Businesscomputingworld has a nice review of the WD Sentinel DX4000 NAS. This is one of Western Digital's more powerful NAS boxes with 4 drives installed running the unusual , for a small business NAS, Windows Storage Server 2008 software. Another other unusual design feature is that the fans run whether the unit is on or off (unless unplugged of course). A bit more standard are the 1.8GHz dual-core Intel D525 Atom, accompanied by 2GB of memory that power the NAS.
Performance is good:
Performance was reasonable given the specification, and on a par with Linux-based products in the same bracket.
All in all, it is safe to say that the choice of software to run the NAS is not a favorite of the reviewer:
n the face of it, the decision to use Windows Storage Server to power the Sentinel DX4000 would seem to give the Western Digital appliance something of an advantage, but that doesn’t prove to be the case. Yes, it’s a proven operating system and very robust, but nowhere near as easy to manage as other small business storage appliances where, typically, everything is done through an easy to master Web interface. More than that the simple dashboard, designed to address this issue, lacks functionality and to get the best out of the Western Digital appliance you need to delve deep into the operating system using Remote Desktop.
It seems that this is one to avoid, at least as a home NAS and probably by small businesses that don't have an experienced Windows Storage Server administrator.
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