Thecus W2810PRO 2-Bay WSS SMB NAS Review

Bohs Hansen / 8 years ago

Final Thoughts

Pricing

At the time of writing, the Thecus W2810PRO can be yours for $422.00 through Amazon and starting from €436.99 through Geizhals. I couldn’t find it at any of our preferred UK retailers at the time of writing, but you might have more luck with your local retailer.

Overview

The Thecus W2810PRO is a NAS that isn’t like most other ones on the market. First and foremost, it is Windows Storage Server Essentials based and it secondly it uses an SSD as boot medium rather than a USB module which gives it a great boost in responsiveness. We have previously had the W4000 NAS in for review and in comparison to that, the W2810PRO comes with an improved CPU which is greatly appreciated for a device like this.

The user interface is a lot more responsive and it’s a real joy to work with thanks to the Intel Celeron N3160 quad-core CPU. With 4GB of RAM, the NAS supports plenty of multitasking from its up to 50 users/clients. Officially, the NAS memory isn’t upgradeable, but that won’t limit you from installing a larger SODIMM with 8GB capacity should you wish to do so. Unfortunately, the W2810PRO only comes with one memory socket which means that you’ll be limited to one RAM module and thereby also limited to a single-channel setup.

Connectivity wise it comes with equally great features as it has both a DisplayPort and HDMI port for your monitors, SPDIF for your audio, and USB 3.0 ports for other devices such as storage drives, input peripherals, dongles, printers, scanners, and what else you can find. Having a Windows-based system makes all this a lot easier for most people as it is a lot easier to find and install drivers here for the less tech-savvy people.

Performance wise we saw figures that were a little below what we normally see from our Linux-based NAS, but they were still good results. It is a NAS that is intended for business use and it makes it extremely easy for small and medium businesses to incorporate it into existing Windows infrastructures and services such as Office 365, Azure, and Exchange.

Although the Thecus W2810PRO isn’t specifically designed for home use and targets businesses doesn’t mean that it can’t be a handy server to have at home. Whether you want to run easy backup jobs of your client systems, have a centralized location for your user credentials, or just install an app like Kodi or VLC, the choice is yours. I for one wouldn’t mind having it as part of my daily setup.

Pros:

Quad-core CPU
Built-in SSD for the OS
HDMI, DisplayPort, and SPDIF
WSS 2012 R2 license included
Dual Gigabit LAN
Orbweb.me pre-installed

Cons:

Single-channel RAM
UK Availability

“Thecus W2810PRO is the WSS NAS that I had hoped for in the previous generation. The improved CPU gives it the extra power that you’d want from a system like this. A perfect NAS for SMBs that want easy cloud integration with Microsoft services.”