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Fantastic, so it’s fast, secure and relatively inexpensive – should you get one to use at home? Well, with specs like this, the NetDisk should be an ideal media storage solution with great streaming speeds and even the ability to take it on the go and use other interfaces. Well, maybe. Sure, you’d be fine with music streaming and some SDTV, but playback of HDTV content is jerky and certainly far from an enjoyable experience. In our opinion, leave the NetDisk at the office; it’s not a multimedia solution.

Iocell NetDisk 351UNE

Multiple configuration options allow for a wide range of uses

Also missing from the NetDisk are other features, which come standard with many Nas devices such as web servers, FTP servers and Bittorent clients. Additionally, there is no support for USB peripherals.

The behaviour of an NDAS device may also be something of a “culture shock” to those more used to typical Nas type devices, which involve the use of web-based configuration interfaces. NDAS does away with all this nonsense and mounts the drive directly, along with other local disks. This allows the drive to be configured and utilised in the same manner as any other hard drive in the system, including formatting and partitioning. For some this may be a blessing, but others may struggle without the familiar separation of internal and external disks.

Verdict

If you are looking to securely expand the storage capability of your small business or home office at incredible speed with the option of aggregation or Raid then the NetDisk is the obvious choice, just don’t go looking for it to replace your old media streaming Nas box just yet. ®

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Iocell NetDisk 351UNE

Iocell NetDisk

Ideal for the office – what it lacks in Nas functions it makes up for with speed. UK pricing is a bit steep though.
Price: £110 (no drive), £250 (1TB), £300 (1.5TB), £400 (2TB) RRP More Info: Iocell's NetDisk 351UNE page

10 screws...

... to change the hard disk?? I can change a hard disk in my PC with 6. My PS3 with 5. My laptop with 1.

Overkill perhaps?

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Are those prices a misprint?

So it's 110 quid for an empty box but 250 quid for a 1TB box. The exact same drive is available from ebuyer for 72 quid. (http://www.ebuyer.com/product/150245)

So why do Iocell charge 140 quid for a 72 quid drive. Is it because they think we're all stupid? Perhaps it's some sort of intelligence test....

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Streaming

"playback of HDTV content is jerky and certainly far from an enjoyable experience"

Eh? How does that work if the ethernet speeds are so good? Is this just a firmware issue that will be resolved later?

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Check out the web site

There are 'beta' drivers available. So no, not yet, unless you are very brave...

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Sounds very much like....

the software that came with Freecom Classic SL network drives. Ximeta seems to have taken over the software now - it utilises a protocol called LPX (Lean Packet Exchange). Obviously this means the protocol isn't easily routable, thereby losing quite a lot of the attraction.

The RAID functions are carried out entirely in software and from memory its a complete bastard to unbind a disk (to use on its own) if it was part of a failed RAID array as it will keep insisting that you provide the missing disk(s). All the RAID options work well enough if a bit slowly. Array rebuild times are horrendous - truly horrendous.

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