With the increasing number of smart devices in modern homes, unified data transmission, storage, management and sharing between different devices has become an important thing. It is precisely because of this demand that NAS (Network Attached Storage), which was originally a very professional network storage device, has begun to slowly enter the people's households, and like its enterprise-level predecessors, it has gradually occupied the C position in the home network.
With the slow expansion of the home NAS market, many manufacturers have begun to pay attention to this niche product that they did not care much about before. Like the extreme space Z4S I recently started, it is a very cutting-edge style home NAS product.
Why it is said to be "cutting-edge" style, I consider it mainly for four reasons:
A product appearance fashionable, has departed from the traditional IT product design habits, closer to the style of the family environment.
Although the product is called NAS, it has exceeded the basic capabilities of ordinary NAS storage, processing and transmission in terms of function, and also has the functions of office, video and audio playback, image processing, e-book reading and other functions that originally required third-party plug-ins to complete, basically meeting all the needs of ordinary families for data processing, and becoming a veritable ALL IN NAS.
Compared with the general NAS only focus on data processing capabilities, the ordinary version of the Extreme Space Z4S I purchased is equipped with a good performance Intel Celeron N5105 processor, the flagship version is even equipped with the industry-leading Intel Pentium N6005 processor, but also has expandable memory, SATA, HDMI, dual nvme M.2 SSD and other characteristics, in performance has been comparable to ordinary office computers.
4. Easy to use interface, Extreme Space Z4S has been greatly improved in UI and system ease of use, it has changed the traditional NAS complex settings, more complex use management. The UI design is very friendly, it can be said that from 80 to 8 years old, as long as you can use a computer, you can easily operate. And this NAS can not only be managed through the traditional intranet browser, but also through mobile APP, computer client (WIN, MAC), TV APP, and even WeChat mini program to manage and use, which is very convenient.
In the next time, I will show you the highlights of this NAS in detail, and see how the emerging Internet technology brand of Extreme Space makes a NAS so interesting.
1. The hardware configuration is powerful and the design workmanship is excellent
The first thing to show is the exterior shape of Z4S, although it adopts the square outline commonly used by traditional 4-disk NAS, but black dividing lines are added on both sides of the fuselage, with a slightly raised front panel, it still looks very technological in the overall shape. The light blue part of the fuselage is an aluminum alloy anodizing process, and the surface is frosted, and the texture is very good.
With a snap of your hand, you can easily open the front panel of the fuselage with suction adsorption, revealing the internal 4 SSD interface 3.5-inch hard disk slots. It is worth noting that not only the hard disk enclosure panel itself adopts a hollow treatment that is conducive to heat dissipation, but the Z4S also leaves enough gaps between the hard disks to enhance heat dissipation.
The lower part of the front of the fuselage is designed with USB3.0 and Type-C USB ports, which is very convenient to connect a U disk during daily use.
The structure behind the fuselage is much more complex than the front, the most eye-catching is definitely the huge fan, Z4S adopts the design of positive pressure air duct, through the airflow introduced by this fan, the CPU and hard disk can be cooled at the same time without hindrance, avoiding the noise problem caused by the need to design multiple cooling fans for ordinary NAS.
Under the fan, is its interface part, you can see that the back interface of the Z4S body is very rich, not only provides two network cards that support 2.5G, but also specially set up an eSATA expansion port, which can be used with the hard disk expansion box launched by Extreme Space. And the HDMI 2.0 output port on the Z4S is not only used for installation and debugging like Synology, but has 4K video output capabilities, which can be used as a Blu-ray player to a certain extent.
The internal circuit integration of Z4S is very high, except for the interface board of the hard disk, all functions are basically integrated on this motherboard. Under a large aluminum passive heatsink is the Intel Celeron N5105 processor, which has 4 cores and 2.9G, and also integrates Intel UHD Graphics 24-core GPU, and with 8G memory, the whole configuration is very high in the common NAS configuration on the market.
The machine also provides a memory expansion slot, and users can expand the memory by themselves, which is a very good highlight for people who like to toss, especially friends who often run multiple docker containers in the NAS.
What's more interesting is that Z4S also provides two 2280-spec M2 SSD interfaces on the motherboard, which can support NVMe 1.2/1.3 interface hard disks and up to 8T high-speed storage space, as for gameplay, it is even more diverse. It can support the high-speed storage function and automatic cache function of a single SSD card, and then support the high-speed storage function and read-write cache function of two SSDs.
With support for SSDs, those frequently used data that are read and written frequently (such as frequently used work documents, downloaded and protected files) can be placed in SSD high-speed storage, faster and quieter. Read and write low-frequency or infrequently used data (such as archived files, collected and sorted data, etc.), which can be placed on mechanical hard disks, making storage safer and more reliable. According to the manufacturer's information, the follow-up will also provide the function of regularly backing up the data stored at high speed on the SSD to the memory storage of the SATA hard disk to further protect data security.
In a word, with a strong hardware foundation, NAS can better serve the family.
2. Foolish installation and start-up process
As an old NAS user, the traditional NAS boot installation is still more familiar, generally speaking, users need to have certain network knowledge, in order to successfully complete the installation, and this Z4S installation and setup process, but easy like an ordinary household appliances, users only need a few simple steps, can be completed.
The first time you use Z4S, you only need to take out the host from the box, install the hard disk, then connect its power supply, and then plug in the network cable, and the hardware connection part is completed. Then press the power switch located on the left side of the main unit, and the start-up process of the whole machine is also easy.
Subsequent configuration is also convenient, and even a computer is not needed. Install the Extreme Space APP in the mobile phone, simply tap twice, enter the mobile phone number, and you can register and bind Z4S.
The next step is to set up the hard disk, if you are just an ordinary user like me, then the next step can complete all the settings and enter the home page of Z4S.
And if you are a professional user who requires more data security and response speed, Z4S not only provides traditional raid1, raid5 and dual raid1 mode hard disk array functions, it can also create a special hard disk array mode called ZDR.
ZDR is an original dynamic backup technology of Extreme Space, which can choose to automatically back up important files to another physical hard disk, and important data will not be lost when one hard disk is damaged. Unimportant files do not need dual backup to save space, compared with RAID1, not only to ensure the security of data, but also to save storage space
Finally, like the hard disk array, it belongs to the function that ordinary users do not have to worry about, while professional users must applaud. Z4S has two 2.5G electrical ports, so it has 3 built-in different link aggregation modes, the default active and standby mode can ensure that the machine will not be dropped due to network card failure, and when users have higher demand for data bandwidth, it can be set to adaptive load balancing and dynamic link aggregation two modes, in theory, you can get the connection speed of 5G bandwidth, equivalent to half a 10,000 Gigabit port.
3. Daily use is convenient and fast
As a cutting-edge enterprise with home applications as its main target market, Z4S is also very distinctive in daily use.
The first is its colorful terminal programs, on different platforms, there are dedicated terminal programs, users only need to pass through the unique user account, can pass through different terminal environments.
In these terminals, WIN terminals, MAC terminals and WEB interface terminals are exactly the same interface, and even the wallpaper has been highly unified, and users have no sense of isolation when using them.
In the extreme space in the mobile phone APP, the designer adopts a UI style that is completely aimed at small screen touch operation, and users are as convenient and fast to use.
Considering the weak remote control operation of the set-top box, and the actual needs of the TV side, the interface of the TV version of the polar space is very simple, only the three common functions of extreme film and television, extreme album and extreme music, very specific.
Since extreme film and television are mentioned, I have to praise it in particular. Its function is very similar to VideoStation on Qunhui, but far more in details, the built-in poster wall function of Extreme Film and Television is very powerful, such as Shenhai, which has just been released, can obtain all video information including posters, actors, etc., while Qunhui's VS can only display the basic information of the file.
Of course, NAS such as Qunhui can enhance their functions by installing third-party suites such as Jellyfin, but this requires users to have more experience in installing NAS and docker applications, and it is very difficult for ordinary users to scrape the problem of how to scrape perfect film and television information.
Remember as mentioned earlier, does the polar space Z4S have an HDMI output terminal? By the way, if you place the extreme space Z4S in the living room and connect it to the TV through the HDMI interface, it will be gorgeously transformed into a Blu-ray player that supports 4K output, and with the powerful CPU and GPU configuration, there is no pressure to play high-bitrate Blu-ray original disks.
The functions of Extreme Photo Album and Extreme Music are also very good, from the functional point of view, Extreme Photo Album has traditional functions such as automatic backup of mobile phone photos, automatic classification, and the recently popular portrait recognition, scene classification, my footprints, memory selection, which are closely integrated with AI, are also not lacking, and Extreme Music is very useful in music management and playback.
The three applications mentioned above are the most core and most commonly used applications on home NAS, and they can be used immediately after the Z4S installation without complex settings. Other applications such as downloads, network disk backups, and Xunlei are also available immediately after installation, and there is no need to enter the package center to install themselves like Groupfa.
The status and management of the system is also very simple, just like an ordinary computer, you can check the resource occupation, process status, hardware status and network status of the system at any time in the management background.
4. Flexible multi-user management
As a home data processing center, NAS naturally faces users who are not as simple as an administrator. Extreme Space Z4S also follows the tradition in terms of user management.
In the system of Extreme Space, each user is identified and managed by a unique account, usually this account is his mobile phone number. In the background of the system, the administrator can also add any person as a user, if the user has not registered in the polar space, the administrator can even directly help register, which is greatly convenient for the elderly and children who are not familiar with the use and registration method of NAS at home.
Of course, in terms of security, it is naturally cautious, whether it is a self-registered user or an administrator to register on behalf of the user, the user needs to log in to the system through his mobile phone and activate the account, and then the administrator can set permissions and other operations on the user in the background of the system.
Under normal circumstances, the data between different users is completely isolated, which means that each user has an independent file storage space, and data security is fully guaranteed.
5. Methodical document management
As a NAS, its basic function is naturally file management. Z4S is quite convenient and reliable in this regard, and after setting up the hard disk, you can operate it through its file management.
In the polar space system, the space that users can use is divided into two types: personal space and team space. As the name suggests, personal space is a space that can only be seen and used by oneself. The team space is a very convenient shared space, as long as the user who can enter through the administrator settings, they can easily and quickly access the content here with their own permissions (read-write, read-only).
In their own file space, users can set various folder structures at will as if they were using their own computers, which is convenient for classifying and managing files.
Z4S's file manager has a powerful intelligent classification function, which can automatically classify different attributes such as pictures, videos, audio, torrents, applications, compressed files, and documents according to the file type.
FOR FILE MANAGEMENT AND UPLOAD AND DOWNLOAD, Z4S CAN BE EASILY DRAGGED AND DROPPED ON BOTH THE DESKTOP AND WEB SIDE, JUST LIKE USING LOCAL HARD DISK SPACE.
In addition to dragging and dropping, Z4S also provides a variety of file transfer services. USB, SMB, WebDav, DLNA, FTP, etc., which are the transport protocols and methods supported by common NAS, it supports.
In particular, it also supports two special file transfer methods, peer-to-peer lightning transmission and password sharing, and can be used in daily use to share simple large-area files like various network disks.
This function is very cool when I use it every day, especially when some files want to be shared with colleagues or some outsiders, no longer need to upload to Baidu network disk to toss, and when transferring some special files, there is no need to worry about the file being killed.
6. Backing up files is more convenient
Of course, the backup function of Z4S is also very powerful, like this automatic backup function for mobile phone albums, Z4S has been able to selectively classify photos in the machine at the same time as backup, such as automatic deduplication, backup of original pictures and other functions are ahead of other brands of NAS.
Of course, in addition to the backup of mobile phone albums, Extreme Space Z4S also supports the automatic backup function of files in the mobile phone, and the backup function of computer files and the function of backing up through FTP protocol are very comprehensive.
In addition to backing up files through APP and terminal programs, Extreme Space Z4S also has a built-in network disk backup function, which can be easily connected to Baidu network disk, Tianyi cloud disk and Microsoft's OneDrive to achieve content sharing.
Enter the account password to connect to Baidu network disk, you can see that the management interface is very similar to the local file management of NAS, which can easily upload and download files, and the capacity and extreme space capacity of the network disk can also be accurately obtained, which is convenient for users to carry out space planning.
Through automatic tasks, you can realize the synchronization of files between the network disk and the polar space Z4S, as long as the synchronization directory is set, and then someone shares Baidu network disk resources when you go out, you don't need to find a computer everywhere to download, but directly transfer to your own Baidu network disk, the extreme space at home will be automatically retrieved regularly.
For MAC users, Extreme Space Z4S also has built-in support for Apple's "Time Machine" function, only need to open the setting interface of Time Machine on MAC, you can automatically find Extreme Space Z4S, and set it as the target hard disk, the days that used to always have to connect an external hard disk to do backup data are finally over.
VII Docker
As a NAS configured with Intel N5105, its support for Docker is actually a very normal thing.
Enabling Docker on Z4S is very simple because it is already built into the system, and with just one click to confirm, the configuration will be done automatically.
This is the unified management interface of Docker in Z4S, through which it is convenient to download and configure the containers you need to use, and it is also convenient for daily management.
The machine can use a local image or connect to a common image repository. It is commendable that Polar Space has specially made a "common image" column for many warehouses that are not easy to connect and slow to download, and the mirror in this is more commonly used, and the second is fast and convenient to download.
The download problem of the image is solved, and the creation and configuration of containers is naturally smooth, as long as you have the basic configuration knowledge of Docker, you can go all the way to the next point and successfully complete the configuration of Docker.
8. Powerful download function
There is a lot of text written above, in fact, it is only a small part of the extreme space Z4S features, and it also provides many unique functions for users to use, such as powerful download functions.
The mainstream download forms on the market, Z4S, are basically supported, including bt, pt, magnet link, etc., and the download process can be started by simple drag and drop.
If the built-in PT download does not meet the system, Extreme Space Z4S also provides Xunlei's download client, speaking of this download star, I believe I don't need to introduce more.
IX To sum up
As a cutting-edge NAS supplier in China, Extreme Space can be said to have a very good understanding of the pain points of ordinary home NAS, and on this Z4S, you can see that it has done a lot of optimization for ordinary families, and it can be said that this is a very mature and easy-to-use home cloud center.
Through strong R&D capabilities, this machine greatly dilutes the attributes of this network device, and solves many things that users need to worry about on traditional NAS. For users who do not have a public IP, it is a troublesome thing for applications on home NAS to be exposed to the external network.
With the help of the official proxy service of Extreme Space, all its applications can easily go out through the network, and after the user goes out, he can easily use various services on the NAS as easily as at home, and the connection speed has almost reached the upper limit of broadband at home, far exceeding the small water pipe of hundreds of K of quickconnect.
Z4S application integration, is also the highest NAS on the market, compared with Qunhui per function one APP, Extreme Space Z4S in one APP integrated services like Extreme Audio, Extreme Album, Extreme Music, daily use is very convenient, but also can save mobile phone resources.
I have been buying this machine for a few weeks, and these days I have deeply felt the convenience of Z4S in daily use, and it can be said that it has become a good assistant that I cannot do without in my daily life and office. Dear friends, would you like to get one and try it too?