Silverstone DC01S All in one Network Storage/Server Review

1. Introduction2. Silverstone SST-DC01S3. iSharing Web OS4. Performance5. Closing Thoughts6. View All Pages

This year network storage is becoming more popular as the growing adoption of computers has meant that most households have several computers and sometimes even a games console or two. To support this market Silverstone have created a product that is rather unique in its innovation – the DC01S.

The Silverstone DC01S has been designed as a multimedia network storage server with wide support and a minimal footprint. The company have aimed to make sure this product stands out from the crowd and the all new iSharing web interface allows users to login and access data with a Mac-like graphical user interface. There is also a free App for use with the iPhone and iPad allowing the user to access the DCo1 from anywhere with effortless ease.

Product Overview:

• Dual-core ARM 11 processor (Each core running at 750MHz)
• Gigabit Network Storage
• USB Printer Server
• DLNA/iTunes Server
• SAMBA/FTP/NFS/Bonjour Service
• Bit Torrent and VPN Client

The product is shipped within a sturdy cardboard box. There is an image of the product on the front as well as key specifications for a user browsing in a retail store.

The box contains a lot of information and offers good protection during shipping.

The supplied accessories are fairly standard, including an ethernet cable (albeit with solid metal connectors) , the power supply, the User Manual (which only consists of a few pages in each language), and some rubberised feet and 2 sets of screws.

The product itself is made from thick brushed aluminum formed in 3 sections, and weighs 500g. The appearance is almost ‘Mac' like. On the back there is the on/off button, a power connector, 2x USB 2.0 ports, an eSata port, a Gigabit ethernet port. As well as a reset switch and a hole for a Kensington Lock.

There are only 2 screws holding the enclosure together and after removing them we can see the PCB and where the 2.5″ Hard Drive will be mounted.

Attaching a 2.5 inch drive is straightforward and it is held in place from one side only.

Silverstone have opted to use a Web-Based operating system for the DC01S which is called iSharing. As such there is nothing to install on any computer, although you may wish to download and install the free app for iPhone, and iPad.

This choice of having access fully web-based is sensible but we have seen in the past that it can be a very slow way of doing things. In its simplest form however, you have access to the Silverstone DC01S via your local network, by means of typing in the IP address, very much like accessing your router. If you don't know the IP address  then there is a nifty iSharing finder program available from the Silverstone website.

As the Silverstone is an All in one Network Storage and Server device the preferences and settings page has quite a few options. We can see the section of System Information which includes Registration allowing the user to log into the Silverstone device via the internet using a username and the www.myakitio.com DNS.

You will also notice that Silverstone have opted for a Windows/Mac OS style appearance with the use of windows and the dock at the bottom. This does allow you to have several windows open at the time and to position them across the screen.

There is a very useful disk manager built in, which allows the user to Format and Delete Partitions as well as allowing for a Raid set-up to be created.

All the windows can be opened full screen, although the bottom dock stays on top. This is the My Server window which allows you to access all the files on your device and external drives, as well as uploading and downloading files.

The Silverstone DC01S also includes a Media Player, which is very simple to use.

They have included a Social Media section which supports Facebook, Flickr and Youtube. On top of this, you can only access images and video files you have uploaded to these three social media sites. You are not able to access any other parts of the site, which is a shame as this would have added a whole extra level of features.

A feature we are seeing more and more is a download manager, which allows files to be queued and then downloaded via the device. In this case, the Silverstone implementation is very easy to use but unfortunately it does seem rather temperamental with some files.

The Silverstone DC01S is a simple, yet useful device, and in essence it has been stripped down to the essentials. It emits very little noise depending on the hard drive you are using and we like the clean design and intuitive user interface.

They have opted to have a ‘lid' which is slightly raised from the main enclosure allowing for air to flow in and out across the top, drawing heat out from the device.

In terms of read/write speeds we found that the OS itself is very quick and as it can be connected via Gigabit ethernet we found everything loaded almost immediately, a credit to the Dual-Core ARM 11 Processor and the nippy onboard memory.

When writing to the device across the network we found that the write speed was within 2 MB/s of the expected speed of the hard drive we were using, and the device sustained this speed for over 20 GB of data throughput. Silverstone have also included technology to allow you to set-up the DC01S in Raid.

While you can only install a single drive inside the DC01S it is possible to connect external enclosures via USB or eSATA and then set these up in Raid 0 / Raid 1 / JBOD configurations. As such, this does allow you to configure up to 2 TB in Raid 0 (as the largest 2.5″ drive is still 1 TB) giving you even faster performance with a large capacity.

Silverstone have certainly opted for a very full feature set, especially in terms of server duties. The Media Player, Album and My Server are all useful, although we do struggle to see how the ‘Address Book' is going to be much use when most people probably already have this on their phone, laptop and computers. The Social Network section could have been improved if it had a browser feature incorporated, allowing you to view other YouTube files.

There are many useful Media Server features that this device handles well. The built in media player does play back most media files and while it is very simple it is also streamlined and runs smoothly. It does also allow you to potentially share these files with your friends and family, although it would be nice if Silverstone had a Windows app that would automatically connect and then show you just the Media that is available – instead of logging on to the WebOS. Another useful feature, although readily available in routers, is the Printer Server feature which works out of the box without any problems.

There are however a few bugs that Silverstone have yet to iron out, several times we would enter a username with a capital letter, then press save and it would say ‘invalid username', giving no reason for it. Only through trial and error did we find out the capital key was causing the problem.

It is also a shame that they have decided to opt for 2.5″ hard disk drive support as this does limit the maximum capacity somewhat, and performance will never be as good as a 3.5″ drive. On a more positive note, the physical footprint is obviously smaller due to this.

The Silverstone DC01S is an interesting device which has huge potential, but there are still a few things I feel Silverstone need to improve before a user will get the best out of this device. Overall however, this is a very attractive product which runs smoothly and can really cope with a wide array of duties.

If you happen to have a large capacity 2.5″ drive lying around then this might be one of the best investments you could make. While the Raid support is useful, it will add overall costs to ownership. 2TB in Raid 0 is possible with multiple drives, which should be enough for almost everyone.

While Silverstone haven't included any back-up software it is still easy enough to set up Samba Server and then synchronise files. If you are lucky enough to have a Gigabit network then you really will appreciate the speed of WebOS, aided by the dual-core processor which runs very smoothly, while generating very little heat.

There are many uses for this device, it is an All In One as they have called it, and we feel that it has a large target audience. It is well suited to being a very small and power friendly media server and a network attached storage or backup device. It will also happily perform both at the same time.

One of the strongest aspects of the device is the user friendly operating system which is both intuitive and very responsive.

We also feel that the UK pricing of £107.87 at Scan.co.uk is very competitive although bear in mind that costs can increase if you have to include a 2.5″ HDD at time of purchase.

Pros:

• Super quick OS.
• Easily accessible via internet.
• Very Compact.
• Produces little heat and little noise.
• Expandable with eSATA and 2x USB.
• Gigabit Ethernet.
• Easy to set-up.

Cons:

• Few bugs with the OS.
• Could have a lot more features.
• Uses a 2.5″ drive which limits capacity.
• Could do with a ‘night mode' or similar (at least to turn off the LED).

Kitguru says: An excellent product, well worth the money.

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