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CNET editors' review
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CNET editors' rating:
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Very good
Detailed editors' rating
- Reviewed on: 04/28/2009
Starting at $750 for 2TB, the Seagate BlackArmor 440/420 is arguably the most affordable high-capacity, high-end NAS server. Our Editors' Choice winner, the Synology DS209+, comes with no storage and costs $500. Though it's designed for the business environment, the BlackArmor 440/420 is also well-suited for the home, provided you have more than just basic computer and networking knowledge (the device is not the easiest NAS to set up and manage).
A downside to the BlackArmor is that its write speed could be better compared with its read speed. However, once it's set up, the NAS offers very fast read throughput rates, hassle-free remote access, great expandability, and a vast amount of storage capacity: 8TB and beyond. Note: The device is sold in 2TB, 4TB, and 6TB capacities. Currently, you will need to supply your own drives to reach 8TBs, as Seagate hasn't released that model yet. Also, the NAS's high initial price point, while not a problem for businesses, may stress most consumer's pocketbooks. If you're looking for a simple NAS for the home, we recommend the WD My Book World or the Iomega Media Home Network drive. For most small businesses, however, the BlackArmor has what you need.
Design and setup
The BlackArmor NAS server has a bold-looking design with four bays on its front and a top that protrudes further, showing off its tiny LCD. Each bay can hold one SATA hard drive of any capacity, meaning that currently the device can hold up to 8TB of storage. Currently, the device comes in three versions: with two hard drives (2TB BlackArmor 420) or with all four bays populated (4TB or 6TB BlackArmor 440), and you can completely replace these hard drives yourself, without any tools. You can also hot-swap any hard drive when the device is in operation in case of hard-drive failure. Seagate recommends you only use its hard drives and only provides tech support when you use its hard drives, but both BlackArmor versions work with SATA hard drives from any vendor.
Considering its large size, the BlackArmor's fan is surprisingly quiet. Also, it is the first NAS server we've seen that lets you replace its cooling fan. This is a useful feature, as over time the fans tend to collect dust, become noisier, or just stop working.
On the back of the BlackArmor are two Gigabit Ethernet ports and three USB ports, with another USB port on the front for quick and convenient thumbdrive connectivity. The device supports both USB external storage devices and printers. A small LCD on the front displays the status of the USB-connected device, providing information such as IP address, link status, data, time, and so on. On the right side of the LCD are two navigation buttons that we found rather confusing to use at first, as they are not labeled. The BlackArmor's backup solution is based on Acronis' excellent True Image and comes with a license for 10 computers. One of its more useful features is the capability to quickly recover a crashed computer by booting from the included software CD that lets you perform a complete system recovery from a backup contained on the BlackArmor NAS.
Thanks to the included discovery software utility, setting up the BlackArmor was a simple task. Once you have everything setup, the utility assists in finding the NAS server on the network and will let you map network drives to its two default share folders: "public" and "download." Fortunately, the utility isn't needed to access the NAS as it fully supports SMB protocol and can be easily found using Windows Explorer.
You can also use the discovery utility to launch the BlackArmor's Web interface, but this is where the simplicity ends. Unfortunately, you will need to figure out a lot by yourself as we found the NAS server's manual rather scant on details.
Features
Though it lacks support for IP cameras, the BlackArmor 440/420 NAS server has a long list of features. In this review, we touched on only those we found significant or unique to this device.
General features: The BlackArmor has a standard user account management. By default, the device comes with an "Admin" account that lets you log in and create other user accounts. Though this default account has administrative privileges, it doesn't include all of the features of a user-created account. For example, you won't be able to use the Admin account to access the NAS remotely over the Internet. This is confusing since most, if not all, NAS servers, give the "Admin" account the same (or more) access to features as it does regular accounts.
Once a new user account has been created, you can assign it different access privileges for each share folder. Also, placing a user account in a group automatically gives it the access privileges of that group. Aside from public share folders, each user account has a private share folder of its own, and if you have an office with a centralized server, the BlackArmor 440/420 NAS can be set to work as a domain member. Again, this part requires you to understand Windows server's Active Directory as well as other advanced user account management to set up.
The NAS offers four ways to set up the hard drive: RAID 0, Span, RAID 5, and RAID 10. At least three hard drives are necessary for RAID 5 and all four for RAID 10--a combination of RAID 1 and RAID 0. Setting up a RAID configuration proved extremely fast on the BlackArmor. In our test using four 1TB hard drives, we built all four different drive configurations. RAID 5, which was the longest build duration, took us about an hour to build. Other NAS servers we've tested, such as the Thecus N3200, can take up to 10 hours or even longer for a similar setup. Though the RAID setup is just a one-time process, this really helps cut down the time you need to get the server up and running. Nonetheless, if you buy a BlackArmor 440, it's likely that it will come setup in RAID 5.
With built-in digital media and iTunes servers, the BlackArmor can automatically stream music, video, and photos to compatible devices, including computers, set-top boxes, and game consoles. To share these types of files, simply place them in their appropriate folder within the default "Public" share folder. For example, if you want to share music via iTunes, place the music files in the "Our Music" folder, which is inside the "Public" share folder. Then, you can set the intervals that the server will automatically scan for new music to add to the share, ranging from every 5 minutes to once a day. We tried this out, and it worked very well.
The BlackArmor NAS server has support for Network File System that lets the system administrator store resources in a central location on the network, providing authorized users continuous access to them. It can work as a FTP, HTTP, and a secure HTTPS server. It also has support for Dynamic DNS through dyndns.com, meaning you can set up the servers to work over the Internet for free with an easy-to-remember address.
Like most high-end NAS servers, the BlackArmor supports self-downloading with its Downloader Management feature. This lets you run three download jobs at a time and, in our test, the feature worked well with Web sites that require authentication. You can also schedule the download jobs to run at a particular time, for example at night, to avoid bandwidth congestion.
Remote access: Apart from FTP and HTTP servers, the BlackArmor also comes with a very convenient way for people to access its data securely over the Internet via Seagate's free Global Access solution. This method of remote access was introduced first with the Maxtor Central Axis NAS server and the BlackArmor brings it up a notch.
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Where to buy
Seagate BlackArmor NAS 440 (4TB):
$789.00 - $1,199.99
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Amazon.com Marketplace
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$1,049.99 | Yes |
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$1,199.99 | Yes |
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$969.00 | Yes |
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$1,199.99 | Yes |
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