Simplified NAS solutions seem to be growing in popularity, but if yesterday's Netgear Stora is just a little too basic for your needs, you might like the look of Thecus' latest, the N2200.
The two-bay NAS, pictured below, features combo drive bays that can accommodate either 2.5in or 3.5in drives, allowing for a total capacity of up to 4TB. Offering a choice of configuration options, the unit's hot-swappable bays support a variety of RAID modes - including RAID 0, 1 and JBOD.
At the front of the unit, there's a useful little LCD displaying icons to illustrate system status - it'll highlight items such as drive access, LAN connectivity and USB copy status.
As you'd expect, the N2200 offers a handful of Thecus' home-user features, including Download Manager, Surveillance Server, iTunes Server, Photo Web Server and DLNA-compliant media streaming. Lauding the N2200's green credentials, Thecus adds that it'll consume as little as 11W of power, and a single built-in system fan will power down when idle to help keep it quiet.
There's no support for eSATA, but the N2200 does offer four USB ports, allowing for print server functionality and instant USB backups.
Not a bad-looking unit, we reckon, but for the home user wanting to get into the NAS game, it's likely to boil down to little other than pricing. Thecus hasn't commented on availability or suggested retail prices yet, but we've seen the N2200 make an appearance at US retailers priced at around $430. Still a lot to ask for a drive-less model, perhaps.
