Thecus N7700PRO 7-Bay NAS Server

Comments about Thecus N7700PRO 7-Bay NAS Server:

The RAID 1+0 configuration was very smooth using 4 x 2TB Hitachi Ultrastar 7K3000 HUA723020ALA640 enterprise-class hard drives, providing 4TB of usable RAID storage. The RAID was completely built overnight in about 13 hours or so. Transfer speed seems to be consistently in the 80MB to 85MB per second range on writes, occasionally bumping up around 90MB per second, and around 80MB per second on reads, occasionally bursting higher. That is just based on the numbers in the file transfer dialog in 64-bit Windows 7 Pro. Maybe those numbers will increase a little once the N7700PRO is plugged into the main GbE switch since all the transfers so far are moving through the LACP trunk between switches, although the trunk is 2Gbps and not fully utilized during the transfers. So maybe the numbers won't increase. Either way, I do suspect that the reads in particular would benefit from higher RPM hard drives and get the unit close to the 95MB/s rates I saw in the various reviews I studied. Writes are buffered in the 4GB of RAM, but sustained reads of large files obviously have to stream straight off the disks. So who knows....

Honestly, the only case where I have seen faster transfers on our network (as high as 107MB/second) were directly between my machine and my boss's, which are both plugged into the same HP Procurve GbE switch, have fast multi-core CPU's, 64-bit OS's and 16 and 8 Gigabytes of RAM respectively.

Having said all that, the current network file transfer performance is frankly GREAT, actually quite a bit better than our 4 CPU, 4G of RAM Windows Small Business Server machine. This unit is primarily for backups and these transfer speeds simply blow away devices like the NetGear ReadyNAS NV+ that this is replacing. I've had instances where mounting a backup image chain off the ReadyNAS over the network was just agonizingly slow, and I am expecting a much different experience with the Thecus.

Depending on the level of Windows file system (NTFS) emulation you need, this thing could be a great file server (speed). It supports AFP, NFS and so on, as well, so it could very reasonably function as a very fast file server for multiple platforms in a mixed network. The web interface on the NetGear unit becomes very unresponsive during heavy file transfers, and multiple simultaneous file transfers really bog down on the NetGear, but the web interface on this Thecus unit runs like nothing else is going on, and it easily maintains high transfer speeds with multiple large, concurrent transfers happening. We are very happy so far and feel like B&H provided a great deal on this unit. I have not had this in service long enough to comment on issues like reliability and durability, but the construction seems plenty solid, to me.

So far, this thing deserves 5 stars in my book. There have been absolutely no glitches with the hardware or the RAID configuration. It has 7 drive bays so there is still plenty of room for future expansion. I'll be putting this in the server closet soon, but it has been running beside my desk for several days and while I can hear the fans, it is plenty quiet. I did upgrade the firmware to the latest revision from Thecus. There are some minor translation/grammar issues in the UI, and Windows security integration on SMB/CIFS shares is characteristically somewhat less rich than it would be on a Windows server, but that is not unexpected for a Linux-based machine, and having said that, the Active Directory integration went smoothly and it was easy to synchronize the security and then control access to shares based on Active Directory users and groups. I did have to use "NT" mode rather than "AD" mode when adding the machine to Active Directory, which I did not investigate very thoroughly since NT mode worked fine in our current environment and I was able to move on without issues. I suspect it probably had something to do with name resolution or another network configuration issue here, possibly related to our main Active Directory server being multihomed, which has caused vaguely similar issues with some other systems, none of which have become critical. I wouldn't hesitate to implement more of these systems from Thecus based on my experience so far.

Comments about Thecus N7700PRO 7-Bay NAS Server:

This unit came DOA. I had to take it apart, and reseat a CPU fan to get it to go. I would give it a 5 stars if that were not the case.

I was considering a QNAP, but this unit takes one more drive is $400 less expensive and a bit faster.

This unit works, works fast, the software is very good. The documentation is good, but the docs have a few translation mistakes in them. The build quality could be a little better.

The 7700Pro runs fast, and has more features, software modules and options than I can use. I do wish it was hardware raid, but that costs about $12,000 more for a comparable unit!

So, this is a 5 star review, less one for making me take it apart.... For price, storage size and features, this is a great unit.

Comments about Thecus N7700PRO 7-Bay NAS Server:

Thecus might want to make sure things are tight inside this unit. I had to open it up and reseat the motherboard so the power button on the outside could touch the one on the motherboard. Other than that slight mishap it was easy peasy.

Comments about Thecus N7700PRO 7-Bay NAS Server:

Product arrive promptly and in good working order. Setup was a breeze. I'm using the new (2011 models) 2TB Green Seagate Barracuda drives, no problems at all. Speed is excellent and sustainable.

Comments about Thecus N7700PRO 7-Bay NAS Server:

I had a professional Dell SAS storage before. One disc failed on me one day and it took Dell three weeks to get me a new one. And it was really expensive.
I have a 4bay Thecus NAS for almost two years and no problems whatsoever, that´s why I´m upgradind to a 7bay. And the best thing is that the discs are really cheap and very easy to find. To me this is the best feature.

Comments about Thecus N7700PRO 7-Bay NAS Server:

I just got this unit as my first NAS. I had lots of problems getting the drives physically installed, but I don't know if that's a limit of my particular unit being a bit misaligned or something else. Word of caution: Be EXTREMELY careful inserting the drives! The alignment seemed off and I actually damaged a drive connector in the process. That part was very disappointing. However, I did get everything connected and once I did the setup was very easy. Network access and performance has been very good. I'm less than thrilled with the included Acronis software (it's severely hobbled until you pay for the full version), but there are free-ware or Windows applications to perform similar functions so I will not be paying the upgrade price. I've set it up as a RAID 1 array with a total of 4TB of data space (4x2Tb drives in two RAID volumes). For my first NAS, I'm attributing a lot of this to a steep learning curve. It does work...but be prepared to spend a little time getting things just right. I'll update the review after a little more time has passed.

Comments about Thecus N7700PRO 7-Bay NAS Server:

This NAS rocks! Friend turned me on to Thecus and haven't looked back. Sold my 5-bay and just bought the 7. B&H consistently delivers the best price [...] Thanks B&H!

Comments about Thecus N7700PRO 7-Bay NAS Server:

My first NAS. Very good product. I am using it every day for security data and medias. Reading and moving files is as fast as on my own computer. Very satisfied. Have a little problem with the USB printer server feature. After printing the first job it stays in the queue and other print jobs seemed to be locked. I would have appreciated finding more explanations of each fonctions in the manual.

Comments about Thecus N7700PRO 7-Bay NAS Server:

We are using this as a network backup. After setting up as RAID5, we can backup up to 8 TB of data. So far so good!