QNAP TS-431KX NAS box review: Affordable 4-bay, 10GbE for small business.
The QNAP TS-431KX is a small-business grade, 4-bay NAS box that carries a price tag of $389. Considering it features 10Gbe SFP+ and nearly all the capabilities of QNAP's second-to-none operating system and app...
Terra Master F5-422 NAS Review: 5 Silvery bays, 10GbE, middling read performance
I'm pretty familiar with Terra Master products which generally offer good value as basic storage. Hence, I was expecting more of the same from the $600 F5-422, a 5-bay box with 10GbE connectivity. What...
Seagate IronWolf 510 Review: A Long-lived NVMe Caching SSD Specifically for NAS
Seagate's IronWolf 510 NVMe SSD is a fast reader with an excellent endurance rating, but it's a very slow, albeit hyper-steady writer. When I say slow, I'm talking less than 1GBps for the 1.92TB...
Kingston DC500M Data Center SATA SSD Review: Up to 7.68TB of Reliable, Balanced Performance
Kingston's DC500M Data Center SATA SSD is exactly what I've come to expect from the company over the years--a good, stable performer with top-shelf, reliable components. For its intended role as an SMB server...
Diskashur M2 Secure SSD Review: IP68, FIPS 140-2 Level 3 (soon) and a Good...
iStorage's Diskashur M2 is stylish, stealthy and a pretty decent bargain as far as secure flash drives are concerned. More importantly, it's a good performer, and ticks all the security boxes. Or it will...
Engenius ECS2512 Managed Switch Review: Cloud Management, Multi-gig, and PoE
If you're looking to step up from gigabit performance across a small network or node, you'd be hard-pressed to find a better solution than Engenius's managed 10/2.5GbE ECS2512 switch. It's available in a $750...
QNAP T310G1 Thunderbolt 3 to 10GbE Adapter Review: 10-Gigabit Network Speed for Expansion-Challenged Computers
QNAP's T310G1 enables 10GbE network speeds on computers that don't have PCIe slots, but do sport a Thunderbolt 3 port. That shouts Mac, of course, but the adapter will also work with the rarer...
LaCie 6Big Thunderbolt 3 Review: Fast, Glamourous, and Expensive DAS
6Big is a direct-attached storage (DAS) device sporting six drive bays and a very appealing external design. The Neil Poulton imagined sharp edges, shadowy recesses and large blue power button still resonate. It doesn't...
Synology DS920+ NAS Review: Fast CPU, M.2/NVMe Slots… Gigabit?
Synology makes excellent NAS boxes, and the $560 4-bay DS920+ is no exception--as far as it goes. The Intel Celeron J4125 4-core CPU is fast, there's 4GB of DDR4 memory, the operating system is...
iXsystems FreeNAS Mini XL+ Review: 8-bay ZFS Power for Pros
I've always wondered about the concept of an extra-large mini. But hey, if BMW can do it with cars, iXsystems can make hay with its FreeNAS Mini XL+--a powerful, 9-bay NAS box running FreeNAS....
Latest posts
A Practical Guide to Small Business Network Security in 2025
This article provides a clear roadmap for implementing crucial cybersecurity measures to safeguard your company's digital assets.
What is Btrfs? The Better (than most) File System
Btrfs may be a "better" file system next to everything except ZFS, but what Btr actually stands for is not "better", or "butter", but...
A Brief History of the Floppy Disk
Ah, the floppy disk. How I miss thee. How I don't. There was a certain tactile pleasure to inserting you into your drive, and...
How to Install ZFS and Create a ZFS Pool on Ubuntu
ZFS is a stable, robust, and fault-tolerant file system with built-in RAID-like properties and drive pools. We show you how to create a ZFS...
What is UnRAID? Outstanding Capacity with Parity
There are a number of NAS operating systems out there, including several based on the BSD (Berkeley System Development) operating system. Most are proprietary...