A Closer Look
The first thing we need to do with this unit is install our drives. They all can be mounted tool-free, just slide the trays out…
…then the drives clip into place thanks to a simple plastic retention clip rather than screws.
There’s a front mesh cover providing airflow to the drive bays.
As you can see, there are five bays in total.
Simply slide the drive tray back into one of the bays.
All five are now in place, they lock into place securely, and no tools are required.
Clip the cover back in place, and the unit looks pretty slick, not unlike a set-top box rather than a NAS unit.
Around the back, you’ll find a power input, 10GbE LAN, 2.5GbE LAN, HDMI out, Type-C, and a pair of Type-A USB ports. There’s also a pair of rear-mounted fans for cooling.
On the underside, you’ll find an air intake, as well as four durable rubber feet to provide some ground clearance.
The main part of the body is a single piece of aluminium, so it’s very durable, but it also has a great premium quality look and feel to it; this should also assist in cooling, somewhat acting like a heatsink.
The main PCB looks pretty robust, with a fan connected to either side of it, and an additional fan in the bottom, with a large black heatsink taking up the most amount of space here. Furthermore, with the PCB taken out, the E1.S drives can mount direct in place.
The drive cages are all shielded and reinforced, providing passive cooling, and additional ventilation ensures airflow can pass through them. It actually looks like someone shrunk down a 1U server rack.
Under the heatsink, you’ll find the CPU, with two versions available. The i3-1320PE features 4P+4E cores at up to 4.5GHz and 12GB of onboard memory, and the i5-1340PE features 4P+8E cores with 16GB of onboard memory.
The heatsink is pretty hefty too, so even under intensive workloads, cooling shouldn’t be an issue.
