Preface
In the past two years, domestic private cloud NAS brands have sprung up, and more and more old NAS have begun to pay attention to the private cloud market for home users...... All sorts of 9 seconds and so on and so forth........
Because of some hobbies for home storage products for various reasons (old drivers know it), this appearance and hardware configuration are good [smell] Double-disk cloud butler WS215i paid attention to it when Jingdong crowdfunding. The appearance of this NAS can be said to be the most distinctive and beautiful one of the new NAS brands in recent years, and later I found out that Aunt Zhang also pushed the crowdfunding information of the NAS product, it seems that my vision is not wrong! After a long waiting period after the end of the crowdfunding also successfully got the NAS product.
This came to the hand to write the firmware experience,But it seems that the current firmware is still not perfect,It can only be regarded as an initial version,When I asked customer service questions,I got the news that about the middle of June will be released a more functional firmware system,I heard that the changes are great,Completely subvert the existing firmware style,Very much looking forward to! So let's make a series of articles to first have a simple unboxing and disassembly.,The firmware part is waiting for the official release of the official version and then in-depth experience experience.,And then write a review post to use the evaluation post ~
Reading guide: The official parameters and technical indicators of the catalog are simple, unboxing, simple disassembly, hands-on simple testing, and summarizing the official parameters and technical indicators
It smells that the WS215i is remarkable in terms of appearance and hardware configuration, which is why I paid more attention to it when I was crowdfunding. At that time, the crowdfunding link was deeply attracted by its unique appearance.
The WS215i uses the MiniNASOS operating system based on Linux, Intel's EvanSport platform. The CPU is Intel Atom CE5315, with a frequency of 1.2GHz dual-core and four-thread, using SoC design, and integrating all modules on a single chip. In terms of memory: RAM 2GB, ROM eMMC 4GB, among the brand NAS at the same price, it can be regarded as a cost-effective NAS product!
There are 2 built-in hard disk compartments in the fuselage, supporting 3.5", 2.5" mechanical hard disk and 2.5" SSD hard disk, a single disk can support up to 6TB hard disk, that is to say, the whole machine can support up to 12TB of storage, two USB3.0 high-speed interfaces, which can be connected to external mobile hard disks or U disks for data interaction, and a single Gigabit network port provides a high-speed and stable transmission environment for intranet data interaction and streaming media streaming.
It is worth mentioning that because the CE5315 CPU in the Berryville Atom CE5300 series has a hardware video decoder and supports HDMI output, it provides "core" support for the motherboard's HDMI interface, and provides the possibility to assume the responsibility of HTPC in the future. (Looking at the appearance of this product, you know that you are born to compete with HTPC for jobs~)
Simple unboxing
I have to say that this NAS is full of weight, and when I receive the express mail, I hold it in my hand heavily~ Look at the official parameters of 3KG, good guy! No wonder the weight is full ~
Instead of having a separate corrugated cardboard box like QNAP or Synology, the accessories of this NAS are placed on top of the box in a simple and straightforward way.
Family photo: NAS main unit, dustproof cover, installation guide, warranty card, screwdriver, hard disk screws, 1m CAT6 Gigabit network cable, power adapter.
The overall structure of the fuselage is a regular triangle, and when the fuselage is opened, a decorative waist line is specially left at the position of the golden ratio, so that the fuselage will not look too rigid.
WISNUC's brand logo is placed very low-key on the lower right side of the fuselage
The hard disk read/write indicator is just hidden in the position of the waistline, which is perfectly integrated with the waistline, and the color of the light is white when running, and the brightness is adjusted very softly, so that there will be no dazzling light pollution in the dark night. Especially when watching blockbuster movies on HTPC linked TV, after turning off the indoor lights, it won't become the lone lamp that affects the viewing atmosphere and flashes blind titanium alloy eyes! Don't ask me why I say that...... Too lazy to explain!
In addition to the power switch on the top, the heat dissipation and dustproof cover plate, the hard disk status light and the brand logo on the front, the entire shell is almost integrated, and all the IO interfaces are centrally placed in the groove design on a corner of the rear, from top to bottom are: Reset button, UCopy button, USB3.0x2, HDMI, RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet port and DC IN power input port.
Close-up of the power switch, the indicator light is also white. But it's a little regrettable that the mold accuracy of the switch is not good enough, and the buttons will shake left and right (users who have bought the Xiaomi USB plug-in board should have an experience of the feeling of being loose and baggy). The text indication of "press to open" is used to prompt the user to open the dust cover, the lock that locks the dust cover is directly below the sticker, and the dust cover can be opened by pressing it down. However, the position of this tip post and the lock is too close to the power switch, and users may misunderstand that the power switch is the dust cover switch when they first use the installed hard disk, and press the power switch.
The dust cover uses a rebound automatic lock switch similar to the TV button cover, and after pressing the switch, you can remove the dust cover plate, revealing the two hard disk cages inside. The two drive bays form a figure-of-eight architecture, and it is speculated that the other triangle may be where the NAS motherboard is located (which has been confirmed by the later teardown). According to the official statement, this ingenious design can effectively avoid the resonance generated by the operation of the two hard disks placed in parallel in the past, thereby extending the mechanical life of the hard disk from the physical architecture.
The power adapter uses a 19V = 3.42A 65W power adapter from Qunguang Electronics. During the measurement, it was found that the L-shaped head at the IN end of the DC was in conflict with the IO groove. When the NAS is placed on the TV stand, when the HTPC is heading to the left, a cable sticks out from the side of the machine, and when the cable goes downward, it will touch the bottom end of the IO groove. It is recommended to change to a straight DC IN head, which is beautiful even if it is used to control and store the direction of the cable.
Simple disassembly
Remove the top dustproof cover plate, pull out the hard disk bracket, the official parameter given by the hard disk bracket material is 0.8mm steel thickness, the material is solid, and it natively supports 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch SSD or HDD hard disks.
After removing the hard drive bracket, use a screwdriver to unscrew the 4 screws that are visible at the top
After removing the 3 screws on the bottom cover, you can see the heat dissipation system at the bottom, and you can see 6 screws around the radiator, except for ~
I thought I could directly pull out the inner iron frame...... I found that I didn't move, and after observation, I found that on the IO interface surface of the back groove, 3 small screws that were covered under the three dot stickers were found ~~The sample is still shy~Hidden so deeply~
Finally, the coat was finally removed~ and the entire internal structure was extracted
The body is triangular as a whole, with the motherboard being placed vertically on one side (confirming the previous guess), and the two hard disks occupy the remaining two sides. The fan is located at the bottom of the chassis and blows air from the bottom up, accelerating the exhaust of hot airflow and creating a chimney-like heat dissipation effect. Seeing this, someone should have thought of some famous products with similar thermal designs
For example, Apple's classic model, the Power Mac G4 Cube released in 2000
and the follow-up, the 2013 Mac Pro, known as the "most expensive trash can" in the world
The disassembly and heat dissipation diagram of the Mac Pro, which smells similar to the WS215i, is quite a tribute to classic industrial design.
The radiator uses AVC's 8CM three-pin intelligent speed control fan, but it seems to smell 50% of the WS215i system, which is a fixed speed of 1600 rpm.
AVC stands for Asia Vital Components, and it is one of the top five heat sink manufacturers in the world. It mainly focuses on R&D and manufacturing of CPU coolers, laptop heat dissipation modules, heat pipes and DC fans. The front power adapter uses Chicony group optoelectronics, which are all world-class manufacturers. In this regard, Wenshang Technology's attitude towards the selection of materials can be seen!
Internal circuitry
THE PASSIVE ALUMINUM HEATSINK USED IN THE CPU COOLER IS PAIRED WITH AN 8CM FAN ON THE BOTTOM OF THE BODY
From left to right: Reset, UCopy, USB3.0x2, HDMI, RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet port, DCIN power interface
The interface is very rich,But limited to the current firmware is not mature,When testing the HDMI interface, there is only a full-screen smell on the LOGO display,U Copy button should be a one-click backup function,I don't know if the posture is incorrect or the firmware is temporarily unusable。 In addition, the design of this RJ45 interface is slightly unreasonable, instead of using the common left and right dual LED indicator elements, but a single LED indicator, so that users can not judge their network operation status through the status of the LED. In addition, there is a design problem, after the network cable is inserted into the interface, the snap shrapnel of the crystal head faces the inside of the IO concave bezel. If you want to remove the network cable, you will find that you cannot hold down the snap shrapnel smoothly and will need to use a ruler or similar tool. Fortunately, in general, the NAS will not be frequently plugged and unplugged after connecting the network cable.
It is commendable that this motherboard designed and produced by the foundry giant Inventec has made very good EMI electromagnetic shielding, in the picture above, we can see that there is a silver EMI contact block above each interface, and at the IO baffle, aluminum foil for shielding electromagnetic radiation is also pasted. This design makes the entire frame in the chassis form a complete Faraday cage, which not only ensures that the NAS will not be interfered with by external electromagnetic radiation during operation, but also ensures that electromagnetic radiation will not leak out, so as to ensure that the radiation value is maintained at a low level, and at the same time improve the stability of machine operation.
Top view of the motherboard of the WS215i
In the orange box is the SOC version of Intel CE5315. The CE5300 series, codenamed "Berryville", was released in 2012 and is mainly aimed at HTPC and HD set-top boxes, and the CE5315 supports hardware decoding of HD video.
In the red box, there is the onboard 4GB eMMC flash memory, the supplier is SanDisk, the flash memory number is SD1N7DP2-40, and the packaging location is China. Compared with the method of installing each HDD in the Synology system, the storage location of the MiniNAS system is undoubtedly higher in terms of cost than the method of installing user data from the system in each HDD, but it also avoids the problem that the NAS cannot boot smoothly when the HDD fails.
IN THE GREEN BOX, THERE ARE 4 DDR3 MEMORY PARTICLES FROM SAMSUNG, EACH WITH A CAPACITY OF 512MB, FORMING A TOTAL OF 2GB OF ONBOARD MEMORY, 2GB DRR3 MEMORY.
In the pink box, there is a blank MiniPCI-E slot, in the official manual and the MiniNAS OS settings page, I did not find the relevant information, but the word WLAN is printed on the motherboard PCB. It seems that in the future I am going to support WIFI wireless links in a built-in way?
In addition, the leftmost left of the motherboard is one of the SATA ports, and the lower left corner is the fan port of the motherboard
There's nothing big on the back of the motherboard, a motherboard coin cell battery and another SATA connector
Appreciation of motherboard details
Finally, the dismembered family portrait......
Get started
This test uses two WD 1T blue disk groups of Raid1, although the official parameters mention Raid0, but in the actual machine setup process, there is no option, only JBOD and Raid1 options. After consulting the official customer service, I learned that in view of the imperfect firmware now, the Raid0 mode is not supported for the time being, and the new version of the firmware will be greatly improved in the later stage around June. Therefore, the prelude to the evaluation does not focus on firmware testing, but simply tests the basic transmission performance
LAN file transfer test
As a NAS, the transmission performance of LAN is the most critical and basic skill, and the use of network storage is to facilitate the centralized storage of data and the sharing of multiple devices. However, if the access speed is too slow, it will inevitably affect the most basic experience effect, so it is not as straightforward and refreshing as a portable hard disk. Fortunately, gigabit devices have become increasingly popular, which has greatly increased the transmission speed of the intranet, which makes the deployment of private cloud NAS have a faster and more convenient experience. Let's take a look at the actual transmission performance of the WS215i......
Good horses with good saddles ~ Friends who are new to NAS products, the pit of NAS is in, don't use a switch or router (pseudo gigabit) device with a 100 Gigabit network port, after entering the NAS pit, you will find that this pit is getting deeper and deeper: the router (switch) needs to change the gigabit network port, the network cabling at home is more than six categories, and finally it is found that the terminal equipment also needs to be updated to the network card with high transmission performance. In order to experience better audio, video, and file sharing speeds, I once cracked the BIOS whitelist in order to replace the AC dual-band wireless network card for a notebook that "I can't even think of", and it was not successful until I replaced a motherboard, but fortunately, it was within the warranty period......
Test Environment:
CPU：Intel E3 1231 V3
主板：技嘉H97N-WIFI
硬盘：Toshiba 240GB(SSD)
Network environment: Netgear 8-port full gigabit simple network management switch
Write a 25GB virtual machine VHDX file from your PC to your NAS at a smooth 90MB/s
From the Smell Cloud Manager reading a 2.87GB Mission: Impossible 5 to the SSD in the PC, the speed has been stable at 113MB/s
From the simple transmission test, it can be seen that WS215i basically meets the transmission performance of the gigabit network, and the read speed can always be in a full load state, but the write part is not the highest performance for the X86 architecture.
Run a noise test
Because the current firmware is not perfect, although the hardware supports intelligent speed regulation, it is found that the fan speed is limited to a fixed 1600rp/min during use, and the operating noise caused by this speed is relatively large. Because there is no standard detection equipment at hand, I tried a mobile phone APP for noise detection, and the test distance: the mobile phone is placed on the top of the NAS (the results are for reference only).
But in actual use, we put the machine in the corner of the desk, about 40cm away from the user, although the noise has been reduced, but it is more obvious, and it has affected the daily work a little. Fortunately, I later found a tutorial on the official forum to adjust the speed of the radiator through linux commands, but it is not suitable for ordinary users, and I hope that the later firmware can improve the intelligent speed control or direct debugging of the system UI interface.
summary
It can be seen from the unboxing that the appearance design of WS215i is very unique, and the simple and atmospheric appearance is also very good, which is very suitable for placing in conspicuous locations such as the living room, changing the rigid square shape of NAS products in the past, and putting it together with the audio-visual equipment at home should be regarded as a versatile match, plus the hardware supports HDMI output and hardware decoding, which integrates video and audio storage in video and audio playback, making WS215i have the possibility of replacing HTPC position;
Among NAS at the same price, the more powerful materials and configurations are selected: X86 architecture, eMMC 4GB onboard storage, 2GB storage, dual USB3.0 ports, etc...... In particular, the EMI screen magnetic treatment on each IO interface and the aluminum foil shielding on the baffle are quite surprising~ At least in the past, netizens and their own NAS disassembly did not see this kind of screen magnetic treatment. This product also has an onboard WLAN reserved port, is it possible to add a wireless network card? I hope that the later firmware can bring its own driver. I'm more curious about whether this product has a good configuration and can "unlock" other systems to play? such as Win, black dress, etc......
Although the appearance design and configuration selection have good performance, but the "press to open" prompt label design is not rigorous enough, it is easy to confuse the indication of the power supply and the dust cover, in the selection of RJ45 interface is also slightly insufficient, the single LED light can not know the network status at a glance, RJ45 interface orientation also leads to the crystal head can not be removed smoothly after insertion. The L-shaped plug of the power adapter is also inconvenient, and the system firmware is not perfect enough to give full play to the performance of high configuration, after all, the main value of NAS is the user-friendliness and ease of use of the firmware, which still requires manufacturers to spend more energy!
epilogue
The first article in this series is unboxed and disassembled to this O~~ Thank you for reading this~ The first time to paste the first label, I don't know if I can review the "first exposure of this site", the next article in this series intends to measure the system software of WS215i in detail~ I hope that the perfect firmware has been launched by then! When writing a summary, I discussed it with a few gods of NAS cloud, and it seems that this product is very likely to be able to "unlock" to play black dress~~ I'm still looking forward to it, and I'm looking for the gods to study and study when I'm free~Let's see if you have the leisure to write down the next series, whether you are playing with the original firmware or a black skirt~~
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