Thinking of Buying one

[sbsdegb1]

I am thinking of buying an N3200 for a home backup media storage solution. I am swayed to buy this over other NAS solutions because of the RAID 5 capability. My other shortlisted device is the QNAP TS 209 II. The QNAP is only RAID 1 but its feature list is extensive compared to the Thecus. Now I probably wouldn't use all of the features but never the less QNAp seem to be adding more all the time via QPKG.

So what I am after are peoples experiences with either NAS. I know this is a Thecus forum but there are bound to be people who have owned both.

[sbsdegb1]

On another note. Does anyone know if you can start off with 2 disks in RAID 1 and then add a third disk and change to RAID 5 without having to reformat the disks.

[andysr]

Hey, I have only used this one and have had no problems, cant advise on any others.

As to your question about the drives, with the 3200 you cant upgrade (migrate) the RAID from 1 to 5 after you've set it without rebuilding (reformatting) the drives, nor can you upgrade the RAID from 2 to 3 or more drives without rebuilding.

For that ability you need to go for a one with that specific ability. I know that the N5200 has these functions, its listed as the 'RAID Migration' ability as it will migrate your data from the RAID 1 to 5, and can also expand the RAID from 2 disks to 3 or more.

I only know because I had to ask after getting one and it got answered on another forum. If anyone else has more info, please chip in! Hope that helps!

Andy

[sbsdegb1]

Thanks for the answers to my question. I thought that might be the case. Pity as I have two brand new 750GB disks sat in a cupboard. Idea was to use these and then upgrade.

Is the unit quiet as I want to have it in my lounge.

any extra apps that can be installed on these. As it runs linux can you get access to the OS to install Joomla for example. Does it have a webserver.