Iomega StorCenter ix2-200 NAS Review

 

Iomega Data Storage Solutions

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Review:
Iomega StorCenter ix2-200 Network Storage
Reviewed by: Wombler
Purchased from: Dell
UK

Storage: 2TB (2x 1TB)
Manufactured: Made in Taiwan

A lot of you will already be
familiar with what a Network Attached Storage (NAS) unit is.

For those that aren't, it's
essentially an intelligent storage device that's attached to your network which
is used for backing up and sharing data across your network.

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Almost all units these days
support wireless media streaming and other advanced features which we'll look
at during the course of this review.

Until recently I was new to
this particular technology and was looking for a simple, inexpensive,
convenient and secure way of backing up my data.

NAS fulfils all those
requirements and after considerable research this is the NAS unit I chose to
purchase myself.

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It's a budget model (relatively
speaking) aimed at the small office/home office (SOHO) user but as we'll see it
packs in a lot of features normally found only on more expensive devices.

The Iomega StorCenter ix2-200
is available in three capacities 1TB, 2TB & 4TB and it's the 2TB model I'm
reviewing here.

The current retail price of
the 2TB unit is £309.99 however if you shop around it can currently be
purchased online for under £220.

If you would like to read more
about Iomega, further details can be found at their website.

Retail Packaging

The unit I bought was the full
retail version so let's have a look at the box.

The first thing you will
notice is that rather confusingly the packaging refers to the Iomega StorCenter
ix2 (which is still available but isn't as advanced as this unit) and not the
Iomega StorCenter ix2-200.

This unit is in fact the
Iomega StorCenter ix2-200 so for sake of clarity and in order to avoid any
confusion I've used the full reference throughout this review.

Box front

Box rear

Box top

Box left and right sides

What's in the box

Here are the contents of the
box together with the manuals and accessories as supplied.

As we can see from the photo
we have:-

  • Iomega StorCenter ix2-200
    Network Storage unit
  • Two pin power cable
  • Three pin UK power cable
  • CAT5e Gigabit Ethernet
    cable
  • Universal
    transformer/power supply unit
  • Three Instruction Leaflets
  • Software CD-ROM

Iomega StorCenter ix2-200
Network Storage unit

Physically the unit has an
attractive and sturdy design with a blackened brushed metal case, capped on
either end by pierced and moulded plastic inserts.

This unit is remarkably small
and neat and side on it's almost exactly the same size as a standard paperback
novel, which isn't a great deal bigger than the actual drives themselves.

The official dimensions are (WxDxH):
9.4 cm x 20 cm x 14.1 cm and the version on test weighs in at 2.3kg.

Iomega StorCenter ix2-200 Network Storage - front side
view

Iomega StorCenter ix2-200 Network Storage - rear view
with drive removed

Iomega StorCenter ix2-200 Network Storage - base of
unit

Features on the front
of the NAS unit

Front Schematic

On the front of the device we
can see several features which are as follows:-

(1)
The four lights which are the status indicators.

In
order from top to bottom we have the 'QuikTransfer' Indicator, the Drive
Activity Indicator, the System Status Indicator and the Power Indicator.

(2)
The Power button.

(3)
The 'QuikTransfer' button.

(4) A
High-speed USB 2.0 port.

Features on the rear of
the NAS unit

Rear Schematic

The features on the rear of
the unit are as follows:-

(1) Security
Lock - Connect a security cable to prevent theft.

(2) Factory
Reset Button - Hold the RESET button for four seconds to return to factory
defaults. All settings will be lost.

(3) Two
High-Speed USB 2.0 Connectors - Supports devices such as USB storage devices
and printers.

(4)
Gigabit Ethernet connector that automatically detects network speed
(10/100/1000Base-T).

(5) Power
Connector.

(6)
The two drive caddies labelled as HDD1 & HDD2.

Internal Chipsets

Internally the device is based
around the Marvell 'Kirkwood' 88F6281 processor.

It's the 1.0 GHz version with
a 'Sheeva' CPU core that features in this unit and it's supported by 256 MB of
Zentel RAM allied with 128 MB of Hynix NAND flash memory.

A Marvell 88E81116R Gigabit
Ethernet interface and an ALCOR AU6256 4 port USB 2.0 hub handle the
connectivity requirements.

Hard Drives Installed

The unit comes preinstalled
with twin 3.5" 1TB ST31000520AS Barracuda LP or super low power drives,
which according to Seagate can save up to half the power consumption of normal desktop
hard drives and have the following official specifications.

By default the drives are
preconfigured as a RAID 1 array with all system software preinstalled.

The drive caddies are each
secured by two screws on the base of the unit and the drives are user
replaceable.

Software CD-ROM

The supplied CD contains:-

  • Iomega StorCenter Manager
    software.
  • EMC Retrospect Express HD
    - backup software.
  • An installable HTML instruction
    manual in eleven different languages.

Device Specifications
& System Requirements

Specifications

  • Network
    type:
    10/100/1000Mbps
  • USB 2.0
    host ports:
    3
  • RAID
    level:
    JBOD (Spanned), RAID 1 (Mirroring)
  • Hard
    drives:
    (2) SATA II
  • Printer
    server:
    Support for (3) USB printers included
  • Media
    server:
    Built in DLNA® certified media
    server and iTunes® server. Support for DLNA/UPnP™ compliant
    devices including game consoles, IP cameras, and digital picture frames.
  • Operating
    System:
    EMC LifeLine operating system which is
    based on Linux.
  • AC
    Voltage:
    100-240 VAC
  • Power
    consumption:
    5 Watts (min) - 19 Watts (max)
  • Acoustic
    noise
    : 28 dBA maximum

System
Requirements

  • Available 10/100 Mbps or
    1000 Mbps network Ethernet port (required)
  • DHCP-configured network
    (recommended); Network hub, switch, or router (recommended)
  • CD or DVD drive to
    install software and view user's manual
  • DLNA/UPnP-compliant
    digital media adapter (DMA) required to use multimedia server functions
    (sold separately).
  • PC:
    Microsoft® Windows® XP; Windows Vista™; Internet
    Explorer 7.0, Firefox 3.0, or higher browser
  • Mac:
    Mac OS X 10.4-10.6; Safari 3.0 or higher browser
  • Linux:
    Supported Linux distributions: Redhat 9, Enterprise 4/5, Mandrake 10,
    Devian 4, Gentoo, FedoraCore 6/5, SopenSUSE10.3

You will note that Windows 7
isn't mentioned here.

Iomega's website states that the
Iomega StorCenter ix2-200 supports Windows 7 and this is confirmed as my device
was configured, set up, and used, via my main PC running Windows 7 Home Premium
64bit. No operating system related incompatibilities or anomalies were
experienced throughout these tests or during the weeks I've been using this
unit.

Warranty details are as
follows:-

STORCENTER
PRODUCT

AMERICAS OR THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION

EUROPE, THE MIDDLE EAST, OR AFRICA

RECONDITIONED

ix2-200d

1
Year*

2
Years*

90
Days

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