Thecus N4100PRO NAS Media Server

[Paul H]

TigerDirect has it for $399.99
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...6-_-components

[evilpenguin]

Wow, that NAS has some pretty favorable reviews...

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/888/1/
http://aphnetworks.com/reviews/thecus_n4100pro/
http://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/169...ver/index.html

Thanks for the tip!

[zoundz]

I have one in service since the end of last year. Great little box. Has not missed a beat <KOW>. You can add modules that allow ssh and terminal access so you can do such things as copy files to the usb drive without going through the network bottleneck. It's running linux on an x86 so it's pretty straightforward. People have been known to increase the memory on the unit, but Thecus still claims that will void the warrantee.

FWIW, Provantage has it for $395 http://www.provantage.com/thecus-tec...o~7THCS00K.htm

Here's another review http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/30612/75/

[evilpenguin]

I've been looking for a NAS for a while, so I went for it. I plan on using it to offload all of my encoded TV so that I can run my server with just 3 hard drives instead of the 6 (!!) I have now.

[babgvant]

why not spend the $400 on bigger drives? if you already have a server, isn't a NAS more complexity (and latency) b/w you and your content?

[PiX64]

I suppose a NAS does add a little more complexity.

I dunno about the throughput on a thecus, but i have a custom built NAS that has a perc 5i card in it with 4 1TB drives in raid 5...it is connected via gigabit to my switch.

I can stream 3 different DVD's from it without a hiccup. access time is instant...

no latency in my experience..


*Does the Thecus from tiger come with Drives? I think it doesn't. It may be worth it to you as it was to me to build your own. I found a case at tiger that has 10 bays, and i found a perc5i raid card on ebay for 100 shipped. For me i spent the same amount of money as this thecus costs and built a nas that is faster, and is more easily exapandable.

just something to think about


~Mike

[babgvant]

Originally Posted by PiX64

I can stream 3 different DVD's from it without a hiccup. access time is instant...

no latency in my experience..

GbE is slower than SATA.

[PiX64]

of course it is, but that doesn' mean from a 10ft gui experience there will be a lag...

again i was just trying to offer up some alternatives to EP or anyone thinking of buying the thecus


I should have specified that access to the NAS movies, at least for me, from the sage ui on server/extenders is no different than access to the recorded shows on the sata drives connected to the server.

[babgvant]

I didn't say it was noticeable, just that it was present

[PiX64]

fair enough :-)

[evilpenguin]

Honestly, its half about a new server architecture and half about interior design. I'm working on more detailed write up for a Geektonic HTPC setup post about it, but the gist is i'm going to be losing the closet where I hide my current SageTV server due to remodeling and my GF has made it very clear that she doesn't want that monstrosity anywhere she can see (or hear) it.

So my option are to either...

a) Spend time/money to run all the wires to a new hiding place
b) Hide it in plain site

So I went with option B and built a brand new SageTV server that's easy on the eyes and can sit quietly in my office. The only thing that i'll be losing compared to my old server is hard drive space (old case had space for 10 drives, new case only has space for 3). But since, most of the content on my server is purely static (ripped DVD/BR, encoded TV, etc.) there's no reason it needs to take up server space, so I figure why not buy a NAS to put next to it. I'll probably even RAID it for a little data security.

[lobosrul]

I have had the Thecus N5200 (basically a 5-bay equivalent of what your looking at) setup in raid-5 now for about 18 months and its done quite well for archival purposes. I had a disk go bad on me and it ran (albeit slowly) off parity and rebuilt when I got the disk RMA'd.

I tried using as a recording drive, and even with gigabit lan its a no go with a 2-tuner, 2-client setup.

Once you buy a good hardware raid card and a decent enclosure your not going to end up saving much, if any, money. Plus its probably a big PITA to change out servers if you go that route (I don't really know I've never done it).

I'd recommend going the NAS route, unless you want it as a recording drive.

[evilpenguin]

I got my Thecus N4100PRO setup over the weekend and overall i'm pretty happy with it.

So far all I've done is setup a 3x1TB RAID 5 and copied over all my imported media and compressed TV shows (700 GB!!!) but i'm already sleeping better knowing that videos that I've spend months ripping/compressing are safe with at least one level of redundancy. I haven't built up the courage actual delete the originals from my SageTV server and add the NAS as an import folder, but I'm hoping to do that tonight.

Performance wise this thing should fit my needs nicely I'm getting 20 MB/s upload and 25 MB/s download and was easily able to stream a BR disc to my HD200 while I was still uploading files to it.

[zoundz]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

<snip>

i'm already sleeping better knowing that videos that I've spend months ripping/compressing are safe with at least one level of redundancy. I haven't built up the courage actual delete the originals from my SageTV server and add the NAS as an import folder, but I'm hoping to do that tonight.

<snip>

Just a little nb. here about raid 5. Raid 5 can tolerate the failure of one drive in the array and still rebuild the data. One of the drawbacks of raid 5 is that it can only tolerate the failure of ONE drive. If all the drives in your array are from the same manufacturing lot, it turns out that there is a finite probability that a second drive may fail during the array rebuild caused by an initial failure. This results in the total loss of the array. One solution to this problem is to use raid 6 which can tolerate losing 2 drives. Unfortunately, you lose both speed and capacity with raid 6. Another possibility is to use drives from different manufacturing lots and even different manufacturers to lessen the probability of losing more than one drive. The bottom line here is that even with raid redundancy, it is a good idea to maintain backups of important data.

[babgvant]

My problem w/ RAID is that your data is tied to the controller. If it dies, it needs to be swapped w/ the exact same controller (w/ the same bios rev in some cases).

That's what's nice about the WHS (or robocopy/synctoy) approach, your drives are portable and your data is protected. Of course it takes a little more space, but HDs are cheap

[evilpenguin]

Originally Posted by zoundz

Just a little nb. here about raid 5. Raid 5 can tolerate the failure of one drive in the array and still rebuild the data. One of the drawbacks of raid 5 is that it can only tolerate the failure of ONE drive.

Thanks cool, I didn't want to sleep well anyway But seriously, thanks for the tip, I never thought about that. I think i'll stick with RAID 5, but i'll try and mix up my drives a bit over time.

Originally Posted by babgvant

=That's what's nice about the WHS (or robocopy/synctoy) approach, your drives are portable and your data is protected. Of course it takes a little more space, but HDs are cheap

I like WHS too, I even have a licence for it, I was just attracted to the simplicity of a NAS appliance. If I ever get bitten I may move in that direction but for now i'm enjoying it.

[evilpenguin]

Also, crazy good deal on N4100PRO @ $364 + free shipping...