Thecus N3200 Home NAS: securely store and deliver data

While most NAS units wouldn't look out of place in a factory the Thecus NAS 3200 has a sleek look that's more tailored for the small office or home. It looks more like a regular household appliance than a piece of network wizardry.

The N3200 we reviewed was furnished with a full complement of three hard drives (Hitachi 1TB DeskStar 7K1000) giving a total of 2TB of space in a RAID5 configuration. That means that the loss of a single drive won't result in any data loss. Should a drive need replacing it can be hot-swapped without any interruption to operation.

If you choose to buy the N3200 as a barebones unit with no disks, installing hard drives is very simple. The front cover of the unit slides upwards to reveal the three drive bays. Each disk is screwed into a caddy at four points with the caddies secured with with a pair of screws that can be turned without the need for a screwdriver.

After powering the N3200 on for the first time we connected to the configuration utility via a web browser. From there, it became apparent that the N3200 offers incredible flexibility. After enabling the Media Server and iTunes Server options, we could instantly see the N3200 as a source for multimedia content. Our Windows and Mac test systems could all see the N3200's default fileshares without any effort other than changing the N3200's Windows Workgroup membership.

Using the gigabit LAN connection we found that that the N3200 was able to deliver content quickly with no problems. Having enabled the Media Server option we told the N3200 to scan specific folders on the NAS for content. We added a feature length movie that was available through Microsoft's Media Player application.

The front face of the unit has a simple two-line LED display that provides a status report of your RAID with measurements such as uptime, system temperature and fan speed displayed. In addition the network address is shown as well as the current date and time. There are three large lights, indicating the status of the hard disks.

A USB port on the face can be used for quickly copying the content of a USB hard drive or memory stick to the NAS. This is particularly handy if you use a memory stick for working files and want to use the N3200 for backup. It also makes the task of transferring data from older drives trivially easy. Copying about 2.5GB from a USB 2 memory stick took several minutes. The entire copying process can be done PC-free by using the buttons adjacent to the display.

While sitting idle, the N3200 was quiet enough to sit on the desk near a work area. However, while operating we found that the increased fan speed and sound of the hard disks operating was too loud.

One of the great things about the N3200 was its ability to carry out scheduled downloads. Given the poor state of Australian broadband the ability to schedule downloads to occur during off-peak periods is extremely valuable and can save you many late nights. The 3200 can be scheduled to execute HTTP, FTP and BitTorrent downloads.

Rounding out the N3200's abilities is its capacity to be used as a security system. Simply connect a compatible USB web-cam and it can shoot and record video. The USB port can also be used to connect a USB Wi-Fi dongle making it wirelessly accessible.

Given the increased need for us to store more and more data as our media collections expand we can see the Thecus N3200 finding a place in many homes. With recent studies suggesting that the average home holds almost 1.4TB of data the three disk capacity of the N3200 is its only limitation. It's ability to securely store and deliver data coupled with its ease of use makes it a worthy cadidate for consideration for home and small office LANs.