Seagate GoFlex Home 2TB Reviewed
by Rajinder Gill on October 10, 2010 5:05 PM ESTAlong with the 3TB Seagate USB drive Anand reviewed last month, Seagate also sent us a NAS drive based around the same aesthetics – the GoFlex Home 2TB:
The 2TB GoFlex Home
The GoFlex Home connects via a Gigabit Ethernet port and allows all manner of media streaming, file sharing and backups across a home network or the internet with the key emphasis of Seagate's software bundle being on ease of use. 2TB of space is more than enough space to store a huge library of video and music, and more than ample to be used as a general backup device. The 2TB GoFlex Home retails around $229 - if you can’t see yourself needing that much storage, Seagate offers a 1TB version of Go priced around the $159 mark.
Let's delve staright down into the physcial stuff before we take a gander at the software package...
As with the 3TB GoFlex Desk, we managed to force the casing apart and take a peak at the drive inside:
It's a Seagate Barracuda ST32000542AS
Seagate's choice of casing was a stifling blow for the 3TB GoFlex Desk. Hopefully we won't find the same problems on the 2TB Home - we'll be taking a look at temps a little later.
The GoFlex Home docking station
Upgrading or replacing a drive at a later date is possible, although you are limited to using one of Seagate's GoFlex drives. A couple of LEDs grace the front side of the docking unit; one pertaining to connectivity and the other showing drive ready status (drive activity is not shown, unfortuantely). Although we haven't pictured the rear here, a gigabit ethernet port, USB port (for plugging in a network printer or USB drive), on/off switch and power input connectors are all located on the rear of the unit. Power is supplied by a (included) wal-wart 12V PSU.
Click to enlarge
At the heart of the Go FLexHome is a 1.2GHz Marvell 88F6281 processor (underneath the tthermal pad), teamed up with 128MB of Nanya RAM and also 500MB of flash memory. The Gigabit Ethernet port is driven by a Marvell 88E116R LAN controller.
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Rajinder Gill - Tuesday, October 12, 2010 - link
Thanks, plenty to take on and consider there - it's all appreciated!!-Raja
kmmatney - Tuesday, October 12, 2010 - link
Thanks - I think this unit isn't bad for purposes of backing up data - since you are getting redundnacy by the fact that you are using it for backups of other hard drives. It really needs redundnacy to be used as a central location for data.Dobs - Tuesday, October 12, 2010 - link
Just wondering how DLNA works on this thing....After much trial and error using DLNA software (including Sony recommended) I found Mezzmo to be the only software that really works with my Sony KDL40HX700 TV (running from my PC) and it works great...
... But how does DLNA work on this thing? Is it Pictures and Music only? What file types? What resolutions can be played? Can I fast forward/rewind with TV remote? etc... Will it work on my Sony TV?
I'd really appreciate reviews of products that supposedly have DLNA functionality to actually be tested to see how extensive that functionality is.
Duftopia - Sunday, September 14, 2014 - link
Be prepared to download most of your movies, the software streaming features is definitely sub-standard if functional at all.Dug - Tuesday, October 12, 2010 - link
I would really like to see more of these reviews.I think storage is becoming a huge problem for people with multiple laptops, pc's, mac's, etc.
Yes, you can always add external hd's or replace what you have in your computer, but for a lot of us, that is not an effective strategy.
I would really love to see a cheap cheap diy Windows home server too as a comparison. Mainly because of all the features it has compared to some of these expensive NAS solutions.
bluetiki - Tuesday, October 12, 2010 - link
would you also compare against a similar software solutions that offer this functionality (such as Openfiler or FreeNAS? it would be interesting to see how they would stack up, but I guess establishing some kind of baseline for performance would be hard because it would vary so much based on what kind of hardware it was running on.awaken688 - Tuesday, October 12, 2010 - link
Solid article. For many of us readers, we have multiple computers and having centralized storage is something of interest. Some future items I'd love to see reviewed. It would be perfect for a multi-part article with each part being a review on each item, then the last part being a large overall comparison.Super cheap DIY NAS/HomeServer
HP MediaServer
Higher level NAS systems with RAID 1/5
Drobo
All in 1 Solutions like this
Things to definitely cover:
1) Price
2) Noise and Power (definitely looking for a quiet and power sipping device if possible.
3) Read/Write Speed in a variety of systems
4) Setup Ease
5) Ease of use overall with various OSes.
Good stuff and can't wait to read more.
CrapONez - Wednesday, October 13, 2010 - link
I have an internal 500GB OS drive backed up to an external 1TB drive (only a couple week's worth of backups), an internal 500GB drive filled with a tiny subset of video from my camcorder tapes, backed up to a 750GB external drive, a brand new external 1TB drive that's 80% full connected to my Viewsonic VMP75, and that's not even getting into backing up my kids' computers and my wife's laptop. The article seems to imply 2TB is a WHOPPING amount of storage that no one could exceed. Wrong.I've tried RAID5 on my desktop and lost everything when a disk failed and the array just bit the dust. I've had the same experiences at work - maybe pulling a drive in a test environment proves out RAID5 but oftentimes the array goes with the drive. I feel hesitant to pay extra for features that work only on paper. And as has been said, it's just a matter of time before a drive fails. I've lost 4 in the past 5 years.
But I would love to have central redundant storage for all my needs. The only caveat is it would need to connect to my Gigabit network and simultaneously via eSata or USB to my VMP75. DLNA works for pictures and music, but any kind of MKV or HD streaming needs direct connection to the storage source because , DLNA does not yet deliver (in my mind).
Watwatwat - Thursday, October 14, 2010 - link
meh, considering the constantly failing drives of their other lines like free agent that are cooked to death i wouldn't take the high temps so lightly. being that a nas is always on this is a serious issue. i've had freeagent drives fail several times already, the cases bake the drives without much if any ventilation, it doesn't seem that seagate have changed their ways at all.Duftopia - Sunday, September 14, 2014 - link
Never Externalize a Seagate barracuda, the 7200 rpm on a hot day is not a good idea. THIS drive however runs in the arena of 5200-5400 rpm, its run for 4+ years w/o issues and VERTICALLY as well. You want to keep your drives forever as I have Seagate running 10+ years with no issues but all have the same common factors:1) Make sure the spin horizontally in an upright (not upside down position)
2) Make your "WORK" partition lie at the center of the drive, 3 partitions can do this.
3) The newer 3+ TB drives have construct issues, bruise them up early as work drives,
if they survive the 6 month - 1.5 year mark - then they will make good long term drives.
4) Gauge when they have errors reading / writing when the heat is up, and insure to avoid
running them long under the same conditions in the future, or if the drive is only 2 years old
use the warranty to return them based on this (they typically turn off when they can't take
the heat)
5) Buy non-Chinese and Thailand made units for the 10 year duration, those seagates last 5
year min when the Japanese and tiawan build units go for at least 10, you can tell when 3
year warranty drops to 1 year that's Seagate saying this drive is made cheaper.
6) My old drives going over 10 years were dues to Seagates excellent Customer service, that's
history now, so warranty is the best you are guaranteed.
* Many of these rules did not apply to Seagate for a long time but rather other companies but now the rules have changed and the peasants need to become sharper as the products are deteriorating rapidly, Seagate as of mid 2014 still hold the best grades but I see the writing on the wall.
Duf