The N5550 is a five bay NAS (Network Attached Storage) device aimed at home and small business use. As well as storage features, it also has HDMI and VGA output to display media stored on the NAS, potentially replacing dedicated media players or home theater PCs.
A full specification and feature list is available at the Thecus product page.
The unit is well packaged in sturdy foam and arrived unscathed. Accessory kit includes all the expected cables and two thread sizes of drive screws to install all five disks.
Installation:
The sturdy metal chassis and case provide encouraging heft and suggest quality construction. It is disappointing that the plastic drive door is flimsy with a fragile feeling to the push-to-open latch.
The hard disk trays easily unlock and slide out. Each has foam mounting strips to prevent vibration and ensure a tight fit to the SATA connector on the back plane.
I installed three Seagate 4TB NAS disks (ST4000VN000) and two Western Digital 2TB (WD20EZRX Caviar Green) disks to provide real world tests of different drive types and RAID configurations.
Power-on is a big button on the bottom left. A blue LCD screen provides a summary of the startup which is followed by a beep when the system is ready to use. As there seems to be no way to dim or turn off the display, it also functions as a night light...
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