Thermaltake Muse X-Duo-RAID N0015LUU (impluse purchase)

[zjohnr]

I'm not sure if I'm posting to the right section, but since I am sort of looking for buying advice this seemed a reasonable place to put this. In my case though I'm looking for advice as hindsight.

I just impulse purchased this NAS and now I am wondering what I've gotten myself into. If anyone out there had any info about this unit (or something related to it), I'd appreciate the feedback.

More background. I ordered this X-Duo-RAID N0015LUU from the Thermaltake store (link). It's a discountinued item and (when I posted this) the "coupon code" HWN0015LUUS09 knocked the price down to $99.99. So far it also appears that I got the "free shipping". So this was one of those, "How bad can it be really?" moments.

I tried using Google to search for reviews but didn't find any. (Which is perhaps one datum indicating why this item was discontinued? ) But maybe someone here might be able to point me towards other info about this NAS.

I can immediately think of one big reason why I should NOT have purchased it. Since it's discontinued I'll never, ever see any firmware updates unless I find them from some 3'rd party. Oh, well. (I think.)

As for how bad the rest of it may be, I guess in 2 or 3 weeks (depending on how long "free shipping" takes), I'll know.

-irrational (no?) john

[dbs47]

I just ordered one too. If you just want a little network shared storage you can't beat the price point. After all if you ever need/want to move to a bigger NAS you've got your drives. (one reason to consider purchasing good drives)

It's been out a few years now and the firmare/software has been updated along the way, last April as I recall, so it should be stable. It has a reasonable feature set that should work fine for the forseeable future.

The lack of reviews is because it's pretty basic, reviewers attention is on four or more drives, RAID 5, 6, 10. and possibly a LAMP or media server. Here are the only two reviews I could find:

http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=1222&pageID=4382

http://www.cluboc.net/reviews/networ...-Duo/index.asp

The unit uses a (discontinued) LSI chip with an ARM processor and integrated ethernet, USB, SATA, RAM & flash controllers. The OS and middleware is Linux. I'd guess there are other products out there and that someone has hacked them...

I'd say it's a good gamble.

ds

[dbs47]

Posting my previous reply got me surfing again. I haven't dug into it, but here's the link to the Thermaltake storage forum: http://forum.thermaltake.com/viewforum.php?f=12

[zjohnr]

Originally Posted by dbs47

The lack of reviews is because it's pretty basic, reviewers attention is on four or more drives, RAID 5, 6, 10. and possibly a LAMP or media server.

Oh, I don't know. In my mind I was comparing this to the DLink DNS-321 (maybe DNS-323). That (low end) NAS seems to have gotten an number of reviews and it's only a 2 drive NAS. Perhaps what held them back was that the pre-firesale price was so high compared to the amount of function it offered? ~$300 for a 2 drive NAS seems a tad pricey to me ...

Thanks for the review & forum links. It's always nice to see what others had to say.

I've been thinking about some type of low-end NAS for some time but never felt convinced enough to pull the trigger on an order. The discounted cost of this unit was only about $10 more than I could supposedly pay for a DNS-321 after a rebate hassle. As you said, it's seemed like it might be a good gamble so I'm taking the chance.

Nice to hear that the OS is Linux based ...

The N0015LUU also seemed to have a fair amount of function that might be useful on a home network ... the iTunes, Bit Torrent client, and remote printer support. Of course, the truth proof the pudding for those features is in the using and I'm prepared to be underwhelmed or even disappointed.

My main intent is to move media files from my desktop to a lower power "appliance" so I don't have to boot the desktop just to watch a video on my laptop. It would also be "really nice" if I could backup to this NAS with Time Machine, but I'm not optimistic. Apple tends to be so picky that they may not recognize the NAS as a possible backup destination.

FWIW, I checked the Thermaltake store again today and apparently they've sold out. (Couldn't add it to a shopping cart.) Sort of what I expected.

The last "discontinued item" purchase I made from Thermaltake seemed reasonably solid in terms of construction so I'm hopeful on that regard. OTOH, that last purchase was only $10 so I had a lot less to lose.

What's strange/unexpected to me is that you can still find it listed on is still listed on the product pages of their main (non-store) web site: Muse X-Duo-RAID (N0015LUU). Guess there's not a high priority on having the info on the web site be current.

-irrational john

[dbs47]

I think it's still on the main site to help retailers who still have stock. A number of sites still list it in the $300 range. Interestingly the price on the main site is $399. Lack of attention or ...?

Like you, it was an impulse buy. I'm pretty sure it will do what I need it for.

ds

[zjohnr]

In hindsight, I suppose I should have bothered to browse the Themaltake forums beforehand and taken note of all the "This is a piece of ...!! " posts. Oh, well.

Pragmatically speaking I probably would have been better off going with the more known quantity of a DLink DNS-321. Heck, maybe I'll do that anyway ... but not right away. One postive slant on this Thermaltake NAS is that I'll feel a lot less hesitation to try to hack it to improve it should I ever get a clue as to how to go that route.

Where to begin? Well, I suppose I should start with it does work. It's not a total loss. And, probably due to the years I spent fussing with computers, I'm not cursing it when I run into problems. But I can definitely see how a more naive user would be a very unhappy camper.

Let's start with the install process. This is my first NAS so I have no clue as to what is "typical". This Thermaltake NAS uses both an 8MB flash and software which it installs onto the hard drive(s) you install. That was not clear to me when I started the install and it's a pretty important bit of context for understanding why the install instructions take the route they do.

The last (I assume) version of the firmware (apparently a combination of flash and OS software) is v2.1. I downloaded the "full" version from what I thought was the download link for this product here. However, I could not get that version to successfully install.

In hindsight I have decided the problem was with the contents of the flash. I finally got the install process to work by installing the older v1.7.1 of the firmware from the install CD which came with the NAS. This also updated the flash to "v2.0". I was then able to install v2.1 of the firmware ... which also updated the flash to "v3.0".

One other note. At this point I had stumbled across this Themaltake link which let me download an "upgrade" version of the v2.1 firmware. The difference seems to be this. The "full" version installs only to an empty formatted disk. The "upgrade" version doesn't wipe out your data and must be installed to a working installed NAS using the web admin interface to the NAS.

So, to sum up, doing a two step install was the trick. It was slow, especially the last "upgrade" install, but it eventually worked. And, hey, it only took me an evening to figure it all out.

-irrational john

[SwissyJim]

Holy cow. Thank you! I did the same 'impulse' buy of the Thermaltake NAS, and found it a bear to install. I dug around and found this post - a WEALTH of info.

THANK YOU!

Now it's all installed, I just have to figure out the shares and users and itunes and... But at least I can see it's installed and ready for eventual use.

[zjohnr]

Originally Posted by SwissyJim

Holy cow. Thank you! I did the same 'impulse' buy of the Thermaltake NAS, and found it a bear to install. I dug around and found this post - a WEALTH of info.

You're welcome. Glad the info was of some use to someone else. I was mostly trying to leave a trail of breadcrumbs for myself should I ever need them.

I haven't been able to learn much more. If you attempt to use the Bittorrent client it apparently uses the userid/password of admin/admin. You're not supposed to need that info to use it, but mine kept refusing to show me web status for bittorrent unless I entered that. You'd also need that info if you wanted to use the "Sancho" GUI, a Windows utility, to work more directly with the bittorrent core on the NAS.

I have not had success at logging into the NAS with telnet. I couldn't find any open ports that a telnet server is monitoring. There is an SSH server at the standard TCP port 22, but I have had no luck at guessing the userid/password to get "in" that way.

I figure since Thermaltake has discontinued this NAS, the only way to make this thing more usable would be to "hack" into it. Don't know if I'll ever have any luck with that or not. But it looks like I'm going to be trying to learn more about Linux now.

FWIW, if I'm remembering correctly the SOC processor this unit uses is a (legacy) Agere NAS201. To give an idea of just how legacy it is, Agere is no longer an independent company. It merged/was acquired by LSI Corporation during the Spring of 2007.

-irrational john