Increasing Floods Of Data
In the days before digital cameras, most photographers had to rely on the services of a third party to get their film developed. Music was dubbed from record players to tape, so that you could listen to a wide range of your favorite tunes in the car. And watching a Super 8 film at home or at a friend’s place was a cause for celebration. All this changed with the introduction of digital media into our everyday lives.
Today, processing digital video on tape is just as much second-nature as post-processing
photographs and publishing them on the Internet. A home theater PC in the living room can play the results of creative editing on common commodity hardware, and also let us listen to music in .mp3 format. At the click of a button, a selection of music can be transferred to a digital music player, which can then ensure the right background is available for a trip to work.
Your Data Requires Increasing Digital Storage Space
But the introduction of digital devices into our everyday lives didn’t just bring benefits. Alongside the usual trials and tribulations caused by cutting-edge technology—complicated menu systems, incompatibility between files and players, or computers that no longer respond—one aspect is usually swept under the carpet: the secure storage of data.
Programs and files, whether they be created by the user or purchased online, require ever-increasing amounts of storage space. Digital .mp3 collections, pictures, and home-recorded videos from digital cameras can add up to a considerable volume of data over time. You don’t just want to archive this data. You want it to be available at all times, and if possible, made available for use on the widest possible range of players and computers.
Network Storage
This is where Network Attached Storage (NAS) units come into their own. These devices can make several terabytes of storage space available within a network, independent of any one computer. This is made possible through a lightweight embedded operating system, generally based on Linux, and stored on a flash storage module in the NAS unit.
Fitted with a Gigabit Ethernet interface and USB ports, these NAS units are designed to have low power consumption. Many NAS models, however, aren't just limited to making data available in a Windows network. They can also act as media servers in the home and provide a download manager able to retrieve files from the Internet. A NAS unit can be set up in just a few minutes, and is generally designed to be operated by less technically-minded users.
NAS Units Are Increasing In Popularity
With this in mind, it is hardly surprising that NAS units are moving from being solely the domain of professional user within companies to becoming more and more popular with home users. In the past we have introduced, among others, the QNAP TS409 Pro Turbo NAS, the Maxtor Shared Storage II, and the Vox Blackbox. The following pages will show you what you can expect from the Promise NS4300N. As we’ll see for starters, the unit makes a very good first impression.
Promise NS4300N
The Promise NS4300N is supplied without hard drives. Online, this NAS housing can be ordered for a price of around $420. When compared to other NAS units with a similar range of functions, this price should be considered comparable.
The NS4300N has four drive bays--the build your own device (BYOD) concept means that users can fit the NAS housing with the storage capacity that meets their specific requirements. The current maximum is 6 GB, made up of four 1.5 TB drives available from Seagate.
Construction
The construction of the NS4300N is good, although the unit does leave room for the opposite impression when unpacked for the first time. The entire housing is made up of a light, thin plastic, which is not very reassuring at first glance. If you compare it to other NAS units, like the QNAP TS-409 Pro, for example, you immediately ask the obvious question: why would Promise want to give the NS4300N a plastic housing ?
If you look a little closer, you will see that the plastic housing is more stable and more accurately constructed than it first appears. The front flap used to cover the drive slots is fixed with a hinge to the left-hand side of the housing, and moves easily. If you are expecting creaks and squeaks, you will be pleasantly surprised.
The same goes for the drive holders, which are also made of plastic. Fears that these might break due to frequent use are unfounded. Inside the unit itself, a metal cage ensures that the drives are seated securely.
The Package
Promise includes the drive holders with associated screws, a network cable with rubber connector, an RJ-45 network cable, manual, and software CD.
Click an image to see more pictures of the NS4300N.
Technical Data And Features
Noisy Fan
Because the NS4300N has an internal power supply, the rear of the unit also has air outlets for the drives as well as for the power supply fan. The volume of the drive fan is unpleasantly loud—it runs at around 3,000 RPM and this speed is not regulated in accordance with the ambient temperature, which we found unacceptable.
When asked, Promise informed us that they are aware of this issue and that they will be introducing a modified version of the NS4300N with a different fan controller, the average fan speed will then be around about 1,300 RPM, which will make the unit considerably quieter. Promise will be offering customers in the USA who already own an NS4300N a time-limited exchange program. Considering that this is a feature which does not actually affect the functioning of the unit, this is a nice gesture.
Data Protection Using RAID
In order to guarantee data protection during operation, the NS4300N supports RAID 1, 5, and 10. RAID 5 mode uses three drives; a fourth can be set up as the so-called hot spare—if one of the RAID cluster drives fails, the drive configured as the hot spare automatically takes its place. If performance is more of a concern, the enclosure also does RAID 0, though that sacrifices data security in the name of improving throughput.
Network And Protocols
Network access to the NAS unit from a Windows computer is carried out using the SMB/CIFS protocol. The NS4300N wins in heterogeneous networks as well, though, due to the support it provides for the Apple Filing Protocol (AFP) and Network File System (NFS) protocols. In addition, access to the data memory is also possible using the FTP protocol.
Configuration Software
Once connected, the NS4300N gets an IP address from a DHCP server on the network, which means that the configuration can also be carried out via the Web interface. It is not absolutely necessary to install the supplied software in order to set up the unit. If you are unable to find out which IP address has been assigned to the NAS unit, the bundled software will help you to locate the NS4300N within the network. The Web configuration interface of the NAS unit can be accessed via the standard port 80; the default login uses "admin" for both the user name and password.
Web Interface
The Web interface is defined in a clear and structured manner; it is easy to find your way around. Alternatively, you can also use the setup wizard, which guides you step by step through setting up the network, as well as the utilities, users, folder releases and RAID configuration.
The NS4300N from Promise isn’t just designed for individual users, as you can clearly see from the "Backup" menu entry. The sub-point "NAS-Replication" enables you to configure the NS4300N in such a way that the saved data is replicated to another NAS unit.
The NS4300N also has functions that are primarily designed for use in home networks. The use of plug-ins allows the functional scope of the NAS unit to be expanded to include a uPnP media server and iTunes server. There is also a plug-in that can turn the network storage device into a download station with BitTorrent support. The standard functions available are not restricted by the use of these plug-ins. The plug-ins can be downloaded from the NS4300N support pages .
More images showing the Web interface can be seen in our picture gallery. Click an image to view.
Test Setup And Benchmarks
Although the NS4300N supports jumbo frames, we chose not to implement this feature. All tests were carried out over a Gigabit network, and our reference platform was used to execute the benchmarks. Details regarding the hardware configuration can be found in the table below.
| System Hardware | |
|---|---|
| Intel Platform (LGA 775) | Asus P5E3 Deluxe, Rev.1.03G |
| Intel X38, BIOS : 0810 (02/11/2007) | |
| CPU | Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 (65 nm Conroe core) @ 2.26 GHz |
| RAM | 2x 1024 MB Crucial Ballistix DDR3-1600 |
| eSATA controller | JMicron JMB363 |
| System Hard Drive | Seagate Barracuda 7200.9, 160 GB |
| 7,200 rpm, SATA/300, 8 MB Cache | |
| Test Hard Drives | 4x Samsung Spinpoint HD321KJ, 320GB |
| 7,200 rpm, SATA/300, 16 MB Cache | |
| DVD-ROM | Samsung SH-D163A , SATA 1.5 Gbps |
| Graphics Card | Gigabyte Radeon HD 3850 GV-RX385512H |
| GPU: 670 MHz, Memory: 512 MB DDR3 (830 MHz, 256 Bit) | |
| Sound Card | Integrated |
| Power Supply | Cooler Master RS-850-EMBA, ATX 12V V2.2, 850 Watt |
The firmware used on the NAS has the following version number 01.04.0000.11.
| Operating system | Windows Vista Enterprise SP1 |
| DirectX 10 | DirectX 10 (Vista-Standard) |
| DirectX 9 | Version : April 2007 |
| Graphics driver | ATI Radeon Version 7.12 |
| Intel chip set driver | Version 6.9.1.1001 (20/02/2008) |
| JMicron chip set driver | Version 1.17.15.0 (24/03/2007) |
Intel NAS Performance Toolkit
We tested the Promise NS4300N using the Intel NAS Performance Toolkit. A more detailed description of the benchmark can be found in the article on NAS testing procedures.
Benchmark Results
The Promise NS4300N delivered average data transfer rates, but could not quite live up to expectations in some of the tests. The NS4300N was a little behind its competition with the benchmarks that focus on multimedia, for example, and the streaming of HD content. On the other hand, the NAS unit was very good when it came to handling lots of small files.
Unlike in the other RAID modes, the transfer rates in RAID 5 mode were too erratic. As a result, we would not recommend operating this NAS unit with a RAID 5 configuration. The RAID 10 mode delivered the most balanced results in our benchmarks.
Results
With the NS4300N, Promise has put together a solid NAS unit that gets extra points for its well-structured Web interface. As can be seen from the benchmarks, operating the NS4300N in a RAID 5 configuration is not a good idea, as the performance is not sufficient for this mode. You can also expect, at best, average values in the multimedia sector. It is, however, good when working with lots of small files, the type of scenario that occurs in a typical office environment. Thus the NS4300N is less suited for a home network and is better suited to a SOHO (small office / home office) environment or small company situations.
In view of the thin plastic used for the housing and the workmanship of the materials, there is nothing to complain about. The plastic used is, as you can see from the drive cages, very flexible, yet still robust and will not damage easily. Nevertheless, a metal housing would be better and would lift the entire image of the NS4300N.
The price tag of $420 is competitive. Users considering a purchase must, however, remember to add on the costs for the hard drives as well. If you use four 1 TB drives at $100 each, the overall costs are in excess of $800. Even if that seems like a lot of money, the result is a solid NAS unit with plenty of storage capacity and only minor performance weaknesses. In view of the competition, the Promise is a reasonable middle-of-the-road option, though not the best we've seen.
- Well-made
- Hot-swap capable
- Supports many network protocols
- Loud operating noise
- Housing made of thin plastic
- Only average data transfer rates
Source: Tom's Hardware DE – Keywords: promise, ns4300n, nas
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