Buffalo Linkstation Quad

Nas simplicity and versatility, but at a price

Tue 30 Jun 2009 // 08:02 UTC

To complete the package, Buffalo bundles Memeo AutoBackup software for use with the Linkstation Quad. This is an easy-to-use and blessedly unsophisticated program for scheduling automatic backups from the computers on the network to appropriate shares on the Nas.

The front fascia is only there to keep the dust out

You can also use the web management interface to establish an automatic schedule for backing up shares on the Nas itself to an external, USB-attached storage device. Mac users will be pleased to note that the Linkstation Quad supports the Time Machine automatic backup feature in Mac OS X 10.5. However, it appears that you can only set it up with one Mac on the whole network. There seems to be no way of linking different shares as Time Machine volumes to different Macs.

Verdict

The Linkstation Quad is a powerful and well-built product that also happens to be fairly simple to configure and manage. Home users wanting high capacity storage options, hardware versatility and a good web-based interface should like the product very much, as will demanding small offices having to deal with large quantities of data. The only drawback is that once you take full advantage of the RAID support, the Linkstation Quad looks expensive next to single-drive consumer Nas drives of similar capacity. ®