Thecus N4100PRO

[LostinSC]

Now that the AMD Geode based N4100PRO is starting to show up in retail channels, I'm curious if there are any plans to review it? Seems like it may really be an interesting option, but I'm hesitant to buy without any objective reviews.

[thiggins]

I am waiting for updated firmware that is supposed to be released by the end of this month.

[Prof. Dr. YoMan]

Looking forward for that!

Are you able to already measure powerdraw when idle?

[thiggins]

Product hasn't been shipped to me yet.

[thatguy435]

I'd be pretty interested in this one, when it comes around. Given the featureset and someone I know who has a Thecus 5200 (and his experiences with it), I'm looking at a N4100Pro for myself.

[Prof. Dr. YoMan]

I would like to know if its possible to update the small 256mb ram to 1gb?

Spec looks like DDR400 200pin SO-DIMM.

1gb would be <30€ and bring a big speedup on write i guess.

Would be nice if you could check as soon as you got hold of that thing.

[Mike]

Yep I'm looking forward to a review too. I'm thinking of getting a NAS for home and the Thecus n4100PRO looks pretty cool. I'd be interested in how it compares with the DLink 343 which seems to be about the same price and features.

ps The reviews are very informative.

[thiggins]

The 4100 Pro just arrived. Looks nice.

You undo three thumbscrews on the back and the cover lifts off. Mobo is completely accessible on the side (and slides out) and memory is on an SODIMM that isn't soldered down.

Will start testing shortly. Results should be up in a day or so, depending on how long it takes to sync RAID 5.

[Atoyot]

So Thiggins, how is the testing going? I'm waiting on the review before I purchase. Thanks for all of the work and charts that you do. I stumbled upon this site while doing some research and have found it to be very valuable. I've passed it on to all of my coworkers who are also in the market for a good NAS.

Atoyot

[thiggins]

So Thiggins, how is the testing going?
Test results just posted in the NAS Charts (http://smallnetbuilder.com/nas-charts/).
Short review will be up next week.

[Atoyot]

Cool, thanks Thiggins.

I'm mostly cross shopping it against the Qnap TS-409 Pro. I'm looking to put all of my media on it for backup and for using my Xbox 360 as a Media Extender from thier built in UPnP / DLNA support.

They seem to be a good match on 100bm Raid5 with the Thecus 4100Pro pulling a bit ahead on reads and the Qnap TS-409 pulling a bit ahead on writes. Where it gets interesting is in the 1000mb Raid5 charts. The Thecus 4100Pro clearly takes a commanding lead for both reads and writes. With the Thecus showing to cost $403.99 and the Qnap at $579, it looks like the Thecus is the winner in this fight unless the full review reveals something bad.

Now, I wonder how loud the fan is?

Atoyt

[thiggins]

The fan is pretty quiet.

For this class of NAS, ignore the 100Mbps LAN benchmarks since the performance you are seeing is basically limited by the LAN connection.

[Atoyot]

First, thanks for the review. I appreciate your candid thoughts and testing.

I took the leap. Found it online for $403, free shipping. Hopefully it is a good retailer. I'll report what I find, but I'm not sure it is allowed to say who I ordered it from.

I ordered some drives that were not on the Compatible Drive list from Thecus for the 4100 Pro, but were approved for the 5200 Pro, so I'll see how they work.

I'm going to do some playing to see how it works as a media server with my Xbox 360. I'll post what I find.

[LostinSC]

I, too, took the leap. Based on the performance numbers and the general impressions from the review, I think I'll be perfectly pleased. Once I get things up and running I'll try to remember to document my experience. I'm planning on loading it with 4x Barracuda 7200.11 500GB drives. Hopefully the fact that that Seagate model doesn't appear on the HDD compatibility list for this particular NAS doesn't turn out to be a problem.

Thanks again for the wonderful site!

[thiggins]

I took the leap. Found it online for $403, free shipping. Hopefully it is a good retailer. I'll report what I find, but I'm not sure it is allowed to say who I ordered it from.
Why the secrecy? Grey market?

What were the deciding factors in your choice?

[thiggins]

I, too, took the leap.
What were the deciding factors in your choice?

[fullroast]

buystor.com?

[thiggins]

buystor.com?
Yep. Looks like it (http://www.buystor.com/N4100-PRO-4-Bay-AMD-LX800-256MB-DDR400-Network-Attached-Storage).
Only two Pricegrabber ratings (http://reviews.pricegrabber.com/buystorcom/r/11725/), both positive. No ratings on BizRate.
Proceed at your own risk.

[LostinSC]

What were the deciding factors in your choice?

Combination of cost, performance and feature set. Wanted to keep the price <$500 without drives. My main performance concern is GigE read throughput with write speed a distant second. That said, I wanted something with enough horsepower to efficiently do RAID 5 XOR if I choose to go that route with my volume(s) and the Geode seemed a better choice than other processors in the price range. Also like Thecus' choice of media server. Overall it just seemed like the best package given cost constraints.

I had also kicked around the idea of building my own around the Chenbro case that's gotten so much attention, but at the end of the day, the performance gains didn't seem to warrant the added aggravation.

For what it's worth, I ordered my unit from Beach Audio. Couple bucks more than Buystor, but good reviews and it got here in exactly two business days via UPS ground.

Now to decide how to configure my volumes.....

[thiggins]

Thanks for the report.

I had also kicked around the idea of building my own around the Chenbro case that's gotten so much attention,
Nice case, but way too expensive!

[Spiken]

The N4100pro performance/price ratio sounds good.

I imagine that the M3800 performance should be the same, they share the same CPU and ram quantity.

[Atoyot]

Yes, I did purchase the Thecus 4100Pro from www.buystor.com. I wasn't sure if you allowed us to post any references to sites since some forums forbid that as a form of advertisement. UPS Tracking shows it is in shipment and should arrive on the 29th. I guess what influenced my decision to use them was basically they had it in stock for a cheap price. Took a chance, we will see how it works out.

I ordered four Hitachi Deskstar HDS721010KLA330 1TB drives from newegg.com for $129.99 and there is a $30 mail in rebate. They have already arrived and are just waiting on the Thecus 4100Pro to arrive. Choose newegg.com because all of my friends have used them with good results. Choose the drives because I am cheap. They are not on the approved tested list, but I saw in a forum that someone said that they worked great in the 5200Pro which is very similar to the 4100Pro.

It works out that I should have approx 3TB of storage in Raid5 for a bit more than $800. Not bad at all.

If it all works out, there are about 5 guys at work who will more than likely take the plunge as well. We are all facing the same problem of an explosion of media in the form of photos, music, and now movies with no easy way of storing them in a way where a hard drive failure doesn't kill everything. Used to be able to just burn it on a CD or DVD, but now even Blue Ray isn't big enough.

[thiggins]

I wasn't sure if you allowed us to post any references to sites since some forums forbid that as a form of advertisement.
I'm ok with links like that.

[MarkC]

Would appreciate if any of the proud new owners of this unit can investigate...

What OS does this unit run? And if Linux, can you telnet into the box w/full root access? Thanks!

[Chaplin]

What are the major differences between N4100 and N5200PRO BR?

Is there better in the same price for the media to server?

- D-Link DNS-343?
- Promise SmartStor NS4300N?

Thanks!

[thiggins]

What are the major differences between N4100 and N5200PRO BR?
Go to NAS Charts (http://smallnetbuilder.com/nas-charts/), select the products of interest and click Compare features.

The 5200Pro has 5 drives vs. 4 and is higher performance.

[LostinSC]

What OS does this unit run? And if Linux, can you telnet into the box w/full root access? Thanks!

Linux 2.6.23 based kernel. Output from a quick Nmap scan:

PORT STATE SERVICE
139/tcp open netbios-ssn
443/tcp open https
445/tcp open microsoft-ds
548/tcp open afp
631/tcp open ipp
8080/tcp open http-proxy
9666/tcp open unknown
49152/tcp open unknown

Haven't really started to investigate if there's a way into the box yet, but plan on looking at it more thoroughly this weekend.

[Atoyot]

Well I just received my Thecus 4100Pro from www.buystor.com and it was in perfect condition using UPS ground. I've already upgraded the Firmware to the latest and just started building the Raid 5 with 4 1Tb drives. It says I will have 2788.9 GB after it is done.

I guess I don't get to play with it for a day or two while it builds..... :eek:

[Unregistered]

All,

Just purchased this and am struggling (first time NAS/RAID person) to do the network setup via web interface app.. I simply have a small home network setup. Should I use the LAN or the WAN port? Documentation implies to configure the WAN port. Just want to plug the NAS into my router/switch and be able to let my family access the thing. Not a WAN, on a local home LAN. Do I need to use IP sharing mode if I use the WAN?

Thank you.

- S

[thiggins]

The WAN and LAN port nomenclature is confusing and a poor choice on Thecus' part.
Just connect it to your LAN using the WAN port and do not use IP sharing mode.

[Unregistered]

Hi,

Can anybody give me specs related to this machine?
not only speed but also noise and power ratings?

At the moment its on my top 3 of nas I want to buy, but I can not find specs any where on the web.

Cheers,

Jeffrey

[thiggins]

http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/30612/75/1/1/

[rchapoteau]

I bought one of these recently with 4, 1TB Samsung drives. Works like a charm. I'm very happy with it so far.

[Unregistered]

is it possible to start with 2x1Tb HD as RAID 1 and later add another 2 HD to switch to RAID 5 ?
does it rebuid the RAID 1 -> RAID 5 automatically ? or do I need to create a backup and reformat the array?

[thiggins]

is it possible to start with 2x1Tb HD as RAID 1 and later add another 2 HD to switch to RAID 5 ?
The 4100 Pro supports both RAID volume expansion (same RAID mode, but expand to larger drives) and RAID migration (change RAID mode).

[Unregistered]

Thank you!
one more question

in case of hardware failure (controller, memory etc, but not the Harddrives)

will it be possible to take thr HDs and put them in any other NAS
lets say Dlink 343
or even regular computer with built-in RAID controller and Windows OS ?

[thiggins]

in case of hardware failure (controller, memory etc, but not the Harddrives) will it be possible to take thr HDs and put them in any other NAS lets say Dlink 343 or even regular computer with built-in RAID controller and Windows OS ?
Another NAS, unlikely. Filesystem is EXT3, so you should be able to mount the drives in any Linux-based system.

[mglyer]

Hi all. New to the forums. I am looking at buying an N4100pro, as it looks like a good deal for me. I'd really like to use:
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

But I don't see those drives as being certified for ANY Thecus produces. Does anyone have any info on this subject?

Thanks

[Unregistered]

Hi All,

Very good advice here in the forum, picked up the N4100Pro and I was able to set it up using the Hitachi HD's a poster recommended (1 TB). I have it setup in a RAID 1 config. Now, not being a techie person it has been quite fun getting it up and going. I have copied all my music, movies etc over to the NAS.

Does anyone have any recommendations on software to use in conjunction with the media server module? I'm new in this area and a search in google didn't avail anything.

Thanks to all and my GOD it's a lovely, quiet little beast =)


Matt

[unsane1]

Has anyone tried upgrading the RAM in the thecus n4100pro?

[jwpatt]

Hi, I am also curious if anyone has attempted to upgrade the RAM? Also, is there a limit on the size of drive this unit can handle (i.e. if a 2 or 3 TB came to market in the future, could the unit work with it? Thanks

[salimfadhley]

Can anybody confirm that this device is working with an Xbox 360 with the current firmware?

Thanks

[AkumaX]

this thread is one of the 1st links in google when you search thecus n4100pro :P

i'm having trouble with reviews of this unit and testing; has anyone found any reviews of a 'pseudo drive failure'? as in, @ RAID5, taking out a drive and seeing if you can still access the network share, and then letting it rebuild (and if its still possible to access the RAID while rebuilding?)

[thiggins]

Sorry AkumaX. We usually do a pull-a-drive test on all RAID NASes. But looking back at the reviews, we haven't done one on the Thecus machines, at least not on the most recent ones.

I'll be sure to do the test on the N7700 that I'm currently testing.

BTW, if you pull one drive of a RAID 5 array, you should still be able to read and write normally with the drive pulled and while it is rebuilding.

[gquiring]

this thread is one of the 1st links in google when you search thecus n4100pro :P

i'm having trouble with reviews of this unit and testing; has anyone found any reviews of a 'pseudo drive failure'? as in, @ RAID5, taking out a drive and seeing if you can still access the network share, and then letting it rebuild (and if its still possible to access the RAID while rebuilding?)I tested my 4100Pro pulling a 1TB drive. All worked as it should. The speeds were very good with a missing drive. When I installed a new drive the rebuild worked as expected - no issues.

[thiggins]

Thanks for reporting back. That is basically what I found (http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/content/view/30807/75/1/2/) with the N7700.

[Unregistered]

Hi,

Anybody tried the RAM upgrade on this box? Please report if anyone tried?

Thanks

[A Barnacle Fish]

To anyone who has one of these units... Can you tell if the power supply is a voltage-switching [120V-240V] supply? I havn't been able to figure out the answer from the information on Thecus website. I doubt that it would be, but thought I'd ask anyway.

I am short-listing NAS models, and one of my considerations:
I am currently living in Europe [230V], but possibly will relocate to the US [120V] during the expected lifetime of this NAS.

I do know of a few 2-bay NAS models [like the DNS-323] which have external 120V-240V supplies, but havn't yet come across any reasonable price/performance 4-bay NAS models that with 120V-240V supplies.

BTW, I would be purchasing the N4100Pro from an online supplier in Europe in case that makes a difference.

Any information would be appreciated...

[JustPlainDon]

Hi, I am also curious if anyone has attempted to upgrade the RAM? Also, is there a limit on the size of drive this unit can handle (i.e. if a 2 or 3 TB came to market in the future, could the unit work with it? Thanks

I'll see if I can find the reference to the RAM on another Thecus forum, but the largest ram upgrade I've seen so far is 1 Gb of SODIM on a single module.

I can say that I installed 4x 2 TB drives in my new N4100Pro this week and so far, so good. I'm having AC problems so the room with computers is frequently around 86 degrees. The unit is showing an average temp of only 104 F or 40 C. That seems pretty darn good to me. I am at work so I can't look up the model, but the drives are Western Digital. They are the ONLY 2 TB drive listed on Thecus.com's approved hard drive list.

If I could install the 1 GB of RAM without voiding my warrenty on the N4100Pro I would do it in a heartbeat.

L8r,
Don

[A Barnacle Fish]

>I'll see if I can find the reference to the RAM on another Thecus forum, but
> the largest ram upgrade I've seen so far is 1 Gb of SODIM on a single module.

Here is one reference to RAM upgrade:
http://naswebsite.com/wiki/Thecus_N4100PRO_Hardware_Modifications

[A Barnacle Fish]

To anyone who has one of these units... Can you tell if the power supply is a voltage-switching [120V-240V] supply? I havn't been able to figure out the answer from the information on Thecus website. I doubt that it would be, but thought I'd ask anyway.


I went ahead and ordered the N4100PRO without knowing the answer. I can't tell from looking at the unit itself - there is no voltage label like found on some products. However, I discovered that the Users' Guide H/W appendix states:

Power Supply: Server-rated AC power supply 100/220V AC, 50/60Hz, Auto-detect

I am pleased :o

[Ros]

Can anybody confirm that this device is working with an Xbox 360 with the current firmware?

Thanks

After much pain, we finally got the N4100Pro to stream to the Xbox 360. I'll see if I can remember how we did it so others can try the same.

1. we upgraded the n4100pro firmware to the latest version (don't know if this is necessary, just something we do to remove solved bugs)
2. in the firmware release notes, we saw that UPnP only works over the WAN (top ethernet port), so setup comms over that.
3. after configuring the HDDs for Raid or Jbod, Media Server appeared in the Network drop-down menu - so enabled that.
4. Enabled UPnP.
5. Installed the uShare module for the 5200 (http://www.onbeat.dk/thecus/index.php/N5200_Module:_USHARE) and selected the Xbox360 option.
6. ... I think that was all ...

However, in the process of giving up on it and trying again, we tried the TwonkyMedia module (http://www.onbeat.dk/thecus/index.php/N5200_Module:_TWONKYMEDIA) and found it to be far superior. Mediabolic just dumps all of the files in a flat structure, but Twonky keeps the directory structure. It doesn't require UPnP to be enabled, doesn't require uShare, and it worked on both WAN and LAN ports. It looks like it will be well worth the license fee. Still got the 30 day trial to decide, but so far it looks very good.

[gquiring]

I upgraded the firmware today to 3.0.x. The web interface is AJAX based now, I don't see any biggies to it over the old interface. I did find they improved the email notification support, Gmail now works.

[cryptyk]

Hello all,

I've had my N4100Pro up and running for about 6 weeks now and recently discovered the system fan is not always working. Last week it overheated due to this. Since then the fan doesn't always come on when I power up the system. I'm thinking I'd rather replace the fan myself than do a warranty repair. When I was doing my research before buying my NAS, I know I saw an article on how to do this, but I haven't been able to find the link again. It doesn't look like it will be hard to do, but I wouldn't mind having the reference. Has anyone done this or seen the link I'm referring to?

Thanks!

[thiggins]

Should be very easy to do. The fan is mounted to the rear panel, which can be dropped after untightening three thumbscrews.

[cryptyk]

Well, I've upgraded the fan now, but I'm still having problems. The new fan has an LED so it's easy for me to monitor if it's on or not. I hit the power button on the NAS, the fan comes on (LEDs glow, there is a breeze if I hold my hand behind the unit). About 2-3 seconds after the POST beep, the fan shuts off.

Any suggestions? I'd really rather not have to deal with tech support over a fan issue. The fan I installed is an Aerocool 92mm Silver Lightning. I've been using Aerocool fans in my desktops for years without issue.