Thecus N2560 2-Bay NAS Review
Introduction
In the NAS market, Thecus is one of the biggest names out there alongside QNAP and Synology and as we have seen in the past, the performance and features that they have to offer for the price are very well suited making them ideal for SOHO, SMB and enterprise users alike. Focusing today on the SOHO market, typical home users generally are in line to buy two and four bay systems for storing movies, music and photos on to share across their network to TVs, computers and wireless devices such as tablets.
Over the last year or so we have been seeing a slow migration by many vendors to produce products that are white in appearance to target the home user as they offer a cleaner and more conservative look to them that makes then more suited for a home environment rather than a black system that can look a little out-of-place or realistically – less stylish.
The N2560 that I’m having a look at today is one of the first white systems that Thecus have produced, the first being its little brother – the N2520 – and following its showing at CeBIT back in march, the storage giant has been making last-minute tweaks and adjustments to optimise its performance and functionality, in the process bringing the N2560 the line-up as well as the N2520. Over the previewed N2520, the N2560 offers up double the RAM with 2GB of DDR3 and a slightly faster Atom SoC, clocked to 1.6GHz over the N2520’s 1.2GHz chip.
Compared to Thecus’ over 2-bay solutions, the N2560 offers up a tool-free installation with drives that simply slide into the chassis and get closed in behind a simple front door making the unit far more user-friendly for the novice buyers out there. Supporting up to 4TB drives and offering the same host of functionality as any other Thecus system, this Atom based system is internally just like any other NAS that Thecus has to offer.
Thecus always offer a simple, to the point package, with all the bits you’ll need to get up and running. Alongside the usual array of paperwork including a warranty card, there is a UK IEC kettle lead and DC power inverter, a patch lead, two re-usable cable ties and in the instance of this unit, two sets of clip-on drive rails to give the unit its tool-free capability.
what a bargain price, oh wait you didn’t say…
It says in the conclusion:
“As I highlighted above, the system is not that expensive to purchase – in fact it is highly affordable for what it is and when it comes to market later in the year in November, it will be hitting the shelves for around £269, whilst the N2520 which has slightly less DRAM at 1GB and a 1.2GHz SoC is set to sell for around £230 inc VAT. Pair this with a pair of hard drives, which themselves are become more affordable and you have a small compact system that won’t upset the bank manager whilst keeping all your files in one convenient location and also offering up media centre capabilities via XMBC.”
Thanks.
Yet another thecus review with no XBMC test. This is like the 4th review online with no media playback review.
The main selling point of these SoC NAS is the hdmi port so you can use this as a media player.
Staring to think this is on purpose as its not that good.