Thecus N4560 4-Bay NAS Review

Introduction Over the last few years, the NAS market as a whole has been growing at a steady rate and in when we start to break things down and look at the rate of growth in the individual market sectors, the rate of sales in the consumer group has seen a far greater growth than any other market sector. Part of this growth is down to market exposure where users are seeing far more units on offer through both the retail and e-tail channels; however the price is a more crucial factor and this is what is now bringing the NAS concept into the limelight for the SOHO market. When we go back two to three years and look at the total cost of ownership; that's the cost of purchasing the NAS itself along with drives to store data on then with the cost of running the unit - things were not looking that good and the price of one of a typical 4-bay system in some instances was easily a four-figure sum of money - in other words, simply too much of a cost to swallow considering you could easily buy a set of drives and whack them into your desktop system for a whole lot less. Since that time, the total cost of ownership has dropped considerably, with the price per GB of hard disk storage at its best to date and with NAS products maturing with more and more features, but for a lower price we are now starting to see the SOHO NAS ownership numbers grow more and more to the point where if you want to share a large amount of data between multiple systems, the NAS is now the go to place for your storage needs. In the latter part of last year I took a look at Thecus' N2560 - a highly affordable system that brought style as well as substance to the SOHO market with a white plastic chassis and tool-free installation on the outside and inside one of the first SoC designs inside which offers a high amount of performance for its size whilst keeping the power consumption nice and low in the process. The N4560 that I'm taking a look at today is, as one may see, is an extension to the new line of affordable systems and alongside the larger space to accommodate four drives, the N4560 packs an Atom based SoC to keep the performance at a good level whilst keeping the power consumption down (although the choice of drive will have an impact on the total consumption) and to round the package off, we are presented with a good array of features, but not too many that would flood a rookie user with options, resulting in a confused experience. The N4560 comes in a light blue coloured box and alongside the system itself we get a fairly standard Thecus bundle, including two sets of screws for 2.5" and 3.5" drive installation, keys to lock the drive bays, IEC kettle lead and patch lead and a spread of paperwork with warranty information, basic setup steps and a CD with desktop software to accompany the system. A Closer Look Placing the N4560's extras aside and looking at the system itself, things look somewhat standard with an all black design with a LCD display and controls found at the bottom of the faceplate. Above the display is a typical four bay stack of drives to which remains the systems status LEDs and easy access USB port for connecting flash drives and any other external storage devices. As mentioned above, Thecus have left the status LEDs on the left hand side of the system - as commonly seen on a number of Thecus desktop solutions and along side the obligatory power and network status lights we find a further two LEDs for notification of system failure and self diagnostic mode status. In the bottom left hand corner we are greeted by a high-speed USB3.0 port for speedy data transfer to / from external storage devices and below this is a power button - I'm sure you can work out what this button is for. Whilst the LCD display looks a little similar to that found on the N5550, there are few key design points that set it apart. The first of these difference lays with the 'window' that the LCD screen is visible through. Whilst the 5550 has a black toned cover, the N4560 has a mirror-like finish to it simply to add a little bit of contrast to the otherwise black design. Below the display is a like of four buttons for navigating through the on-screen menus. Opening up the door we can see that the drive bays are laid out in a horizontal orientation and there is more that enough ventilation space available to keep the lockable drives nice a cool during use. Part of the key to keeping a budget systems cost down is to use components from other models, thus having a metal framed tray with a lockable front latch, whilst a thin layer of foam in the base of the tray aids in keeping resonant noise from the drives as low as possible during operation. Closing the front door and moving round to the rear of the unit, Thecus have not wasted any time in laying on a plethora of connectivity options that in most SOHO instances simply go to waste. Keeping only the bare essentials in place, we do get a pair of USB2.0 ports, a single Gigabit Ethernet port, HDMI output for media playback functions directly on the system and a S/PDIF audio output for hooking up a home cinema system. Taking up a majority of the remaining space is a single 80mm low-noise fan, allowing the system to run at a very low acoustic level, just what the SOHO user is after in any system. With everything on the outside of the N4560 taken care of, it's time to lift off the cover and take a closer look at what makes this system tick. Before I do get too involved however I will make the same note that I do on any NAS in that open up your system in the same manner as I do from here on, WILL VOID YOUR WARRANTY. I take apart the system so that you don't have to. Removing the metal side & top panel followed by unhooking the front cover we can see that Thecus have given this system a nice sturdy frame, giving it the strength it needs whilst keeping the amount of empty space to a minimum. Going back to my note about using components from other systems, we can clearly see that the PCB for the OSD controls has been lifted from the N5200 whilst the LCD panel appears to be from a different system such as the N5550 with its white text and blue back light. Following the two ribbon cables around from the front panel to the motherboard we note that the headers for the display controller are not mounted directly on the motherboard itself. What we find instead is a smaller daughter-board that is mounted parallel to the motherboard and this plays home to the display controller. Looking a little closer at the core component of this smaller board, we find a Microchip PIC24FJ6 display controller. Instead of having the motherboard fixed directly to the main body of the chassis, the back panel moves backward as the motherboard slides along two rails. Tucked in the bottom of the chassis we find a compact 150W PSU with a single 4-pin connector to supply the motherboard with its power. With this system having a lower power design there is no need to have a massively over-specified supply - 150W will give this system more than it will ever need. With the motherboard removed entirely from the rest of the system we see that the SATA daughter board is attached to the back panel, with an 80mm fan set in-between to keep the system cool during operation. Between the SATA headers the PCIe connector lies a Silicon Image Sil3132 SATA host and RAID controller, giving the system SATA II, 3.0Gb/s support. As we also see, this daughter-board is pulled from another system, namely the N4520 which has a slightly lower clocks speed for a slightly cheaper solution. Looking at the motherboard a little more closely, virtually all the major components has been fitted to on side of the PCB with the Atom based SoC positioned in the middle of everything. The SoC has a passive heatsink sat on top of it, with the single fan at the back of the chassis drawing enough air through the chassis to provide adequate cooling. Whilst the majority of the components are set on to one side of the PCB, the power header and PCIe lane is fitted to the underside with only a few tiny resistors and other minor components surrounding them. On the front edge of the motherboard we have a row of four LEDs which as seen above illuminate through the front panel to highlight the systems status etc, beside which is the systems only USB3.0 port and power button to the far left. There is no surprise in seeing one of EtronTech's ships somewhere on the board and the EJ168A USB3.0 host controller that we see once again on the N4560 is a very popular option among a number of NAS vendors. Lifting the passive heatsink off of the SoC we can see the compact chip that is soldered directly to the motherboard. With a core clock speed of 1.6GHz, the dual core CE5335 Intel Atom driven chip is the same as that seen on the N2560 that I took a look at a few months ago, so we already know that there is a good amount of performance on offer given its size and speed. Accompanying the SoC we find 2GB of DDR3 memory from Hynix positioned to one side of the board and like many other SOHO grade systems, the amount of RAM on offer is of a fixed amount and is made up of four 1600MHz packages which keep the overall cost of manufacturing down whilst keeping the performance up. Elsewhere around the motherboard there is one final chip of interest, this time from Samsung. The KLM4G1YE4C-B001 4GB NAND flash package that we find here plays host to the systems operating system and firmware, and is one of three different options that I've seen vendors opt for when designing their systems. (The other options include a SATA DOM, or installing the OS onto the installed hard drives) Finally, on the back of the motherboard the N4560 has a simple and to the point line of connectivity options as highlighted previously, with the USB and HDMI outputs controlled directly from the SoC and the Gigabit LAN taken care of by a Realtek controller. NAS Features As we know from a heap of previous reviews, NAS products these days are far more than just a plain network storage device. Systems these days can act as home media servers, Torrent downloading stations, IP camera recorders and much more. The N4560, like the other SoC systems that Thecus have in the Intelligent NAS range also offers the ability to directly connect a display to the NAS via HDMI and playback media without the need for a third-party system. NAS systems these days are becoming more and more like an entry-level server with a heap of storage space as opposed to a storage device with some additional features built-in. Whilst the N4560 is another example of a NAS that is more than just a plain storage device, the software side of things are not as broad as what we would find on say an SMB grade system. The reason for this all comes down to the price point that the system is aiming for. Stripping out the features that a SOHO user won't need or want is an easy way to reduce the overall purchase cost and this is one of the key factors in the design of the Intelligent NAS range of systems from Thecus. Thecus Intelligent NAS & Power Consumption Up to this point, when I've come to use and test a Thecus brand of system, everything has been handled through a web-based user interface. Even the first time setup stages are taken care of through this portal and for some entry-level users, the thought of having to enter an IP address into a web browser to connect to the system, especially if their network is on a different IP pool to the default IP address of the NAS. To combat this barrier of potential fear for the first time user, Thecus have introduced the Intelligent NAS desktop software which acts as a middle man connection portal, searching for and displaying local systems and their status all in one place. Once setup however, access to the web based user interface is made possible once the initial setup has been done, giving the more experienced users such as myself the freedom to configure the NAS as required. Power Consumption When we look at the power usage, thanks to the use of WD's own low power Red drives for consumer NAS the idle and load power draw figures are comfortably below the 30W level. The system automatically spins down the drives after a given amount of time (which can be adjusted) and at this point the system uses little over 10W and consequently the system has a pretty low operating cost over an extended period. Testing Method When testing a device of this sort, the system that we use to test with is not a major factor in its performance. The performance of the NAS box comes down to the network it's running on and its own internal hardware. With a device of this sort having so many different applications, Intel's NASPT software covers all the bases and also gives us a set of results that we will be able to utilise and therefore give a benchmark against other similar systems in the future. Intel NASPT (Network Attached Storage Performance Toolkit) performs its test by transferring varying sizes and quantities of data to and from the device based on twelve different scenarios. As part of the testing, the NAS is connected to our core network through a Netgear GS724TPS managed Gigabit switch and then to our test bench to give the best real world setup test that we can. The NAS itself is packed out with Western Digital’s latest line of Enterprise class hard drive, the Se and also with the highest capacity possible; in this case 4TB each. The system that we use to run the Intel NASPT software does require us to drop the memory right down to 2GB as any more than this leads to data caching and therefore skews the results from the NAS box. Following on from this we test the NAS box performance under each of the RAID options that it has available, to show, depending on the end users needs, the relational differences in speed from the drive and thus one can decide which particular RAID configuration will be best for them. In addition to measuring the performance of the NAS as it is built to be used, we have noticed that a number of users are using the USB3.0 ports (where available) to connect up secondary storage devices such as external hard drives or flash drives. Consequently I will now be testing the throughput of the USB3.0 port by connecting our high performing Patriot Magnum 256GB flash drive. HD Video Playback HD Video playback is a read test, where a single 2Gb file is read in 256kB blocks sequentially from the drive. This simulates where a 720p HD video is being watched across the network to a media player on the other end. 2x HD Video Playback 2x HD Video Playback works with exactly the same data set as the first HD Video test, however this time the same content is streamed twice from the NAS box simulating two simultaneous streams being made to external media players. 4x HD Video Playback In the same way that the 2x Video Playback streams to the equivalent of 2 external media players at the same time, the test here doubles that again up to a simulated 4 media players. HD Video Record The HD Video Record test is as the name suggests a write test to the NAS box. A single 2GB file is written to the device in 256kB blocks sequentially to the disk. HD Playback & Record The HD playback and record test now put the drive under the same single record and playback tests as before, but now at the same time. This will factor for the quick changes needed to switch between reading and writing two large blocks of data across the network to the device. Content Creation For content creation, Intel have simulated access to via video creation applications. This is made up of 98 files with 12MB reads and 14MB writes in varying sizes of blocks. The activity is predominantly non-sequential with the majority of access time made up of writing to the drives. There are quiet periods of read/write activity interrupted with busy periods to present a difficult workload on the drives. Office Productivity The office productivity simulation is very similar to the content creation, with a total of 607 files written to and read from the drive. A total of 1.4GB of data is written to and read from the drive with a close balance between each made - the majority of write access is made up of 1kB writes. File Copy To NAS This test quite simply put copies a single large file from the test system to the NAS box to show how well the system can sustain a single write speed. The 1.4GB file is copied to the drive and written in 64kB blocks. File Copy From NAS File copy from the NAS works in exactly the same way as the copy test, however it works in the opposite direction. The single 1.4GB file is read off the NAS in 64kB blocks. Directory Copy To NAS In the directory copy to NAS test, a directory tree representing that of a typical commercially available office suite is copied to the NAS to trace the bulk copy of a complex directory. A total of 2833 files making up 247MB are moved but the file sizes vary considerably with an average size of 41.4kB. Due to the varying sizes of the files, only around 50% of the writes are sequential. Directory Copy From NAS In the same way that the file copy from NAS traces the same file back across to the test system, the directory copy from NAS does exactly the same but to the entire directory that it copied across previously. Photo Album Last of all is a test based around a photo album. When a photo album is viewed on-screen, only the images that you see are loaded from the drive and so when you scroll through the album, the new images have to be fetched and read. The album here contains 169 photos with varying file sizes based on the size, quality and detail in the image. Reading the files in a photo album puts an unusual read load upon the drive as the metadata is read, a thumbnail constructed and finally the image viewed. Final Thoughts Pricing For a 4-bay system which packs media playback capabilities and all the key hardware features that we would expect to see on any mainstream system from Thecus, the N4560 comes in with a mid-range price point starting at around $380 in the US through Amazon and Newegg and £320 in the UK through Scan and Amazon. Add in the low power consumption figures and we have a system that is not too heavy on the bank to start and not too heavy to power in the long run. Overview As the number of NAS options within the SOHO market, as well as the overall NAS market, continues to grow, offering up a system that packs all of the features of a top end system down into a system with a price tag that is comparatively more bite size is a task that every vendor is having to undertake. Fortunately the introduction and implementation of SoCs into NAS products has made a radical change to the market, bringing both the cost of production and the end-user price point far more manageable, whilst continuing to offer good levels of performance that everyone ultimately wants. Unlike the N2560 and the N2310 that I've looked at previously, the N4560 takes a lot of its design inspiration from some of Thecus mainstream systems such as the N5550 (which we've also had a look at) with a black metal skinned chassis that gives a sturdy and rugged feel, whilst not straying from some clean design lines. Additionally this unit uses Thecus Intelligent NAS software that I looked a little closer at in my review of the N2310 and once again I feel a little disappointed by it. I totally understand where Thecus are coming from when they say that they want to have a piece of software that interacts with the system, making the user experience less frustrating, but at the same time I still feel that it needs a lot of work t make it much more user-friendly. Simply put, Thecus need to break completely away from the web-based GUI and have a bit of software which is far more welcoming and easy to work around, including pointers and guides for the novice user. Putting the software to one side and looking at the web-based UI however, things are just like I would expect from Thecus and the number of features that are on offer, including the XMBC media front end, brings everything together in a more than capable package. Looking at the performance I am once again in a bag of mixed emotions. There are a few occasions where the system delivers the performance figures that I would estimate for the hardware specifications, notably when looking at the RAID0 for maximum performance metrics and RAID5 as my recommended RAID setup, however as we look at the bigger picture it does seem to fall a little short in my testing - even though I have seen elsewhere that faster numbers are obtainable. Due to the fact that I've recorded lower than par figures, even though I've seen that it can do more, I would make a strong guess that there may be a bug in the firmware where other systems may have been running an earlier revision than what I have here. I have been in contact with Thecus regarding this issue and as and when I am able to remeasure the performance with an earlier firmware revision, I'll incorporate these findings back into this review. Taking everything into account and looking at the N4560 as I see it at the moment, everything is there for a top-notch system that delivers the performance, offers the features and crucially comes in at a good price, but I am a little disheartened to say that from my experience with this system, this is not the case just yet. Additionally I will note that I have taken the time to look at the drives in question and test them in another system to double-check that they were not at fault, knowing that this can and has happened whilst I've been testing in the past. If the performance figures do come back with a change to the firmware then I may alter my overall thoughts, but until then I'm somewhat reserved. Pros: Full media playback capabilities Wide number of add-on features Great build quality Cons: Intelligent NAS software still needs some work in my eyes Performance is a little mixed for this hardware "The N4560 has all the right ingredients that it needs for a great performing and well outfitted system for the SOHO market, however with some performance figures that don't quite do the system the justice it needs, I have to say it has not quite sold itself to me just yet. Should a firmware tweak or two bring back the performance that this system is capable of, then I would be more than pleased." Thanks to Thecus for providing us with this review sample.