A couple of Pre-Purchase questions...

[pmac3072]

Hello,
I am considering purchasing a Thecus N5200BR Pro raid solution for personal home/office use. My question is what exactly does raid expansion mean? Is that I can start with two or three disks and add as I need... Or can I upgrade the size of the disks as I go? Just need to know what this means.
Also, what is the warranty information on this raid box?
Thanks,
Paul

[sietierney]

Hi Paul

If you have a look around the forum you will see the raid expansion can cause problems and is not a as easy as it states in the manual, my advice would be to buy as much storage space as you can.

I have the 5200BR Pro it is a very fast piece of kit, but be aware it is more difficult to set up than a wireless router!

I had some minor teething problems setting mine up but now I can quite honestly say it is a fantastic NAS box, but I am a firm believer of if it aint broke dont fix it! hence get as much storage as u can then set it up and leave it alone!!

I hope this helps
Simon

[rhumba]

Agreed with sietierney - order the largest drives possible and create your raid on them.

[h0mersimps0n]

Do yourself a favor and build your own setup from scratch or find someone to build it for you. .

If you do a search for my username and find all my posts of problems.

[Thecus - Yvon]

Dear Sir,

RAID Migration
Changing the number of disks or RAID level in current RAID configuration. The system will list the possible migration paths, and administrator can choose a possible path. For example, RAID 1 with 2 disks can be migrated to RAID 5 with 5 disks or RAID 5 with 3 disks can be migrated to RAID 5 with 4 disks. RAID levels currently supported are : RAID 0, 1, 5.

RAID Expansion
When larger disks have replaced the smaller disks thru RAID Rebuild, the file system on the RAID is not changed. Administrator can press this button to check to see if there is room to expand the file system. If yes, then the file system will grow to take advantage of the larger disks.


The RAID Migration need more space for operation thus current support following combination:

RAID 0 to RAID 0
HDD*2 to HDD*3/4/5
HDD*3 to HDD*4/5
HDD*4 to HDD*5

RAID 0 to RAID 1
HDD*2 to HDD*3/4/5
HDD*3 to HDD*4/5
HDD*4 to HDD*5

RAID 1 to RAID 0
HDD*2 to HDD*2/3/4/5

RAID 1 to RAID 5
HDD*2 to HDD*3/4/5

RAID 5 t0 RAID 5
HDD*3 to HDD*4/5
HDD*4 to HDD*5


Yvon.

[christug]

Do yourself a favor and build your own setup from scratch or find someone to build it for you. .

If you do a search for my username and find all my posts of problems.

pmac3072,

I agree with the above, haven't had much luck with Thecus support (others on this forum do help though) and would have been better off building a box myself.

[Funkstar]

And there are hundreds if not thousands of completely satisfied that don't feel the need to jump into threads like this and tell people about it

I'm completely satisfied with my N5200Pro. Sure i could have built a box cheaper, but it wouldn't be as compact or well put together over all, not for the money anyway.

[peterfu]

And there are hundreds if not thousands of completely satisfied that don't feel the need to jump into threads like this and tell people about it

I'm completely satisfied with my N5200Pro. Sure i could have built a box cheaper, but it wouldn't be as compact or well put together over all, not for the money anyway.

I 2nd this - another satisfied custumer
br
Peter

[pmac3072]

Too late anyhow...
I bought it last night...
The question now becomes; How well will it put up with these Iraq temperatures, as I am currently stationed here and not due to leave till mid summer... I'll post an update on that prior to my return to Georgia.
Paul

[Funkstar]

Interesting

The main fan at the back is 92mm, the CPU cooler is a small heatsink with a 40mmx10mm fan, the PSU has a 40mmx20mm fan. The cpu could take a standard laptop cpu cooling solution.

So if you do run into heat problems, it shouldn't be a problem to beef up some of those fans etc.