Unlike most NAS devices, the TAS-268 looks right at home in the living room. In addition to a stylish, glossy look, it features an elegant, vertical design that takes up less desktop space, making it ideal for homes and small/home offices. The device measures 187.7 x 90 x 125 mm (7.36 x 3.54 x 4.92 inch) and weighs in at 0.7 Kg (1.54lbs) without any hard drives installed.
Instead of an LCD panel, the TAS-268 uses a series of LED indicators to show the current state of the system, hard drives, network and any USB devices connected to the device. Also on the front is the TAS-268's power button, SD card reader, one touch USB copy button and its USB 3.0 port.
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The rear of the TAS-268 is pretty straight forward. Along with the power connector, you can see four USB 2.0 ports, a gigabit ethernet port and a single HDMI port. One thing you don't see on the back of the TAS-268 is a cooling fan. Instead of an external fan, the device houses a compact and quiet exhaust that helps dissipate heat with less noise and dust.
One downside of the TAS-268's mini-tower design is that it does not have any external drive bays. To get at the hard drives, you have to remove the top cover. Thankfully, no tools are required and the cover can be removed quickly and easily.
Looking at the picture below, you can see the TAS-268's two hard drive cradles as well as their respective SATA connectors. To keep the hard drives in place, the device uses a set of plastic brackets.
