Dane-Elec My Ditto 1TB NAS Review

When we look back over the test results, we have to be honest that in a LAN environment, the MyDitto is not going to be breaking any speed records any time soon and we was a little disappointed by this. After a bit of head scratching as to why, we have put it simply down to the drives that come with the system. They’re not the newest drives on the mark and have been around for a few years so upgrading these for more recent and faster drives we believe would greatly improve the test results. We did try installing our normal 3TB test drives however we found that the system is not able to properly recognise 3TB drives and has a 2TB limit per bay.

On the flipside however, this systems main selling focus is its remote access feature and truth be told it works very well, both through the iPad app and the keys that come included with the system. Plug the USB key into any internet connected system, launch the program and it starts searching for its paired system and connects once it has. Bringing the performance back into the equation, when connected across the internet, the speed that the NAS is able to pull and push data onto the network is less of a factor in regards to the internet connection speeds. When we look at the UK average connection speeds and even what I have at home (80Mbps down and 17Mbps up), the NAS is shifting data faster that what the internet can transfer it at so the speed factor becomes less of a down point.

Another detail we noted with the drives is after a period of testing and then long idle sitting, the drives were very hot. Removing them and plugging them straight into one of our test rigs to see what the temperatures were, we were shocked to see them nearing the 50c mark which is a lot higher than anything else we have tested. This is down to the cooling system and whilst there is a fan on the base of the unit, there is on space around the drives for air to flow and so everything quickly heats up. This is no fault of Dane-Elec as after a bit of investigation, it turns out the NAS is identical to an Edimax system and Dane-Elec simply take these and modify them on a software level to give us what we have here today to look at and this particular system appears to be prone to hot drives.

Moving onto the physical aspects of the system, I do like the white build and this will suit the modern home with ease. The USB keys have a slide cover to protect the terminals and are not any bigger then a typical thumb drive.

Pricing wise, the 2x500GB system that we’ve look at today can be found for around £140, whilst a disk less system can be found for around £90, giving you the flexibility to add your own drives up to a maximum capacity of 4TB.

Overall I’m in two minds about the MyDitto. Naturally one side is worried about the drive temperatures and in the long run can have a slight effect on the drive lifespan. the other downfall as I’ve mentioned is the slow LAN speeds experienced and maybe if we had a couple of 1 or 2TB drives to hand we could have proved this theory one way or the other. On the plus side though and as mentioned above, the big key feature about the MyDitto is the out of the box remote access capabilities through the use of a simple securely authenticated USB key. This can make forgotten office presentations and homework almost a thing of the past and whilst on holiday you can send all your photos home with ease ready for when you get back. The latter reasons tip more in favour of the MyDitto and even though there are areas that need to be looked at and improved (perhaps with a ground up design), I’m happy to give Dane-Elec’s MyDitto our Innovation Award.