NAS In Your Home: Vox's BlackBox

Features
By Marcel Binder
published

Test Configuration and Benchmarks

We used our reference computer to run the benchmarks; you can see the details of the system in the following table. All tests were performed across a Gigabit network without using jumbo frames.

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Intel Platform 775Asus P5E3 Deluxe, Rev.1.03G
Row 1 - Cell 0 Intel X38, BIOS: 0810 (02/11/2007)
CPUIntel Core 2 Duo E6750 (65 nm Conroe core) @ 2.26 GHz
RAM2x 1024 MB Crucial Ballistix DDR3-1600
eSATA ControllerJMicron JMB363
System Hard DriveSeagate Barracuda 7200.9, 160 GB
Row 6 - Cell 0 7,200 RPM, SATA/300, 8 MB Cache
Test Hard Drive 1Western Digital WD5000AAKS, 500GB
Row 8 - Cell 0 7,200 RPM, SATA/300, 16 MB Cache
DVD-ROMSamsung SH-D163A , SATA150
Graphics CardGigabyte Radeon HD 3850 GV-RX385512H
Row 11 - Cell 0 GPU: 670 MHz
Row 12 - Cell 0 Memory: 512 MB DDR3 (830 MHz, 256 Bit)
Sound CardIntegrated
Power SupplyCoolerMaster RS-850-EMBA, ATX 12V V2.2, 850 Watt
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Operating systemWindows Vista Enterprise SP1
DirectX 10DirectX 10 (Vista-Standard)
DirectX 9Version: April 2007
Graphic DriverATI Radeon Version 7.12
Intel Chip Set DriverVersion 6.9.1.1001 (20/02/2008)
JMicron Chip Set DriverVersion 1.17.15.0 (24/03/2007)

Intel NAS Performance Toolkit

Just as we did when testing the Maxtor Shared Storage II, we used the Intel NAS Performance Toolkit to help evaluate performance. The 18 different tests, focusing on applications with HD video content, give a good overview of the performance that can be expected.

Marcel Binder
Marcel Binder
18 Comments Comment from the forums
  • DFGum
    I swear i saw another company selling the same thing for 80 dollars or so recently.
    Reply
  • Did you use a gigabit ethernet ?
    Reply
  • dblizzard
    I just had a struggle installing two different NAS devices in the home office. The D-Link device DNS-323 has firmware problems and can't finish formatting 1tb Seagate drives. Swapped out the D-Link for a Cisco Linksys NAS200 and it works well but if a drive fails in raid-1, both drives need to be reformatted when a replacement drive is added. Beware...
    Reply
  • smelly_feet
    I really wish THG would also plot power draws at the wall idle/full use for all "always on" devices in general in all their articles. It would be nice to compare the power draw of all these nas devices, including a watt/performance charts. The VOX box may score less on the performance charts but maybe it draws much less power too. On the otherhand, if it draws the same or more power and also performs worse than its a complete waste of money unless it has some other unique usefull features.
    Reply
  • michaelahess
    I bought this device for a bit under $200. Cheapest I could find it. Sold as the Raidon/Stardom SL3620-2S-LB2.

    I had to reflash the bios with the newest firmware twice to get it to detect my two 1TB drives properly. Once that was resolved it worked great. Interface is very easy (I'm biased as RAID and Security are two of my daily tasks) and works well. It is simple looking though, but I prefer that to flashy interfaces like D-Link. I don't have the bittorrent feature even though it says I should. Also, they are NOT hot swappable drives. The box says they are, the manual says in no uncertain terms not to do it or you risk loosing your data.

    From what I can tell, it's based on a SIL4726 controller which is about middle of the road for consumer devices.

    I can only write to it at about 7-8MB. Reads are a little faster (RAID-1). I can safely stream 720p content, haven't tried 1080i yet.

    Overall, compared to other NAS devices, I'm pleased with it. It cost considerably less than most comprable devices and seems to run very stable and cool.

    I just with the designers would get the firmware right. Or that someone would come out with a better os to flash onto it!

    On a side note, the AMS Venus T5 has the same chipset, it's esata and works like crap. I've sent it back for repair as it keeps dropping my array. Unless it comes back working, avoid that product. It does support upto 5 true hotswap devices, but only if you're lucky and get a working one.
    Reply
  • michaelahess
    smelly_feet, I'll throw my power meeter on it tonight and see what I get.
    Reply
  • "I swear i saw another company selling the same thing for 80 dollars or so recently." You did its a Sans Digital brand. I have the Sans Digital one. I have had it for about a year. I think these guys ripped off Sans Digital.
    Reply
  • tvoice
    I think the Sans Digital is a JBOD, not a real RAID.
    Reply
  • One thing I wish more NAS reviews included is information similar to what the cisco nas users mentions, how do these units handle drive failures or going from one drive to a second drive.

    With more small businesses unfortunately starting to use these devices, it would be useful info to include.
    Reply
  • michaelahess
    The Sans Digital are just esata, firewire, and usb devices, not NAS devices, that I can tell. They do use the same enclosure though.
    Reply