Iomega StorCenter px6-300d Pro Reviews

The Iomega StorCenter PX6-300d is fairly inexpensive, even when compared to most five-bay models in our 11-model roundup of NAS boxes. With good performance and features, it's a great choice for companies that want the capacity but don't need an eSATA port on board.

The StorCenter px6-300d is a classic NAS based on the Intel Atom platform. It features one USB 3.0 port and two Gigabit Ethernet controllers which may come in handy for corporate networks. Unfortunately, the manufacturer didn’t implement eSATA whereas the USB 3.0 interface is represented by only one connector. Well, eSATA would require additional controllers because the chipset’s ones are all utilized for internal HDDs. On the other hand, the px4-300d model lacks eSATA, too. Among other hardware features I can note a large amount of system memory and a free memory slot for upgrading it. The documentation doesn’t mention any usage for the PCI x4 slot, so I can only propose installing network adapters or peripheral controllers (eSATA or USB 3.0, for example). The NAS itself is sturdy and high quality. It has an external power adapter, but I guess an internal one would be more appropriate for its class. The large display is handy for monitoring and diagnosing any problems.

Good value and plenty of backup tools, and new firmware brings improved CIFS/SMB write performance

I'm glad to see Iomega continuing to improve its products and the new Atom D525 based px4's and px6 have a lot to like. They are now second only to NETGEAR ReadyNASes in backup flexibility and the S3 cloud backup option is a welcome addition to Mozy. The ability to configure multiple storage pools and volumes within those pools is very flexible and iSCSI write performance is surprisingly high. It's good too, to see diskless offerings and an add-in feature. Given Iomega's wide distribution and brand name, I'd think that app developers would be drawn to the platform. But the current lack of any apps and absence of information on the SDK makes this only a "future" for the moment. As for value, unfortunately our Price vs. Performance chart is no help, since the supplied model is with six drives, which pushes up the cost. But comparing a diskless px6-300d for $1050 against a naked QNAP TS-659 Pro II at around $1340 seems to indicate that Iomega isn't trying to push the price envelope as hard. Unfortunately, Iomega isn't pushing the performance envelope as hard as QNAP, either. This definitely forces buyers into a classic price vs. performance quandry, with only Iomega's three year warranty (with registration) vs. QNAP's 1 year to help tip the scales.