Aegis.com has an interesting review of the Thecus N8800, awarding the product with a 94% rating:
The first 8-bay NAS made a quite entrance in the last quarter 2008, and as it has become customary, Thecus Technology Co were the first manufacturer to launch an 8-bay NAS in the SMB arena. The 8-bay followed closely on the heels of first ever 7-bay NAS launched by Thecus five weeks prior. Hats off, to Thecus R&D department for working diligently to get the product launched within a strict timeframe.
The N8800 is a rack mount solution as opposed to the desktop form factor of the 7-bay N7700. It was well received by all in sundry including many media publications depicting it as one of the best value for money and performance combinations they had seen that year. Little has changed in 2009 Thecus N8800 still carries the same value for money tag. Features are a plenty and will appeal to both business and professional home enthusiasts.
Our “First Looks” has now been further accentuated by having the N8800 in our portfolio for over 6 months and have successfully integrated and sold the unit to many satisfied customers. Popular demand from our readers has led us to write this review. The model reviewed had 8 x 1TB drives initially, replaced eventually by 8 x 2TB drives, just to get a comparative performance analysis of the differing drive capacities.
The unit is a large affair and the drive bays are protected with a flip-up mesh grille, a neat touch in case the nit was to fall on its face!, the bays are protected. Overall the unit is manufactured and designed to ensure sufficient airflow eliminating any possible overheating in instances when maximum capacity is achieved.”
The article carries on with:
- The Inside Story
- Monitoring Progress
- Connectivity Stats
The ThecusN8800 has extended RAID features:
“The N8800 supports multiple RAID modes – RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, JBOD, with extended RAID features allowing Auto-rebuild, Hot-Swap, Hot-Spare, Global Hot-Spare and the ability to expand both RAID and Capacity levels without loss of data based on adherence of instructions provided. Space can be allocated for iSCSI as well if required, but be aware you need to allocate space in the initial RAID setup otherwise the RAID set will need to be reformatted to make an allocation for iSCSI. It is important to calculate capacity allocation prior to formatting the RAID set. The latest firmware (2.01.09) also adds Disk SMART and bad block test supported, allowing you to test for bad blocks anytime you wish to do so – WARNING – only do this if you do not need to use the NAS as it takes a while. Another feature added is RAID volume encryption supported in AES 256bit; this is a nice feature adding another level of security for RAID systems when required.”
The other parts of the review look at:
- Salient Features
- Range of Network File & Media Services
- Easy Backup with volume snapshots
- Performance
The review closes with the conclusion:
“The 8-Bay Thecus N8800 scores big in many aspects, and leaves all its competitors in their starting blocks, but when it comes to value and performance the N8800 races away, and does not have a competitor in sight.”
Read the whole review here.
