I had the opportunity to test the Western Digital WD Sentinel DX4000 Small Office Storage Server over the last few months and have been impressed with the performance and storage capacity of this great compact server. For those of you with large storage needs, limited space or small businesses, this Small Office Storage Server might be the device you need. Read on to find out more about the WD Sentinel DX4000.
Mental Note: Upfront, please understand that since the Windows Storage Server OS is so similar to WHS 2011, for this short review I will not be covering common areas to both OS such as Users, Add-Ins, backups and Client set up. I will spend more time on those features in a follow-up article.
WD Sentinel DX4000 Overview
The new WD Sentinel DX4000 is a small office storage sever that offers data protection, client PC back ups, easy administration and is user serviceable. In addition, the WD Sentinel gives you remote access, gigabit network speeds and DLNA support for media streaming. This server is good looking, has horsepower under the hood and has storage capability beyond anything we have seen in this size!
WD just released the 4TB and 8TB models with 6TB and 12TB models to be released in Q1 of 2012. Yes you read that right, 12TB! Leave it to industry leader WD to offer such a massive storage device!
WD Sentinel DX4000 First Impressions
Out of the box the WD Sentinel is heavy. I like heavy. Heavy is good. Heavy means it has good quality drives and components inside. Outside, the form factor is very professional and the size is just right. At about 8’”x9”x6” the server will look good on your desk or be small enough to hide on a shelf. The front LCD is a little bright for my needs but shows the status of the server at all times.
The WD Sentinel has four drive bays. With the two drive model it will run RAID 1 and with the 4 drive model it will run RAID 5.
The back of the WD Sentinel is clean and functional. It has two Ethernet ports, two USB 3.0 ports and two power supply connections. You can purchase and additional power supply from WD for about $60 but I would suggest a single UPS instead.
WD Sentinel DX4000 Specs
All of full details are available at WD but here are some of the basics:
The WD Sentinel is powered by an Intel Atom D525 1.8 Ghz Dual Core Processor with 2GB of RAM and runs Windows Storage Server (WSS) 2008 R2 Essentials. This OS is the same code base as Windows Home Server 2011 so the interface and Dashboard will feel very familiar. WSS is a more robust and expandable OS from Microsoft so this is part of what added to the higher cost.
