Reviewer’s Guide: Seagate BlackArmor NAS 440
4
Four USB Ports
The one front-mounted and three rear-mounted USB 2.0 ports allow you to connect
external USB hard drives for additional storage, manage off-site data rotation, share a
USB printer, or connect a UPS (uninterrupted power supply) to safeguard against
sudden loss of electrical power.
External Power Supply
Any device with a single built-in power supply is out of business if that power supply
fails. It’s true for your microwave oven, television,
and even your desktop computer. In designing the
BlackArmor NAS, one of our guiding principles
was to assure that the data stored on it is
accessible at all times. Enterprise-class storage
sub-systems often have twin built-in power
supplies that draw electricity from separate power
cords, but that is a very expensive solution. In
designing the BlackArmor NAS, we did the next
best thing: use an external power supply, exactly
like a notebook computer does. Should it ever fail,
simply unplug and replace it with another one.
Using an external supply offers several benefits:
•
Quick replacement ensures access to data with minimal downtime
•
Heat generated by the power supply is kept away from electronics and drives
•
The entire unit can be made smaller and lighter
•
Ventilation is improved, helping to keep drives cool
Multiple Simultaneous RAID Levels
BlackArmor NAS supports creation of up to four logical volumes. Each volume can be
provisioned at a different RAID level of protection (RAID-0/1/5/10). To our knowledge,
this capability has never before been incorporated into a small-business NAS solution.
The reasons for setting up volumes with different levels of RAID protection should be a
function of the data it stores.
For example, data files that are crucial for running a business but where read/write
speeds are not a concern would be best served by RAID Level 5. Files that require
redundancy and faster read/write performance might be stored at RAID Level 1. For files
that require very fast performance, such as watching a downloaded movie stored on the
NAS, RAID Level 0, which improves performance but provides no fault tolerance may be
the best choice. With the Seagate BlackArmor NAS, it’s not only possible to provide all
of these RAID configurations simultaneously; it takes just a few minutes to set up. (Note:
RAID 5 requires a minimum of three drives, though use of four is preferred. RAID 10
requires four drives configured in pairs.)
