All,

So after much debates i finally ordered Thecus N5200B diskless from newegg. After browsing bunch of online information, i am unable to decide which hard-drives should i order. I am looking to build a RAID 5 stripe set, so i would require at least 3. I have narrowed the vendor down to Seagate, product type as Barracuda, and storage to b e 500GB. However, i am unable to decide whether i need to buy Barracuda ES series (500GB) or Barracuda 7200.10 (500GB). Can you guys provide some guidance highlighting some key differences please?

All,

So after much debates i finally ordered Thecus N5200B diskless from newegg. After browsing bunch of online information, i am unable to decide which hard-drives should i order. I am looking to build a RAID 5 stripe set, so i would require at least 3. I have narrowed the vendor down to Seagate, product type as Barracuda, and storage to b e 500GB. However, i am unable to decide whether i need to buy Barracuda ES series (500GB) or Barracuda 7200.10 (500GB). Can you guys provide some guidance highlighting some key differences please?


Get the ES drives... longer warranty same price. I have had good luck with those drives in my infrant and thecus box. I just wish I had something nice to say about the thecus. Worst equipment purchase I ever made...

Sean

thanks on the guidance. I have been leaning towards ES myself, however, the only advantage Seagate website trumps is the resistance against RV failure (usually when these drives are used in massive disk arrays).

You really think the Thecus is that bad of a product? I have heard (from other folks who own thecus) that firmware and documentation could use plenty of improvement, but its improved a lot from where it was a year ago...

I have an N5200 with 5 500gig .10 seagate drives.

I am very happy with the purchses... However, you have to be ready for poor tech support. I had a timeout problem with the n5200 and had to make a dozen or so calls to tech support before I talked to someone. The person I talked to suggested returning the box for a replacement. I did that and continued to have the same problem. I did some trial and error config changes and solved the problem on my own. For some reason the n5200 did not like the DHCP server in my motorolla surfboard router.... Static IP solved the problem.

The N5200 is very fast. It streams multiple video feeds without a problem. I have not had a hickup since figuring out the timeout problem, but am crossing my fingers that I do not need to speak with tech support again... I did hear that they are releasing an ISCSI version of the n5200 with a faster processor and more memory...

cschlik, thanks for the feedback... i ended up ordering 3 barracuda ES for $169.00 ($10.00 cheaper than newegg) with $0.00 S&H from zipzoomfly...

i think to a certain degree i had prepared myself to expect pathetic support on N5200 however the price range and functionality proved irresistable to pass up.

cschlik, thanks for the feedback... i ended up ordering 3 barracuda ES for $169.00 ($10.00 cheaper than newegg) with $0.00 S&H from zipzoomfly...

i think to a certain degree i had prepared myself to expect pathetic support on N5200 however the price range and functionality proved irresistable to pass up.


Sorry been out of town. To answer your question this thecus is a absolute peice of junk. It only does one thing better than the infrant NAS which is that its faster. Considering the infrant can stream 6 DVD video sessions no problems I am not sure what good it does to have the extra speed. The sw sucks. The support is worse. The consutruction quality is poor. I have spent many hours writing details about it here. bottom line I own and Buffalo Terastation, and Infrant X6 and the thecus and I should have sent the thecus back to zip zoom fly the day it arrived. I didn't assuming the software would improve and stabilize. That was 6 months ago and its still as bad as the day I got it. Just yesterday I inserted a new disk going from 4 to 5. One of the other disks failed from the insertion. it just finished 10 hours of rebuilding the RAID array all because the Motherboard flexed from gently inserting a new disk. Arg! I really hate this thing....

Sean

hmmn... mine will arrive next week.. i think newegg has a 30-day return policy.. so if it gives me the problems you have mentioned, it'd be on its way back to where it came from :-) and be replaced by Infrant ReadyNAS NV.... however, with Netgear's acquisition of Infrant, i am not sure if Infrant support/development will go down the thecus route (i.e. in the dumps)

can other Thecus owner's please comment on their thecus N5200 units please?

I have one with 5 Western Digital Caviar SE 16 WD5000AAKS and it works fine for me.
It streams mainly HD .TS files to a PMS MB200.
We tried the slimserver and a SB3 and that worked sort of. (bug in somthing with the mysql i think)

The 5 drives were initially placed in the unit when it was switched of, so i cannot comment in raid expansion in a live system.
You could look for oppinions on the thecus user group forum: http://thecususergroup.proboards106.com/index.cgi

You could look for oppinions on the thecus user group forum: http://thecususergroup.proboards106.com/index.cgi

I wonder why thecus doesn't have a newgroup which they officially support (similar to infrant)... this sort of functionality seems critical in attracting and maintaining user base.

There is a official thecus forum, but i think there is a lot more action in the thecus user group forum.