Thecus N5200BR Pro
It has the highest performances of all! In writing speeds, the Thecus N5200BR Pro easily dominates all of its rivals. It owes these excellent results to its processor, a Celeron M ULV at 1.5 GHz aided by 512 MB of DDR memory whose performances obviously have nothing in common with those of the circuits used by the competition. We thus obtained a high of more than 30 MB/s in SMB on a Raid 5 storage which is twice as fast as the scores of the closest contender (14,1 MB/s) in sustained speed! With small files, we found a difference of 3.4 times (5.5 MB/s) the next closest one (1.6 MB/s). The advantage is less in reading and Qnap and Synology were often right on its heels although it was still the leader.
It’s also the only model with which you can install 5 hard drives. In addition, there is very practical Raid migration function where you can install only two drives in the beginning (for example). This enables to notably limit the starting costs by spreading out the purchase of hard drives. Finally, the more experienced will have the possibility of setting the size of the Raid storage bandwidth. For this test, we left it at the default value of 64 KB.
Definitely in the high end, the N5200BR Pro integrates a vast panel of exclusive functions :
– the back is equipped with a 4 port Gigabit switch in addition to a Wan port. This can serve in extending storage space of the existing network or to relay the machine to a second network by giving it a second IP address;
– the screen on the front is completed with command buttons for the control of downloading a USB peripheral on the front or to access basic NAS settings (IP addresses, administrator passwords, reset) ;
– equipped with a USB Wi-Fi key (compatibility list offered by Thecus in the owner’s manual), the NAS can be connected to a wireless network or even better serve as an 802.11g access point;
– Wake-on-LAN ;
– an eSATA port enabling the connection of external storage devices with better performances than with USB ;
– it’s possible to reserve a Raid space to create storage accessible in USB or iSCSI. As the below graph shows, performances are mediocre in the first case and excellent in the second.
You may recall that iSCSI technology allows sending SCSI instructions via TCP/IP. In practice, this means that an iSCSI network volume will then be seen by the system as an internal hard drive (appearing in the Windows drive manager). It adds several advantages. First of all, for applications it enables programs that do not usually manage network drives to use NAS. In addition, we can have access to storage from a distance even if the connection speed is limited. And for performances, this is precisely where local results are very good and even much better than those obtained in SMB for small files. In terms of maximum speed, we still are below figures obtained in FTP.
Installation and startup
The installation of drives doesn’t pose a problem. You simply have to fix them to the trays with the screws provided and then slide the each into the bay. The drive locks into place and easily plugs into the SATA connectors.
With its rather attractive design, the casing of the N5200BR Pro is more imposing than most of its rivals except Buffalo. The motherboard is rather large with a radiator on the chipset and a 40 mm fan on the processor. This with the 92 mm model that cools the drives and the other 40 mm fan for the power supply (found at the base of the casing) bring the total number to 3. In these conditions, we shouldn’t be surprised that it’s the noisiest machine of the survey! Clearly, it will not be welcome in the living room.
It’s also the system that consumes the most, which is only logical considering the Celeron it houses that is even a low power model. On the other hand, the size of the casing greatly facilitates the circulation of air keeping the hard drives at a reasonable temperature although still superior to the average.
In use
The operating system is directly stored on the 128 MB of Flash memory found on the motherboard. The immediate benefit of this is that NAS is directly operational even with non-formatted hard drives, without which it is necessary to install a specific program on the PC to transfer the OS.
The configuration interface of the N5200BR Pro is rather clear although could largely be improved upon. Our translated French version, had a few errors and small page setting problems. In addition, we would have appreciated on-line help to explain certain options (all the more so because the manual is rather obscure in some areas), while the placement of some sections isn’t always the most intuitive. In short, nothing too dramatic in the end, but nevertheless we get the slight impression that the final product could have been more refined. In this price category, it’s is always something disappointing!
The creation of Raid storage requires a good ten hours with four 500 GB drives, except for Raid 0 which is very fast. In the beginning you will have to save space to allot to iSCSI and USB (USB Target) storage. If the first is of interest, that of the second is more debatable. It enables creating drive space directly accessible in USB from the PC. Knowing that performances are mediocre and that it’s a totally independent space (non-accessible in the network), the interest seems minimal to us. The possibility to access all of the Raid storage would have been more interesting.
The management of shared folders and users is classic and functional however there are two interesting particularities: the possibility to import user lists in the form of text files and also to fix drive space quotas per folder. Moreover, a sleep timer allows specifying each day of the week the periods of activity for the system. This function is very important because it enables saving the drives as much as energy!
We liked the presence of the module manager which allows installing applications developed by the user community. Available on the
the Wiki dedicated to Thecus machines, they are rather numerous: ssh access, multimedia servers (Twonkyvision, Slimserver, Firefly, Geekbox, etc.), improved applications (FTP, power inverter monitoring), Web tools (Wiki, MySQL server, Perl, etc.), and multi-protocol P2P clients (MLDonkey). This last application can make up for the absence of a default download function, which moreover is rather unexplainable because it is present on the N4100+.
Note that most applications were developed for the N5200B/BR but generally run on the N5200B/BR Pro. The big advantage of this current model is that the Celeron enables very good performances with these applications. With less powerful NAS, at times processor power can be a limit more quickly.
Performances/price ratio
In short, with its exceptional performances and numerous exclusive functions, this NAS is clearly one of the best in its category. Of course, it’s also the most expensive at more than 800 € (taxes included).
Note that the N5200B line has 4 models : the N5200B, N5200BR, N5200B Pro and N5200BR Pro. Still available, the first (non Pro) version essentially differs in system power. The Celeron M ULV processor is only at 600 MHz (versus 1.5 GHz), while RAM is limited to 256 MB. In addition, certain functions mentioned above are obviously absent including the Wake-on-LAN, sleep timer, possibility to create several Raid storages spaces and the support of iSCSI protocol.
As for « BR » models, they integrate a 4 port Gigabit switch in addition to the Wan port. The others have a pair of Gigabits ports like the N4100+ but with more possibilities. On the condition that you have network material compatible with the 802.3ad norm, you can benefit from failover functions (one plug takes over when another fails) and load balancing (sharing the load on the two ports).
We liked :
– performances !
– Raid migration functions;
– module manager ;
– iSCSI management ;
– 4 port Gigabit switch;
– eSATA port.
We didn’t like :
– the poorest in terms of noise and power consumption ;
– ventilation ;
– the configuration interface can be improved;
– the useless USB connection.
Last minute update : Thecus has just published a firmware update enabling the N5200 to manage IP cameras. The module can handle a maximum of three cameras and allows capturing sequences of images in Mpeg4 (a recording timer by time period and day of the week is offered). The firmware update also includes the "Stacked NAS" function which means you can combine up to six N5200 on the same network and which will be considered as a single storage space.
