Micro_Mart_-_January_7_2016_

GROUP

TEST

2-BayNAS

Drives

AppleTime Machineand an

EasySearch utilityfor Windows

machines.You can RAIDthe

hard drivesin JBOD,RAID0 and

1, and SMART disk monitoring

is enabledby default.

Althoughthe ShareCenter

looksgoodand won’t be out

of placeamongthe othershiny

blackdevicesthat litterour

homesthesedays,it doeshave

someflawsthat mar an

otherwisegoodsetup.For

starters,it’s not particularly

quick;the testswe ran placed

it at the bottomof the group,

and navigatingthe web admin

GUI seemeda little too clunky

and slowfor our liking.Writing

a 4GB file saw speedsof just

12MB/s,whichis enoughfor

watchingmostcontent,but if

you’re usingthis as a backup

device,thenyou’re goingto be

NAS very easy. However, it’s

not impossible,and withlittle

effort you get accessto a

niftyfeature.

The buildqualityof the

ShareCenteris good,although

it’s a bit of a nuisancefor

attractingdust,but it feels

reasonablysturdy and looks

okaydespitebeinga dust and

cat hair magnet.The rear

exhaustfan can becomea little

noisy, and we had a problemto

beginwithwhere it seemedto

makeeverythingvibrate,but a

gentlepokewitha screwdriver

soonfixedthat.

There are plentyof features

that comewith the NAS and its

web adminsetup.The usual

printserver, scheduledbackup,

FTP server, iTunesserverand

UPnp/DLNAserversare

available,as well as supportfor

DETAILS

• Price:£45


• Manufacturer: D-Link


• Website:
  goo.gl/gnMVjN


• Requirements:
  Wired networkin place,
  any modernbrowserfor
  accessand admin

T

his D-linkShareCenter

is a two-baystorage

NAS unit that offers

a straightforward

solutionfor the reasonable

priceof around£45.

You can purchaseit as a

disklessunit,but there are

optionsfor a preinstalled

single1TB hard drivesor 2TB

and two 2TB hard drives,

whichobviouslyincreasesthe

cost.The unit is equippedwith

a singlegigabitEthernet port

and a singleUSB 2.0 port,

alongwithseveralflashing

LEDsin a stripalongthe front

of the polishedblackcase.The

CPU poweringthe unit is a

800MHzMarvell88F6281,

with128MBflashmemoryand

128MBSDRAM.

The installationwas easy

enough,thanksto a step-by-

step wizard, whichtakesyou

throughthe processof getting

yourdriveactiveand ready for

copyingmediacontentto. An

interestingelementof the

setupprocedure is the

configuringof an email

address, whichis usedby the

unit to messageyou should

anythingstartto go wrong,

suchas higherthannormal

temperatures or a failure in

one of the components.You’ll

needto haveyourSMTPserver

informationhandybefore you

enterthe information,which

for somemay be a little

confusing,especiallysincethe

ShareCenterpridesitselfon

makingthe settingup of a

stuckwatchingthe progress

bar for a longtime.

On the whole,althoughthe

ShareCenteris a decentNAS

unit,whichis simpleto use and

has a few goodfeatures, it’s

probablya little too slowfor

powerusers’tastes,and with

the ratherslowinterface,more

advanceduserswill probably

grow somewhatimpatient.

D-LinkShareCenterDNS-320

iThe D-LinkShareCentre DNS-320is a goodbut basicNAS drive iMost users will find it fine,but power users will

wanta little more

7

7

Quality

Value

77

Overall