What Hi Fi Sound and Vision 16 JUN 2008

Zyxel NSA220

£ 170 4

* * * *

Zyxel's build-your-own approach offers good value

For
Good value; reasonably easy to set up
Against
You have to install your own hard disks

The Zyxel doesn't come with any hard disks, instead allowing you to install your own. If you can follow a LEGO-like set of instructions, it's not too difficult.

The two bays can hold hard disks of up to one terabyte (TB; equals 1000 gigabytes) each, and the arrangement means one bay can back up the other, or you can combine the capacity of both to create a 2TB system.

This build-your-own approach also allows you to save money: a decent 500GB drive will cost around £60, so two of these, plus the NSA220, will give you a 1TB unit for around £290. That's 29p per gigabyte, which is very reasonable.