Thecus N5550 Review
Posted on: 24.04.2013 22:21:05


When we first received the N5550, which we need to mention is our first ever product from Thecus, we were really excited to see how it would perform. It looks absolutely stunning and with many NAS solutions available on the market available in many different configurations, how did N5550 perform?

Well when you take the price into consideration, some might be wondering if £450 represents good value for money. Take into account that the 5 bay N5550 comes in cheaper than other 4 bay NAS systems on the market. We feel this represents fantastic value for money, especially with the multitude of features available. Supporting up to the largest 4TB HDDs, high capacity SSDs and being able to run various RAID configurations such as RAID0, RAID1, RAID5 etc, there is no shortage of options available.

Setting up and configuring the N5550 was a dream, we had no problems whatsoever in getting the N5550 to work with our network, had no crashes or random shutdowns and found the experience a real delight. When we got into the main control panel, we could see the plethora of options available. With the ability to quickly build RAID configurations after a few clicks is a fantastic and the process seemed trouble free.

The LCD screen at the front displays the current settings and can be configured via the screen but we a much easier time of doing it via the Thecus Browser. There is also the option to connect the N5550 up to a monitor via its own in-built Linux Operation system, but again we chose to do it via the browser.



The software that comes bundled with the N5550 such as Acronis True Image, we think is fantastic at creating back-ups of the files you cannot afford to lose.

The aesthetics of the N5550 are stunning, we really love the subtle black exterior and how it fits in with the rest of our black hardware. The lockable drive bays are a nice addition which ensure protection against theft but also means they stay securely connected. The only niggle we feel unhappy with was the brightness of the front LCD panel, the glow can be bright when the lights in our room are dimmed and might not be suitable for a living room. Also the fan inside the N5550 can be quite loud at times, even at idle we could hear the drone over the background noise ever so slightly.

We found the N5550 a great purpose-built NAS solution for home and small-business users. Having this unit integrated on a network will bring flexibility and control to file sharing tasks.

The N5550 is versatile and can be used for many things such as CCTV systems, data storage, multiple RAID volumes, remote back-ups and even down to a standard file sharing network storage device. With the amount of options available and taking the price into consideration, if you are looking for a 5 bay NAS at a very competitive price then the Thecus N5550 might just be the ticket! We feel the Thecus N5550 proudly deserves our gold award and wasn’t far off from a platinum, great job Thecus!

Pros
+ Excellent performance
+ Amazing sleek looks
+ Very easy to install and configure
+ Priced well for what you get

Cons
- Fan can be a tad noisy even at idle
- Bright LCD panel on the front




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