OWC Jupiter Mini evaluate | TechRadar

OWC Jupiter Mini: 30-second evaluate

Within the background of most workplaces and studios, there’s often some type of server with entry to mass storage working away. This storage is often present in a secluded space and accessed solely by a certified IT skilled. Whereas such community programs are advanced and will be difficult to manage, their performance is crucial for any enterprise, basically supplying a centralised useful resource the place all employees can entry shared information of all sorts. 

The OWC Jupiter Mini is a Community Connected Storage (NAS) system that, whereas not a totally built-in server, performs all of the storage jobs that bigger enterprise expertise handles in massive establishments. The Jupiter Mini, although smaller and simpler to manage, nonetheless affords the potential for a considerable quantity of storage, as much as 100TB and will be accessed by a number of customers with out the system slowing down, making it a great resolution for small to medium-sized companies and professionals working with TB of pictures or video information and needing knowledgeable storage resolution.

The Jupiter Mini integrates together with your community and will be subdivided into community drives (datasets) that may then be accessed by anybody on that community or remotely, given the right permissions.

Whereas there are a lot of different NAS programs available on the market, which can appear significantly cheaper, the Jupiter Mini affords unimaginable worth, contemplating the efficiency, storage, and help supplied. In contrast to many client items designed for infrequent entry, this NAS can connect with the community with a 10GbE connection and is supported by highly effective inner {hardware} able to dealing with substantial knowledge move and a number of concurrent connections with out faltering.

We have tried out loads of the finest NAS gadgets, and in our assessments, the speeds over the wired connection have been spectacular. 140 GB was transferred to a few machines in round half-hour, which is considerably sooner than a client unit used to check.

The pace of the connection makes a substantial distinction when storing information, permitting a number of customers quick access over the community in a small studio setting utilizing smb shares. This implies mission folders and information will be rapidly downloaded to a working drive and restored as soon as completed. Moreover, tools types, threat assessments, and different frequently accessed information are simply reachable on-site, which is invaluable when web connectivity is unreliable.

Finally, in the event you’re a small to medium-sized enterprise and wish a straightforward mass storage system that’s quick and simple to entry with nice help, then there’s little to fault with the OWC Jupiter Mini.

OWC Jupiter Mini: Worth & availability

The OWC Jupiter Mini is out there immediately from OWC and from many expertise retailers. Nonetheless, shopping for immediately ensures that you just get the precise specs and construct you require, whether or not for private use or your enterprise. Items begin on the base stage of 20TB, which we have examined on this evaluate, and start at $2,999.

OWC Jupiter Mini: Design & construct

NAS packing containers usually have a purposeful fashion with quick-access drive slot doorways on the entrance and numerous ports across the again, typically resembling an enlarged exterior arduous drive. OWC, nevertheless, has enhanced this design precept with the Jupiter Mini, including aesthetic touches equivalent to blue anodised door lever locks on the entrance, giving the drive a classy edge over rivals.

Regardless of its aesthetic attraction, this unit’s true worth lies in its options and performance. The drive is out there pre-configured from OWC and plenty of different retailers, saving at the very least a few hours of setup time. This implies it may be rapidly built-in into your community and prepared to be used, offering immediate, high-capacity storage with out a lot fuss.

For a lot of small companies, this quick access to massive storage capability might be greater than sufficient, having a drive which you could merely plug in after which browse the community situated the drive login, and the Jupiter Mini community drive simply seems in your desktop, prepared to make use of, all quite simple. Nonetheless, the Jupiter Mini is way extra, and the attraction of the machine is not simply the simplicity of connection however the ease of use in the case of the administration of that storage for the individuals accessing the drive. Administration is dealt with by the TrueNAS interface, which is pre-installed and permits an administrator to log in and allocate completely different storage areas to teams or people within the type of datasets, in addition to allow exterior sharing and verify drive well being. 

The drive additionally affords future enlargement choices, so you can begin with the 20TB model after which increase the storage as wanted. Drive alternative is made doable in a few methods, both by changing the drives bodily within the mini after which creating a brand new pool/dataset/share with the brand new drives. Or substitute one drive within the pool with the bigger one, let it resolve, substitute one other, let it resilver, and proceed till you will have changed all 5 drives. As soon as that is carried out, you possibly can then increase the pool to take up further area on the drives, which is finished with a single button press in TrueNAS.

In the event you prefer to discover the system, you possibly can connect with the Jupiter Mini immediately. It has a VGA port on the again and will be linked to a keyboard and mouse. This strategy is way extra akin to enterprise-level options, and for many customers, the GUI of the TrueNAS browser model might be a far simpler surroundings to navigate.

OWC Jupiter Mini: Options

The {hardware} of the Jupiter Mini is designed to fulfill the wants of creatives and help the massive file sorts that are typically dealt with in these environments, which is the place related capability however lesser-powered NAS packing containers battle. The Jupiter Mini base capability is 20TB (expandable to 100TB) and makes use of ZFS RAID for knowledge safety; this leaves 16TB of usable area. The field comes pre-configured as RAIDZ1 (just like RAID 5). One of many benefits of that is that the ZFS mechanically caches your most often used and up to date information in RAM, offering sooner entry to information at flash-like speeds. It additionally includes a high-speed 10GbE community connection, offering sooner file entry in comparison with normal NAS drives, with all of the processing right down to its enterprise-grade Xeon Processor and 32GB of ECC RAM. Utilizing the Jupiter Mini as a part of a studio or workplace setup permits a number of customers to entry the NAS concurrently, with computerized file caching for swift retrieval of often accessed information.

The system comes preloaded with the TrueNAS SCALE, which permits the straightforward administration of the drive and its storage. This permits completely different community drives to be created and entry permissions granted, making certain a simple setup and administration and a system that’s absolutely appropriate with each Mac and PC programs.

Whereas the drive’s general dealing with is kind of simple, in the event you do get caught, there’s loads of documentation on-line, in addition to a complete single-source guarantee and excellent Professional Assist from OWC. This help affords help throughout the setup and past, making certain that assistance is simply an e mail away when you’ve got any questions or points which will come up.

OWC Jupiter Mini: Efficiency

Community storage is a big asset in any studio or workplace surroundings. It permits the sharing of large-format information amongst colleagues. In a studio setting, that is significantly helpful for transferring massive video information throughout the community, eliminating the necessity to copy every little thing onto transportable arduous drives and transfer them from one particular person to a different.

Whereas there are many NAS options obtainable, the Jupiter Mini stands out as one of many few choices tailor-made for small to medium-sized companies, boasting ease of use and operation, energy, and scalability with out requiring intensive IT expertise.

The preliminary setup and use of the Jupiter Mini have been notably simple, with the system connecting to the again of the EERO 6 wifi router and changing into accessible all through the studio and residential. This centralised useful resource proved its worth by permitting fast entry to important video and picture information for tasks. The pace of file transfers was immediately spectacular over the wifi connection, with 140GB of knowledge downloading in about an hour and a half, in comparison with six hours with our present NAS. 

Nonetheless, when linked to the studio’s wired community, the obtain time for a similar information dropped to lower than half-hour because the information have been transferred to the OWC ThunderBlade X8. The OWC ThunderBlade X8 was used as an area working drive and enabled the quick switch speeds required by the finest video enhancing software program for chopping and grading. 

Within the check, the community right here will not be the quickest 10GbE community at 2.5GbE. Nonetheless, the pace was spectacular for a self-managed system. After every week, the potential of sooner community storage turned apparent, and TrueNAS was used to create further datasets for various teams and customers. This enabled completely different areas of the storage to be assigned as a community drive, with permissions to customers and teams assigned. As soon as the dataset is created, it will possibly then be shared by smb. One other good characteristic is that you just create a zvol, which then lets you format that phase of the drive in one other file format. There’s additionally a bunch of apps that may be downloaded and used in the event you want an on-site internet growth surroundings, and once more, you possibly can assign a part of the storage to this. 

By the check all administration was managed by the browser TrueNAS GUI. Whereas there was a studying curve, it proved to be a strong instrument with loads of documentation to help its use. As beforehand talked about, in the event you do need a bit of extra, then you possibly can entry the command-line model of TrueNAS by utilizing a VGA monitor, keyboard, and mouse, a setup extra frequent in server environments than in small workplaces.

One key consideration was whether or not the OWC Jupiter Mini might function shared community enhancing storage for software program like Ultimate Lower Professional, DaVinci Resolve, or Premiere Professional. Whereas technically doable with the right setup and community pace, this NAS will not be particularly designed for such intensive duties, a task higher suited to extra highly effective and costly options just like the OWC Jellyfish. Nonetheless, lighter duties, equivalent to a centralised useful resource for picture or graphic design, are nicely inside the Jupiter Mini’s remit.

The OWC Jupiter Mini affords an easy-to-maintain, out-of-the-box NAS resolution that gives enterprise-level efficiency, far surpassing what’s achievable with client fashions and is scalable as much as 100TB to fulfill the rising knowledge storage wants of residence, workplace, or studio environments.

Do you have to purchase the OWC Jupiter Mini?

The OWC Jupiter Mini is designed for inventive professionals and small companies that require a industrial community storage resolution with substantial storage potential with out the necessity for intensive IT know-how. Industrial NAS packing containers, though supreme in performance, typically change into utterly impractical on account of their design, value, and infrequently advanced command-line administration. Conversely, smaller client fashions could provide ease of use however hardly ever provide the pace or energy for a number of concurrent connections, capability, connection options or prepared help. These are all areas the place OWC and the Jupiter Mini excel.

As a primary NAS, the Jupiter Mini is simple and environment friendly, making it significantly engaging to videographers and photographers needing dependable storage for tasks and information. Its compatibility with the ThunderBlade X8 as an area working drive enhances its performance. In a house surroundings, investing time in TrueNAS permits for segmenting the storage and offering devoted areas for community or shared storage wants inside the workplace or family.

The true benefit lies in its attraction to these searching for commercial-grade community storage that’s each high-performing, expandable and dependable. The system features a built-in help e mail system to alert customers of potential points with the {hardware}, stopping drive failures or different important issues. In an workplace or studio setting, this single unit will be configured to supply numerous storage areas for various teams, with tailor-made allocations and entry, mirroring the capabilities of a big firm’s IT system.

Though the preliminary funding within the OWC Jupiter Mini is important, the worth it affords in storage capability and the power to self-manage—backed by OWC’s glorious help—makes it a terrific alternative. For studios or small workplaces in want of a community storage resolution, the OWC Jupiter Mini stands out as one of many quickest, easiest-to-use, and most versatile programs obtainable.

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