We recently acquired n Acer Easystore NAS - a new four bay device running Windows Home Server to review. The NAS seems to be an amazing value since it comes with WHS preinstalled (OEM versions of WHS cost around $100) and a 1TB Western Digital Green drive (probably in the $90 range, retail price). So, for $399 you get those items, plus the four bay hardware which includes these other features as well:
* Intel Atom Processor 230
* Microsoft Windows Home Server
* 2GB DDR2 Memory
* 1TB Hard Drive
* Three Empty Hot Swappable Hard Drive Bays
* Five USB 2.0 Ports
* One eSATA Port
* 10/100/1000 Ethernet
* 200 Watt Power Supply
* RJ-45 LAN Port
Some Photos of the ACER Easystore NAS
The NAS is very small and easy to setup. The view below is the unopened box:
We took a few more pictures, including ones with the case partially opened:
This View Shows the ACER NAS with the Included 1 TB WD Green Drive Out of the Drive Bay
This is one of the the drive caddies for the ACER NAS - no screws needed to insert the drives
Here is a view of the large cooling fan on the side of the Acer NAS case
View of the ACER NAS showing the side with the power supply
Acer NAS rear view showing ESATA port, USB Ports, 10/100/1000 Ethernet Port
How We Tested
First we installed the included WHS connector and setup software that ACER supplies. This sofware runs through the process of getting you other Windows computer to conncect to the ACER NAS. It requires you to setup a password to login to the NAS, and it allows you to rename the NAS for your network.
After setting up the software, the NAS downloads and installs updates (if you chose to let the NAS update itself).
We then installed three additional 1 TB drives in the internal drive bays - a 1 TB WD Green Drive and two 1 TB Hitachi Drives.
The ACER comes with a 60 day version of anti-virus software - we logged in to the NAS using standard windows remote networking and uninstalled the anti-virus application.
Then we ran the Intel NAS toolkit.
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ACER NAS Test Results
Results are summarized on the NAS Speed Test Comparison Page. As you can see, this NAS is more than speedy enough to server videos (even several at a time) on a home network with simultaneous read and write performance (HD video files) in the 50 MB/s range. To date, only our much more powerful AMD home built Windows Home Server system has outperformed this little ACER.
Noise Level
We don't have a sound meter setup to measure the noise level. However, subjectively, we think it is very quiet. We can't hear the fans in the NAS unless we put our ear inches from the case - the only noise during regular use seems to be the normal hard drive seek/read noise.
Power Usage
With all four drives attached and the ACER being written to (and with folder duplication turned on) the NAS used about 61 Watts (read using Kill a Watt meter). We noticed as we added drives that each additional drive added about 10 watts to the total. Acer has done a great job keeping power usage low - with no drives the hardware is probably running in the 25 watt range (active).
Conclusion
For the price, the ACER NAS is a great bargain. The only negatives we can find are that there is no VGA output - so installing a different operating system would be difficult without hacking the hardware. If you are in the market for a Windows Home Server system - this device is highly recommended.
