6. Conclusion

Buffalo's NAS product line now includes four LinkStation models, the original LinkStation, the gigabit LinkStation, LinkStation Home Server and now the LinkStation Pro. I found lowest web prices of $170, $197, $318 and $232 respectively, but the Home Server price is for a 300 GB model (there is no 250 GB).

But even though you'll pay a little under 20% more for a Pro, the choice over a Gig LinkStation is a no-brainer if your primary selection criteria is performance.

It's unfortunate that the Pro doesn't have a superset of its predecessor's abilities, which forces consumers to choose between the Pro's significant performance improvement and the print and media serving capabilities of Buffalo's previous-generation offerings. But from what I hear from Buffalo, a print server in the Pro is not in the cards, although firmware updates are planned for the Pro that expand upon its features aimed at the Pro(fessional) buyer. And as for media serving capabilities, the existence of the "Home Server" offerings in Buffalo's line-up provide a hint of the direction they are taking.

At any rate, if you're looking for a reasonably-priced single-drive NAS that can really put a gigabit LAN connection to use, you should definitely consider the Buffalo LinkStation Pro. This is one hot NAS!

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