Micro_Mart_-_January_7_2016_

GROUP

TEST

2-BayNAS

Drives

slowwhencompared to the

otherunitson test.Although

the actualservingof a folder

or file was fine across our

gigabitnetwork– in that we

couldaccessthosefiles just

as quicklyon this deviceas

the others– the actualsetting

S

urprisingly, Seagate

doesn’t producea lot

of NASdevicesfor

homesor small

offices.Instead,the company

tendsto leanmore enterprise

and heavydutynetwork

storagesolutions.Therefore,

this two-baymodelis

somethingof a loner

in the company’s line of

storageproducts.

The STCT200is the two-bay

versionof the STCT4000200,

which,as you wouldexpect

from the name,is a four-bay

device.However, bothmodels

share similarspecifications,in

that withinthere’s a 1.2GHz

ARMprocessorand 512MB

of DDR3memoryas the

drivingforce behindthe many

servicestheysupport.

In additionyou also get a

pair of USB 3.0 ports,a pair of

gigabitEthernet portsand a

one-touchbackupbuttonthat

will copya set folderand files

to a pre-determinedlocation

or vice versa.The pair of

SATA-2 channelscan takeup

to 5TB hard drivesand support

both2.5"and 3.5"hard drives

to JBOD,RAID0 and 1.

The list of supported

networkfile protocolsand

servicesis quitelengthybut

not as comprehensiveas some

of the othermodelswe’ve

alreadylookedat – suchas

the examplesfrom QNAP

or Synology.

CIFS/SMB,NFS v3, FTP,

SSH,SNMP, NTP, Bonjour

up of the STCT200tookthe

bestpart of a day, and that

was onlywitha coupleof 2TB

drivesat RAID0.

Alsomwe found

navigatingthe Seagate

NASOS 4 embeddedLinux

administrationlayervery slow.

Whereas we couldclickon

disk managementfeatures on

the otherLinuxNASunitsand

they’dappearinstantly, there

was alwaysa waitof nineor

ten secondsbefore this unit

kickedin.

Fair enough,that’s not

a longtimeto waitfor

anything,and there’s a

goodchancethat Seagate

has put in someformof

error checkingto makesure

you’re gettingexactlywhat

you wantto view. But it

just doesn’t seemquiteas

fluidas Synologyor QNAP’s

embeddedoperatingsystems.

Havingsaid all that,the

SeagateSTCT200performs

wellenoughwhenyou

actuallyuse it on the

network.Streamingmedia

isn’t a problem,and neither

is backingup datafrom

multiplecomputers.

It’s also reasonablypriced

too, at around£117.That’s

not bad consideringthe level

of performancethat the unit

has to offer and the range

of servicesit covers.It’s just

a pity it’s so slowwhenyou

cometo administerit.

DETAILS

• Price:£117


• Manufacturer: Seagate


• Website:
  goo.gl/PNJWGP


• Requirements:
  Wired networkin place,
  any modernbrowserfor
  accessand admin

SeagateSTCT^200

and so on all are all present,

and you also get the usual

complementof media

streamingcapabilitiestoo.

On paper, the Seagate

STCT200is certainlyan

impressiveNASdrive,but we

did find it to be exceptionally

7

7

Quality

Value

77

Overall

iA goodNAS drive for homeor the office

iThe webadminside thoughwas very slow