February 8th, 2009
Iomega adds four-bay StorCenter Pro ix4-100 to its NAS lineup
The other day I posted about a new four-bay business-oriented NAS device from QNAP. Now, Iomega expands its lineup of network storage with a four-bay solution of its own. But unlike the QNAP, which doesn’t come with any storage, the StorCenter Pro ix4-100 is offered with 2TB or 4TB of storage included.
While the ix4-100 has advanced features like RAID Level 5 and 10 capabilities, virtual environment support, and the ability to capture real-time video from up to three surveillance cams, it also comes with consumer-oriented specs like UPnP AV Media Server and Bluetooth support. Four USB ports are available for additional storage from external drives and to attach a printer for sharing over the network, though no eSATA are included. For online backups, Iomega bundles Mozy Home, which gives you 2GB of online storage for free; that’s not much, so you can get unlimited storage by upgrading to a $4.95 monthly plan.
Considering the QNAP TS-439 Pro Turbo probably will cost around $700 for just the bare device, the 2TB StorCenter Pro ix4-100 seems like a pretty good deal for $799.95, though the 4TB costs a whopping $500 more for an extra two 1TB drives that you could buy yourself for about $100 apiece.
Sean Portnoy spent several years as an editor at Computer Shopper magazine, most recently serving as online executive editor. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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