The USB option on this router is great in principle but I am finding myself unwilling to use it because the USB drives I've tested it on all seem to stay permanently powered on, despite them having power management features when connected to a PC USB.
In other words, when power management on the USB drive is working the drive goes to sleep after a period of inactivity.
On the other hand, it seems to me that the drives I'm connecting to the 7800DXL stay 'on' all the time, as evidenced by the heat they emit. When connected to a PC and when power management kicks in they go cool.
So what, I suppose one might ask! My concern is that heat is the enemy of hard drives and I don't want my external drives to fail prematurely. I'm interested in other users' comments or experiences on this as there doesn't seem to be anything in the management screens to manage usb power.
I don't know if it's possible for a future firmware update to address this issue, if it is indeed an issue. I'd be much happier with the facility if it did though!
Finally, my tests suggested that write speeds to the remote drive are about 25% of what they are when the (USB2) drive is connected to a USB2 port directly on the computer. Which is a shame. I assume reads would be similar although I admit I didn't try.
Thanks!
Pete