Specifications, Availability and Pricing

Modern NAS servers have moved beyond data storage through a network. In order to get the most out of a NAS you have and look at the extra hardware and software features. The Thecus N7510 offers a good mix of features on both these fronts.

Thecus hit all of the check boxes for home and small office environments. The Intel Atom dual-core processor is strong enough to handle every tasks you want to throw at it and can even run several on NAS applications at the same time. The 2GB of DDR3 DRAM is a nice addition in a world where most NAS products in this price range still ship with only 1GB. The extra RAM allows you to run more applications in the background, without slowing the system. This is especially useful when running high resource applications like real time virus scanning that is native to the NAS. The large DRAM also improves advanced parity RAID performance, RAID 5 and RAID 6 work much better with extra DRAM in the system.

The main connections for the N7510 come from the dual gigabit Ethernet ports that can be teamed for additional throughput and reduced latency in multi-user environments. A host of additional I/O ports are included for close to NAS speed transfers, like quad USB 2.0 and dual USB 3.0 ports. The N7510 also has an eSATA port on the back.

The Home Theater revolution has come to NAS products thanks to new chipsets and processors from Intel. The N7510 features a HDMI A/V out port that is capable of the highest bit-rate 1080p video on the market today. In the coming week's we'll have a How To article on NAS HDMI playback that showcases options for turning your NAS into a video playback goliath without moving your NAS to the living room.

While shopping online we managed to find a Thecus N7510 for as low as $686 in the US. The prices vary worldwide, but we feel that in the US the N7510 is a good value and a solid buy for small office environments and home users who need to storage large amounts of data. The 7-bay design also allows users to start out with just a few drives and expand as needed.