Thecus N2200

Packaging

The box itself is what you'd expect from any box. Slightly larger than the item itself and filled with pictures, features and specifications of the item you can expect to find inside.


Opening the box reveals that the box indeed isn't much larger than required. On the side is a box with accessories and protected by foam and a plastice bag is the N2200 itself.


In the accessories box you'll find what you need to get started. A short UTP cable, screws to mount the harddrives to their brackets, a power adapter, a driver/utility disk, a quick start guide and a warranty card.

The unit

When unpacking the N2200 the first thing I noticed is the size, it's quite small. It's about as deep as the 3.5" harddisks that go in it and about 1.5x as wide, the PCB itself is right between the disks. The design is simple, the front contains a simple display showing the status of various things like the network connection and the harddrives (basically connected or not and activity).


The harddrives are mounted on simple trays using the included screws. It is possible to mount both 2.5" and 3.5" drives. Though I imagine that in most cases 3.5" disks will be used.

The inside

When removing the back cover you can see the fan, the back of the SATA connectors and some additional screws. You won't see much of the device itself. Removing the four screws allows you to take off the whole housing as the back is stuck to the PCB which slides into the housing.


The PCB itself is rather boring, nothing can be upgraded and there is no fancy hardware. Just a SoC that does not require any cooling, two SATA connectors and some other random chips. The design is simple and effective. End-users can't do much to break it.