Performance
My computer and my NAS are hooked up To a D-Link 100mbps switch which has an an Ethernet cable straight from the modem. My computer is a homebuild Windows 8.1 PC powered by a 4th generation Intel Core I5 Haswell processor running on a Samsung 840 series 250GB.
For testing I copied some files back and forth between my PC and the NAS. I copied a small folder with some music of 228MB and a large folder with some video files of 11.4GB. All of the moving was done from my SSD to the NAS, in windows explorer.
The small music folder took 22.5 seconds to copy from my PC to the NAS, with an average speed of 10MB/s.
Then coping from the NAS to my PC took 20,5 seconds with an average speed of 10.5MB/s
The big 11.4GB file took 17 minutes to copy from my PC to the NAS with an average speed of 11.4MB/s.
Coping from the NAS to my PC was about the same.
When coping other internet trafic is almost the same as always, in comparison to the Synology DS214se I almost could not do anything on the web
NOTE: I only have a 100mbps switch, so the maximum speed I could get was around 11 or 12MB/s. With a 1000mbps switch you would proably have a speed around 60mb/s. Both my PC and the NAS support Gbit ethernet.
Verdict
So now let us review the pros and cons of this device as usual, starting with the Pros. The biggest plus about this product is surly the price, the device only costs 130 euros and that is little money for a NAs. Another cool feature is you can make your own network locations on you PC so you can easy access all the files on the NAS without going to the Thecus OS desktop. Installing the hard drives is also very easy, you just open up the bay, slide in and secure the drives and slide it back in.
Then onto the cons. Personal I find the Thecus OS not as user friendly as for example Synology’s DSM, there are also not as much apps then the competition. Opening and loading apps/files is a bit slow on the Thecus OS desktop, probably because of the fairly slow CPU (It is a low budget NAS) same like the DS214se also had a slow CPU. The cooling fan of the device is a bit too lound in my eyes, if you put it somewhere in the garage or a closet no problems but if you put it in a the living room it will disturb you. setting up the NAS was also a bit difficult, I had problems to keep to Intelegent NAS program working and I also did not get as much info as I needed, also setting up DDNS did not work. The NAS has some mobile apps but the feel old and are not optimized for the newer mobile devices.
Pros:
– Cheap
– Possibility to setup network location
– Easy to install HDDs
Cons:
– Not user friendly
– Few apps
– Slow loading/opening apps and files on the desktop
– Fan fairly loud
– I had some issues to install the software with the Intelligent NAS program and I also could not get DDNS working
– Mobile apps not optimized for newer devices
Final words:
The Thecus N2310 is a really cheap NAS and if you only want to use it as a big hard drive on the LAN network this will probaably be enough, but if you want to have a fast NAS with a lot of options I would not recommend this. I my eyes you better pay a 100 euros more and have a better and faster system with more options.
SCORE
6/10
