Introduction
Thecus Technology continues to maintain the largest portfolio of NAS servers within the Home and SMB sectors. In the number of units sold category, Thecus NAS servers have done well and continue to dominate, contrary to the claims made by its competitors. Thecus has always continued to be ahead of the curve when it comes to value for money, and the Thecus N7700 PRO is no exception to this rule.
Thecus is no stranger to our labs, having previously reviewed the N5500 we were duly impressed with the turn of performance and the solid build quality of the N5500 as well as superb value for money ratio. The N7700PRO is a step away from normality for Thecus, the case adopts a different design aspect with more of a curvature theme than the tradiontal cube box form factor that has a door to cover the drive bays and a simple latch that clicks shut when pushed.
Editor's Note: click the photos below for larger images
Figure 1: N7700PRO Top Front of Unit
The hot-swap hard disk trays are a new design that has a lockable handle which can be opened by pushing a side switch that releases the handle - a good design that will not be adversely affect by not being used for long periods of time, as is the case with some removable tray solutions.
Figure 2: Thecus N7700PRO Drive Tray Handles
Look and Feel
The Thecus was supplied to us packed in a double box, with the interior retail box housing the unit as well as all the other parts and accessories provided. Thecus also provided a quick setup guide for those that are to install their own drives, and a CD allowing the setup of the unit as well as the bundled backup software courtesy of Acronis.
The Thecus N7700 PRO is a 7-bay hot swappable NAS server that supersedes the N7700 Celeron based model, which was at one time the fastest NAS in its class, and with a price value that left many of its competitors gasping for air. The case is a sturdy affair with curved edges to give it a slightly different look from the norm with a footprint that measures 12” (H) x 8” (W) x 10.5” (D),and for those who prefer metric its 304.8mm (H) x 203.2mm (W) x 266.7 (D), and weighs in at a merely 16lbs or 7.2Kg. The size is good enough to be tucked away without being offensive and the weight will not give you back ache, totally acceptable for a 7-bay NAS.
Editor's Note: click the photos below for larger images
Figure 1: N7700 PRO Dimensions
Exterior functions and features
The Thecus LED indicators are provided for Power, System Status, LAN, WAN, USB, eSATA, and HDD activity 1-7. The LCD panel provides a constant status report on the RAID status, along with any drive issues that may occur, with current LAN and WAN IP addresses as well as connectivity.
The Thecus N7700 PRO has a total of 4 x USB 2.0 ports (2 each on the front and back) that provide support for USB drives, inclusive of pen drives as well as USB based printers. UPS support is via a dedicated RS232 port with a host of popular UPS peripherals are provided. The two USB ports at the front can be used for scheduled backups to many supported USB hard disk carriers. The usual duet Gigabit RJ-45 Ethernet ports with jumbo frames are supported aptly labeled WAN and LAN providing support for port trunking modes that enhance the overall bandwidth performance as well as provide active fail-over of the ports. Port Trunking facilitates two network interfaces function as one to increase bandwidth beyond the limits of any single interface, while at the same time offering redundancy and load balancing for higher availability. The port trunking modes supported by the N7700PRO includes:
Balance-rr (Round-Robin): Round-Robin mode is good for general purpose load balancing between the adapters. Transmit packets in sequential order from the first available slave through the last. This mode provides load balancing and fault tolerance.
Active Backup (Fail Over): Active-backup policy: Only one slave in the bond is active. A different slave becomes active if, and only if, the active slave fails. The bond's MAC address is externally visible on only one port (network adapter) to avoid confusing the switch. This mode provides fault tolerance. The primary option affects the behavior of this mode.
Balance XOR: Transmit based on [(source MAC address XOR'd with destination MAC address) modulo slave count]. This selects the same slave for each destination MAC address. This mode provides load balancing and fault tolerance.
Broadcast: Transmits everything on all slave interfaces. This mode provides fault tolerance.
IEEE 802.3ad (Dynamic Link Aggregation): IEEE 802.3ad Dynamic link aggregation. Creates aggregation groups that share the same speed and duplex settings. Utilizes all slaves in the active aggregator according to the 802.3ad specification.
Balance-tlb (Adaptive Transmit Load Balancing): Adaptive transmit load balancing: channel bonding that does not require any special switch support.The outgoing traffic is distributed according to the current load (computed relative to the speed) on each slave. Incoming traffic is received by the current slave. If the receiving slave fails,another slave takes over the MAC address of the failed receiving slave.
Balance-alb (Adaptive Load Balancing): Adaptive load balancing: includes balance-tlb plus receive load balancing (rlb) for IPV4 traffic, and does not require any special switch support. The receive load balancing is achieved by ARP negotiation. The bonding driver intercepts the ARP Replies sent by the local system on their way out and overwrites the source hardware address with the unique hardware address of one of the slaves in the bond such that different peers use different hardware addresses for the server.
Rounding off the connectivity suite for the Thecus N7700PRO is the support of the eSATA port, allowing connectivity to eSATA based external devices. We tested using an NTFS formatted external eSATA drive and recorded a sustained a decent combines write and read of 96.7 MB/s performance ratio, which is very impressive.
The internal design
Removing the cover is a simple matter of removing four screws and the back panel comes away, allowing access to the mainboard and other replaceable parts. This makes for easy replacement of parts and as seems Thecus has designed a system that allows users to replace parts easily which constitutes longevity for systems due to ease of access. We are not suggesting or indeed recommending inexperienced users to attempt messing about with user upgrade or repairs without first discussing this with Thecus support. Nevertheless, Thecus has to be given credit for their foresight allowing users the ability to support its own systems. The power supply installed is a 300W 100-240V auto-switching standard, and when tested with 7 x 2TB drives and it had ample of power left for most probably twice as much and probably more, no issues in that department.
The processor at the heart of the N7700PRO is an Intel Core 2 Duo, we were unable to establish the exact clock frequency, as we could not get access via SSH, but using other tools we were able to establish a 2.2GHz frequency. The generous 4GB DDR2 SDRAM is more than offered by any other NAS vendor, Our memory test section revealed 4GB memory as being sufficient for all applications tests that were undertaken and in reality a NAS should not require more than 4GB, as the performance gain over that size will be minimal, it seems Thecus may have already established this fact. The airflow within the unit is exemplary as a result of the two 92mm fans installed positioned well allowing for cooling for the main board as well as the seven drive bays keeping the drives substantially below the maximum temperature recommended. Upon boot up the unit is rather loud albeit once the boot up cycle is completed the unit does settle to an acceptable noise level. In fact, we found the drives to be slightly noisier than the unit.
Thecus makes a claim to uniqueness with its PCI-e x 8 slot, specifically designed for 10GbE network cards for providing support for 10GbE networks. We discuss this further in our features section.
The Thecus n7700PRO provides an easy access to major components allowing users to upgrade or change any parts with ease and confidence, this will be a major consideration for users who wish to take control of their own maintenance.
Managing the NAS
We have noticed public forum entries in which people have not been too fond of the Thecus management GUI and the lack of attention to detail or clarity. This has obviously reverberated back to Thecus as it seems, as its latest version 3.xx web interface does go a long way to eradicate many of its early rough round the edges issues and clearly depicts its willingness for wanting to evolve and adopt based also upon suggestions made by the user community.
Editor's Note: click the photos below for larger images
Figure 4: Thecus N7700 PRO Homepage GUI
The web interface is an important facet of any system and although once setup one may not have the need to access it too much it will still require periodical access to update schedules and firmware revisions.
RAID options for Redundancy
The normal RAID level support is provided RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10 and JBOD, with support for Hot-Spare, Hot-Swap why at this level one needs to have that as an option baffles us, as the criticality of the downtime for the NAS turning off and swapping drives cannot anymore than ten minutes max. As for hard disk monitoring a sufficient level of SMART testing and information is provided to ensure a sensible health check for the drives are always at hand for inspection via email notifications and/or via a hardware beeping alarm that can be deactivated if not required. As for expanding capacity with merely adding or replacing with higher capacity drives is fully supported on the fly without loss of data, as is RAID expansion upwards i.e. RAID 5 to RAID 6, but not downwards. As far as security is concerned Thecus also supports AES256bit RAID volume encryption allowing for an extra layer of security if needed. The Thecus N7700PRO file system options are the normal EXT3, with a limitation of 8TB, and to overcome this limitation one can use the XFS option that allows greater capacity within a single volume, the ZFS option is also available but has very limited ‘true’ ZFS options activated, use it if you require ‘snapshot’ but be warned it’s not a great file system to work with, really Thecus needs to look at other options!
Editor's Note: click the photos below for larger images
Figure 5: Thecus N7700PRO RAID Creation
Figure 6: Thecus N7700PRO RAID Creation Progress
Selected Unique Features
DUAL OS Firmware - DOM architecture accommodating a DUAL Fail Safe Operating System to allow for failure without loss of functionality.
Secure Data Protection by AES 256-bit Volume-based Encryption – The unique "volume-based encryption" feature secures the server data by AES 256-bit encryption. Even if the hard drives were stolen, there is no need to fear that the confidential data would be leaked since the data can only be accessed using an authorized password.
PCI-e x 8 slot The availability to connect with 10GbE networks by merely installing an add-on card does signify Thecus having a strong commitment for providing innovative devices. We installed the E10G42BTDA Intel 10GbE card and did a quick test within the 1GbE environment and found the speed accelerated over nearly three times as much with results of 385-420MB/s unsustained. This is a great option if you are looking for raw speed as there is nothing in this class that will even come close to what Thecus offers at this price point.
Figure 7: Thecus N7700PRO Internal PCI-e Slot
EXT3/XFS/ZFS – The Thecus n7700PRO is the only NAS we are aware of that allows the use of ZFS file system, albeit it does not support the full ZFS attributes, excluding snapshot. Users that need to overcome the 8TB volume limitation can do so, by selecting XFS to get unlimited access above 8TB.
Thecus management software is acceptable, it’s not necessarily the best we have seen, but the functionality meets with the basic criteria of requiring setup, maintaining and continuity of managing the N7700PRO.
Invoking the management panel is merely done by inserting the IP address onto the browser and proceeding with a username and password that equates to ‘admin’ all in lower case. The home page seems a little gimmicky and maybe well suited for home users and not for business use. Nevertheless, once logged on the gimmicky theme continues.
Editor's Note: click the photos below for larger images
Figure 8: Thecus N7700 PRO Homepage GUI
Figure 9: Thecus N7700 PRO Admin Login Page
The management panel also has the ability to accommodate ‘my favorites’, allowing you to include any functions or housekeeping features that are most often used. The management interface home page offers easy access to various support and management options. These include, System Management (control of system functionalities including firmware upgrade, wake on Lan settings, password services and many others), System Network (WAN, LAN, SAMB/CIFS, AFP, FTP, HTTP, Nsync and other network settings), Storage (allowing all RAID, Disks, allocation, share folder, stackable and ISO mount services), User and Group Authentication (ADS, Local user setup including batch input for user services), Application Server (allows any third party applications that are installed to be managed as well as providing Printer and iTunes), Module Management (The ability to install application, system, and user modules), Backup (facilitation of Nsync as well Dual Dom management).
Support
Our normal routine is to email and call anonymously, as we prefer not to reveal the source, this helps to get a fair and proper response. Firstly, it was email response, we received an email response within 36hrs and were provided with a response requesting us exploratory questions, and after responding we did hear back within 24hrs later at this juncture we were provided with a solution to resolve our issue.
Our next course of action was by telephone, the number provided by Thecus for the USA on their site is out of CA, it worked first time, with a human voice! not a voicemail. Having left the message we were requested to use their ticketing system online to log our call, a little arduous but a necessary process. The person who dealt with us was very knowledgeable as far as Thecus products are concerned and was amiable.
Performance
In many aspects one does come to expect a lot from Thecus in the performance department their reputation seems to precede them. The N7700PRO seems no exception to this rule.
Whilst the performance measurements and results are an intrinsic aspect of the decision making process, we would also advise readers to pay special attention to all features incorporated with each individual models, to ascertain what is applicable to your individual needs.
Test Environment
Thecus N7700PRO installed with 500GB Seagate Enterprise drives
Firmware Revision: Version: v3.03.00.4; Build Date: 2010/05/28
RAID LEVEL TESTED: RAID 5
Network
NETGEAR FSM726 10/100Mbps + 1000Mbps ProSafe Managed Switch
Test Method
We use a Real-World testing utility as well as a realistic Drag & Drop procedure as depicted in everyday normal operations.
Our tests are carried out with a combination of reads and writes, we do not separate the two, both are combined to produce an overall result that depicts the actual performance of the device tested.
This category is one of the most demanding from a file size perspective as the smallest size file is 2GB and the largest being 12GB.
A combination of demanding Video, Audio and Images files are combined to make this the most challenging category of them all.
The Office category is mainly for business users who may compare the typically used business applications, consisting of a spreadsheets, databases,word, PowerPoint, Visio, and email management. We have also combined Photoshop based images that are used to cut and paste within a document to make up a 30 page mailer as well as Visio templates used for presentation within a PowerPoint file that exceeds a 15GB file size.
Our Third category is a combination of files from the previous two categories to initiate copying, backing up, deleting all content and then restoring from a backup made within the RAID array.
| Thecus N7700 PRO Read/Write Comparative Performance | |
| Video/Audio/Images | 96.86 |
| Office Productivity | 75.70 |
| Copy, Backup and Restore | 89.14 |
Figure 10: MB/s Read/Write Performance Test Results
| Thecus N7700PRO | |
| MB/s Overall | 87.23 |
Figure 11: Overall Read/Write Test Performance
Overall Conclusion
Thecus N7700PRO is a well rounded 7-bay NAS server, with a neat and quality designed main board that is integrated with quality supported components. The 10GbE option alone makes a convincing argument for buying. All said and done, the one outstanding feature in our labs that simply blew us away was the excellent performance results we got. The N7700PRO sneaks in and claims the number one spot for performance, simply outstanding. Couple this with a more than reasonable price point and a 2 year support plan, it’s no wonder the Thecus N7700PRO strolls away with our Excellence Award. Neat system with a fail-safe upgrade path to a 10GbE network, without the added price premium, buy one before they change their minds!
