RaidSonic IcyBox IB-NAS5220-B review

£105 is a remarkably low price for a two-bay, RAID-capable NAS enclosure – that’s around the same price as most one-bay enclosures. The attractive metal case nevertheless feels well made. It’s also surprisingly compact and isn’t much bigger than most of its one-disk competition.

Fitting a disk isn’t as simple as it is on other NAS enclosures we’ve seen, but it’s not too tricky. It involves removing the front panel and sliding the disk into the empty bay until it clicks into place – the bottom disk has to go in first since the other disk sits directly on top of it. The side panels must then be removed, revealing the holes to securely screw the disks into place.

The web-based admin interface looks old fashioned compared to more sophisticated examples from rival NAS enclosures, but it’s logically organised and works well enough. A welcome screen lets you quickly create user accounts, set users’ quotas so they don’t gobble up all the available storage, assign them to different groups and set up a shared folder.

There’s still room for improvement, though. The controls for assigning users to a group are in a different part of the interface from account creation, for example. There aren’t any options to schedule the IcyBox so that it automatically starts up and shuts down, cutting your electricity bill.