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The Buffalo Linkstation Duo is a solid all round unit that we feel is one of the better buys in its respective price bracket, it is less than half the price of the Synology DS710+ which we looked at a short while ago.
Raid 0 transfer isn't going to set the world alight, even though we enabled 9k Jumbo frames, in the real world it didn't bring any tangible benefits to the performance table. Our Gigabit network has been able to record 112 mb/s with the Synology NAS, but with the Buffalo we were lucky to record around 40 mb/s under the same conditions.
It is clear in closing that this NAS system is targeted strictly to budget minded users who don't mind sacrificing high level performance and it will make an ideal partner for file backups and for streaming HD content to various computers around a home network. We had no problems streaming 1080P MKV files for instance via our switch so we have no complaints. Demanding enthusiast users will assuredly be looking to spend more money for faster levels of gigabit performance anyway.
Acoustic performance is great, we could barely measure fan noise and the Samsung drives stayed well in control during our long term write and read tests. A great blend of acoustics and cooling has been measured by the Buffalo technicans – which is just as well as there are no fine controls over the fan speed settings (just a 2.5 inch and a 3.5 inch drive toggle option).
The strongest reason for a purchase is the extremely modest asking price – around £150 inc vat in the UK right now, which puts it firmly into the KitGuru recommended ‘bargain' zone. At this price it really is very hard to find fault.
Well this seems like a really good low cost way to get into NAS systems 🙂
Yeah its not the fastest unit, but for the price, its really a good buy, especially for more casual users, rather than hardcore guys.
Thats such a good price, the Synology tempted me, but with 1tb of storage its over 500 quid. thats a lot of money. I would be willing to live with lower performance.
Wow I was stunned at the price. the drives alone are almost half of the asking price. Can you upgrade the 1TB unit later with bigger drives?
Funnily enough I was looking at this unit last week with the possiblity of upgrading my own ancient NAS system which is falling apart. I tend to backup documents and videos. I just ordered one , thanks for the review
Read performance is decent, write is a little slow. I like the price, but im not sure how it would handle bigger files. that might be painful to wait at times.
The controller is obviously not an expensive model, which means its not able to saturate the network, but its still quite decent really.
It is not fast enough for me unfortunately, I copy over a lot of files at 10GB or more, 1080p MKVs/ the wait would be painful. but I agree, its a nice pricing point.
That is really inexpensive, didnt think you could get a full NAS system for that price. It would be fine for me, im not into mega network speeds, my network is crappy anyway 🙂
Hey Zardon maybe you could write an article on how to set up a gigabit network, yours looks rather impressive!
Performance is average but the price point is hard to complain about 🙂
I just ordered two of them, one for my brother for his birthday and one for myself :p
Thats a really inexpensive option ! I shall pick one of these up for backups over the network, when speed isnt really that critical.
great review, many nice tests which are real world and useful. I think this is a good option, really cheap too. shall get one.
I was a little disappointed with performance, but I saw the price and its really so little money for a NAS system. with USB option too? Think I might pick one up too for a present for my cousin.
try the speed tests again with differnt hardrives in there? some WD black’s
junk, the onboard controller is trash and creates trash out of your data
Thanks for a great review. Looking to buy one of these to replace a Buffalo Linkstation Live that has recently died. I have been pleased with the Linkstation so it sounds like this will provide similar service. Not the fastest around but great for the price.