Thecus N8200XXX 8-Bay Rack Mount NAS Server Review

Introduction

Thecus has widened their product range a great deal over the last couple of years with new products forming at both the high and low end of the scale. This has opened the door for multiple products to fill in spaces once occupied by a single product. The end result is a vast range of options made available to consumers, small businesses and even enterprise clients.

With the economy the way it is today, businesses don't want to spend to get more than they need. When most of us think about rack mount servers, we tend to get a picture of large rooms full of racks with exotic cooling and more blinking LED lights than you'd find on the Death Star. The reality is, though, that most small and medium sized businesses need only one or two servers and those servers are tasked with multiple roles.

At the time of writing Thecus lists ten rack mount NAS servers on their webpage. Today we're looking at the N8200XXX. The N8200XXX sites in the lower end of the midrange, but you would hardly know it after using one. The outside design was taken directly from the N8800PRO we reviewed last year, so even though the XXX model sits in a lower position on the scale, Thecus didn't cut corners in the quality department.

The main difference in the N8X00 product line that includes (bottom to top) the N8200XXX, N8800+ and N8800PRO, is the processing power and RAM configuration. The 8200XXX that we are looking at today uses an Intel Atom D525 and 1GB of system RAM. At the high end of the N8800 scale is the PRO model that uses an Intel Core 2 Duo with 4GB of DDR2. Both of these systems will provide you with gigabit speed file transfers, but the PRO model will run more background operations and support a higher number of simultaneous users.

Before you can determine which model best suites your needs, you first need to figure out what your new NAS will be running. For unencrypted file serving the D525 powered N8200XXX can be a great bargain and you still have enough processing power to run a webserver, database and other tasks.

Let's take a look and see what the N8200XXX has under the hood.

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IMEC foresees 450mm wafer availability in 2015

EE Times reports IMEC presented its 450mm wafer fab roadmap:

European nanoelectronics research institute IMEC sees 2015 as about the time when the first extreme ultra-violet lithography system able to run 450-mm diameter wafers will be available and hence as the time it will need to have a dedicated 450-mm wafer clean room available.

Luc van den Hove, president and CEO of IMEC laid out a timeline to a press gathering here. It began in 2012 with 450-mm wafer tool and metrology testing, moving on to 450-mm process development between about 2013 and 2016 and then into advanced production starting in about 2016.

IMEC foresees 450mm wafer availability in 2015 - More news at DV Hardware

Another 93,000 Sony accounts hacked

Sony announced hackers have breached about 60,000 PlayStation Network accounts as well as 33,000 Sony Entertainment accounts. According to details released by Sony Chief Information Security Officer Philip Reitinger, hackers obtained a large amount of user data from other companies or websites, and used a brute-force attack to hack the Sony accounts:

According to Sony, the hackers obtained a large amount of user data from other companies or websites. The hackers were attempting to sign-in to numerous accounts using ID and password pairs, and while the �overwhelming majority of the pairs resulted in failed matching attempts� there were still approximately 93 thousand accounts (globally) in which the hackers succeeded.

Of those 93 thousand accounts, 60 thousand were PSN accounts and 33 thousand were SOE accounts. Reitnger had this to say regarding the hacked accounts:

�Only a small fraction of these 93,000 accounts showed additional activity prior to being locked. We are currently reviewing those accounts for unauthorized access, and will provide more updates as we have them. Please note, if you have a credit card associated with your account, your credit card number is not at risk. We will work with any users whom we confirm have had unauthorized purchases made to restore amounts in the PSN/SEN or SOE wallet.�

More info at Vivid Gamer.

Another 93,000 Sony accounts hacked - More news at DV Hardware

Sony recalls 1.6 million Bravia TVs due to fire hazard

Bad luck just keeps striking Sony. A report over at Bloomberg reports the company is forced to recall 1.6 million Bravia LCD TVs sold worldwide since 2007 because a faulty component can lead to melting and/or fire.

Sony recalled the liquid-crystal display TVs after a September incident in which a customer noticed a small fire and smoke, said Yuki Shima, a Tokyo-based spokeswoman for the world�s No. 3 maker of televisions. Eleven incidents have been reported in Japan since 2008, according to a company statement, and no injuries have been reported.

A faulty component in the backlight systems may be the source of overheating that can melt the top of the TV set, Shima said. It�s the second recall involving Sony products in a month, with KDDI Corp., Japan�s second-largest mobile-phone operator, saying it would replace Sony-made batteries in as many as 2 million handsets because they may overheat and melt.

Sony recalls 1.6 million Bravia TVs due to fire hazard - More news at DV Hardware

Gabe Newell sees Apple redefining the games console market

Could Apple have plans for a living-room product that may redefine the games console market? According to Valve founder Gabe Newell, such a product may be in Apple's pipeline:

'I suspect Apple will launch a living-room product that redefines people's expectations really strongly and the notion of a separate console platform will disappear,' said Newell.

However, Newell admitted that he wasn't hiding any insider information and did not know if there really was such a product in Apple's pipeline.

Newell then moved on to discuss the problems of closed platforms and, according to The Seattle Times, said that if Valve were to ever release a a hardware platform itself then it would be designed as open to competing services.

Source: Bit Tech

Gabe Newell sees Apple redefining the games console market - More news at DV Hardware

HP said to be reconsidering PC spin-off

Despite earlier statements by HP that it will not reverse decisions made by its former CEO L�o Apotheker, WSJ now reports that new CEO Meg Whitman is having seconds thoughts about spinning off the PC division.

Quoting "people familiar with the matter," the Wall Street Journal reports that "fresh analyses show the costs [of a spin-off] might outweigh the benefits." The Journal says HP is considering scrapping the spin-off route, as a result.

That would leave a sale of the PC business as an alternative�although of course, HP could just as well keep the unit in-house and retain its status as the world's biggest PC vendor. We should find out about HP's strategy for sure later this month. Whitman promised last week to come to a decision before the end of October.

Source: Tech Report

HP said to be reconsidering PC spin-off - More news at DV Hardware

GeIL EpicGear shows off first hybrid dual sensor mouse

GeIL's new EpicGear gaming brand showed off Meduza, world's first mouse with "hybrid dual sensor technology" (HDST). Pricing and availability is unknown, but the launch should occur pretty soon.

This mouse features what EpicGear is calling the world's first "HDST" and that stands for hybrid dual sensor technology. As you'll see in the pictures, on the back surface of the mouse where you usually see either a laser or optical sensor for tracking, EpicGear include both a laser sensor and an optical sensor. EpicGear says that super fast laser sensor with speeds up to 6000 DPI and the stable optical precision with jitter-free operation leads to an overall much better feel and use than traditional mice.

Source: TweakTown

GeIL EpicGear shows off first hybrid dual sensor mouse - More news at DV Hardware