The NetCenter can be prepared for work in no time. Once the drive is physically connected to the local network, the user has to run the CD disc bundled with the drive that has all the necessary software on it and install NetCenter EasyLink tool. This program will scan the local network and “find” the drive. After that the drive will be assigned a corresponding letter name for the shared folders. Then all you need to do is fill in the user name and password in the NetCenter Manager. You can also change some configuration settings manually if necessary.

Now let’s take a closer look at the technical characteristics of this device, which is still quite unusual for us. The drive our lab received for testing featured a 320GB HDD inside. Besides this model, the NetCenter product family will also include models with 250GB and 160GB storage capacities. The buffer is 8MB big. The spindle rotates at 7,200rpm. The average seek time during reading is 8.9ns, and the average latency – 4.2ms. Unfortunately, the network interface supports only 10/100 Base-T Ethernet. The USB ports support 2.0 specification. The drive doesn’t have any fans that is why it is very quiet during operation. It supports DHCP protocol and SMART technology. In idle mode the drive automatically enables power saving mode.

The solution can work normally and retain stability when the environment temperature lies between +5^o C and +40^o C. The device can be stored at the temperatures of -20^o C and +65^o C. The acceptable input voltage can vary between 100V and 240V (47-63Hz frequency). The device dimensions are 150mm x 239.9mm x 55.5mm.

The WD NetCenter drive is shipped with a vertical stand, quick installation guide, Ethernet cable, external power supply unit and a CD disc with the software. The software bundle for WD NetCenter includes NetCenter EasyLink and Acrobat Reader, as well as electronic versions of the user’s guide and quick installation guide.

Western Digital is offering this solution for approximately $399.

Testbed and Methods

We tested this solution with our brand name FC-Test 1.0 utility. You can read more about this testing tool in our article called X-bit's FC-Test 1.0 or "System Rebooted" .

The testbed was configured as follows:

• Albatron PX865PE Pro II mainboard;
• Intel Pentium 4 2.4GHz CPU;
• IBM DTLA-307015 15GB host HDD;
• Radeon 7000 graphics card;
• 256MB PC2700 DDR SDRAM;
• Microsoft Windows 2000 with Service Pack 4.

During our tests we connected the device to the 3com controller integrated onto the mainboard.