Skip to navigation

LaCie Network Space 500GB review

Verdict

Inexpensive, but a frugal assortment of features.

Review Date: 6 Mar 2009

Reviewed By: Sasha Muller

Price when reviewed: £74 (£85 inc VAT)

Overall Rating
3 stars out of 6

Features & Design
2 stars out of 6

Value for Money
5 stars out of 6

Performance
2 stars out of 6

LaCie's Network Space is about as no-frills as NAS drives come. Its minimalist, glossy black exterior is as featureless as the drive it conceals.

Its rectangular black chassis houses a single 500GB drive, with one USB socket to add to the single network port.

That USB connection can be used to copy the contents of an attached USB storage device, or backup the drive's contents to another drive. Other backup options come courtesy of the supplied Genie Backup Assistant software. Its simple interface offers full, incremental or mirror backup strategies as well as compression, encryption and scheduling options.

Cast an eye over the Network Space's stylish and stripped-down web-interface and it's clear how LaCie has kept the price so low. There's a UPnP media server, an iTunes server and support for FTP access, but that's about it.

Performance was the slowest of the drives on test here. Copying 3GB of large files saw the Network Space manage write speeds of just 8MB/sec, and reading them back was only slightly quicker at 10MB/sec. Small files pushed the transfer speeds yet lower, with the LaCie achieving read and write speeds of 8MB/sec and 5MB/sec respectively.

It's one of the quietest and most power-efficient drives on test. Its petite frame means that there isn't room for a fan; instead, the drive relies on its perforated underside to keep cool, and power usage never topped 10W.

That's not enough to save this drive from mediocrity, though. It might be keenly priced, but its frugal assortment of features and poor performance leave it trailing the pack.

Author: Sasha Muller

Subscribe to PC Pro magazine. We'll give you 3 issues for £1 plus a free gift - click here
Be the first to comment this article

You need to Login or Register to comment.

(optional)

Latest Category Reviews
Asustor AS-604T review

Asustor AS-604T

Category: Storage appliances
Rating: 5 out of 6
Price: £551
Iomega StorCenter px12-450r review

Iomega StorCenter px12-450r

Category: Storage appliances
Rating: 4 out of 6
Price: £3,841
TP-Link JetStream TL-SG3424P review

TP-Link JetStream TL-SG3424P

Category: Switches
Rating: 5 out of 6
Price: £275
Qsan TrioNAS LX U400Q-S316 review

Qsan TrioNAS LX U400Q-S316

Category: Storage appliances
Rating: 5 out of 6
Price: £5,340
Buffalo TeraStation 5400 review

Buffalo TeraStation 5400

Category: Storage appliances
Rating: 4 out of 6
Price: £816
Compare reviews: Storage appliances

advertisement

Latest News Stories Subscribe to our RSS Feeds
Latest Blog Posts Subscribe to our RSS Feeds
Latest Features
Latest Real World Computing

advertisement

Sponsored Links
 

Competitions

There are dozens of exciting prizes up for grabs on PC Pro Competitions. All our competitions are free to enter. Try your luck.

ENTER NOW
 
SEARCH
Loading
WEB ID
SIGN UP

Your email:

Your password:

remember me

advertisement


Hitwise Top 10 Website 2010
 
 

PCPro-Computing in the Real World Printed from www.pcpro.co.uk

Register to receive our regular email newsletter at http://www.pcpro.co.uk/registration.

The newsletter contains links to our latest PC news, product reviews, features and how-to guides, plus special offers and competitions.