Buffalo LinkStation Pro Duo 1TB NAS

I now have three of these running and I have no complaints. The web interface is extremely easy to use and has lots of useful utilities; they are fast and do exactly what they say on the box.

I have one issues that a Buffalo drive I attached to the USB port on the Linkstation Pro Duo seems to run slow over the network as a read only NTFS drive. I haven't managed to figure why yet.

Other than that...

...they look neat, and are quiet. The Buffalo NASNavigator2 software is intelligent and helps with all diagnostics easily from the PC.

• Overall
• Ease of use
• Value for money

Software was easy to use to install it, and is was easy to navigate to use the drive as its quite descriptive.

If you know how, you do not need the software to set it up which leaves a little more space on my laptop.Its pretty fast & much quieter than i thought.

The downsides are that the auto mode doesn't really work properly all the time for me, yes it wakes up and shutsdown,but i found it shuts down a little to quickly sometimes and the last thing you want is the drive powering up and down so often. You'll need a usb extender cable or mini hub, so that you do not need to keep going around the back to plug in usb sticks, very easy to keep hitting the function button.

Wish i could configure NTFS and becareful when you think about wiping it before using it.Its a secure wipe, 4 PASSES till it finished. Aprox 5 and half hours each pass! DOH!

• Overall
• Ease of use
• Value for money

I bought this to sit on the network and be a place to put my backups. It's possible to use without installing any software; if you attach it to the hub and switch it on, it should just appear in the Network view on Windows. All the configuration is done through the web interface, which you can get to by typing its name into a browser.

I had assumed that the box would save power by spinning down the drives when not in use, but it never does. There is an Auto power mode but this only works when directly connected to a PC. I hope a later firmware version will add disk spindown.

In summary, this box is fairly good value if you're willing to work around the rough edges and just want some basic network storage. Once up and running, it seems to work okay. I wouldn't recommend it to the average home user as it's confusing to set up and the software isn't great. I'd probably spend another £10 to get the equivalent Iomega StorCenter (which does spin down its drives).

• Overall
• Ease of use
• Value for money