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Review Apart from the silver-on-red “V” sticker, Buffalo's V-Series Linkstation Pro appears identical to the original LinkStation Duo Nas box. Even on the inside there are many similarities, such as Buffalo’s remote WebAccess, DLNA and iTunes DAAP media streaming along with a BitTorrent client and are standard. Likewise, the V-Series box comes complete with RAID 0 and RAID 1 support, not to mention the identical on-board system software.

Speed bump: Buffalo's Linkstation Pro Duo

At this point it’s all sounding rather much the same, until you get to Buffalo’s performance claims. Recalling that the original LinkStation topped out around 35MB/s, Buffalo is now claiming 72MB/s but doesn’t say if this is a read or write figure. Such performance boosts are attributed to a new 1.6GHz CPU of unspecified origin.

Easily one of my favourite features of the original Linkstation Duo’s design was the innovative quick-release rail mounting system, which allowed the user to change both drives within 30 seconds. It seems Buffalo was pleased with this one too, and rightfully so, as it features in the LinkStation Pro. Simply pull the ring-tab whilst depressing the plastic catch and the drives slide right out!

The build quality is also just as good this time around. Clocking in at 2.3kg in an 86 x 204 x 127mm frame, the V-Series feels equally as solid and physically reliable. This is one Nas box that won’t fall apart on your desk.

As far as the user interface goes, it is once again – you guessed it – the same. Not that there was anything much wrong with it before though. I found the web interface to be uncomplicated and easily navigable, albeit somewhat slow to load when moving to the next page. This was one aspect I had really hoped Buffalo would have improved upon.

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