Review - New Mac Pro 2009

Review - New Mac Pro 2009

In depth, the architecture of the Mac Pro. Deliberate choice or willingness to stick closely to technology from Intel, its main partner? The question could remain partially open ... but hardly compulsive-t-on technical details of the new monsters that question very quickly leaves the room for evidence. More matter for Apple to commit blunders like to remain powerless against its own ads ... and not being able to keep its promises. He will be remembered for the famous bar ever 3.0 GHz PPC with IBM.

lagship of the fleet from Apple, the Mac Pro has not seen the design change, or very little, since the appearance of the Power Mac G5. As usual, the revolution comes from within.

Today, things have changed. Intel provides Apple and until recently had claimed the preview on its Intel Xeon processors , its range pro server to Apple. So it is logical that the Mac Pro 2009 edition adopted the new batch of Intel Xeon chip code-named Nehalem EP that support the Hyper-Threading and now, the virtualization processor cores, all supported by technology TurboBoost. Advertised as very swift, the new stations made, are they really?

To find out, we tested the two basic models present in the catalog configuration and very strong at 2.93 GHz version Octo-Cores And powerful monsters such calculations are certainly!

External signs of change

External changes are discrete, simply look at the connection to this. Crane, the FireWire 400 port has given way to a second FW 800 and two USB 2.0 connectors and the traditional headphone jack. At the rear the changes are similar in all respects. There are three USB 2.0 ports, two FireWire 800 (400 lost), a headphone output with an analog mini audio input jack, an input / output optical S / PDIF (Sony / Philips Digital Interface) digital connections and two Ethernet 100/1GoBaseT.

Except the deletion of the IEEE1394 connector, no significant change in the back of Mac Pro.

DVD side, no changes, both in design and in embedded hardware. Supplied with a double-layer SuperDrive, you can opt for a second unit at the Apple Store. The DVD burner Apple has still not given way to a device as a Blue Ray. Too bad ... Apple probably reserve it for the launch of Snow Leopard, but for the price we would have hoped at least that kind of player since the SuperDrive now enjoy a SATA interface.

The SuperDrive finally adopt the SATA. Further obstacle to install any other type of player stations in the Apple

You have understood, the Mac Pro still retain the same look, and it does not seem to program Cupertino change its tune, at least until the next generation And again, nothing is certain .

A revolution from inside
In adopting the new Xeon server chips Nehalem EP Series W3500 (for the four single-processor socket), E5500 and X5500 (for versions 8-socket dual-core), represented by the Mac Pro 2.26 GHz and 2.93 GHz Octo, Apple had to revise AZ internal architecture of its office equipment business.

Indeed, the new Intel Xeon processors, which have a completely new architecture with integrated controllers, Apple needed to revisit the overall design of the case. On the other hand, if this meant to of Research and Development in collaboration with Intel, which adds additional cost to the firm, it will be quickly amortized. Now, all models and all frequencies share a common single case since the architecture of CPU Nehalem EP implies that the principal organs and controllers are grouped together and placed near the processors.

Results to production what distinguishes a Quad-Cores of an Octo-Cores, this is only her daughter board or module as the processor and RAM also intimately related to CPU. We could ascertain, we have just enough to switch modules (CPU motherboards) to transform our Mac Pro 2.66 GHz Quad in Octo and vice versa, because of our station CTO 2.93 GHz eight cores a simple quad processors. Single signal after a restart, Mac OS X informs you that the RAM has been reset and fully operational. This has allowed us to configure our willingness to test three models to achieve all of the lab bench.

Once deposited the hood, remove the CPU module housing is a real breeze. Suffice it to unlock all pressing the two small levers on both sides.

Here, motherboard dual socket Mac Pro 2.93 GHz.

But these are not the only changes. Apple took advantage of this major revision to correct a few small design flaws cited in the previous generation. Bays that accommodate hard drives have been improved. The disk media slide better and fit more easily.

In terms of PCI Express 2.0, net improved support for many cards. Thus, the Radeon HD 4870, like GeForce 8800 GT for Mac Pro (Early 2008), enjoys a very ingenious system of locking the rails. So that more or less juggling to insert a NVIDIA 8800 GT in a machine, the insertion direction is well.

The inclusion of graphic cards or other large-format no longer poses any concern ...

This is not the only change that has been made as regards the insertion or extraction of a card on PCI Express. Formerly, small plastic ERGOS in charge of blocking cards that were inserted, were quite difficult to access. This is no longer the case today as they were replaced by a metal bar to act as a lock. More accessible, it is enough to push it to the left to unlock everything.

A push to the left enough to release all the maps that can be installed in Mac Pro ...

More ventilated, and the new chassis allow better air circulation. Nevertheless, the Radeon HD 4870 heat considerably and generate much noise, unlike the GeForce GT 120, very discreet on this point.

Mac Pro Quad 2.66 GHz and 2.93 based on chips from the Nehalem family W3500. Feature of these processors in 45 nm engraved, they can only work on motherboards single socket but consume relatively a lot. The 2.66 GHz which is a Mac Pro Xeon W3520 not least 130 Watts. It is lot, but it has the advantage of cheaper and ensure good performance. His hanging from 2.93 GHz, a Xeon W3540, also equipped with 8 MB L3 cache (or 2 MB per heart), do not consume over 130 Watts as his little brother.

Mac Pro Octo 2.26 and 2.93 GHz (from our lab) embark on together Xeon quad-core from the X5500 family which is itself divided into three categories of processors. There is a E (Enhanced improved) and the X and L series. Each of these categories requires motherboards dual socket but may work on a solo card dual socket unlike the W3500 series of mono quad-core processors. Another advantage is that these CPUs consume much less per unit.

On modules bi-socket processors, everything is doubled. Memory controller, RAM and consumption. Thus, the Xeon E5520 2.26 GHz consumes 80 Watts twice and has two banks of DDR3 ECC as its counterpart at 2.93 GHz X5570 Octo whose consumption blithely climbs to 190 Watts (95 Watts twice).

Besides simplifying the architecture for Apple, using the new Xeon can switch to a type of RAM much cheaper than previous models. DDR3 SDRAM ECC (ECC for error correction) costs about three times less than the memory used before and does more parity. Another major change induced by Xeon Nehalem, the integration of the controllers I / O memory is that allow direct access between the processor and RAM. The bandwidth is considerably increased and the phenomenon of latency reduced by approximately 35%. This also entails the disappearance of the famous Frontal Bus or FSB (Front Side Bus) which stood at 1333 MHz on the older models.Other important thing, Nehalem introduce technologies to the Hyper-Threading and TurboBoost.



Hard drives

Supplied as standard with discs Western Digital Caviar Black 640 GB , the same team that the latest iMac, including the 2.93 GHz, the Mac Pro can benefit from a 1Tera, Western Digital always, available on the AppleStore with 90 €. One option charged dearly, but certainly seduce ...

Especially since these discs, once configured RAID in N (N ear R edundant A rray of I ndependent D isk), better known as JBOD (J ust a B unch o f D isk), all data is concatenated and indexed sequentially, allows for excellent performance.

Certainly, without the redundancy of RAID 1 (or mirror mode), the overall capacity is divided by two. Nor the constraints of RAID 0, very fast, which lists the data - not sequenced - on all hard drives configured in RAID. But if a disk has to let go, the whole set of data is compromised. So, the solution N RAID is the most interesting in terms of performance, which is why we opted for this mode for our tests (see below).

However, there are many manufacturers (Hitachi, Seagate, Western Digital, Samsung, Fujitsu, Toshiba) hard drives on the conventional market. We will not talk here of DSS. It becomes quite dangerous to choose the right disk as needed: speed, security / reliability and storage capacity.

As you can see, if the WD Velociraptor 300 GB are considered swift, the Caviar Black 1TB delivered as an option on the store can be just as attractive and efficient while being less expensive.

Graphics

despite the power available, some games under Windows are able to challenge our favorite Mac Pro: The 2.66 GHz Quad. Crysis obviously like Lost Planet - Extreme Condition, but James Bond - Quantum of Solace (the demo), Crysis Warhead, Medal of Honor Airborne, Call Of Duty: World at War etc. The GeForce 120 GT is not really suited especially when all the rule parameters and the maximum resolution of 1920 x 1200 LED Cinema Display. Rest by taking the option Radeon HD 4870, with good charged all together, we get the station working to do everything. It will then reduce its cost and, above all live with noise generated by fans of the cooling system with both processors than ATI video card very poorly run under Windows XP, in the namely the Professional version that were used in tests.

Crysis Warhead really need to have a Radeon HD 4870, the GT 120 is not enough, unless you invest in a Quad 2.93 GHz.

While a 3.06 Ghz iMac with a GeForce 130 GT can play without saccade to Quantum of Solace, on the Mac Pro input range, the 120 GT fishing.

Here, the cooling system of the Mac Pro Quad 2.66 GHz. The radiator fins conceals imposing a fan who is responsible for circulating the air ...

At its opposite, the coolant tubes of the system. Here, the thermal paste in abundance on the top, carries part of heat on the wings.

On the Mac Pro 8-core, the heat radiators are twofold. Shorter as they dissipate heat in the same way as on Mono, except that the thermal paste is in abundance.But the Xeon E5520 and X5570 are consuming less and the dissipation is also lower. Integrated with the radiator fans are 30% smaller than the 2.66 GHz Quad.The transition to Nehalem chip has two big advantages. First, the integrated memory controller allows direct access between CPU and memory while reducing latency. On the other hand, DDR3 ECC employee no longer works parity, is much less expensive and easier to obtain.

Another advantage of the design of the Mac Pro 2009: in case of malfunction or breakdown, it will be quick and easy for Apple, including the AppleCenter authorized to repair or change some organs. The processor cards are removable and CPU coolant systems as easy to disassemble.

We have mentioned the ease of extraction of the card processor. Its locking system is equally important. All in solid aluminum.ike the Power Mac G5 Dual Core, the casing of the Mac Pro was particularly ventilated. The items are very easily accessible. The two big fans, here both sides are responsible for circulating the area horizontally.the majority of taxable items (plastic etc.) or clipsent is set by sliding. The screws are also much more accessible.Able to accommodate up to four cards GeForce GT120, this generation has only two PCI Express ports (2.0) including a 16x already monopolized for video and can accommodate a RAID card on the fourth location.

Simple and refined, the GeForce 120 GT is especially known to be very discreet. Its totally recessed fan is barely audible when the computer is turned on.

Design after all the classic card entry which, if not very powerful, is also charged 135 €. However, it delivers a power greater than that of the iMac 24 2.93 Ghz even mounted on a Quad 2.66 GHz.

Unlike the GeForce, HD 4870 occupies the equivalent of two ports. It is also equipped with a Dual DVI connector and a Mini DisplayPort now de rigueur on the new machines.

Unlike the GeForce GT 120 which draws its power from the port where it is connected. The ATI card requires that you connect the two power ports on the motherboard.


The use of aluminum and galvanized steel is the main asset of this beautiful box, if its lines evolve much, retains all its qualities almost. Robust structure, easy access and installation of cards additives or additional hard drives in less than five minutes silent ventilation, etc., Are of particular interest. But we regret, despite the serious improvements and the care taken in manufacturing that Cupertino has not fully reviewed the design of its product to reduce the weight and thus sizes.




Conclusion :

We must not forget that these computers are aimed primarily at businesses and independent professionals. The new Mac Pro computing power has unprecedented and thanks to the arrival of Intel Xeon chips Nehalem EP capable of simulating up to sixteen eight virtual cores with Hyper-Threading. However, despite the sharp increase in power, including with respect to the previous generation 8-core launched in January 2008, these new machines are expensive, even prohibitive, especially the very high end, even in terms of future potential.such an investment can not be truly sustainable, at least we believe, once Snow Leopard ( Mac OS 10.6) released in the shelves of Apple Resellers. One aspect that must take into account today. Especially as you have seen, whether on Mac OS X or in some applications, however well-developed by Apple or third-party publishers, we can not say that the whole of the sixteen hearts (eight hearts physical) is particularly well managed.

File Systems in Detail

File Systems in Detail

What is a File System?

A file system is a method for storing and organizing computer files and the data they contain to make it easy to find and access them. File systems may use a data storage device such as a hard disk or CD-ROM and involve maintaining the physical location of the files, they might provide access to data on a file server by acting as clients for a network protocol, or they may be virtual and exist only as an access method for virtual data. It is distinguished from a directory service and registry. More formally, a file system is a special-purpose database for the storage, organization, manipulation, and retrieval of data.

Most file systems make use of an underlying data storage device that offers access to an array of fixed-size blocks, sometimes called sectors, generally a power of 2 in size. The file system software is responsible for organizing these sectors into files and directories, and keeping track of which sectors belong to which file and which are not being used. Most file systems address data in fixed-sized units called "clusters" or "blocks" which contain a certain number of disk sectors. This is the smallest amount of disk space that can be allocated to hold a file.

However, file systems need not make use of a storage device at all. A file system can be used to organize and represent access to any data, whether it be stored or dynamically generated.

File Names Conventions

Whether the file system has an underlying storage device or not, file systems typically have directories which associate file names with files, usually by connecting the file name to an index in a file allocation table of some sort, such as the FAT in a DOS file system, or an inode in a Unix-like file system. Directory structures may be flat, or allow hierarchies where directories may contain subdirectories. In some file systems, file names are structured, with special syntax for filename extensions and version numbers. In others, file names are simple strings, and per-file metadata is stored elsewhere.

Metadata

Other bookkeeping information is typically associated with each file within a file system. The length of the data contained in a file may be stored as the number of blocks allocated for the file or as an exact byte count. The time that the file was last modified may be stored as the file's timestamp. Some file systems also store the file creation time, the time it was last accessed, and the time that the file's meta-data was changed. Other information can include the file's device type, its owner user-ID and group-ID, and its access permission settings.

Arbitrary attributes can be associated on advanced file systems, such as XFS, ext2/ext3, some versions of UFS, and HFS+, using extended file attributes. This feature is implemented in the kernels of Linux, FreeBSD and Mac OS X operating systems, and allows metadata to be associated with the file at the file system level. This, for example, could be the author of a document, the character encoding of a plain-text document, or a checksum.

Hierarchical file systems

The hierarchical file system was an early research interest of Dennis Ritchie of Unix fame; previous implementations were restricted to only a few levels, notably the IBM implementations, even of their early databases like IMS. After the success of Unix, Ritchie extended the file system concept to every object in his later operating system developments, such as Plan 9 and Inferno.

Facilities

Traditional file systems offer facilities to create, move and delete both files and directories. They lack facilities to create additional links to a directory (hard links in Unix), rename parent links, and create bidirectional links to files.

Traditional file systems also offer facilities to truncate, append to, create, move, delete and in-place modify files. They do not offer facilities to prepend to or truncate from the beginning of a file, let alone arbitrary insertion into or deletion from a file. The operations provided are highly asymmetric and lack the generality to be useful in unexpected contexts. For example, interprocess pipes in Unix have to be implemented outside of the file system because the pipes concept does not offer truncation from the beginning of files.
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Types of file systems

File system types can be classified into disk file systems, network file systems and special purpose file systems.

Disk file systems

A disk file system is a file system designed for the storage of files on a data storage device, most commonly a disk drive, which might be directly or indirectly connected to the computer. Examples of disk file systems include FAT [FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, exFAT], NTFS, HFS and HFS+, HPFS, ext2, ext3, ext4, ISO 9660, ODS-5, ZFS and UDF. Some disk file systems are journaling file systems or versioning file systems.

Flash file systems

A flash file system is a file system designed for storing files on flash memory devices. These are becoming more prevalent as the number of mobile devices are increasing, and the capacity of flash memories increase.

While a disk file system can be used on a flash device, this is suboptimal for several reasons:

Erasing blocks: Flash memory blocks have to be explicitly erased before they can be rewritten. The time taken to erase blocks can be significant, thus it is beneficial to erase unused blocks while the device is idle.
Random access: Disk file systems are optimized to avoid disk seeks whenever possible, due to the high cost of seeking. Flash memory devices impose no seek latency.
Wear levelling: Flash memory devices tend to wear out when a single block is repeatedly overwritten; flash file systems are designed to spread out writes evenly.

Database file systems

A new concept for file management is the concept of a database-based file system. Instead of, or in addition to, hierarchical structured management, files are identified by their characteristics, like type of file, topic, author, or similar metadata.

Transactional file systems

Each disk operation may involve changes to a number of different files and disk structures. In many cases, these changes are related, meaning that it is important that they all be executed at the same time. Take for example a bank sending another bank some money electronically. The bank's computer will "send" the transfer instruction to the other bank and also update its own records to indicate the transfer has occurred. If for some reason the computer crashes before it has had a chance to update its own records, then on reset, there will be no record of the transfer but the bank will be missing some money.

Transaction processing introduces the guarantee that at any point while it is running, a transaction can either be finished completely or reverted completely (though not necessarily both at any given point). This means that if there is a crash or power failure, after recovery, the stored state will be consistent.

This type of file system is designed to be fault tolerant, but may incur additional overhead to do so.

Journaling file systems are one technique used to introduce transaction-level consistency to filesystem structures.

Network file systems

A network file system is a file system that acts as a client for a remote file access protocol, providing access to files on a server. Examples of network file systems include clients for the NFS, AFS, SMB protocols, and file-system-like clients for FTP and WebDAV.

Special purpose file systems

A special purpose file system is basically any file system that is not a disk file system or network file system. This includes systems where the files are arranged dynamically by software, intended for such purposes as communication between computer processes or temporary file space.

Special purpose file systems are most commonly used by file-centric operating systems such as Unix. Examples include the procfs (/proc) file system used by some Unix variants, which grants access to information about processes and other operating system features.

Deep space science exploration craft, like Voyager I & II used digital tape-based special file systems. Most modern space exploration craft like Cassini-Huygens used Real-time operating system file systems or RTOS influenced file systems. The Mars Rovers are one such example of an RTOS file system, important in this case because they are implemented in flash memory.

Crash counting is a feature of a file system designed as an alternative to journaling. It is claimed that it maintains consistency across crashes without the code complexity of implementing journaling.

File systems and operating systems

Most operating systems provide a file system, as a file system is an integral part of any modern operating system. Early microcomputer operating systems' only real task was file management — a fact reflected in their names. Some early operating systems had a separate component for handling file systems which was called a disk operating system. On some microcomputers, the disk operating system was loaded separately from the rest of the operating system. On early operating systems, there was usually support for only one, native, unnamed file system; for example, CP/M supports only its own file system, which might be called "CP/M file system" if needed, but which didn't bear any official name at all.

Because of this, there needs to be an interface provided by the operating system software between the user and the file system. This interface can be textual or graphical. If graphical, the metaphor of the folder, containing documents, other files, and nested folders is often used.

Flat file systems

In a flat file system, there are no subdirectories—everything is stored at the same (root) level on the media, be it a hard disk, floppy disk, etc. While simple, this system rapidly becomes inefficient as the number of files grows, and makes it difficult for users to organize data into related groups.

Like many small systems before it, the original Apple Macintosh featured a flat file system, called Macintosh File System. Its version of Mac OS was unusual in that the file management software (Macintosh Finder) created the illusion of a partially hierarchical filing system on top of MFS. This structure meant that every file on a disk had to have a unique name, even if it appeared to be in a separate folder. MFS was quickly replaced with Hierarchical File System, which supported real directories.

A recent addition to the flat file system family is Amazon's S3, a remote storage service, which is intentionally simplistic to allow users the ability to customize how their data is stored. The only constructs are buckets and objects. Advance file management is allowed by being able to use nearly any character including '/' in the objects name, and the ability to select subsets of the bucket's content based on identical prefixes.

File systems under Unix-like operating systems

Unix-like operating systems create a virtual file system, which makes all the files on all the devices appear to exist in a single hierarchy. This means, in those systems, there is one root directory, and every file existing on the system is located under it somewhere. Unix-like systems can use a RAM disk or network shared resource as its root directory.

Unix-like systems assign a device name to each device, but this is not how the files on that device are accessed. Instead, to gain access to files on another device, the operating system must first be informed where in the directory tree those files should appear. This process is called mounting a file system. For example, to access the files on a CD-ROM, one must tell the operating system "Take the file system from this CD-ROM and make it appear under such-and-such directory". The directory given to the operating system is called the mount point - it might, for example, be /media. The /media directory exists on many Unix systems and is intended specifically for use as a mount point for removable media such as CDs, DVDs and like floppy disks. It may be empty, or it may contain subdirectories for mounting individual devices. Generally, only the administrator or root may authorize the mounting of file systems.

File systems under Linux

Linux supports many different file systems, but common choices for the system disk include the ext family such as ext2 and ext3, XFS, JFS and ReiserFS.

File systems under Solaris

The Sun Microsystems Solaris operating system in earlier releases defaulted to UFS for bootable and supplementary file systems. Solaris defaulted to, supported, and extended UFS.
Support for other file systems and significant enhancements were added over time, including Veritas Software Corp. VxFS, Sun Microsystems QFS, Sun Microsystems UFS, and Sun Microsystems ZFS.

Kernel extensions were added to Solaris to allow for bootable Veritas VxFS operation. Logging or Journaling was added to UFS in Sun's Solaris 7. Releases of Solaris 10, Solaris Express, OpenSolaris, and other open source variants of the Solaris operating system later supported bootable ZFS.

Logical Volume Management allows for spanning a file system across multiple devices for the purpose of adding redundancy, capacity, and/or throughput. Legacy environments in Solaris may use Solaris Volume Manager Multiple operating systems may use Veritas Volume Manager. Modern Solaris based operating systems eclipse the need for Volume Management through leveraging virtual storage pools in ZFS.

File systems under Mac OS X

Mac OS X uses a file system that it inherited from classic Mac OS called HFS Plus. HFS Plus is a metadata-rich and case preserving file system. Due to the Unix roots of Mac OS X, Unix permissions were added to HFS Plus. Later versions of HFS Plus added journaling to prevent corruption of the file system structure and introduced a number of optimizations to the allocation algorithms in an attempt to defragment files automatically without requiring an external defragmenter.

Filenames can be up to 255 characters. HFS Plus uses Unicode to store filenames. On Mac OS X, the filetype can come from the type code, stored in file's metadata, or the filename.

HFS Plus has three kinds of links: Unix-style hard links, Unix-style symbolic links and aliases. Aliases are designed to maintain a link to their original file even if they are moved or renamed; they are not interpreted by the file system itself, but by the File Manager code in userland.

Mac OS X also supports the UFS file system, derived from the BSD Unix Fast File System via NeXTSTEP. However, as of Mac OS X 10.5, Mac OS X can no longer be installed on a UFS volume, nor can a pre-Leopard system installed on a UFS volume be upgraded to Leopard.

File systems under Microsoft Windows

Windows makes use of the FAT and NTFS file systems.

The File Allocation Table (FAT) filing system, supported by all versions of Microsoft Windows, was an evolution of that used in Microsoft's earlier operating system. FAT ultimately traces its roots back to the short-lived M-DOS project and Standalone disk BASIC before it. Over the years various features have been added to it, inspired by similar features found on file systems used by operating systems such as Unix.
Older versions of the FAT file system (FAT12 and FAT16) had file name length limits, a limit on the number of entries in the root directory of the file system and had restrictions on the maximum size of FAT-formatted disks or partitions. Specifically, FAT12 and FAT16 had a limit of 8 characters for the file name, and 3 characters for the extension (such as .exe). This is commonly referred to as the 8.3 filename limit. VFAT, which was an extension to FAT12 and FAT16 introduced in Windows NT 3.5 and subsequently included in Windows 95, allowed long file names (LFN). FAT32 also addressed many of the limits in FAT12 and FAT16, but remains limited compared to NTFS.

NTFS, introduced with the Windows NT operating system, allowed ACL-based permission control. Hard links, multiple file streams, attribute indexing, quota tracking, compression and mount-points for other file systems are also supported, though not all these features are well-documented.

Unlike many other operating systems, Windows uses a drive letter abstraction at the user level to distinguish one disk or partition from another. For example, the path C:\WINDOWS represents a directory WINDOWS on the partition represented by the letter C. The C drive is most commonly used for the primary hard disk partition, on which Windows is usually installed and from which it boots. This "tradition" has become so firmly ingrained that bugs came about in older versions of Windows which made assumptions that the drive that the operating system was installed on was C. The tradition of using "C" for the drive letter can be traced to MS-DOS, where the letters A and B were reserved for up to two floppy disk drives. Network drives may also be mapped to drive letters.
Data retrieval process

The operating system calls on the IFS manager. The IFS calls on the correct FSD in order to open the selected file from a choice of four FSDs that work with different storage systems—NTFS, VFAT, CDFS, and Network. The FSD gets the location on the disk for the first cluster of the file from the FAT, FAT32, VFAT, or, in the case of Windows NT based, the MFT. In short, the whole point of the FAT, FAT32, VFAT, or MFT is to map out all the files on the disk and record where they are located.


Source : techarena

Review - Cisco Linksys Media Hub NMH405 500GB

Review - Cisco Linksys Media Hub NMH405 500GB

Linksys, the networking giant Cisco consumerist if its Media Hub products use a NAS on the market. The Media Hub makes it easy to organize, access, and share your digital video, photos, and music -- around your home and around the world. With massive capacity, intelligent aggregation, and media optimized file-serving capabilities, it’s an ideal way to manage your material, enjoy your entertainment and share your memories. Show your media how much you love it – give it a Hub.

In this hands-on we take the nas examined to see how Linksys is right.


Minimum Requirements

Windows XP or Vista with 32-Bit Browser
CD-ROM Drive
Internet Explorer 6 or Firefox 2 or Higher
Adobe Flash Player 9 or Higher
PC Required to Set Up
10/100/1000 Base-T Ethernet connection (network adapter, router, gateway, switch or hub port)
Broadband Internet Connection

Prices and specifications

The units are neatly designed in the glossy black-and-silver that's currently flavour of the month for Linksys’ consumer products. It stands about 20cm high, 11.3cm wide and 16.3cm deep, so you can sit it on your desk or on a shelf without it taking up too much room. The internal fan makes a worryingly loud noise when you first turn the power on, but quickly calms down to an unobtrusive hum.

Within its stylish, compact design, the hub’s high capacity can store hundreds of hours of video, hundreds of thousands of photos and songs. With a 500 Gigabyte hard drive and additional drive bay, this Media Hub (model# NMH405) is set to grow along with your media collection. Full-color LCD makes it easy to manage your storage space.


They also have a small LCD screen on the front that displays information such as the amount of space used by music, photos and video files. We found that we barely looked at the screen during our tests, so you can save some money by buying the 500GB NMH305 model, which omits the LCD display and comes in at a more affordable £300.

The Media Hub closer

The NMH405 MediaHub comes with a network cable, a single 12V power, a quick start guide and a cd'tje software. The compact cabinet has room for two SATA drives. Linksys delivers the Tweakers.net tested performance with a 500GB hard drive, while the more expensive NMH410 a 1TB drive in the drivebay was successful.

When the MediaHub an extra disk is added, it is - with safety in mind - possibly in RAID1 mode, a mirror or to the total storage capacity to double. Changing or adding a disk is very simple: after opening the door at the top can simply slide into the bay should be avoided. The drives are not hot swappable, the box must first be expelled.


On the front of the nas is a 1.8 "LCD display to find. The small screen status information, such as network speed and available disk space, but it is also possible to quickly start a backup from the box. Because the hub has two slots for flash cards, can also direct a copy of such a sd-card on the hard disk be placed. The same is possible via the two USB 2.0 ports. To save energy, the LCD display be turned off if desired.

The NMH405 can Gigabit Ethernet port with the network connected. The installation software installs the backup program NTI Backup, neatly mapt the network to a drive letter and automatically copy the contents of the folder My Documents to the nas. The throughput is low on a 100Mbit network managed not to use the smb protocol over 5MBps it. Via ftp, the speed is not higher than 6.5 Mbps. The Gigabit connection but it seems to offer little added value.

The web interface

Linksys says put too much attention in the web interface of the NMH405. The interface is accessible via http://mediahub is built in Flash and is indeed beautiful. The indexes automatically nas new media files and puts them into the corresponding folders. Playing music files easily, but when viewing photos is a slideshow mode available.

When playing video files, with a dozen films in various formats and resolutions tested, there were also problems in the browser to: hd mkv files to wmv or containers were not in view, while some mpeg4 files can not play. Nor is that the file is not displayed correctly and that the browser should render flash streams.

The remote access' ability, which via the Internet nas can be used, in practice to work well. However, it is necessary to log onto a Web service from Linksys and lies is a catch: although the service is free the first year, considering the company in the future an annual contribution to questions. These rumors would be around 10 euro per year, but Linksys wants no specific mention amounts.

By accessing the nas on the LAN, via a media player or an Xbox 360 for example, everything is spotless thanks to the support for UPnP and DLNA protocols. A potential security risk, however the FTP service, although by default only allows anonymous sessions and is not configurable. Why Linksys has opted for this method is a mystery.

Conclusion

The Media Hub NMH405 put a Linksys nas on the market that we have not quite 'finished' is. The FTP function allows anonymous sessions, a Linksys network specialist as to say the least, very sloppy. This is a firmware update to remedy. The LCD screen is a nice gimmick, but its usefulness can be questioned.

The web interface is offered for novice users effectively, it also offers the popular nas no download functions, such as bittorrent or usenet grabber, and playback of HD material in the browser interface almost impossible. Although the benefits are reasonable and nas easy half hard disk is to rest, the storage system with a street price of 350 euros on the expensive side.