Thecus N7510 Review

SmallNetBuilder has recently put out a fairly comprehensive look at the Thecus N7510, a seven bay NAS by Thecus.  The review goes into quite a bit of detail on the N7510, including detailed performance tests and comparisons:

I tested the N7510 with 2.03.08.cdv firmware, using our NAS test process with RAID 0, 5 and 10 volumes. As is our standard practice, four drives were configured in each volume type.

Windows File Copy tests show read throughput running 10 - 15 MB/s lower than write for all tested RAID modes. Highest write throughput measured was 107 MB/s for RAID 0 and highest read was 90 MB/s also in RAID 0.

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Network backup to a DeltaCopy target on our NAS Testbed system measured around 37 MB/s. For comparison, best network backup measured to date has been 44 MB/s with a NETGEAR ReadyNAS Pro 2.

SmallNetBuilder

Overall, SmallNetBuilder seems pretty happy with the performance of the N7510, though they don't necessarily agree with the advertising calling the device "The World's First High-Value 7-Bay NAS":

Although its performance is pretty good, I don't see the "high" value. According to Pricegrabber, the 7510's pricing currently ranges from $722 to $903. The next step up in 7 bay NASes is the Intel Core 2 Duo powered N7700PRO that sells for between $789 and $1042.

Since the 7700PRO was tested with my previous process, I don't have any data to directly compare. But unless Thecus has really screwed up, it should perform better or equal to the 7510, comes with twice as much RAM and supports an optional 10 GbE adapter. I'd say either one is a pretty good value in a seven-bay NAS.

SmallNetBuilder