Micro_Mart_-_January_7_2016_

GROUP

TEST

2-BayNAS

Drives

F

or a whileit looked

like ZyXELhad left the

homeNASscene,but

the companygaveits

300-seriesa faceliftand has

comebackwiththis.

The NSA325v2is a two-bay

NASunit,whichcan takeup

to 4TB 3.5"or 2.5"SATA-I/

II drivesin eitherRAID0, 1 or

JBODconfigurations.There’s

a singlegigabitEthernet port

aroundthe back,alongside

two USB 2.0 ports,pinhole

reset and the power. The front

of the unit housesa single

USB 3.0 port,powerbutton

and the copy/syncbutton

that’s commonlyfoundon the

ZyXELrangeof NASunits.

Inside,the 1.6GHzMarvell

CPUand 512MBof memory

keepthe dataflowingnicely

and processthe manyfeatures

of the NSA325v2without

too muchof a drop in

performance.

As for the design,there

are somealterationsfrom

the previousNSA325.The

lookof the unit has changed

slightly, withZyXELomitting

the groovedlinesof the

driveaccessfront door

for a polished-blackeffect

and incorporatinga nice,

aluminium-effect stripdown

the side for the various

LEDsand control buttons.

In addition,the swingand

releasedoorof the NSA325,

whichwas a particular

bugbearof ours,as it always

felt very flimsy, has been

improvesthe airflowaround

the installeddrives.

Oncethe drivesare fitted,

it’s simpleto get everything

up and runningthroughthe

includedsoftware and the

ZyXELNASStarterUtility.

Also,the webconfiguration

and adminside of things

appearsto haveseena

facelifttoo,and it's now

a lot easierto get to grips

with.But it’s nowhere near

as polishedas the built-in

Linux-basedsoftware in the

QNAPexample.

As you wouldexpect,the

list of features this unit has is

more thangoodenoughfor

mostusers.The usualDLNA,

FTP and webserverofferings

all are present,as well as

smart-deviceapplication

supportand phpMyAdmin/

MySQLsupport.There’s also a

HybridCloudfeature present

which,like mostmodern

devices,allowsyou to create

yourowncloudsystem,with

accesslocallyor remotely

in a flexibleand secure

environment.

ZyXELhas donea goodjob

withthe secondversionof

this reasonablypopularNAS

unit.There couldbe further

improvementsto the OS

layerand perhapssomemore

designtweakshere and there,

but on the whole,it’s more

thanenoughfor homeusers

or evensmalloffices.

DETAILS

• Price:£70


• Manufacturer: ZyXEL


• Website:
  goo.gl/VEJG2e


• Requirements:
  Wired networkin place,
  anymodernbrowserfor
  accessandadmin

ZyXELNSA325v2

properhot-swap-liketray

and handlesystemcombined

witha releasebuttonon the

bottom.This makesremoval,

replacementand general

accessto the interiorof the

unit far better, and probably



Thelist of features this

unithas is morethangood

enough



updatedto a pushand slide

removablecover, whichwe’re

pleasedto say feelsmuch

betterand a lot more solid

thanthe previousmodel.

The drivebaysare also

updated,this timewitha

8

8

Quality

Value

88

Overall

iThe ZyXELNSA352v2has undergonesomegreat changes

iIt’s a good-lookingdevice and one that performswell too