The device is compatible with Windows SMB, which means you can access it via Windows Explorer just as you would with another computer in the network. Despite the presence of a USB port, the BlackBox doesn't have print-serving capability. When browsing, we found a printer called "lp" being shared by the BlackBox, which was really odd because that "printer" didn't do anything; it was just there for some reason.
What's also odd is that BlackBox doesn't manage the hard drives very well if you want to use them as separate volumes, meaning you don't pick to set them up in any RAID configurations as mentioned above. In this case, you can do whatever you want with the volume two (or IDE2 as named by the BlackBox), but the other volume (IDE1) is shared as one folder as "IDE1," with the default privilege that everyone can have read and write access to it. There's no way you can create more share folders on this volume nor can you assign different access privileges to it.
Performance
We were neither impressed nor disappointed by the BlackBox's throughput performance. On our write test, the device registered 39.9Mbps, which places it in the middle of the NAS pack. On our read test, the BlackBox did much better being our second fastest NAS at 48.5 megabit per second, trailing behind the Synology DS107+ by just a small margin.
(Longer bars indicate better performance)
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Read | |
Write |
The BlackBox was very noisy throughout our testing process. The two fans on the back seem to run constantly at the same speed, regardless of the load and the ambient temperature. There's also a noticeable lag when you open a big file stores on the drive. For example, it would take about five seconds for you to launch Windows Media Player to play a movie file, excluding the time that WMP needs to buffer and actually start to play the clip. On the bright side, though, the unit stayed very cool even during heavy load.
Service and support
Vox backs the BlackBox with one-year warranty. However, you would hope that you won't need it. It's almost impossible to get a hold of anyone, either by phone or by e-mail. At Vox's Web site, you can find nothing but the manual of the product, which is also incoherent.
What You'll Pay
- Set Price Alert
