INTRODUCTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   With just a few months away from the introduction of the first 5TB hard disk drives and with 4TB models already flooding the market it makes sense that lately most of the people i know turn towards single and dual bay NAS servers/devices for home and office use. However it is understandable that not everyone can afford one of the new 4TB models and so for people who have some old HDD models lying around the obvious choice would be a cost-effective 4 bay NAS server with which they can use those drives either in JBOD or RAID modes. Thecus may not be the most famous brand name in the market (at least from what people tell me) but they've been manufacturing high quality products for almost a decade now with competitive prices which is what makes them quite appealing to end users. Today we have one such product with us and more specifically the N4100EVO 4 bay NAS server.

 

   In 2004, Thecus Technology was founded to design, manufacture, and market digital storage products. Now, 10 products and over 100 awards later, Thecus is recognized as a global leader of digital storage solutions. With decades of R&D experience, the Thecus team has developed an entire range of state-of-the-art storage products for consumers and enterprises alike. With its global sales channel development, quality Thecus products are now distributed in over 30 countries and territories across the globe. Thecus products are designed not only to be powerful and flexible, but easy-to-use. Users have increasingly growing digital libraries, and they need to access their digital media as quickly as possible Thecus storage solutions consistently deliver top-notch performance, able to deliver digital media at an impressive clip. To keep data completely safe, Thecus products are designed with data security in mind, each coming with numerous security options for the user to select. Thecus storage products also have the unique ability to support third-party software modules, making Thecus products infinitely customizable. And to make sure our products are accessible to both novices and experts alike, Thecus makes sure that each of its products can be easily installed and used. Secure and flexible storage products that simply work. That is the Thecus guarantee.

 

   This is the 2nd Thecus NAS server I’ve had the chance to use to date but it's the very first time I’m actually putting one of those to the test to see just how good it is compared to other similar products. Well right from the bat one can easily tell that the N4100EVO is not aimed towards people who are looking for a high-end NAS server mainly due to the dual-core Cavium CNS3420 600MHz CPU used (which is actually one of the lowest-end CPUs I’ve ever encounter in similar units) and the rather small amount of memory (256MB DDR2). Strangely enough i never did expect to see a 4 bay NAS server with such specifications but Thecus is not new at what they do and since they have quite a few high-end models available in their current line i guess they just wanted to also have a low-end one for people who care more about having many drive bays rather than performance. The real question however is whether or not it can keep up with the competition and once again that's what we are here to help answer that question.

 

 

 

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The N4100EVO arrived inside a rather large box with a DNA strand as background and the Thecus logo at the front/rear along with a picture of the product.

 

 

At the left side we see a rather in-depth description of the units main features. 

 

 

Some of the things one can use the N4100EVO for are showcased at the right side of the box.

 

 

As you can see the N4100EVO gets shipped between two thick Styrofoam spacers. 

 

 

The bundle includes the N4100EVO 4 Bay NAS Server, software CD, warranty card, HDD compatibility card (tells you to check online), quick installation guide, 4 drive bay keys, 1 Ethernet cable (since the unit comes with two Gigabit Ethernet ports i was expecting 2) and the AC power cable.

 

 

 

THE N4100EVO EXTERIOR

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The N4100EVO is not a small NAS server (due to the 4 drive bays) since it measures 22mm in length, 192mm in height and 165mm in width but it's actually a tad smaller than the TS-4xx line of NAS servers by QNAP. 

 

 

However compared to 2 Bay solutions like the TS-269 Pro the N4100EVO is quite larger. 

 

 

Unlike units by QNAP and Synology we see that Thecus prefers a more industrial like design for theirs.

 

 

The N4100EVO has a total of 5 activity LEDs at the left of the front fascia (power On, HDD activity, Ethernet 1/2, system state). 

 

 

Beneath the LED readout area we see a USB 2.0 port, the power on/off button and the EVO logo.

 

 

You can use the 4 small buttons placed right beneath the small 2x16 LCD screen to check the state of the unit.

 

 

All of the 4 drive bays feature locks and are hidden behind a hard plastic door.

 

 

The drive trays themselves may not be of the best quality I’ve ever seen but they get mounted a lot easier than every other I’ve ever used to date and as expected Thecus has placed mounting holes at the bottom for both 2.5" and 3.5" drives.

 

 

The same industrial look extends at the rear of the device.

 

 

Here we see an 92mm exhaust fan manufactured by ADDA (can reach speeds of up to 2400RPM and produce up to 43.5CFM of airflow at 31.3dBA), an USB 2.0 port, two gigabit Ethernet ports, the AC power port and the 20mm exhaust fan of the built-in 150W PSU.

 

 

At the bottom of the unit we see 4 round rubber feet (which unfortunately black any white surface they come in contact with).

 

 

 

THE N4100EVO INTERIOR

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Removing the casing is not hard at all since you just need to release the 3 screws found at the rear.

 

 

The dual-core Cavium CNS3420 600MHz CPU is placed right under this small heatsink.

 

 

Hynix supplies the DDR2 memory modules found in the N4100EVO.

 

 

What really stands out when looking at the PCB is the Microchip used to control the front LCD screen display.

 

 

 

INSTALLATION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thecus releases firmware and application updates quite often so i really suggest heading over to their official support page prior to using the device.

 

 

Running the Thecus installation wizard is the easiest way to do things. However if you are not very much into computers i really suggest turning the DHCP feature on so a proper/correct IP can be assigned to the device.

 

 

WEB INTERFACE PART 1

 

 

The web interface is as usual accessed through your internet browser and to enter the main web interface you need to click on the key and then enter the default password (admin).

 

 

As mentioned earlier i strongly suggest performing a firmware update before everything else. It takes a while to complete but unlike other NAS servers the N4100EVO only requires 100s to restart.

 

 

Now the very first screen you will see is the favorites tab inside which Thecus has placed some shortcuts and of course you can place others as well. Unfortunately the web interface of the N4100EVO falls short compared to what we see by QNAP and Synology but at the same time it is a bit easier in terms of navigation for new users.

 

 

Overall Thecus provides mostly basic settings/features with the N4100EVO which makes sense since it is their latest 4 bay low-end unit. So the first drop down menu you will come across is the system management one from which you can reboot/shutdown the server, create schedules, enable/disable notifications and perform firmware updates.

 

 

Under the system network tab you can adjust pretty much anything related to the network/internet from the units IP address and the FTP server up to the Samba, UPNP and Bonjour services.

 

 

You can create new JBOD/RAID configurations, create shared folder and also check the status of your drives via SMART inside the Storage menu.

 

 

Add and removing users is quite simple and can be done from within the User And Group Authentication drop down menu.

 

 

You can also perform backup tasks via the Rsync tab in the Backup menu.

 

 

Right beneath the drop down menus Thecus has placed 5 small icons from where you can access directly the status of the system and the installed drives (it may be a firmware bug since we only used the latest version but the 3 other icons didn't seem work).

 

 

 

 

WEB INTERFACE PART 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thecus has taken an different path with the N4100EVO (and perhaps with their other NAS servers) since in order to use specialized applications (modules) you need to install them yourself (much like the QPKG packages in QNAP NAS servers).

 

 

Most basic applications are included in the bundled CD but you can probably find newer versions on the official Thecus support page.

 

 

Now perhaps the most important module of the ones included in the CD is the WebDisk module which after you install it appears on the login screen as a separate ball.

 

 

The WebDisk interface actually looks quite good but as you can see it has a 2GB limitation per file something which i can't figure out why.

 

 

Unlike other NAS servers the N4100EVO does not have an dedicated media player, instead it comes with the HTML5 Flowplayer which starts playback once you double click on a media file.

 

 

However either because the Flowplayer is not ideal for media reproduction (at least not heavy HD files) or because the N4100EVO is not strong enough no matter what FullHD media clip i tried to playback it just wouldn't keep up and so it would just freeze every 5-10s (even the small 1080p clip from Chris Roberts Squadron 42 vision was too much for it). And that's not all since Flowplayer can't reproduce a large range of media files most importantly MKV ones (something i hope they can fix soon).

 

 

 

TESTING METHODOLOGY

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Since some of the NAS servers/devices we have tested in the past are no longer in our possession (naturally) we will keep performing the exact same testing methodology we did in the past for as long as possible in order to provide accurate comparison results. So as always we've used a single Seagate Constellation ES.2 3TB SATA III hard disk drive with every NAS units and performed upload/download tests with a single 10.9GB file. Tests were repeated a total of 4 times after which we recorded the average numbers (from the 4 peak ones) into our charts. Noise level tests have also been recorded with the exhaust fan(s) at both minimum and maximum speeds from just 10cm away. Finally the network device used is the same Netgear DGN3500 Gigabit ADSL2+ Modem/Router we always use when performing tests on NAS servers.

 

 

TEST RESULTS

 

FILE TRANSFER TEST

 

I was somewhat skeptical when i got the first performance results from the N4100EVO so i had to double check with the people over at Thecus who in turn verified them. Well not much to say here really, in write i can justify the results since even the Synology DS211/212J NAS servers did roughly the same but read speeds is something i didn't really expect.

 

TEMPERATURES

 

The 92mm exhaust fan worked quite well since the HDD never went over 34 degrees (at least from what the internal meter said).

 

POWER CONSUMPTION

 

With the constellation ES.2 3TB SATA III drive installed the N4100EVO burned 19W in idle and up to 26W. 

 

NOISE LEVELS

 

One strange thing with the N4100EVO is that the rear 92mm/20mm fans outputted roughly the same amount of noise in both idle and even while transferring files and reproducing media files.

 

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   When the people over at Thecus released the N4100EVO a few months ago and asked me if i was interested in reviewing it i was expecting a mid-end unit since up until today i haven't used or tested a low-end 4 bay NAS server. However after checking the specifications sheet and especially after performing every test in the book the N4100EVO is without doubt aimed towards people who want a rather low-cost (yet high quality) NAS server with basic functionality and room for up to 4 disk drives. Normally I’d be somewhat disappointed by such a product but given that most units in our charts are mid-end and also because Thecus never really claimed that the N4100EVO was anything but a low-end unit i really can't.

 

   According to Thecus the thing that packs the most punch with the N4100EVO 4 Bay NAS Server is its cost and with a price tag set at USD273.42 inside the USA (Wallmart) and at around 260Euros inside the EU i really have to agree with them. Of course each and every person out there has different needs so for me the N4100EVO is simply not the ideal device simply because media playback (especially MKV media playback) and surveillance capabilities are two important factors (the surveillance module offers very limited functionality), however most people configure their NAS servers for downloading, sharing music and hosting pages. On the other hand i can always do with just 2 drive bays since i have the highest capacity disk drives around at any given time, however other people are sure to have old drives laying around which will most probably want to use so they may be better off with a 4 bay unit (and the list goes on). Bottom line if you are out to get an 4 bay NAS server and you don't want to spend over USD300/300Euros for it then the NV4100EVO by Thecus could be your way out, however i really suggest making sure that you're ok with what it offers in terms of both performance and features prior to moving in for the kill.

 

PROS

- Build Quality (Sturdy)
- 4 Drive Bays (With Locks)
- 2 Gigabit Ethernet Ports
- JBOD/RAID0/1/5 Support
- Internal 150W PSU
- Price (For Some) 

 

 

CONS

- Performance
- Loud
- Limited Media Playback Functionality