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Buffalo LinkStation Pro Quad Diskless NAS for only $248 from Harris Technology

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Buffalo LinkStation Pro Quad Diskless NAS for only $248 from Harris Technology
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Store RepHarris Technology on 11/03/2011 - 12:07 ht.com.au (1547 clicks)

We have a hot offer on the Buffalo Linkstation Pro Quad diskless chassis

Currently stock only available from the warehouse so order online or via phone 1300 139 999

Buffalo LinkStation Pro Quad Chassis Model - Diskless

Performance

  • LinkStation powered by 1.6GHz CPU delivers 71.9MB/s! 1.7X faster than USB hard drive
  • 1,000 photos are copied in 53.3 seconds, 11% acceleration by Buffalo's original acceleration software, TurboPC and TurboCopy

Access files on LinkStation remotely

  • WebAccess lets you access files on LinkStation from anywhere in the world!
  • From iPhone and iPad, enjoy photo slideshow and video streaming play with dedicate application, WebAccess i apps
Computing NAS Network Storage Readynas Storage

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closed Comments

  • battler on 11/03/2011 - 12:16

    "71.9MB/s! 1.7X faster than USB hard drive"

    …or about 30% slower than (practical speeds achieved on) USB 3.0

    • conio on 11/03/2011 - 13:08

      heh i love wacky manufacturer claims

  • whiskey299 on 11/03/2011 - 12:19

    Write performance on this unit is pretty bad but then it's a very cheap 4 bay unit

  • Kaboda on 11/03/2011 - 12:22

    Depends what people are using it for really. I reckon its dirt cheap.

  • shawn_low on 11/03/2011 - 12:26
    +1

    NOTE that there is NO hard disk drive in this model hence the price.

    $14 delivery to metro Melbourne.

    @ Rep:
    Is this a 'pro' model of this version reviewed:
    http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/nas/nas-reviews/30670-low-cos…

    What are the differences?

    • scotty on 11/03/2011 - 17:42

      The review unit says "powered by Marvell 88F5182-A2 C400 Orion Storage processor", which is 400MHz. Where as the Pro versions says "powered by 1.6GHz CPU".

      Maybe a faster Marvell ARM chip? Newer QNAP NAS use those Marvel 1.6GHz CPUs.

  • forge on 11/03/2011 - 12:28

    Can anyone link me to an actual manufacturer spec sheet for one of these? I'm having trouble pulling out the exact model number from the manufacturer website and the specs tab on ht is very light for a product of this type. Googling around, I have a sneaking suspicion that these units don't support NFS.

  • knuckle8 on 11/03/2011 - 12:40

    Very cheap unit.
    TOo bad it doesn't to Usenet… :(
    Looks like I will have to stick with a QNAP or Netgear one :(

  • Mikinoz on 11/03/2011 - 12:43

    Or if you are in ACT here is one with the disc

    http://www.ht.com.au/part/Z2107-CLR-Buffalo-LinkStation-Pro-… $931.00

  • Tilduke on 11/03/2011 - 13:01

    I was confused on how they had a NAS without disks but I realised it was just poor wording and that it is a HDD NAS just without disks included.

  • BlinkyBill on 11/03/2011 - 13:32

    Awesome! Ordered one. Pickup is free in store.

  • life is a little cr… on 11/03/2011 - 13:57

    I ordered one too cant wait. Looks like only stock in Sydney but got it delivered to melb I think was about $14-15

  • stumo on 11/03/2011 - 14:02

    Got one, hope its good.

  • shawn_low on 11/03/2011 - 14:11

    Tempted to get one just to back-up and stream stuff.

    An suggestions for HDD to include? Probably looking at 2 x 1TB HDD.

  • Broden Jr on 11/03/2011 - 14:17

    Anyone know if this can be used for a sqeezebox server?

    • shawn_low on 11/03/2011 - 14:19

      Yes. See link to product spec above.

      Most Buffalo NAS can't but this one can!

      • Broden Jr on 11/03/2011 - 17:26

        Thanks shawn. Hope it works cause I just bought one lol

        If it doesn't I will hold you personally responsible!

        Hehe just joking man.

  • Bob81 on 11/03/2011 - 15:15

    Best price on Static Ice $335

    The reviews aren't great on it either.

    http://www.amazon.com/Buffalo-Technology-LinkStation-LS-Q8-0…

    Good price though.

  • [Deactivated] on 11/03/2011 - 15:19

    I may be blind but how many hard drives and what drive capacity can this take? Does the "Quad" in the title mean it takes 4?

    • Store RepHarris Technology @ Harris Technology on 11/03/2011 - 15:21
      +2

      The chassis accepts up to 4 drives and it comes with zero drives installed

      • Zed on 11/03/2011 - 15:52
        +1

        this accepts 4 x 2TB drives right?

  • Hintswen on 11/03/2011 - 17:22

    What video formats can this stream to my iPhone/iPad?

  • aar on 11/03/2011 - 18:35

    Hi HT,
    It is a hot offer, thanks.

    I phoned the warehouse to confirm that this NAS is fully compatible with the new 4K sector advanced formated HDD's

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Format
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_sector
    http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=adva…

    They didn't know & suggested I phone Buffalo direct.

    My current DNS-323 NAS is NOT compatible & I need to purchase HDD's with the old 512 byte sectors such as the Seagate F3 (HD203WI)
    http://umart.com.au/newindex2.phtml?bid=7
    It runs 4 platters at 500GB

    The new Seagate F4 which has 4k sector advanced formatting (HD204UI)
    http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&c…
    runs 3 platters at 667 GB

    The new 4TB 4K sector drives would then give 16TB to play with
    http://www.pcauthority.com.au/News/250760,4tb-hard-drives-on…

    The recommended accessory
    http://www.ht.com.au/part/V0531-Seagate-Barracuda-Green-ST20…
    IS a 4k sector drive, but is also a sata-600, even though the NAS is only sata-300, so doesn't really match this well.

    Guess I will get onto Buffalo Monday if no-one has any ideas.

    Thanks

    • rokkz on 14/03/2011 - 07:48

      aar did you end up purchasing one?

      • aar on 14/03/2011 - 15:40
        +1

        Haven't yet.
        Above drives I mention are Samsung not Seagate as well. ozb wouldn't let me edit.

        I phoned Buffalo who said the NAS was compatible with new 4K sector drives. Thought I saw something on the net confirming this in the 1.3 firmware, but can't find now.
        Buffalo said to stay away from the 5400rpm green/eco drives as they spin down by themselves & cause problems. Said to stick with the 7200 rpm drives. So would suggest staying away from the HT recommended HDD.

        • rokkz on 14/03/2011 - 18:43

          The new WD greens are 7200 2TB less than a $100, you could have a 8tb nas all up for $650.00…..I might take the plunge?

    • stumo on 14/03/2011 - 19:41

      I'm going with the Seagate Barracuda Green 2TB ST2000DL003. I'm only going to be running a single drive to start with, so it should be OK with spindown, and I'm assuming SATA600 will be backwards compatible with SATA2. See how it goes.

      Getting it from PCCG for $105 pickup.
      http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&c…

  • Broden Jr on 15/03/2011 - 09:25

    I bought this mainly so I could install the sqeezebox server on it and save power by turning my computer off.

    But I have since found this squeezebox plugin called "Server Power Control" http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=48521

    The plugin lets you turn your computer on and off or sleep/hibernate using the duet remote. Works perfect and now I'm not going to worry about using the Buffalo LinkStation for squeezebox now.

    I will probably still keep the linkstation since I have used up all my sata ports and hdd bays in my computer though.

  • johnyBgood on 15/03/2011 - 12:12

    How did you guys install a new Hard Drive? Did you install a ROM OR just run the CD that comes with it? And do you know if it's possible to run this in RAID 5 with just 3 Harddrive?

  • life is a little cr… on 16/03/2011 - 14:50

    jominix I believe you have to have the 4 drives installed for raid 5 config. Just received my order today now on the hunt for some 2tb hdd anyone got any suggestions for some cheap ones?

    • stumo on 16/03/2011 - 15:57

      Nope RAID5 can be done with 3 HDDs or 4…
      Page 85 of the manual
      http://manual.buffalo.jp/buf-doc/35011114-5_EN.pdf

      RAID 5 mode (3 hard drives) is available

      • johnyBgood on 18/03/2011 - 16:39

        Just tried running Raid 5 with 3 HHD using different brand, model, cache & rpm and it works fine.

        • stumo on 18/03/2011 - 17:30

          Can you give us a rough idea of the R/W speeds on the 3HDDs in RAID?

          I will probably end up doing the same, 1 single drive, and then 3 in RAID5.

  • stumo on 16/03/2011 - 16:17
    +1

    I have mine all set up now, using a single 2TB seagate green ST2000DL003 for now.

    Compared to my existing NAS setup - a shared folder on my HTPC (a win7 x64 laptop with 3Ghz core2quad, 8GB ram, dedicated SATA 500GB 2.5" 7200rpm disk) I'm reasonably happy with the performance, for the money.

    Same bunch of test files (small and large 3GB in total) transferred with vice versa 2 from an SSD (on another core2quad 3GHz laptop) to/from NAS over gigabit LAN…

    HTPC:   29.84MB/s write, 29.74MB/s read.
LS-QVL: 20.29MB/s write, 28.25MB/s read.

    It consumes around 15W idle which is quite good (its infinitely more than my existing setup though since the HTPC is on 24/7 anyway). But compared to a dedicated standalone PC style NAS, 15W is good, its similar consumption to a single external 3.5" HDD in an enclosure (which was my other option).

    • stumo on 16/03/2011 - 17:48

      In other news…

      It doesn't play well with my belkin UPS from this deal http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/38516

      It doesn't even recognise it, UPS works fine on all my PC's. Grrrr. The NAS's USB ports work fine for USB storage, so it isn't faulty. grrrrrrrrr. Kind of risky running a NAS like this with no safe shutdown.

      • rokkz on 16/03/2011 - 17:54

        Is there a idle shutdown for the HDD's in the buffalo?
        Can you setup JOBD/no raid setup?

        Cheers

        • stumo on 16/03/2011 - 18:11

          Yes you can run the whole thing non-RAID, but it kind of defeats the purpose of having a 4 bay NAS. In that case you would be far better off running a couple of smaller NASs. I'm planning on migrating to RAID5 once a really good deal on some 2TB drives shows up.

          And idle spindown doesn't really help either. You need some way of telling the NAS to shut itself down if the power fails. Otherwise if the NAS is writing to disk (which it can be doing at any time it sees fit) at the instant the power finally switches off, you can loose ALL your data. This is the same risk for any RAID > 1 setup. Which is why they all have UPS/battery backup options. Its just that my UPS doesn't work with this NAS.

    • aar on 16/03/2011 - 22:46

      Thanks for the update guys.
      I was looking for the 72MB/s as advertised.
      Those results would be A LOT lower than I would have expected.
      FYI the Intel NAS Performance Tollkit isn't a bad test either.
      http://www.intel.com/products/server/storage/NAS_Perf_Toolki…

    • johnyBgood on 17/03/2011 - 15:05

      deleted

    • johnyBgood on 17/03/2011 - 15:06

      Thanks for sharing stumo.

      I was lucky to install the firmware the first time and installed two 1 TB HDD, but can't remember which button combination did the trick to install the firmware. Now I've added another 1TB HDD on the 3rd bay to try raid 5 mode, and my linkstation power led just keeps on flashing blue rapidly for more than 3 hours. I don't know why I can't go to emergency mode by pressing function button for 6. sec, then pressing Power, button & holding the function button again for 6 seconds, as documented on buffalo site. If I remove the new HDD, the linkstation goes back to normal. Can you tell me the steps you followed to install your new HDD? Thanks.

  • stumo on 17/03/2011 - 17:06

    I've played around with the Intel NAS Performance Tollkit now (thanks aar)… http://www.intel.com/products/server/storage/NAS_Perf_Toolki…

    This NAS is pretty much exactly half the speed of my HTPC shared folder setup in all tests I've tried.

    I expect to get far better read speeds if I went to a RAID setup. Max read I'm getting now is 30MB/s with a single (green) drive, which is a far cry from the 71.9MB/s claimed on the box. I'm assuming if you have 3 drives providing the data for reading (RAID5) then the speeds should be more like they claim. Write speeds might take a hit though with RAID5, I'm not sure until I try.

    Anyway the NAS works really well for a NAS-on-chip style device, as long as you only do one thing at a time. As soon as you do more than one thing, eg read and write files, the performance becomes insanely bad. In my test before I got 24MB/s write on big files, but if I read files at the same time as doing the test, I get 2MB/s write on the same files. This isn't surprising for a NAS-OC device, but the performance hit is more drastic on this because it starts from a higher level.

    For my current needs I'm happy with it for the price/power consumption/performance ratio. If you want any better performance right now, you would have to go to a Atom based NAS, which is a bit of a jump in price and power. In which case you are far better off rolling your own NAS I reckon.

  • johnyBgood on 18/03/2011 - 23:55
    +1

    Below is my test result using this tool: http://www.808.dk/?code-csharp-nas-performance

    PC used: Asus F5SR Laptop Dual CPU T3400 @ 2.16Ghz with 2GB of RAM.
    NAS HDD : 3 HDD 1TB each in Raid 5 (2 Samsung 32mb cache, 1 WD Green 8mb cache)

    Running a 400MB file write/read in WIFI 300Mbps connection
    Average (Write) in 5 iteration : 6.52 MB/sec
    Average (Read) in 5 iteration : 8.75 MB/sec

    Running a 400MB file write/read in LAN Gigabit connection
    Average (Write) in 5 iteration : 23.1 MB/sec
    Average (Read) in 5 iteration : 27.57 MB/sec

  • lonewolf on 19/03/2011 - 03:34

    I keep getting an EM mode only. I cant seem to access the web address or flash the firmware or anything. …?

    • johnyBgood on 19/03/2011 - 09:53

      If the red light is flashing, wait at least 10-20 minutes till it gets solid blue.

  • lonewolf on 19/03/2011 - 09:59

    I had to press the function button on the unit after i put in a hdd and then it kept flashing read for a while like you said. Finally it went back to being blue and the unit was not in EM mode anymore. Strangely they dont say to do any of that in the manual or anything. Did anyone else have to do this or were they just able to plug in their unit and access it straight away via web access? First time i plugged in, there was no hdd in there.

  • johnyBgood on 19/03/2011 - 12:15

    We have the same experience, I did it twice and I still can't figure out which button combination did the trick to install the firmware. There's an instruction in the manual on how to do it but that didn't work either. The firmware of this NAS needs to be installed on a Hard Drive first before you'll be able to access it via web access.

  • lonewolf on 19/03/2011 - 12:22

    Wish the manual and quick setup guide would be a bit more comprehensive. I guess these NAS drives were originally designed to be shipped with hdds already in them and hence the setup already done. As the manuals and Quick Setup guides seem to assume the hdds are already inside from the very beginning. I guess the reason why i had so many issues was i kept expecting it to be instantaneous instead of having to leave it for like 30mins with an empty hdd in there before i could access it.

    • stumo on 21/03/2011 - 12:55

      I really think the key is to not have Ethernet plugged in initially, until you get the first blue.

      The quick start guide steps say so, well not explicitly, but it says to plug in lan right at the very last step.

  • Jacala on 24/03/2011 - 09:47

    Well, since this seems to have turned into the tech support forum for those of us who bought one here's my experience.
    * First thoughts
    Documentation is pretty inadequate, especially for the enclosure-only version
    Unit takes a long time to boot and a long time to set up - watch the blinking lights and be patient

    • I installed a single Samsung 2TB F4EG. I'm planning on installing 4 of these, but haven't got there yet

    • To install firmware
      Install a drive
      Power up by holding the power button for 1 sec and then releasing
      LinkStation will blink blue for a long time, then blink red for a long time
      When the red FUNCTION LED is steady, push the FUNCTION button to install firmware
      There will be blue and red flashing for 10+ minutes
      When the system boots up, it flashes blue quickly for a minute or so, then flashes red slowly for another minute or so, before the blue LED goes steady. It takes quite a while to boot, so be patient.

    • To get it up and running
      Download & Install NAS Navigator from
      http://www.buffalo-asia.com/cgi-bin/support/download.cgi?cou…
      Note that the version of the software on the CD that comes with the unit doesn't seem to be compatible with it (duh)
      Attach to your network
      Start up NAS Navigator. It should find the unit.

    By default, it's set to DHCP. If you don't have a DHCP server on your network, you can attach the unit directly to your PC with an Ethernet cable, and then use NAS Navigator to set its IP address.

    • lonewolf on 24/03/2011 - 10:20

      Yeah I was going to say that was exactly my experience. I got the same samsung drive and I tried having the ethernet unplugged, made no difference. The way to do it is exactly as you just wrote. Its strange they never mentioned any of that in the manual, its pretty crazy. AT least there arent that many buttons to press so its just trial and error. But for people who may not be used to self resolving IT issues may have issues with this unit.

  • stumo on 24/03/2011 - 15:51

    Theres a thread on WP now, so its probably better to continue any discussion/support over there where there will be more pairs of eyes.
    http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1661106

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