Nexsan SATABeast review

The Nexsan SATABeast is a storage monster. Fully loaded with 42 SATA 750GB drives, this storage behemoth delivers 31.5TB of storage over iSCSI or Fibre Channel. It is targeted at those whose appetite for storage is a rapacious as the SataBeast is big.

When the SataBeast arrives, you know you are looking at serious storage. The box is fastened to its own pallet and unless you have a handy forklift truck you might just want to have the local rugby scrum on hand to help shift it. There are three boxes and a number of separate components that come in the package.

The two top boxes are filled with hard disk drives already in their caddies. Like all of its competitors, Nexsan only supports hard disks that it supplies but does, at least, send them in their caddies. Each box contains 21 drives in three rows of seven.

Separate to this are the mounting rails, manual, cables and a spare hard disk.

At the bottom is the SATABeast itself. It is heavy, even without the disks and should be moved with care. Nexsan has spent a lot of time engineering the airflow in this box and that is reflected in the look and feel. Rather than be a simple metal container, the fans at the front are place behind a shaped facia that pulls the air into the fans.

Underneath this is a series of lights that give you status information about the SataBeast. This is useful because you can see at a glance when there is a problem and the status of the fans, power and drivers.

The SataBeast has two 760w redundant power supplies and supports two controller boards. Each board has dual iSCSI and Fibre Channel interfaces. The version we received had two controller boards.

Installation takes time. This is not about speed because you are battling the weight. Before loading the SATABeast into the rack, Nexsan advises removing the communication cards and the power supplies. This is very good advice and installation is still best done with three people. Removing these components is very easy and all can be taken out in under a minute.

Once installed in the rack and with the power supplies and communication cards reinstalled, you can fit the hard disks. With 42 drives to fit, the problem is how to do it without restricting airflow. Nexsan has chosen to mount them tail-first and each drive is counter fitted to the previous. This achieves two key objectives. Air can flow more easily and rotation vibration is cancelled out.

The drives slide down plastics mounting rails and just drop onto the SATA connector. This was not as good an experience as I was expecting. The first row of drives went in without any of them providing a positive reaction to say that they were in properly. As the three internal rows filled up, then it became slightly harder to insert the drive and you did get a more positive response.

Once installed, you need to put the top on the box and close the front. This was almost as disappointing an experience as installing the first few drives. The top slipped on but you couldn't close the front. It you then opened the top slightly to slide the top of the front panel underneath it, the top then didn't slip into place properly. You need to wiggle it about to make it connect properly. For something that looks as good as this, such a poor fit is inexcusable.

Turn on the power and you know you have entered storage heaven. There are some sounds that you remember for ever; the first time a Ferrari roars past on a F1 track; a Harrier jump jet doing a VTOL take-off; a flight of helicopters leaving the flight deck of an Commando Carrier loaded with Royal Marines. There is now a new sound to add to that, a Nexsan SATABeast drawing its first breath.