Specifications, Availability and Pricing

If you don't really understand the importance of this battery backup module (BBM) thing, then let me continue. Let's say you have a NAS appliance that you and your wife share. At some point the NAS is switched over to RAID 0 and you forget about it and your wife has been storing pictures; five years of pictures on this NAS. One day the power goes out causing an aging HDD to have a non-recoverable error, effectively eliminating the array. It is bad enough that you may lose years of software, music, pictures from race tracks and all of that other stuff you have, but what if your wife's stuff was gone, too?

At that point it is really kind of a tough choice. Do I try to cope with a year of hell on Earth, or do I just run into the street while a big truck is coming? - A battery backup, or in the case of the Thecus N4200, a built-in battery backup module would have saved the day when the power went out and not caused the drive to have a panic moment.

I think that pretty well covers the importance of a battery backup, but that is not the only thing new to the Thecus N4200. The other new feature is a beautiful OLED display that is capable of very clear images. This is a first for SOHO NAS appliances and for that matter any NAS ever. Instead of just one display, the N4200 has two; the first for setup and modification of the settings and a second for monitoring activity and status.

Other features that are fairly new, but not exclusive to the N4200 include a new Intel Atom dual core processor, 1GB DDR2 system memory, dual gigabit Ethernet and just as many USB ports as your top of the line motherboard has. This is just where it all starts. The N4200 also uses speed controlled fans that allow the system to run at optimal temperatures, yet stay quiet at all times. A built in PCIe 1x slot is also included for future upgrades.

When it comes to cost you should keep in mind that the Thecus N4200 is the flagship model for the small office market. Newegg currently has the N4200 in stock and ready to ship today for 799.99 without drives. If you are not comfortable installing hard drives in a NAS appliance or setting the system up, we have learned that AVADirect offers free setup, drive installation and configuration of NAS servers and appliances when you purchase a NAS and drives from them. For many this type of service is much easier since it also includes support and is ready to run with your network the moment you take it out of the box.