Thecus 5200 Pro series

Introduction:

This is the 2^nd time I’ve been given a chance to review a product from Thecus. The company that has its place in life nailed down. Your data, stored safely, securely, quickly.  They have the full range of budget through to high performance, 99.95% reliability network storage.

When I reviewed the original N5200, it was pretty easy to be impressed at the time. Since the review, my opinion of it has only increased. Normally it just sits there happily storing all my stuff, and it’s been doing that without a hitch since the review. I’ve also taken it to Lan parties to act as the file server. Having a NAS server around just never stops being useful. The feature that I now believe is the 5200’s best, is the front LCD screen. Because of that little LCD, I’ve never had to ask myself “Now what the *&^% is the ip address for this thing?”, whenever I change network settings or plug it in at some LAN, I just look at the LCD and my search is over.

Now on to the latest iteration of the 5200. The N5200BR Pro. This is basically the original X2, twice the ram, twice the flash and more than twice the CPU. It has all the features of the older model, and then adds a batch of new ones. Externally, they are completely identical, and it’s almost impossible to tell the difference until they are opened up. Even then, you have to know what to look for to tell the differences.

Features:

iSCSI Ready

N5200PRO is not only a file server, but it also supports iSCSI initiators. Your server can access N5200PRO as a direct-attached-storage over the LAN or Internet. There is no easier way to expand the capacity of your current application servers. All storage needs can be centrally managed and deployed. This brings ultimate flexibility to users.

Multiple RAID

N5200PRO supports multiple RAID volumes on one system. So, you can create RAID 0 for your non-critical data, and create RAID 5 for your mission-critical data. Create the RAID level protection depending on your needs.

Faster and Fastest

N5200PRO is equipped with an Ultra Low Voltage Intel® 1.5GHz Celeron® M Processor and 512MB DDR system memory, which provides even faster response and more concurrent connections. With its built-in Module compatibility, the N5200PRO is able to run more applications at the same time.

Superior Power Management

N5200PRO supports scheduled power on/off. With this feature, users can set what time the system turns on or off. This feature is a big plus for people who want to conserve energy. Wake-On-LAN enables users to remotely turn the system on without leaving their seat.

Complete Network Reliability (N5200B PRO only)

Because businesses depend on being able to retrieve their data, the N5200B PRO comes with both Load Balancing and Failover to optimize and ensure network traffic. With its Failover capability, the N5200PRO automatically switches to an alternate Ethernet connection should the first one be inaccessible. With these two functions, the N5200B PRO provides users with greater network reliability.

Easy Remote Backup

The N5200 is also equipped with Nsync, Thecus' remote data backup application.  With Nsync, users can have the N5200PRO automatically upload files to an external storage device at a designated time. What's more, if the external device is another N4100, the connection is made via a secure connection. Designed for SMBs for enhanced data protection, Nsync takes the guesswork out of data backup.

Features and Impressions:

I’m not going to go through the setup process in depth, if you want a closer look, read my previous review. There aren’t any differences, and that’s a good thing, it’s a quick and easy process. To start with, install the setup software on the CD (or download it from their website on the off chance you lose the CD) Then just follow the instructions on the screen. Setting up the RAID array is done on the internal website. While you can setup any Raid from 0-6, as well as a few other oddball setups, I don’t know why you wouldn’t go with Raid 5, it offers the best security to speed in my opinion, and I wouldn’t go with any other level except for testing.

Fresh drives

Seagates

500GB :)

I have to be honest about this units main software difference, iScsi. Prior to speaking with TheCus, I had not heard of iScsi, and initially I did not understand what it was for, or what advantages it offered. It really has nothing to do with the Scsi drives that geeks of old and Server admins world over know and love. In basic terms, what it does, is allow you to connect to the specific partition on your RAID array, as if it was an internal drive and not connected to the network.

This might not sound important, as windows allows you to mount a network drive, however there are programs that will not allow themselves to use a drive like that. With iScsi drivers installed, it will act in every way as a local drive. But it still can be disconnected without issue.

Ready for Raid

The twins

Pro on the ri...no left!

Another benefit to using iScsi, is that you control all aspects of the file partition and system access through your PC/Server. So if a small business already has an Active Directory server, or some other file server, the extra storage from the 5200 Pro can be added to the server, without completely changing the setup your IT department has in place, or teaching end users to do something different from what they are used to. It’s a benefit that I would have missed without speaking to Thecus.

As you will see in the testing section, iScis does not offer any speed advantages, in fact the speed is somewhat slower than FTP. This brings me to the other issue I have with iScsi. Currently , I have been unable to use my Mac pro and OSX to connect to an iScis partition on the 5200 Pro. Both with OSX 10.4 and the new 10.5 Leopard. For my own network, this means I just can not use iScsi for storing my data. The cross compatibility of FTP/http access, as well as being able to use Standard Windows Networking has been excellent with my previous 5200. So even if there was a speed advantage to iScsi, at this point it is just not an option for me. Anyone who just needs to expand the storage of a Linux or Windows server will still be able to use it without issue. Vista (and now Server 2008) also include all the drivers for connecting to iScsi built in.

almost 100% identical

high quality design

The Pro

*Note: I have been speaking to Thecus frequently about this. And they have a new firmware version in the works that they claim will fix the problem with OSX.  However, OSX can not write to NTFS partitions without 3^rd party add-ons (that are not always 100% reliable), and Windows can not deal with HFS+ formatted drives. Which leaves FAT32 as the only cross system compatible format.

Slight differences

Pro again

Powered up

Fat32 has a number of very serious limitations, especially for a network access server. First of all, there is no internal security, error checking or permissions. Even worse, the maximum file size for Fat32 is 4GB. If you make an image file of a single layer DVD, it can not be stored on a FAT32 partition.  Let alone a Dual layer, or heaven forbid a HD-DVD/Blue-ray disk. And due to other limitations, there is a 2TB size limit on partitions as well. A very easy thing to surpass with the current price of 1TB drives.

Hooked up together

The LCD

My network

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