Network WHAT?

Say NAS and most people would be wondering which government agency just sprout out and yet the operation of a Network Attached Storage device is built on is something that they'd have come across in their everyday lives. Think of all of those classmates of yours who've been *cough* sharing files *cough* over the school network or colleagues who upload files to the L drive at work that's really just a mapped network drive. Most of them have no clue that a NAS would show up similarly and have no clue as to how to setup one.

That is why YOU, are known as the computer guy. Because it takes the computer guy to buy the right item when they say want a portable harddisk and not an external harddisk. So what happens when they tell you that they feel the compelling urge to share those family photos, videos and what-not amongst all the dinosaurs in their house without having to pass the external harddisk around? That's right! You have to do the job for them. After all, this is all alien to them but you know what to do. So perhaps it is time to make your free time recreational and not be another Santa's elf this Christmas. That, is precisely what the ACRyan AluBoxDuo LAN we have in the labs today is meant to do but with a twist.

It comes in the typical cyan, white and black ACRyan cardboard box as usual.

What's the difference between the AluBoxDuo LAN and your run-of-the-mill NAS? For starters, it is based on Ximeta's patented Network Direct Attached Storage (NDAS) rather than the usual Linux chips using SAMBA protocol. The main difference lies in that the unit does not require an IP address or hostname to operate over the network. What it does, in simple terms, is to look like an internal drive on the system except that it's connected via the network. This makes it easy for end users with zero networking know-how to get the unit up and running. Just install the software which is just under 2MB and follow the instructions. Mainly, it consists of pressing 'Next' till the cows come home. If Aunt Susie can install those spyware-infested programs on her computer, she can certainly run the NDAS Installer program without a hitch! The other differences lie in that the AluBoxDuo is capable of housing 2 SATA harddrives and also doubles up as a USB storage device as well. If you need to recover data without access to a network, simply hook up the USB cable and you'll have full access to your precious data.

The small yellow box says it all!

What you really get.

Let's move into the unit.

What makes it tick?

On the rear of the unit, a 40mm fan exhausts hot air to keep the drives running cool.

Take the screws off and the cage slides off with the controller boards.

A closer look at what you get on the inside.

The NDAS portion is actually a PATA interface.

A pair of SATA to PATA media convertors are used to allow the use of SATA drives with the Ximeta chip.

 
All the cables can be unplugged and removed easily.

More pictures on the next page.

More pictures & Testbed configuration

Simply screw the harddisk drives in place, plug the SATA cables and you're done!

Both the network and USB cables are included as part of the package.

Software Setup

A unique 20 character device ID is assigned to each AluBoxDuo LAN unit and it is used to allow the software to automatically detect and attach the unit to the system. That is used in place of IP addresses or hostnames so there is no need to have any networking knowledge to start using the AluBoxDuo. Furthermore, the software allows you to use as many of the units as you wish by simply adding the device ID of the additional unit. It also allows for RAID 0 or RAID 1 functions across multiple AluBoxDuo units (up to 8) for improved performance or redundancy. Every unit also has a Write Key to enable that particular system to modify files on the AluBoxDuo. It is optional and you may choose not to key it in if you do not want to allow the files on the drive to be modified but wish to allow access to them.

Testbed

• Intel Core 2 Quad Extreme QX9650 (3GHz, 333MHzx9)
• ASUS P5E3 Deluxe WiFi-AP/N - Intel X38 Chipset
• Corsair Dominator PC3-1800C7D 2GB Kit (1333Mhz, 7-7-7-20)
• Inno3D Geforce 8800 GTS 512MB
• Enermax Galaxy 1kW reV2.0
• 2 x Seagate 7200.7 80GB (System)
• 2 x Seagate 7200.7 80GB (in NDAS)
• Dell 3007WFP
• Windows Vista SP1 Beta (Build 2175)

Tested against:

• Scythe Kama Connect (USB)

Results

We used HDTune to test the drive performance through both the NDAS and USB interface. The USB performance was compared to the Scythe Kama Connect to see if the additional SATA to IDE bridge used in the AluBoxDuo would penalise it's performance.

The unit saturates at 10.3MB/s which is the limit of the 10/ 100 ethernet interface.

When connected via USB, we realise the practical bandwidth limitations of the USB interface.
The additional latency of the network in NDAS mode is not noticable in the access time test.

Here, we have the results from the Scythe Kama Connect SATA-USB convertor.
Despite going through an additional SATA to USB bridge, the AluBoxDuo actually outperforms the Kama Connect by 2MB/s in the bandwidth test.

Conclusion

Conclusion

Although one may think that the ACRyan AluBoxDuo LAN is yet another NAS at first glance, it has proven to be an extremely interesting device. In terms of performance, the unit does admirably well when connected via USB, even beating the Scythe Kama Connect during the read test. Unfortunately, the network connection on the unit is only capable of 10/100 Fast Ethernet and so the bottleneck lies not in the drives or Ximeta controller but the network link. Understandably, the target market for this product would more than likely be using normal home routers with 10/ 100 switches built-in rather than gigabit ethernet links. That said, the software from Ximeta was very simple to use and adding the NDAS device was a piece of cake.  Furthermore, there are further options such as running RAID across NDAS devices that we have been unable to test as we only had one unit with us.
If you have a high performance Gigabit ethernet network or have to know-how to setup more complex NAS units, you might wish to look at other offerings. On the other hand, if you never had to lay a hand in setting up your home network or have friends and relatives looking to get more storage this Christmas season, you might want to consider the AluBoxDuo LAN. Afterall, it's the festive season and we ought to be spending time swapping gifts and celebrating rather than pulling our hairs trying to setup a NAS.

 

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