Thecus N4200 Zero Crash review
Thecus’ new N4200 Zero Crash aims to be the most reliable small and medium-sized business (SMB) NAS appliance on the market. In this review we see whether it lives up to its claims.
The N4200 Zero Crash certainly lives up to its name. Alongside a whole heap of useful business-related storage features, it offers excellent fault tolerance as standard making it a good choice for small businesses that want the best protection for their shared data.


Thecus N4200 Zero Crash

Thecus N4200 Zero Crash

Thecus N4200 Zero Crash

Thecus N4200 Zero Crash

Thecus N4200 Zero Crash

Thecus N4200 Zero Crash
Thecus' latest four-bay small business NAS appliance takes reliability to the next level as the N4200 Zero Crash is the first desktop box to integrate power fault tolerance.
There's a lot more to this compact four-bay desktop unit as it sports Intel's latest Dual Core Atom D510 processor and also features Thecus' unique dual DOM (Disk on Module). This comprises a pair of 128MB IDE micro disk modules stacked on top of each other with the lower one plugged directly into the motherboard IDE interface. If the primary DOM fails, the secondary provides a backup for the OS so improving fault tolerance.
The N4200 introduces a slick new organic light emitting diode (OLED) display, which provides plenty of operational information including details about the BBM's charge level. A keypad below allows you to access a menu system and manually configure many settings. More information is on offer from the colourful display panel at the side which offers status icons for the hard disks, both Gigabit network ports and the USB copy function.
For installation, Thecus' Setup Wizard finds the appliance on the network, offers options for changing the admin password plus network settings and provides quick access to the main web interface. The smart Ajax-based interface sees even more improvements with the very latest firmware upgrade and is particularly easy to use.
Your first job is to create a RAID array and there are plenty of choices with JBODs, mirrors, stripes, RAID-5 or dual-drive redundant RAID-6 on the menu. For testing we popped in a quartet of 1TB WD Greenpower SATA drives into the lockable drive carriers.
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Dave is an IT consultant and freelance journalist specialising in hands-on reviews of computer networking products covering all market sectors from small businesses to enterprises. Founder of Binary Testing Ltd – the UK’s premier independent network testing laboratory - Dave has over 45 years of experience in the IT industry.
Dave has produced many thousands of in-depth business networking product reviews from his lab which have been reproduced globally. Writing for ITPro and its sister title, PC Pro, he covers all areas of business IT infrastructure, including servers, storage, network security, data protection, cloud, infrastructure and services.
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