Thecus’ N2810PLUS NAS Doubles Down On Performance

[Julio Urquidi]

The soon to be shipped Thecus N2810PLUS 2-bay NAS server takes a step up from its predecessor, the N2810, by doubling up on RAM and CPU cores.

Memory-wise, the N2810PLUS has 4 GB of DDR3 memory at its base configuration – 2 GB more than the N2810.

As for the embedded CPU, the N2810PLUS uses an Intel Celeron N3150 Quad Core processor - twice the number of cores than what the N2810’s Intel Celeron N3050 Dual Core provides.

RAID modes for the SATA-based N2810PLUS include RAID 0, 1 and JBOD.

For connections, the N2810PLUS includes three USB 3.0 ports, an HDMI port for up to 4K UHD playback, and two LAN ports that give 7 modes of link aggregation.

The N2810PLUS, a Linux-based NAS, runs ThecusOS 7.0 for its front-end. Launched from beta earlier this year, the company’s 64-bit OS provides a user interface and adds new features such as Photo Station, Thecus App Center and File Center.

Thecus will begin shipping the N2810PLUS NAS server on April 19, 2016.

 

[L&LD]

If any process can take advantage of the four cores, great; performance will almost double.

For most single core processes though, the performance will be identical.

Likewise for the ram. What features does it offer that will allow it to utilize 4GB of ram (or even 2GB)?

 

[sfx2000]

If any process can take advantage of the four cores, great; performance will almost double.

For most single core processes though, the performance will be identical.

Likewise for the ram. What features does it offer that will allow it to utilize 4GB of ram (or even 2GB)?

Wonder if the memory is soldered on, or using DIMM's..

Not sure about Thecus, but I know another vendor will utilize all the memory installed, at least on their intel based machines...

 

[LoneWolf]

Most higher-end NASes, Thecus included, use DIMM sockets. I recently inherited a Thecus N4200PRO (Atom D525-based), which was high-end at the time it was sold, and it's got a single SODIMM socket. It came with 1GB of DDR3, but was upgradeable to the full 4GB that the D525 supports (though I had to dig for that information). There is, however, no way to tell if upgrading that memory will get me additional disk caching performance, which would probably be the biggest benefit. The N2810 Plus seems to indicate it also has a single SODIMM socket, but they link to the N4200's memory compatibility list, so it's a bit murky.

http://www.thecus.com/sp_download_page.php?TYPE_ID=8&PROD_ID=117

I find Thecus' hardware to be reasonable. However, I'm not impressed with their software support. The UI is okay, but "just" okay. And support is dropped relatively quickly, as Thecus doesn't seem to have a standardized development platform like Synology or QNAP. A number of Synology NASes from 2010-11 got DSM 5.2 support and it's likely quite a few support 6.x. So you get good security fixes for issues with OpenSSL or other vulnerabilities, while a Thecus NAS might get a couple of firmware updates and you're done.

Considering how nicely this N4200Pro was built (it's solid and well thought-out, and the displays and trays are great) and with innovative features like a built-in UPS battery and optional 10GB Ethernet or USB3 (though good luck finding those PCIe expansion cards), it's disappointing. It supports 3/4TB drives, so at least it will make a good iSCSI backup target for my HP servers.

 

[sfx2000]

IIRC - the old-school Atom processors maxed out at 4GB...

The NAS will use all the RAM you give it, and more is better

 

[Chris Bailey]

Does anyone have an idea about how long it will take the N2810 to build a single 3tb using JBOD?
I may have an issue, just after I started the process I decides to blow my freezer thus tripping the breaker!!
When the unit powered up the Hdd light is on solid and I can't edit anything to do with drive but the cpu is very low.

Cheers



Sent from my D5803 using Tapatalk

 

[sfx2000]

Probably start over - JBOD's don't take a lot of time - and even starting up a RAID10/RAID5, the volume should be available right up, as MDADM does the striping/building of the array on the backend..

 

[Chris Bailey]

Thanks. Had to format and all worked OK.

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