Thecus 5200

[jerico]

Hi everyone - I'm a long-time lurker here, and I really enjoy the discussions on this site. Very unique and very fun!

 

I wanted to chime in about my recent purchase of a Thecus 5200BR Pro NAS, which I settled on largely after reading Chris' review. After living with it for a few days now, I'm happy to report that I am very pleased with it, and I wanted to share my experience.

 

I set it up with 5 WD "Caviar Green" 1TB drives in a RAID 10 configuration (with the 5th drive designated as a spare). It took about 10 hours to build the array, and another 4-5 hours to transfer my music library over (I've got about 300 gigs of ALAC audio and growing folder of photos). I opted not to designate any space for iSCSI or USB drive functionality, and I'm not using any of the built-in media server functionality (i.e. I simply moved my iTunes library over to the NAS and then consolidated the library). This RAID10 config allows for 2TB of usable space, which is more than I require currently but allows for considerable room to grow (which was a key consideration when evaluating my options).

 

I enabled the "WAN/LAN" reversal in the browser-based setup app, so the default LAN ports function as WAN ports, connected the NAS to my Airport Extreme with an Ethernet cable, and then connected my Airport Express (which is connected to my receiver with an optical cable), TV and PS3 to the other WAN ports with Ethernet cables. This works well for me, and allows my components to access my internet connection when needed. I also reserved an IP address on my local network for the 5200 based on it's MAC address.

 

I run iTunes on a MacBook Pro that connects wirelessly to my network and points to the NAS, and streams audio to my stereo via the Airport Express . I am able to stream audio and use the NAS for other things (like importing photos or browsing my photo library) without any audio drops.

 

Several reviewers have noted that the 5200 is loud, and I can definitely hear it if I'm within a few feet of it, but I don't notice it in my listening room (my ears aren't what they used to be though, so YMMV). It sits at the bottom of a wooden component rack that is against a wall, about 10 feet from where I generally sit, and to the left of my front left speaker. I live in New York City, which is not a very quiet place, so it's possible that the 5200 just blends into the background noise of life.

 

Since I've got a lot of spare capacity right now, I use an external hard drive (connected via USB to my Airport Extreme) to backup my media, using Deja Vu for periodic incremental backups. I'm OCD on backup, so I periodically backup my backup to another spare external drive that I have lying around.

 

I've yet to get the 5200's email notifications to work with Google mail, and I haven't set up remote web access (I know little about network setup, and am learning as I go along). But so far, it's doing just what I wanted it to and I'm very happy with it's performance.

 

I hope this info helps others who may be considering going the NAS route!

 

Justin

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi Justin - Thanks for sharing your experience. I've never been able to get the email notification working with any type of Google mail. What I did was setup an email account with my ISP and use its SMTP outgoing mail server. Now I receive all notifications without a problem.

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi Justin - Thanks for sharing your experience. I've never been able to get the email notification working with any type of Google mail. What I did was setup an email account with my ISP and use its SMTP outgoing mail server. Now I receive all notifications without a problem.