Infortrend EonNAS Pro 510 Review

Initial Impressions:

With the EonNAS Pro 510 out of its packaging, my initial thought is the overall design is pretty straight forward. The front face has an LCD panel, two menu navigation buttons, LED indicators (for fault, network activity, and drive activity), power button, 1 x USB 2.0 port, and a vented door that once opened provides access to five drive bays. The obvious positives for me here are the LCD panel and navigation buttons. I am a big fan of LCD panels, as it’s always nice to have some access to the unit without having to remotely access via browser. The LCD interface on the EonNAS Pro 510 is very functional, allowing a user to change various settings, display current setting information, and even mute the buzzer/alarm in the event of a fault. The only complaint I have regarding the LCD interface, is the two button navigation can be a little cumbersome. As far the vented door, it’s pure Aesthetics, since it lacks a locking mechanism. However, there is a locking mechanism on each drive carrier.

On the rear of the unit is where the remaining (and majority) of the connectivity ports are located. Here you have 1 x AC port, 2 x USB 3.0, 4 x USB 2.0, 2 x 1Gb Ethernet, 1 x eSATA, and 1 x VGA connector. There are more than enough connectivity options, so I don’t see anything Infortrend failed to account for.

With the drives removed, the drive carriers themselves are extremely sturdy and well made. This is generally where some vendors will save a little cost and cheap out on the carriers, but I wouldn’t say that is the case here.

Lastly, the warranty sticker wasn’t enough to keep me from opening the unit and taking a peek at the internal components. Everything is packed into an impressively small form factor and the build quality appears to be quite good as it would require some special tooling for me to dismantle the unit any further. Obviously it’s always good to see under the hood, but Infortrend clearly doesn’t intend for users to be inside the box at any point, due to the warranty sticker that must be broken in order to open the unit. However, according to an FAQ on the Infortrend site, memory upgrades are possible on the EonNAS products, but it is unclear what the process is for doing so, other then having to purchase the memory directly from them.