In an effort to keep the Sentinel range moving forward, WD has now let loose a top-of-the-line 16TB model priced at 1,400.This is the same DX4000 chassis thats been doing the rounds since late 2011, but thats no bad thing; WDs 206mm x 224mm x 160mm enclosure remains well built and has a real quality feel about it.A mesh front door is easily opened to reveal access to the units four spring-loaded, hot-swappable drive bays, and just above that a two-line LCD display provides at-a-glance status information that can prove helpful during setup.
WD includes two external power supplies as part of the 16TB bundle, giving users an out-of-the-box backup should one fail. Wd Sentinel Dx4000 Reset Software And QuietensCooling, meanwhile, is provided by a 92mm fan that, while boisterous and noisy during the initial setup phase, is controlled through software and quietens down to an acceptable level during everyday use. Unlike the vast array of Linux-powered alternatives, Western Digitals decision to opt for a Windows-based environment makes the DX4000 an obvious fit for many small-office businesses. The software will feel familiar to users of Windows machines, and of course integration of Microsoft services such as Windows Domain and Active Directory should prove to be straightforward. The process of chopping and changing drives couldnt be easier - youll never be left searching for the screwdriver - but there are a couple of caveats. Only 3.5in drives are supported, so dont contemplate adding high-speed 2.5in SSDs, and in order to provide the highest reliability to customers the Sentinel DX4000 has a rather short list of compatible hard drives. Hitachi GST (now a subsidiary of Western Digital) has designed the drive with an emphasis on low-power operation, hence the average speed of 5,400RPM, and while it represents a good fit for NAS environments, we suspect future Sentinel models will utilise WDs own NAS-specific drive; Red. ![]() The aforementioned Intel Atom processor officially supports up to 4GB of memory - suggesting that the module could be upgraded by the user - but WD has kept the hardware simple throughout. An NEC chip powers the two USB 3.0 ports, Intel 82574L controllers drive the Gigabit Ethernet ports and a three-pin header is used to connect the bundled system fan. No installation discs are provided, and if you do happen to run into trouble without a backup, youll need to download the 8GB image from the WD website in order to return to a factory-fresh state. Were currently in the midst of resetting our 16TB server to factory defaults, and the progress bar has barely moved after 40 hours. It will be the best part of a week before our box returns to a usable state, and these long recovery times are a cause for concern. We appreciate the importance of resynchronising the array, but its a slow process on the DX4000 and during this period all connected clients will suffer from significantly-reduced performance as well as the potential risk of data loss - theres no fault tolerance during the rebuild. Members: 449,144 Forum posts: 2,691,715 Forum threads: 257,506 Currently active users: 692.
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