THE XCUBENAS XN5008T

Measuring 310mm in length, 235mm in width and 177mm in height the XCubeNAS XN5008T is actually smaller than other 8-bay NAS models.

At the front we see the illuminated (activity LEDs) power on/off and USB copy buttons, USB 3.0 port and 8 drive bays with individual activity LEDs (blue) over each one.

Each drive tray features a lock which can be used with the bundled plastic key.

The drive trays are made out of hard plastic and feature tool-less mechanisms for 3.5" drives (2.5" ones require screws).

Checking the drive slot sequence we see that there's also a ninth bay on the far left side.

To access that area you will need to remove the service door and to do that you will need to push this tiny button located on the left side of the enclosure (you can push it with the bundled key - more on that later on).

Moving at the rear we find a strangely designed AC power port, two 120mm exhaust fans, SFP+ 10GbE card (sold extra), HDMI port, 4 RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet Ports, 4 USB 3.0 ports, Kensington lock and a reset button.

The entire enclosure sits on six round rubber feet.

As mentioned earlier to gain access to the hidden compartment you just need to push that small button and pull the door outwards.

Here we find the two DDR4 SO-DIMM slots (taken by two 8GB modules clocked at 2400MHz in our sample) and a 2.5" drive tray (SSD caching).

Unlike the large 3.5" trays this is not what I’d call sturdy but it gets the job done.

For our test we'll be using the brand new BX500 drive by Crucial (review soon).