEDWRITE430MB/s•WARRANTYThreeyearsRTB•DETAILSwww.adata.com•
PARTCO DEASD60 0Q-480GU31-CBL•FULLREVIEWAug2019
SAMSUNG970Ev oPlus500GB
★★★★★
£106•www.amzn.to/2CrstZB
Asignificant
writespeed
upgrade helps
make the 970 Evo Plus a
superlatively speedy M.2 SSD,and at prices much lower than the
original 970 Evo’s equivalent capacities.
CAPACITY500GB•COSTPERGIGABYTE£0.21p•INTERFACEM.2/NVMe•CLAIMEDREAD
3,500MB/s•CLAIMEDWRITE3,300MB/s•WARRANTYFiveye arsRTB•DETAILS
http://www.samsung.com/uk•PARTCO DEMZ-V7S50 0BW•FULLREVIEWMay2019
SAMSUNGPortableSSDX51TB
★★★★★
£439•www.scan.co.uk
Forwhen you
absolutely needto
shift files as quickly
as possible,there’s the X5. Its useof
the Thunderbolt3interface makes it
the fastest external SSDever.
CAPACITY1TB•COSTPERGIGABYTE£0.44p•INTERFACEThunderbolt3•
WARRANTYThreeyearsRTB•DETAILSwww.samsung.com/uk•
PARTCO DEMU-PB1T0B/WW•FULLREVIEWDec2018
INTELOptaneMemory32GB
★★★★★
£60•www.currys.co.uk
An interesting twist
on M.2 SSDs,
Optane Memory isn’t
so muchadedicated storage drive as a
large cacheforyour existing hard disk,
accelerating its read speedsto NVMe levels atamuch lower price.
CAPACITY32GB•PRICEPERGIGABYTE£1.88•INTERFACEM.2/NVMe•WARRANTYFiveye ars
RTB•DETAILSwww.intel.com•PARTCO DEMEMP EK1W032GA XT•FULLREVIEWSep2017
sn’t
as a
isk
y
of
it
01
Anetwork-attached storage (NAS)
device lets you store documents,
media, and other files on its hard disks so
you can share them with other devices on
your network. Some have disks already
installed, while others are empty enclosures
intowhich you install your own disks.
Buying an empty NAS canoften be the
more cost-effective option, as they’re usually
less expensive and give you the freedomto
add disks atalater date.
Youshould buy one withaGigabit
Ethernet interface,ast hese provide the
highest transfer speeds.To use aNAS device
at these speeds, you’ll need computers with
Gigabit Ethernet network adaptors and
aGigabit Ethernet switch or router.
Computers withFast Ethernet adaptors
Choosinga... NASdevice
can still access the NAS device,but only
at the much slower speedof 100Mbit/s.
02
The amountof network storage you
need depends on the typesof files
you use.Ify ou wantto store Word and Excel
documents,forexample,a1TB device will be
fine.Inf act, a1TB device should be sufficient
forafamily’s entire media collection,
regardlessof how many music and video files
everyone owns. Small businesses should
consider higher storage capacities,
depending on the natureof the business.
03
If you can see no endto your storage
needs, you should buy an upgradable
NAS device.Many haveaUSB portfor
adding an external disk. Devices such as
Synology’s barebones NAS kits have spare
disk traysforcheaper andfaster upgrades.
04
If you want extra protectionforyour
data, lookforadevice that supports
RAID.RAID 1and RAID5arrays reduce the
available capacityby duplicating data, but
you won’t lose it ifadisk fails.
05
If you need accessto your files while
you’re away, look foraNAS device
with an FTP server.Some can also share a
USB printer across your network.
ANAS device withaUniversal Plug and
Play(UPnP) or DLNA media server can
stream your music, photos and videosto a
network media player,soy ou can enjoyyour
media collection in another room.
ADATA XPGSX8200Pro1TB
★★★★★
£134•www.ebuyer.com
The Adata XPG
SX8200 Pro
is outrageously
good value forthe performance it delivers. It’s asfast as orfaster
than top-tier SSDs from Samsung and WD,but costsfarless
across all its capacity options.
CAPACITY1TB•COSTPERGIGABYTE£0.13p•INTERFACEM.2/NVMe•WARRANTYFiveye ars
RTB•DETAILSwww.xpg.com•PARTCO DEASX8200PNP -1TT•FULLREVIEWApr2019
480GB
fears
ks
alue,
