Synology DS412+ And Thecus N4800: Two NAS Devices With Atom D2700

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Synology has its DS412+ and Thecus has its N4800. Both are four-bay NAS servers equipped with Intel’s Atom D2700 processor. But does Intel's latest low-power platform help these appliances outperform their predecessors, which were armed with Atom D525?

Thecus N4800: NAS With Multimedia

We don’t know if Thecus decided that a design team was too expensive, or that its two-year-old N4200 was just a good foundation for a new product. Either way, the company's N4800 looks almost identical to the older four-drive model. The only difference is the color of the two USB ports up front, which are now blue to show off their USB 3.0 support. Thecus covers its drive bays with a door, creating a clean-looking front panel. A pair of OLED displays relay information about drive activity, network status, current network settings (like IP and network gateway addresses), and warnings. The only other buttons accessible up front control the device's on/off status and facilitate navigation of the information display's menu system.

Around back, the N4800 comes armed with two Ethernet ports, a pair of USB 2.0 connectors, an eSATA interface, VGA output, an HDMI connector, and an audio output. There’s also a closed slot that can be used to accommodate a 10 GbE card. An interesting feature, which the N4800 shares with the N4200 and N4200PRO, is a slot for an included battery. In essence, this makes the N4800 a NAS server with an integrated uninterruptible power supply (UPS). This is a really nice feature, and we’d like more manufacturers to include it.

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NAS TV

Thecus takes advantage of the Atom D2700’s integrated graphics capability. The company arms its N4800 with 2 GB of DDR3 memory, which is twice as much as Synology's DiskStation DS412+. This allows Thecus to market its N4800 as a media server that can be connected directly to a display device (most likely a TV) for audio and video playback.

Unfortunately, we weren't able to try this feature because it wasn't supported by the firmware yet. Regardless, we're doubtful that many folks will want to set up a NAS appliance next to a media center. It's much more probable that you'd want to stream content from a networked server tucked away in a closet somewhere over a wired or wireless network to a small HTPC.

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The N4800 is configured via a browser-based graphical user interface. It’s a far cry from Synology’s DSM, and not in a good way. It’s less intuitive and looks dated. We asked Thecus about this, and company representatives told us that a new firmware, including a new version of the browser-based configuration system, is in the works. Thecus also offers a live demo of the current version.

Marcel Binder
Marcel Binder
29 Comments Comment from the forums
  • tokfan
    Could be interesting to compare what the CPU load for the DS411+II was when i.e copying large files reaching the NIC's maximum speed compared to the DS412+ doing the same but with both it's NIC's connected and with LAG activated.

    Ofc there will not be much of an improvement adding more MHz when the old CPU already is capable of pushing one NIC to the max :)
    Reply
  • blackmagnum
    Is AMD competing in this market?
    Reply
  • cknobman
    IDK but this thing is over $600 with no HDD's and has a limited set of functionality.

    I find it hard to shell out that much money when I went and built my own Server with a Athlon II 3.2 Ghz processor, 8gb RAM, 4TB of HD space with RAID, and a Windows Ultimate 7 for less than $600.

    I know my server is less specialized than a dedicated NAS like the one reviewed here but it performs all the NAS functionality I need plus can serve as a all purpose computer, a HTPC, etc.. etc... Sure my server sucks more juice than these NAS devices but it is not a huge concern for me.

    Is there a big positive I am not seeing to spending more on a little NAS like this compared to just building my own server?
    Reply
  • torque79
    I wish there was some competition for mediasonic in affordable basic 4 bay enclosures. These raid NAS devices are so insanely overpriced just because they have some media sharing service and a basic raid function. give me a simple backup enclosure without FTP and media sharing functions that handles 4 drives and that I don't have to replace in 2-3 years because it only supports up to 3tb or 4tb hard drives. that would make me so happy!
    Reply
  • The "big positive" about these is time spent to get one up and running. If your time doesn't cost anything - sure, build your own and you probably get a better deal.
    I have DS411+. Time spent:
    1. 4 hours for research on the net
    2. 30 min to find where to order
    3. About 1,5 hours for unpacking and setting everything up
    Total: 6hours
    To build my own - I would probably spend more than a day for just researching hardware. Building, installing, setting up all the services - this takes time. Time I rather spend with my family.
    Reply
  • torque79
    Plus if being used as a backup, copying via 1gbit takes insanely long to transfer multi TB of data. Even though this is bulky and heavy with 8 drives, id still carry it to my htpc to back up all the media I have on there via esata. I don't know what I would do with a stationary PC just for hard drive storage, copying the data would just take too long. After initial copying of the data regular synching would not be so bad I guess, but moving over a few TB of data would probably take a week copying with 100mbit network file transfer.
    Reply
  • cknobman
    torque79 on a 1 gigabit network copy large amounts of data does not take as long as you might think.

    Heck I copy ripped movies from my server to my pc's over the network and it takes less than 30 seconds to copy 3 gigabytes. My network easily sustains 85-100 megabyte per second transfer rates.
    Reply
  • billj214
    Would it be possible to run SSD (or hybrid SSD) drives instead? That is if throughput is the primary concern and the increased processor speed might be relevant! Aside from cost this would be interesting to see if the processor becomes a bottleneck.
    Reply
  • tpi2007
    I have to wonder how relevant this review is when the Atom D2700 has been discontinued. You say it's being phased out, but according to the roadmap, it has effectively been discontinued.

    You said it yourselves in May:

    http://www.tomshardware.com/news/intel-cedarview-atom-d2700-processor,15516.html

    The rather expensive netbook processor ($52) was introduced in September 2011 and apparently does not pull enough demand anymore to justify carrying the CPU.

    According to Intel, final orders will be taken June 29 and final shipments will take place on September 28 of this year.

    So, it wasn't popular enough to keep making, but after all it is popular with "network storage vendors", like you say ? Or is this just a move to sell the remaining NAS devices with the Atom D2700 ? I mean, there aren't more being made, the final orders took place more than three months ago and the final shipments already took place. So, whatever stock of Atom D2700s they have to make NAS, won't be replenished.
    Reply
  • SirGCal
    DS411+ ownerThe "big positive" about these is time spent to get one up and running. If your time doesn't cost anything - sure, build your own and you probably get a better deal. I have DS411+. Time spent:1. 4 hours for research on the net2. 30 min to find where to order3. About 1,5 hours for unpacking and setting everything up Total: 6hoursTo build my own - I would probably spend more than a day for just researching hardware. Building, installing, setting up all the services - this takes time. Time I rather spend with my family.
    Actually, that's just YOUR plus. I've honestly woundered why they cost so much myself too and I agree with the others. It just doesn't make much sense.

    I have a 12TB Raid 6 server in my house with 8 2TB drives. I'm getting ready to build a new one actually. (out of room). But when I do it's literally 30 seconds for all of the parts accept the hard drives which you'd have to research for either one. Do I try new 4TB drives, or the new 3TB units or just build a known reliable 2nd 2TB setup... etc. But the rest, from board/ram/cpu/even case (case is already here actually)/ power supply/ RAID controller, etc are already known what will be purchased. Might tweak itself depending on when purchase happens but anyone who's on these websites is all too familiar with the tweaking of that part of the industry.

    Simply said, after the HDD research is done, the parts will be purchased within 15 minutes. When they arrive, it takes me less then an hour, even from my wheelchair, to assemble a computer from raw parts. 10 minutes to install Linux or 30 minutes to install/update Windows and that's it. Add the shares, and start populating it for whatever purpose it needs. Plus, far more potential power, should I need it to do other things (often it does actually. I use the one now to play videos in my office. An extra HTPC.).

    Now if this box cost say $250 or less, then I would be more attracted to it. But for what it is, I just can't see spending $600 on the empty box. The core of my setup would be a lot less. I can do the core for $200 for top-shelf components. $250 for raid 5 instead of 10. (raid 6 would be totally pointless with 4 drives). But that's $400 cheaper then then DS412+ from the same vendor. I just don't get it. I'd rather take my family out to dinner for a week. Plus, simply a lot less worry about them getting their 'firmware' right to run everything and just the good old and proven OSs that work as we expect them too.
    Reply