Thecus N7700 in the flesh
It's never easy to be excited by packaging, and though we're far from thrilled, it's worth noting that we found the N7700's packaging to be nicer than that of previous Thecus products.
Get inside and there's plenty to be enthusiastic about. The unit itself is - in our opinion - one of the better-looking NAS solutions available. Thecus' revised design does away with the now gaudy-looking glossy finish found on the erstwhile champ, N5200 Pro.
Instead, we've a sophisticated unit that catches the eye with its smooth curve and refined finish. The pleasantly-presented LCD display is coupled with the usual four-button combo and the unit's left side is adorned with the expected feedback-providing LEDs and USB ports. The sleekest change, though, is the mesh door used to hide the clutter of seven drive bays behind it.
It's a nice and long-awaited touch, and though possibly detrimental to drive cooling - despite the mesh design - it's a welcome addition to the N7700's overall aesthetic appeal.
Nothing unusual about the drive-trays at a quick glance, but we found them to be a little troublesome during installation. Our disks wouldn't always fully connect to the backplane and would therefore go undetected. Removing and reinstalling drives appeared to fix the little quirk, and we're advised that our N7700 is a hand-built sample and retail products shouldn't suffer such problems.
As with previous NAS products from Thecus, the front-facing LCD display allows for quick monitoring and provides details such as IP address, system status and progress status.
Over to the rear and we've an array of connectivity options including dual Gigabit Ethernet, RS232, two USB ports (in addition to the two at the front) and eSATA, too. Though the eSATA support is provided to allow for capacity expansion, it won't, sadly, allow for an eSATA drive to be combined as part of an existing RAID array.
The chassis' two rear fans are accompanied by a third fan mounted on the CPU heatsink. The trio are thermostatically-controlled, but the N7700 - like other Thecus units - isn't the quietest NAS solution available.
Sneaking a peek inside, we get to see a pair of Marvel 88SE6320-TFJ2 network controllers, the chipset heatsink and a PCIe x1 slot allowing for future expansion. Interestingly, the rear of the board sports two DIMM slots - potentially allowing for a custom memory upgrade. Although a user could upgrade to 2GB by installing a second DDR2 module, Thecus won't guarantee compatibility and only supports the pre-installed 1GB.
Opening it up also reveals a 300W 80 PLUS power supply, one that should provide ample power for seven attached hard drives.
The exterior packaging may have been an improvement, but the internal contents are still a run-of-the-mill job. Included is a standard kettle power cable, CAT5 Ethernet cable, two sets of drive-bay-locking keys, numerous HDD screws, setup CDs and a quick-start guide.
