Welcome To Australia's No.1 Media Center Community!
You Are Currently Viewing As A Guest - you'll need to register in order to participate in our community and make this annoying message disappear!
By registering you'll be able to post & reply to questions, set up your own image gallery & blog, communicate privately with other members, create & respond to polls, access downloads and other "members only" features.
Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so why not join our community today - you'll be glad you did!
For any problems with the registration process or your account, please contact support.
Commercial file servers have been around for many years. Low cost file servers are now finding a place in the home. Thecus, a supplier of commercial file servers, offers the N299 is their entry level offering aimed primarily at the domestic market.
Basically, the N299 is a box containing up to two SATA II disk drives. You plug the box into your router using an Ethernet cable. Windows users on your network can then see the folders on the SATA II disk drives under My Network Places. Windows and Mac use...
I have recently purchased one of these units and took it back within two days.
First up the build quality is pretty poor, pastic outter shell which is very flimsy, 40mm fan that i would not / could not get use to the noise.
These units are prone to setup issues like not being able to creat user accounts which stops you in your tracks when setting up, I returned the first one with this issue and tried the second with the same problem.
After receiving the third unit it set up ok, then i noticed after creating different user accounts and different shares the accounts would dissapear and after a reboot of the NAS would come back again (This is another know issue with these units.
I replaced the NAS with a QNAP 209 at $160 more this thing kicks the Thecus interms of build quality (Metal) and features
I have recently purchased one of these units and took it back within two days.
First up the build quality is pretty poor, pastic outter shell which is very flimsy, 40mm fan that i would not / could not get use to the noise.
These units are prone to setup issues like not being able to creat user accounts which stops you in your tracks when setting up, I returned the first one with this issue and tried the second with the same problem.
After receiving the third unit it set up ok, then i noticed after creating different user accounts and different shares the accounts would dissapear and after a reboot of the NAS would come back again (This is another know issue with these units.
I replaced the NAS with a QNAP 209 at $160 more this thing kicks the Thecus interms of build quality (Metal) and features
I agree that the outer shell's construction - plastic - is not as good as a metal case. But to be fair, I found the plastic case to be of servicable quality. As for fan noise, there is a bit, but it is nothing like say a power supply fan on a PC. Your issues setting up accounts is something I did not encounter - but then I only set up one account for testing.
I had a quick browse through the specs of the QNAP 209. It seems to have more on offer, but no RAID 0 support - possibly the most useful RAID in a domestic environment. And the QNAP 209 is twice the price of the N299 by my reckoning - that's a big hike in price for the additional features.
We've sold 53 of these since 1st November, of which there have been 2 returned - both of them were for "change of mind" reasons (not fast enough for office use, didn't spin drives down when idle). No faulty units have been returned at all so far.
Admittedly, the low-end CPU in these is not capable of putting through really fast transfer speed, but when I tested it, it was more than capable of letting two machines play DVD-quality video from the unit simultaneously. People who want to back up hundreds of gigs of data regularly should really be looking for a USB- or eSATA-connected device.
The spin-down issue is one of expectations, rather than a fault, as the unit is not advertised to have this function (the customers expected it due to a manual typo - parts of the manual were copied from the manual of a higer-spec unit).
I agree that the outer shell's construction - plastic - is not as good as a metal case. But to be fair, I found the plastic case to be of servicable quality. As for fan noise, there is a bit, but it is nothing like say a power supply fan on a PC. Your issues setting up accounts is something I did not encounter - but then I only set up one account for testing.
I had a quick browse through the specs of the QNAP 209. It seems to have more on offer, but no RAID 0 support - possibly the most useful RAID in a domestic environment. And the QNAP 209 is twice the price of the N299 by my reckoning - that's a big hike in price for the additional features.
Hey Derek.
The fan did bother me being a 40mm and the aweful highpitch noise they make annoys the hell out of me but some are ok with it.
I dont knw why Qnap have not listed Raid 0 on their web site but the unit does do raid 0 , i am currently using this with 2 x 500 GB seagates.
Depending where you buy of course will depend on the price, Scorptec $299 for the N299 and $460 for the Qnap, so with that being said with the extra features and build quality for me it was a no brainer.
My set up at home has 2 HTPC's , Workhorse PC , Games rig, Media server and 2 laptops and the Qnap available to all , I had tried the Thecus 2100 and it worked well for this system but i had to give it back to a mate.
When returning the N299 i had a choise of the 2100 and 209 at the same price and damn the 209 won me over
Hi Mate,
AusPC Market is doing the N299 for $220. The cheapest price that I found for the Qnap is $449. Hence my "twice the price" observation. Sloppy of them not to list RAID 0 in their specs.
Hi Mate,
AusPC Market is doing the N299 for $220. The cheapest price that I found for the Qnap is $449. Hence my "twice the price" observation. Sloppy of them not to list RAID 0 in their specs.
Yeah not disputing the price at AusPC where i originally ordered the unit though but after 5 weeks of waiting i cancelled the order and bought locally, infact i know of three others that have cancelled for the same reason then found out they were not Oz delivered.
I have sent an email to their support area pointing this out
Yeah not disputing the price at AusPC where i originally ordered the unit though but after 5 weeks of waiting i cancelled the order and bought locally, infact i know of three others that have cancelled for the same reason then found out they were not Oz delivered.
I have sent an email to their support area pointing this out
You are not talking about us, right? - some other shop perhaps. I say this with confidence, from reviewing our sales history, as we have had *no* customers cancel orders for these at all, ever - the unit has been continuously in stock the entire time we have listed it since it was released.
Our stock comes from the same source as anyone else's - the sole importer, Altech. Warranty etc is as normal via them. If the fact that we have the cheapest price in the country is putting you off, it's because we have a certain buying power with regard to them - this is a result of being Altech's largest customer - when you pick up $20k in goods nearly every day, they tend to give you some things at a cheaper price.
You are not talking about us, right? - some other shop perhaps. I say this with confidence, from reviewing our sales history, as we have had *no* customers cancel orders for these at all, ever - the unit has been continuously in stock the entire time we have listed it since it was released.
Our stock comes from the same source as anyone else's - the sole importer, Altech. Warranty etc is as normal via them. If the fact that we have the cheapest price in the country is putting you off, it's because we have a certain buying power with regard to them - this is a result of being Altech's largest customer - when you pick up $20k in goods nearly every day, they tend to give you some things at a cheaper price.
Just after posting that i made a very quick call me my brother inlaw who ordered the 3 units and cancelled the order only to find out he ordered HD's through you guys and the N299's through another mob in Sydney.
Sorry about that i wanted to correct this before anyone got annoyed but to late. Originally the order was to be for the whole lot through the other mob but they were out of 500Gb Seagates so they were purchases through AusPC and did arrive on time.
Commercial file servers have been around for many years. Low cost file servers are now finding a place in the home. Thecus, a supplier of commercial file servers, offers the 
