PCZ35SNAS2 Detailed Features

Dual-bay NAS appliances are among the most popular variety of network storage devices, primarily because two disk usually allow for RAID-1 (mirrored) or RAID-0 (striped) arrays. Although not as critical today as it was years ago when drive capacity was limited, dual-bay appliances also expand the overall capacity with JBOD (just a bunch of disks) functionality. With regard to the Patriot Corza PCZ35SNAS2, all three of these configurations are available, although JBOD and RAID-1 will likely be more popular than RAID-0 (which disregards data redundancy and adds additional risk).

One of the nicest features I've seen on any NAS product is the simple-yet-effective drive trays found on the Patriot Corza. While it surprises me that a sub-$100 product can offer better trays than we've seen on more expensive network storage devices, there are still a lot of corners cut on the PCZ35SNAS2 model.

While I commend Patriot for giving the Corza a pair of capable drive trays, I really wish that they had included a 3.5"-to-2.5" drive bay adapter instead of the plastic frame blank that comes screwed to the sides. Fiber-optic filament travels up the side of the tray, and displays drive status and access indications whenever the disk is in-use. The trays found on the Patriot Corza do not offer locks, which might come in handy since this is not a hot-swappable drive product (despite Patriot's claim).

Nestled inside the Patriot Corza PCZ35SNAS2 is a single 256MB integrated DRAM chip, and a 400MHz processor. Patriot didn't offer any details when asked, and there wasn't much to be learned. What I am certain of is that the Patriot Corza NAS doesn't share the same powerful processor we see in other network storage appliances. Benchmark Reviews will soon determine if this poses a problem for high-speed data transfers.

In the next section, we'll review the status signal function and web browser configuration interface featured on Patriot Corza...

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