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Review: Buffalo LinkStation Pro Quad 4TB

by Parm Mann on 13 September 2011, 10:00 3.5

Tags: Buffalo Technology

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qa66p

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Final thoughts and rating

Buffalo's LinkStation Pro Quad isn't the best-performing NAS solution we've ever tested, neither is it the most feature packed.

Instead, it makes compromises to deliver a NAS experience tailored to those seeking a reasonable blend of price, performance and function.

At just under £400, this low-power, quiet and compact unit comes with 4TB of bundled storage, comprehensive backup facilities and a wide range of multimedia features. There are a couple of niggling issues - including below-average write performance and the inability to spin down hard disks after a period of inactivity - but the LinkStation nonetheless acts as an attractive introduction to network-attached storage.

Bottom line: There are better NAS servers out there if you're willing to spend more, but for users seeking ease of use and broad functionality at an affordable price, there's plenty to admire about the LinkStation Pro Quad.

The Good

Strong backup and multimedia functionality
Compact form factor
Competitive pricing
Easy setup

The Bad

Disappointing write speeds
Lacks lockable drive bays
No HDD spin-down

HEXUS Rating

4/5
Buffalo LinkStation Pro Quad

HEXUS Where2Buy

The reviewed 4TB Buffalo LinkStation Pro Quad NAS server is available to purchase from amazon.co.uk.

HEXUS Right2Reply

At HEXUS, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any company representatives for the products reviewed choose to respond, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.


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HEXUS Forums :: 9 Comments

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Posted by [GSV]Myocardial - Tue 13 Sep 2011 17:31
Still seems a little on the expensive side when you consider you can still pick up a HP microserver for £121 after cashback and 4x2Tb Samsungs for about £227 and less if you pick the drives up on a special, totalling about £350.

Comparing that to the £600 price tag for the 8Tb Buffalo version you pay a very significant premium for the OS preinstalled and a few addons of which I'm sure you can replicate most functions free of charge.

I'd say that the NAS producers are making a fairly healthy profit on bringing their products to maket or HP are on a serious loss leader.
Posted by Splash - Tue 13 Sep 2011 21:39
You hit the nail on the head Myo - you're paying premium for the software. Not everyone who could use a central pool of storage has the skills nor inclination to build and configure the server software, and that's got to be what people are splooging on. I personally think that the Microserver is likely to be running *very* tight margins, especially when you factor in the cashback but it's getting HP a lot of presence on geek shelves. Wouldn't part with mine for the world (though it was a shame I had to splash out on an Intel NIC)
Posted by [GSV]Myocardial - Wed 14 Sep 2011 16:26
Certainly a tidy premium when you consider this is an ARM based NAS which from my reading is a fair bit cheaper than the Atom offering of other manufacturers. It was the only thing really putting me off getting a NAS a couple of years ago, but the Microserver sure solved that issue. Pretty amazed at the cost difference that the Intel solutions generates and seems to demonstrate that Intel still have a way to go with low power solutions if it allows a major player to knock about £200 off a product.

I've had my Microserver for a little while but have not populated it as intended due to wanting to buy a house, so have 4 200Gb drives in raid 5, a 16Gb solid state boot drive and have an esata to sata cable for a 500Gb backup drive up top.

Debating on whether to pick up an intel duel or quad port nic for the x16 slot although quad port may be a little overkill :)

Potential for a x1 HBA to run a couple of external DAS enclosures if I wanted to extend the capability.

Also looked at a USB to sata converter to allow me to run my 16Gb SSD from the internal USB port and allow 6 2Tb sammies in the box from the onboard ports. Makes my setup for a 12Tb NAS about £500 :)
Posted by GingerNinja - Mon 19 Sep 2011 18:47
'[GSV
Myocardial;2123372']Certainly a tidy premium when you consider this is an ARM based NAS which from my reading is a fair bit cheaper than the Atom offering of other manufacturers. It was the only thing really putting me off getting a NAS a couple of years ago, but the Microserver sure solved that issue. Pretty amazed at the cost difference that the Intel solutions generates and seems to demonstrate that Intel still have a way to go with low power solutions if it allows a major player to knock about £200 off a product.

I've had my Microserver for a little while but have not populated it as intended due to wanting to buy a house, so have 4 200Gb drives in raid 5, a 16Gb solid state boot drive and have an esata to sata cable for a 500Gb backup drive up top.

Debating on whether to pick up an intel duel or quad port nic for the x16 slot although quad port may be a little overkill :)

Potential for a x1 HBA to run a couple of external DAS enclosures if I wanted to extend the capability.

Also looked at a USB to sata converter to allow me to run my 16Gb SSD from the internal USB port and allow 6 2Tb sammies in the box from the onboard ports. Makes my setup for a 12Tb NAS about £500 :)

I am intrigued, which model do you have?
Posted by [GSV]Myocardial - Tue 20 Sep 2011 22:55
The previous model to this (N36l part code 633724-421 - has a slightly slower processor I believe): HP Proliant Microserver

Running linux software raid 5 from the SSD, which is all most of the consumer NAS products do, albeit in a slightly more proprietry manner.

Waiting for next 2 months pay and then I'll probably drop the cash on 5 samsung 2Tb F4EG's.

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