Introduction

In the world of computing (and nerd-dom in general), there is an air of elitism and taking pride in the fact that you know more than the average person when it comes to technology. The downside of this is that some aspects of computing remain needlessly complex and daunting to average users. Apple computers knew this well and capitalized on the fact that a lot of people would appreciate a computer system that is very straightforward and simple to use. With the internet and connectivity being an important part of our lives today, it is only inevitable and important that users become familiar with how to setup and manage their own home networks.

While everyone is familiar with what a router or a modem does, there is still a voice of apprehension regarding the use of Network Attached Storage at home. This isn’t exactly surprising, as very few entry level and SOHO marketed NAS devices are actually simple enough to setup. It introduces a whole new glossary that average users may have heard only when the topic of NAS is brought up. Words like RAID, JBOD, Parity, Array, NTFS, EXT3, etc. These are all important terms to know when dealing with multiple networked storage devices and, in order for the average user to manage their own NAS box, the device must be smart enough to do most of the heavy lifting and setup automatically for the user. Patriot Memory announced during CES 2011, earlier this year, that they have something new that will fit the bill.

The Patriot Javelin S4 is an entry level NAS aimed for home and small office use. The Patriot Javelin S4 can fit up to 4 SATA2 drives and 12TB of total storage (3TB x 4). The Javelin S4 supports RAID 0,1, 5 and 10 configurations, as well as a hot-spare drive. Since it is designed to be a home media server, the Patriot Javelin S4 supports both MAC and Windows and is uPNP and DLNA compatible. Other features inside the Patriot Javelin S4 4-bay media server include remote mobile phone app playback support for both iOS and Android devices, built-in BitTorrent download manager, iTunes server capability, Logitech Squeezebox capability, data backup and Apple TimeMachine support, multi-user management and various internet sharing capabilities.