Plextor PX-NAS4 – NAS box review

 

Review: Plextor PX-NAS4 Reviewed by: Wendy Collins Robertson Provided by: Plextor Europe Storage: 2TB (4x 500GB)

 

Plextor were kind enough to send me their PX-NAS4 four bay NAS unit for review.

NAS is becoming very popular for sharing media and files around the home and office via a network. In this review I will examine how the PX-NAS4 performs as a NAS, and its usability.

The PX-NAS4 is a 4 bay, four HDD NAS solution, employing a very handy HDD caddy system with 2x gigabit LAN ports, 2x USB2 connectors for print sharing and an external USB2 HDD or pen drive. The unit also hosts a couple of SATA connectors for connecting external SATA drives.

Plextor company information

I’m sure everyone here at MyCE will be familiar with the Plextor brand name, they became legendary for their range of optical drives, and more recently they branched out into other products such as NAS, and now SSDs.

If you would like to find out more about Plextor, you can visit the Plextor website.

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Packaging

The device I received for review was the retail package.

The packaging consisted of a large plain cardboard box, with internal foam packing. It’s a plain affair so I will skip the screenshots.

NAS hardware system

Now let’s take a look at the Plextor PX-NAS4 NAS box itself, and the supplied accessories.

As we can see from the above screenshot, the package contained the following items.

• PLEXTOR PX-NAS4
• European power supply
• UK mains cable
• European power cable
• CAT6e Gigabit LAN cable
• Quick start book
• Software CD-ROM

PX-NAS4 NAS box

PX-NAS4 front

On the front of the box we can see a power switch, several status LEDs including status LEDs for the HDD caddies, and we can also see two USB2 ports. The Plextor PX-NAS4 is also attractively styled, perhaps understated, but very tasteful.

PX-NAS4 front view with door open

Opening the front door exposes the four HDD caddies. Just pull down a lever and the caddy pops open, and it’s very easy to remove an HDD, or indeed fit a replacement. Each caddy has its own power and alarm LED, and supports hot plugging of drives.

Now let’s take a look at the back of the box.

PX-NAS4 rear

On the rear of the unit we can see following connectors and switches.

• 2x Gigabit LAN sockets
• 2x eSATA connectors
• DC power connector
• 2x 80mm cooling fans

PX-NAS4 side view

The case itself is about the size of a micro PC systems, standing 305mm high, 140mm wide, and 300mm deep. Construction of the case is solid, and the build quality is excellent.

Status LEDs, buttons, and front connectors.

Software CD-ROM

To complete the package, the Plextor PX-NAS4 is also supplied with network utility and backup software which can be installed onto the host PC from the supplied CD-ROM, and there is also an excellent manual in multiple languages, in the form of a PDF file.

Let’s head to the next page where I will have a look at the features of the Plextor PX-NAS4…

• Main features