Buffalo LinkStation Pro 2TB review

The LinkStation Pro is in fact one of the most feature-packed NAS devices around, having a range of extra features that range from the commonplace, such as remote web access to data stored on your NAS, to a range of popular media streaming options that let you share movies and music that you’ve stored on it. It can also act as a Squeezebox, DLNA or iTunes server. The USB port on its back panel can be used to share extra storage across your network or connect a USB printer. Other features include the ability to upload pictures in a designated directory to Flickr, connect an Eye-Fi wireless SD card and back up content to the NAS from Apple devices using Time Machine. It even has a BitTorrent client that lets you download items running without having to leave your PC switched on.

Unfortunately, the LinkStation Pro is also remarkable for its extremely slow file transfer speeds. It’s at its fastest if you install Buffalo’s speed-enhancing tools on the PC from which you’re copying. This software uses your PC’s memory to cache data during the transfer process, but when using it we saw an average transfer speed of just 37MB/s in our large file transfer test and 6.4MB/s in our small file test. Without the software installed, transfer speeds dropped to 27.4MB/s and 6MB/s respectively. Although its slow speeds are likely to be a problem if you regularly run large backups or stream media to multiple devices, you’ll have no problems streaming standard definition movies or audio to a single client.

It costs around 9p per GB, and its single 2TB drive means that you can’t even set up redundant storage on a second drive. Despite its comparatively low price of £171, we strongly recommend buying a two-drive device, such as the Western Digital My Book Live Duo 4TB.