NAS News

Updated - WD has announced a 1U, Atom-powered rackmount NAS.

Updated 6/3/2013: Added RAM size

The WD Sentinel RX4100 is the company's first 1U rackmount small business storage server. Like its DX4000 desktop predecessor introduced in late 2011, the RX4100 runs Windows Storage Server 2008 R2 Essentials.

The rackmount NAS' specs are very similar to the DX4000 with four hot-swappable 3.5" SATA drive bays, dual Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports, two USB 3.0 ports and 1.8 GHz dual-core Intel Atom CPU. WD doesn't spec memory, but it should be at least as much as the 2 GB that comes with the DX4000. WD let us know the RX4100 has 4 GB of RAM.

The RX4100 has an additional front-mounted USB 2.0 port and rear VGA port for console operation. There is also a DC input port for an external redundant power supply.

WD RX4100 Rackmount NAS

The RX4100's feature set is provided by its WSS OS, including shared storage and backup for up to 25 clients, iSCSI target and Apple Time Machine support. There are also a few WD enhancements, including secure remote access, and WD's KeepVault cloud-based backup and recovery service.

The WD Sentinel RX4100 comes in 8 TB, 12 TB and 16 TB capacities with MSRPs of $1,899.00, $1,999.00 and $2,349.00, respectively. All models are covered by a three-year limited warranty and will be shipping soon.