Snap Appliance Server 4500
Last time we looked at NAS units a bit over a year ago we received the Guardian 4400 from Snap Appliance. It seems Snap has scrapped the Guardian name and replaced it with plain old Server. The new Snap Appliance Server 4500 is a lot faster in terms of processing power and has a much larger storage capacity compared to the Guardian 4400. The Snap unit is actually an HP OEM product.
Inside is a single 2.4GHz Intel Pentium 4 processor with 512MB of RAM. There was also provision for two extra memory modules. There's a single power supply that has a pair of cooling fans and there's also one large fan that helps keep the CPU cool.
To gain access to the hard disks you have to remove the front facia, which can be done easily enough. The drive cradles have a smooth looking mechanism and possibly one of the best we have seen. The drives used were 250GB Western Digital IDE drives. We were quite surprised not to find Quantum drives in there.
Getting the Snap Appliance Server 4500 up and running was quite easy. The unit shipped with a Quick Start guide and despite it being quite basic was able to get us up and running in no time. The CD that came with the NAS included a utility called NAS Manager that enables you to locate the NAS unit and set the IP address for the unit. From there you can open up your browser and type the IP address of the NAS and configure it.
The Snap Appliance performed quite well in all our tests. Read transfer rates were just as good as any other NAS but its Write transfer rates were exceptional only being slower to the Network Appliance device which was equipped with FC hard disk drives.
| Product | Snap Appliance Server 4500 |
| Price | $5795 |
| Vendor | Snap Appliance |
| Phone | 1800 027 722 |
| Web | www.snapappliance.com |
| Interoperability |  |
| Supports all standard protocols. | |
| Futureproofing |  |
| Relatively little expansion potential, improved by the external SCSIconnector. | |
| ROI |  ½ |
| Well priced for its features and excellent performance. | |
| Service |  ½ |
| Three-year limited warranty, additional options available. | |
| Rating |  ½ |
