facebook rss twitter

Review: Thecus N2560

by Parm Mann on 16 September 2013, 14:00

Tags: Thecus (4978.TWO)

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qab2if

Add to My Vault: x

Final Thoughts and Rating

We feel like we've been here before with Thecus. As is so often the case with the company's NAS solutions, the N2560 offers capable hardware driven by software that feels a little rough around the edges.

Intel's latest-generation Atom SoCs appear to be a good fit for home NAS solutions and with a helping hand from 2GB of DDR3 memory, the 1.6GHz dual-core chip has enabled Thecus to offer strong overall performance allied with respectable power-draw numbers.

Capable hardware deserves an intuitive software operating system to boot, but ThecusOS 6 struggles to tick all of the right boxes. Whilst simple to configure, Thecus's software continues to feel under-developed when compared to what's on offer from the competition.

A November release window gives Thecus ample time to roll-out updates and enhancements, but it could all come down to pricing. The N2560 may be worthy of consideration if Thecus manages to drop the price below, say, £250, but any higher and it'll risk being overshadowed by tidier all-round packages from rival manufacturers.

The Good

Strong overall performance
Front-facing USB 3.0 port
User-friendly Intelligent NAS Utility
HDMI output for direct play

The Bad

Lacks support for 2.5in drives
Operating system needs work
iSCSI not supported

HEXUS.where2buy

The Thecus N2560 NAS is expected to become available in November 2013.

HEXUS.right2reply

At HEXUS, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any company representatives for the products reviewed choose to respond, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.


« PREVIOUS PAGE

HEXUS Forums :: 8 Comments

Login with Forum Account

Don't have an account? Register today!
Posted by Hicks12 - Mon 16 Sep 2013 18:15
Looks pretty bad to me! Build quality looks poor and for £270 i would expect it to be pretty solid… surely you're much better off getting the HP microserver N54L which is currently £90 after cashback! that supports 4 drives and you can have more than 1 ethernet port so you dont have to be limited by ethernet :).
Posted by Myss_tree - Tue 17 Sep 2013 07:10
Hicks12
Looks pretty bad to me! Build quality looks poor and for £270 i would expect it to be pretty solid… surely you're much better off getting the HP microserver N54L which is currently £90 after cashback! that supports 4 drives and you can have more than 1 ethernet port so you dont have to be limited by ethernet :).

There is the cost of adding Windows Home server to the HP (around £35) and probably more memory but its still cheaper than the Thecus and the build quality of the HP is rock solid.
Technically a home server is different to a NAS but just about everyone uses it the same, for storage. (awaits the “well not me” comments ;-)
Posted by circuitmonkey - Tue 17 Sep 2013 07:17
Looks like an homage to the old school beige boxes
Posted by DanceswithUnix - Tue 17 Sep 2013 07:31
Myss_tree
There is the cost of adding Windows Home server to the HP (around £35) and probably more memory but its still cheaper than the Thecus and the build quality of the HP is rock solid.
Technically a home server is different to a NAS but just about everyone uses it the same, for storage. (awaits the “well not me” comments ;-)

You can avoid that cost by running FreeNAS or similar. I do a *lot* more than storage on my home server, I use CentOS.
Posted by ajones - Tue 17 Sep 2013 16:12
I've bought 2 Thecus NAS. Upgraded from my original N2200 to the N2200xxx because it just didn't have the horse power to do more than one thing at a time. The N2200 was terribly slow.

The N2200xxx was much better, but for the fact that now, some 18 months after purchase, and they still haven't resolved the overheating issue. The unit has the horsepower to run multiple sessions at the same time, but only until it overheats and shuts down. Even with the correct firmware, mine is pretty much useless during the summer, and even in winter it''s touch and go whether it'll stay alive through a backup.

I'm afraid to say that Thecus seem to have got into the habit of launching far to many products without fixing the ones they already have… and it's not as if they are dirt cheap either.

The forums are reasonably active (with users, less active from Thecus) and there are plenty of modules available for them.

SEE NEWER »