Our newest protagonist is the FiT 500, a 5 bay external RAID unit that promises high end performance and flexibility. Can the FiT 500 deliver on the promises its proud parent makes?
The FiT 500 is a new external disk storage unit from AXUS Microsystems, a subsidiary of ASUStek. ASUStek might more commonly be recognised as owning the ASUS brand, manufacturer of components and the famous Eee PC. At least this explains the similarity in company name and logo style – rather than a nefarious competitor, the companies are closely related.
In the interests of full disclosure, we will say that AXUS have requested that we here at OzHardware review the FiT 500, and supplied the unit to us. While we are independent of all hardware manufacturers, and attempt to write impartially, it is always possible that some unintended bias creeps into the review; we advise the reader to be aware of this.
The FiT 500 arrived in a surprisingly large, yet sleek black box. Opening the box revealed that the Fit500 is shipped in parts, rather than an assembled unit – but don’t worry, the amount of work to put it all together is pretty minimal, and doesn’t take any longer than a unit delivered fully assembled.
First, install the drives into the caddies and slide the caddies into the main unit. Then, attach the fan to the rear of the unit, where you’ll also find the standard IEC power socket and the USB and SATA interfaces. Plug in the power and use the supplied metal clip to provide a little protection from accidental plug pulls. Finally plug in the eSATA or USB connections (depending on which connection you prefer), and turn the unit on.
When the FiT500 powers up, the LCD on the front of the unit glows quite bright blue, with white text. The drive LEDs do not light until the drive is configured to be part of an array. Both the drive LEDs and the activity LEDs are blue, and the activity LED flashes with drive, rather than array access, giving you a good view of how busy the disks are. And while the junior geek in me loves the look of blue LEDs with the white chassis, the elder geek wants the activity LEDs to be a different colour (perhaps white, or red) to reduce confusion during a quick glance. Nevertheless, this is perhaps the most minor of quibbles.
