NAS Attack: Network Storage From Thecus And Western Digital

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Power Consumption And Test Setup

Power Consumption

Both devices require very acceptable amounts of power. WD’s MyBook consumes only 15W when it runs idle; using the low-power WD20EADS Caviar Green drives at reduced spindle speeds certainly contributed a lot to the low power consumption numbers.

We installed two Seagate Momentus 5400.6 hard drives (ST9500325ASG) into the Thecus N0204. These provide 500GB each, they come with 8MB cache, and a 5.400 RPM spindle speed. Using this configuration, the Thecus NAS device required as little as 6W idle power, which is an amazing result, as it is less than your DSL router might require.

Test Setup

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System Hardware
PlatformAsus P5E3 Deluxe, Rev.1.03GIntel X38, BIOS: 0810 (02/11/2007)
CPUIntel Core 2 Duo E6750 (65 nm Conroe), 2.66 GHz
RAM2 x 1024MB Crucial Ballistix DDR3-1600
eSATA-ControllerJMicron JMB363
System DriveSeagate Barracuda 7200.9, 160 GB7.200 U/Min, SATA/300, 8MB cache
Test Hard Drives2 x 2.5" Seagate Momentus 5400.6, ST9500325ASG500GB, 5.400 U/Min, SATA/300, 8 MB Cache
Row 6 - Cell 0 2 x 3.5" Western Digital WD20EADS2TB, 5,400 RPM, SATA/300, 32MB Cache
DVD-ROMSamsung SH-D163A , SATA150
Graphics CardGigabyte Radeon HD 3850 GV-RX385512HGPU: 670 MHzMemory: 512MB DDR3 (830 MHz, 256 Bit)
Network InterfaceMarvell Yukon 88E8056 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller
AudioIntegrated
Power SupplyCoolerMaster RS-850-EMBA, ATX 12V V2.2, 850 Watt
System Software & Drivers
Operating SystemWindows Vista Enterprise SP1
DirectX 10DirectX 10 (Vista-Standard)
DirectX 9Version: April 2007
Graphics DriverATI Radeon Version 7.12
Network Drivers9.0.32.3 (Vista-Standard)
Intel Chipset DriversVersion 6.9.1.1001 (20/02/2008)
JMicron DriversVersion 1.17.15.0 (24/03/2007)

We tested both devices using the Intel NAS Performance Toolkit

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Marcel Binder
Marcel Binder
26 Comments Comment from the forums
  • usasma
    Nice review. I would have appreciated it when purchasing my latest NAS device (Netgear DNS-323).

    I've lost faith in the W-D MyBook type devices recently - having had several that have failed due to issues with the circuitry in the case (NOT with the hard drive itself).
    Reply
  • evongugg
    It would be nice to benchmark a FreeNAS or Openfiler box next to these units. My FreeNAS was free, made of left over parts and is very fast.
    It also has a whole lot of features.


    Reply
  • jblack
    Why in the world would RAID 1 perform better than RAID 0? --- You'd think at BEST they would be equal.
    Reply
  • fromeast2west
    An Atom powered mini-server should be able to match these on both price and power consumption, and destroy them when it comes to features.

    I like the idea of a NAS, but haven't seen any company produce one for a price that is in line with performance they offer.
    Reply
  • jasperjones
    Thanks for the review!

    Can you comment on fan noise? Is it audible when the devices are idle?

    Asking cause I live in a cozy Manhattan studio ;)
    Reply
  • jawshoeaw
    The NAS concept continues to be overpriced I think. Still haven't seen a fast 802.11N device. There is something to be said for a simple design with fewer parts to go bad (so the homebrew NAS box is cheaper but more fault prone) - I'd like to see some longevity figures, though of course I would not expect toms to sit around for a couple of years waiting for the NAS to break. Maybe something like the consumer reports long term testing of cars.
    Reply
  • dje007
    Thecus’s support is the crappiest I have seen in a long time stay away from them plus there code is bad the only thing it has going for it is linux, if you are looking for a good nas with the ablitly to fix issues your self try QNAP they have a VGA output and give you root access.
    Reply
  • SchizoFrog
    This review is rubbish... out of the whole genre of NAS it includes 2 individual items, is that it, 2, just 2???
    But lets get to the real nitty gritty... Nas is all about network performance, so where are the details about the inbuilt processors and technical specs? There is so much more to account for when buying and setting up a NAS item than just 'Oh look, we can open this box... OOOHHH!!!'
    Talk about N00B article... FAIL!!!
    Reply
  • SchizoFrog
    jblackWhy in the world would RAID 1 perform better than RAID 0? --- You'd think at BEST they would be equal.You obviously have no understanding of RAID and its configurations... No offence intended but go read:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID#Standard_levels
    Reply
  • deanbug
    I see both points. In theory 0 should have better read/write than 1, but it is limited to the source/destination speed of the drive.

    IMHO raid 1 or 5 is for consumers that really want their data, or for businesses. 0 is for people that don't care about data, gamers for fast map load times, or Ninja's:)

    (had to have some fun

    Obviously there are other uses, for both, but I think those are the most common.
    Reply