Edge 10 EdgeStore NAS400 review

Edge 10's EdgeStore NAS400 has an attractive matt-black case with rounded edges. Sadly, it's the noisiest NAS here due to its whiny fans and the lack of any noise dampening inside its case.

The NAS400 can accommodate up to four SATA hard disks up to a maximum of 4TB. Once the included plastic drive carriers are screwed to each disk, they simply slot into the drive bays through the screwless front hatch. With four disks installed, the NAS400 can be configured as a RAID 0, 1, 5 or 10 array.

No matter which RAID level we chose, the NAS400 was one of the quickest NAS devices here. It wasn't as fast as Thecus's three-disk M3800, but it was noticeably quicker than Buffalo's four-disk LinkStation Quad.

Configuring the EdgeStore NAS400 for the first time is easy thanks to the web interface's useful setup wizard. It automatically prompts you to create your first user account and shared folder, as well as choosing a RAID level. User accounts can be assigned disk usage quotas.

Like Lindy's Personal Server Premium, the NAS400 has UPnP support but first you have to download and install a UPnP plug-in. Unlike the Premium, the NAS400 worked perfectly as a UPnP media server. We also had no trouble using it to share a USB printer or the contents of a USB disk over our network.

If you don't already have a backup program for protecting your files, you'll appreciate the included backup software. It can back up your files automatically according to a schedule and copy only those files that have changed since the last backup. The web configuration interface also has a feature similar to Windows' System Restore. It keeps a log of all the changes made to your files so you can revert to an earlier version if you make a change or delete a file you wish you hadn't.

Edge 10's EdgeStore NAS400 is a great NAS enclosure. Unfortunately, it's let down by its riotous noise levels so it just misses out on an award.