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Reviewed: Zyxel NSA325. It supports 2 x 3.5" SATA drives, has 2 USB2 ports (back) and a single USB3 (front) & has Gigabit Ethernet. 1.6GHz Marvell processor is faster than older NAS devices (faster than the 800MHz CPU in the D-LINK DNS-320 or the 1.2GHz CPU in the DNS-325) and 512MB memory allows multiple functions at same time.
DRIVE INSTALLATION:
Drive guide rails must be attached to each drive via screws. Note that the pointy end of the rails must face INWARD (i.e. on the same side as the SATA connector). The quick install sheet doesn't mention this and it's easy to overlook from the diagram. The reason for the specific orientation is that you use a tool (located behind the drive cover) to remove an installed drive from its bay and this tool clips onto the exposed end of the drive rails. Also when installing be sure to insert the drive so that the SATA connector will mate with the drive (it will not if you insert the drive the wrong way and you could cause damage). ZyXEL needs to have better instructions. The front door is a little flimsy though, be careful when removing/installing to avoid breaking the tabs that keep it in place.
Note that drives are NOT hot-swappable, do not remove/insert with the power on. Drives up to 3TB are supported with newest firmware (note if you have old firmware you will need to temporarily install a smaller drive, create a volume, then use the firmware check function in the web interface to update firmware before installing 3TB drives).
RAID:
RAID 0/1 are supported. RAID 0 uses the combined storage space of both drives but has no redundancy. RAID 1 mirrors contents on both drives so if one fails your data is still safe.
POWER MANAGEMENT/UPS:
+ You can connect a (APC brand) UPS to the NAS via one of the USB ports and it will auto-shutdown when UPS battery is low (you can adjust when the shutdown occurs based on the UPS reported capacity remaining). A nice touch and one that will help prevent data loss. I tried it with a Tripp-Lite UPS and it wasn't recognized so it looks like only an APC will work.
+ You can set the UPS to always power on after a power failure, useful if acting as networked storage.
+ You can spin down drives if no data transmission occurs in a specified time (adjustable in minutes)
+ Supports "wake-on-lan" so device can turn on and service incoming requests even if powered off.
+ NAS uses external 12V 5amp power adapter. This is better than an internal power supply as it is easily replaceable if it fails.
+ Interestingly the NAS has an internal clock (powered by a CR2032 battery) and can be set to power on/off via time schedule.
THE BAD:
There is no "network activity" LED at the front panel (the LED is on the Ethernet jack). I would have liked to see a front panel LED. This is important as use of one of the back USB ports will block the network LED on the jack.
I do not think there is a way to migrate to larger capacity drives without backing up/replacing drives/recreate RAID/restoring the array.
Download Manager feature (more on this below) cannot download files that require authentication from websites (i.e. files that require login). This is a shame as this would been much more useful.
This NAS takes LONG to boot. This may cause a problem if used as network storage as PCs may boot quicker than the NAS!
For some strange reason the CPU temp is reported incorrectly (12 deg Celsius) on the NSA status page after some time in operation. It still seems to work correctly so this may be a minor bug.
OTHER:
+ Front panel USB connector is USB3 for fast copy from/to external USB3 devices. This is just for copying data from/to an external drive, I don't think connection to a PC is supported.
+ NAS has CPU temp sensor.
+ The fan is a 3-wire fan (has RPM sensor so the NAS can determine fan speed). The fan label mentions that has a hypro bearing, which supposed to be a long-lasting bearing. The fan is very quiet, practically silent.
+ Web-based interface is nice and clean, with attractive icons. The admin setup webpage is logically organized. You can check the CPU temp/CPU load/free memory from the admin page.
+ ZPilot feature allows you to drop files/folders to an "always-on-top" icon to copy to the NAS. Optionally you can have the NAS sort files into specific folders based on the file type.
+ Add-on packages really expand functionality of the NAS. For example installing the SMART package allows you to see the status (temperature, SMART status, model & serial #) of the installed drives.
+ Firmware update is totally painless, one click will check for new firmware, another click downloads & installs it. You don't need to download it from a PC then upload it to the NAS. However note that you must have drive(s) installed and a volume created to use the auto-update feature as it needs to download firmware to the volume. If no drive(s) are installed it will not work.
+ Has "Download Manager" built-in file download function & bittorrent client. By logging into the NAS and either entering the URL of a file to download OR uploading a .torrent file from your PC you can have the NAS download files unattended without having your PC on and running. A nice feature, especially for downloading large files such as Linux ISO images.
OVERALL it's a good media server for the price and I recommend it. But also check out the ZyXEL NSA320 2-bay Network Attached Storage and Media Server as it is similar but about half the price. The NSA320 uses a slightly slower 1.2GHz CPU (but has the same 512MB memory), but doesn't have dropbox features or USB3 port. You probably DON'T want the older NSA2xx series because these use a much slower CPU/less memory and transfer performance is not as good.
UPDATE: I now have multiple NSA325s and the only thing I have found problematic is the web interface. There have been times when the NSA325 is still on and working but I cannot login to its IP address (to get the web interface to display). Other times the web interface will be extremely slow to respond or even stop responding entirely. Also, the "firmware upgrade notification" message keeps appearing even though I'm on the latest firmware (which is annoying, even though I click "do not remind me"). Power resetting fixes the web interface problems but I should not have to do this. These problems have persisted even through firmware updates and I am disappointed that such basic bugs have not been dealt with.
A more expensive and larger capacity NAS alternative is the Synology DiskStation 4-Bay (Diskless) Network Attached Storage DS413j. (See my DS413j review for more).
I hope this is helpful!
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