SmallNetBuilder

Internal Details

Internally, the LinkStation EZ runs a Marvell 88FB6082 Media Vault processor (ARM926EJ) with 16MB of RAM and 256K of Marvell Flash memory, and an 88E1112 Ethernet controller (Figure 5).

From an examination of its software, it's clear that the EZ runs Linux 2.6 and BusyBox 1.1.1 with ash. The Samba version is 3.0.24. The internal filesystem is formatted as EXT3, while the NAS share is XFS.

Figure 5: Mainboard of the LinkStation EZ

The hard drive of the EZ is a Samsung HD501LJ Spinpoint T166 500 GB SATA drive (Figure 6). The fan runs constantly, with no way to shut it off, and it's fairly loud. There is also no way to set a spin-down time for the hard drive.

Figure 6: Samsung HD501LJ Spinpoint T166 500 GB SATA drive

While it's possible to hack the EZ to enhance its features, the limited memory and processing power make it a poor candidate. You can explore this NAS-Central forum if you're interested. Source code can be downloaded here (look for the "LS-GL series" links).

See the slideshow for more internal photos

Performance

As mentioned previously, the performance of the LinkStation EZ is rather disappointing. This can probably be attributed to the lower-performance Marvell processor and small (16MB) memory. As you can see from the NAS Charts, the EZ ranks near the bottom overall, and certainly sits at the bottom of the recent Buffalo NAS line. Of course, it's meant to be the bottom of their line, so that's not really much of a surprise.

Figure 7: Write performance comparision - 1000 Mbps LAN

Figures 7 and 8 compare write and read performance with a gigabit LAN connection for the EZ, Western Digital My Book World Edition and previous-generation Buffalo Technology LinkStation Live. These were chosen because they are currently all available at similar price points (although the LinkStation Live is the 250 GB model).

The EZ falls between the WD My Book and LinkStation Live for both Read and Write. Performance with a 100 Mbps LAN connection yields lower results, but the same relative positions, except for 100 Mbps Read, where the EZ actually does better than the Live at some file sizes.

Figure 8: Read performance comparision - 1000 Mbps LAN

For the busy or non-technical users the EZ is aimed at, its performance might not be much of a problem. However, don't be fooled into thinking you can pick it up for its low price and use it as anything other than a simple file-sharing or backup device. Even with its gigabit Ethernet and SATA drives, it's not very fast.