Buffalo LinkStation Duo Review (1TB)

1. Introduction2. Buffalo Linkstation Duo3. The Software Interface4. Testing Methodology and Performance5. Closing Thoughts6. View All Pages

While once elusive toys of the rich, NAS systems are becoming more popular, especially as prices drop and people become more aware of the benefits they bring. Having one connected to your home network means that you can access files from multiple machines in any room and they also make for a good option when backing up sensitive data and important files.

The only issue to this point has been the price, when KitGuru reviewed the excellent Synology DS710+ NAS Server a while ago, we were inundated with emails asking if we could find something more affordable. Fear not, for Buffalo have a model to fill all your budget needs – the LinkStation Duo which features 1TB of storage and can be purchased in the UK for around £150 inc vat!

Buffalo are not new to the NAS arena, they have been building them for many years now … the original Terastation was a big seller as it combined small physical dimensions with low levels of acoustic noise.

The Linkstation Duo as the name might suggest is a two bay NAS system which is available in 1TB, 2TB and 4TB configurations. These are set up in either Raid 0 or Raid 1 or with each drive as an ‘individual unit'.

Supports RAID levels, 0, 1 and Standard

Active Directory Support: Works as a client in an Active Directory domain allowing the LinkStation™ Duo to utilise the domain users and groups.

Apache web server, full featured enhancement modules included

PHP5 Scripting language, fully supported by the web server

MySQL database with phpmyadmin interface

WebAccess – allows you to store, share and access files from any web browser via PC, Mac or iPhone

In-Built DLNA/UPnP CERTIFED™ media server – for easy playback of multi-media files to any DLNA certified device

Schedule backups to a USB storage device or another Buffalo Network Attached Storage device

In-Built BitTorrent™ Client

Supports Apple® Time Machine Back-up with multiple clients

Supports Apple® Bonjour®

Integrates with iTunes®

Auto Power ON/OFF with your PC or MAC

Eco Friendly scheduled Power Saving Mode

One touch transfer of media files from digital camera/camcorder with Direct Copy feature

Easy to install and set-up

10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet port

1 USB port

Supports UPS connectivity via USB port

Supported OS: Windows7 (32/64bit), Windows® Vista™, Windows® XP, Windows® 2000, Windows MCE 2005/2004, Windows Server 2008/2003, MAC OS X 10.3.9 or later

2 Year Warranty

Available as 1TB, 2TB and 4TB capacities

Includes NovaBACKUP® Professional with 5 licenses – protects data on workstations locally or online.  Regardless of theft, user error or hardware failure NovaBACKUP® protects and restores your data.

The 1TB Linkstation Duo arrives in a rather bright and colourful box which details the main functionality of the device as well as an image on the right.

The back of the box serves as a basic unit overview inside a store environment and will prove useful to those browsing in PCworld.

The package contains a power adapter, UK and European plug, a converter, as well as a cat cable for hooking up to your network.

The Buffalo unit is a very plain design with a plastic fascia on the front with several lights, showing power and link status. The rear is home to a fan, power and reset switches and the network connection.

The chassis is sturdy enough and seems to be able to withstand some general abuse without falling apart, even if it is built to a very tight budget. Underneath is a serial number and MAC address.

Getting access to the drives is straightforward, you unclip the plastic fascia at the front and each drive is available for removal.

There are two round pulley bars which remove the drives from the sata and power headers inside the chassis. Once these click free you can slide them out easily enough by hand – there is a little plastic retainer underneath each drive which needs to be forced down slightly. The drives inside are high quality 500GB Samsung models. We would assume that Buffalo have struck a deal with Samsung for the supply of 500GB, 1TB and 2TB drives for these NAS systems.

The controller board is at the end of the rail system as seen in the image above. It is a simple little board and there is a fan behind this to ensure a decent flow of air.

Initial unit setup is made easy thanks to the bundled NAS Navigator software – which is incidentally also available from the Buffalo Tech website if you don't happen to have an optical drive handy.

This software tracks down any Buffalo related drive on your network and offers shortcuts to both the device web interface and to the mapping of the storage within. You can bypass this software and use a direct IP login once you ascertain the IP via your router interface.

The Nas Navigator system is simple, clean and works well for people new to this technology. I have to admit, once I played around with it for a few minutes I never touched it again.

We immediately noticed that our firmware was out of date so downloaded it from the Buffalo Tech website and performed the update procedure via the unit interface. It took about 10 minutes in total, including the reboot required afterwards.

Once the main interface is accessed via the IP address, the user logs in with the default password of ‘password'. This can be changed later if you share your network with other people.

The screens above show the main information window and the shared folder which is automatically created via the software. It is a relatively simple user interface which while not offering the same level of control as more expensive solutions offers a solid array of functionality for the target audience.

We were surprised (and happy) to see full support for 9k jumbo frames. This can really help with large file transfers over gigabit networks if the controller is up to the task.

There are a wide array of features on the unit which will mean you will probably want to leave it powered on all the time. DLNA and UPnP compliant media streaming is a strong asset to have and we experienced no issues with media center on Windows 7 and also it fully supported our Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 units. The option to use the NAS as an iTunes server will surely appeal to a wide audience of people also.

Additionally, they offer a built in Bitorrent client which lets you download any files you wish – its easily set up via an interface panel and accessible via a smartphone, meaning you don't even need your computer turned on to start downloading over your network.

There is a USB port on the back of the Duo which can cope with a couple of demands. You can connect an external drive to the unit which can then have data transferred to it either on a scheduled basis or when the Function button is pressed. You can also transfer media files from a USB storage device to the Duo and this allows files from a camera to be moved painlessly for storage.

Performance according to Buffalo themselves is around 40MB/s – 166 percent faster than the previous models. Obviously to achieve this you will want to be connecting to a gigabit network/switch.

We will be testing the Buffalo NAS within our gigabit network which is pretty much as good as you will get for the home. It is a mixed network with several 1GBit switches for ultimate performance.

Reference Test PC:
Processor: Intel Core i7 920 @ 4ghz
Storage: Kingston 128GB SSD V+ Series
Motherboard: Asus Rampage II Gene
Graphics: Geforce GTX285 2GB
Memory: Corsair Dominator 1600mhz @2000mhz
Network: 2x Belkin 16 Port Gigabit Switches
Operating System: Windows 7 64 Bit Ultimate

Firstly we perform a native network test to ascertain pure data throughput. The Linkstation Duo drives are arranged in a Raid 0 configuration.

Data throughout is much in line with a less expensive controller, its not disappointing as such, but compared to models in the next price bracket it does seem somewhat slow.

Our local PC has a fast Kingston SSD as the main drive and we are using it to ensure no bottlenecks occur on this side of the testing. Our PC is hooked up to the network and we transfer a 10GB MKV file from the PC to the NAS systems. All three NAS systems are using dual drive Raid 0 configurations with mechanical drives.

The Buffalo system is clearly outclassed by the more expensive units, however it is worth bearing in mind, with the drives included it is under half the price of the Synology D710.

Again, the controller inside the Buffalo clearly isn't utilising the full bandwidth of our gigabit network, averaging at around 38.7MB/s read speeds.

Next we created a folder of files, 500mb/s in size with a variety of files, from small database documents to larger jpgs and bmps. We expect to pay a slight penalty as we are using Jumbo frames set to 9k, however performance should still be good.

Again as expected the Buffalo is struggling to keep up with the expensive NAS systems we have in our testing labs. Still, this is enough to stream 1080p MKV content in the ‘real world' so we see no issues considering the low price point.

We take the issue of noise very seriously at KitGuru and this is why we have built a special home brew system as a reference point when we test noise levels of various components. Why do this? Well this means we can eliminate secondary noise pollution in the test room and concentrate on components we are testing. It also brings us slightly closer to industry standards, such as DIN 45635.

As this can be a little confusing for people, here are various dBa ratings in with real world situations to help describe the various levels.

KitGuru noise guide
10dBA – Normal Breathing/Rustling Leaves
20-25dBA – Whisper
30dBA – High Quality Computer fan
40dBA – A Bubbling Brook, or a Refridgerator
50dBA – Normal Conversation
60dBA – Laughter
70dBA – Vacuum Cleaner or Hairdryer
80dBA – City Traffic or a Garbage Disposal
90dBA – Motorcycle or Lawnmower
100dBA – MP3 player at maximum output
110dBA – Orchestra
120dBA – Front row rock concert/Jet Engine
130dBA – Threshold of Pain
140dBA – Military Jet takeoff/Gunshot (close range)
160dBA – Instant Perforation of eardrum

Noise was measured from half a meter away.

The unit is just as we imagined, basically all but silent to the human ear. We could never really notice it even after writing files for over an hour as the fan never seems to spin up enough to generate any audible acoustics. This is very impressive, especially if this is going to be sitting on a desk beside you during a normal day.

The Buffalo Linkstation Duo is a solid all round unit that we feel is one of the better buys in its respective price bracket, it is less than half the price of the Synology DS710+ which we looked at a short while ago.

Raid 0 transfer isn't going to set the world alight, even though we enabled 9k Jumbo frames, in the real world it didn't bring any tangible benefits to the performance table. Our Gigabit network has been able to record 112 mb/s with the Synology NAS, but with the Buffalo we were lucky to record around 40 mb/s under the same conditions.

It is clear in closing that this NAS system is targeted strictly to budget minded users who don't mind sacrificing high level performance and it will make an ideal partner for file backups and for streaming HD content to various computers around a home network. We had no problems streaming 1080P MKV files for instance via our switch so we have no complaints. Demanding enthusiast users will assuredly be looking to spend more money for faster levels of gigabit performance anyway.

Acoustic performance is great, we could barely measure fan noise and the Samsung drives stayed well in control during our long term write and read tests. A great blend of acoustics and cooling has been measured by the Buffalo technicans – which is just as well as there are no fine controls over the fan speed settings (just a 2.5 inch and a 3.5 inch drive toggle option).

The strongest reason for a purchase is the extremely modest asking price – around £150 inc vat in the UK right now, which puts it firmly into the KitGuru recommended ‘bargain' zone. At this price it really is very hard to find fault.

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