Thecus N3200Pro NAS

Introduction

I have been on a long haitus from this blog mainly because I was very disappointed in the picture quality of my previous post. They were taken using my mobile phone cam (SE w890i) which lacked auto focus. However, since then I have upgraded my mobile to a HTC Touch Diamond 2 (5mp Auto focus) and have regained some motivation to review more of my Hoots!

This time around I will be looking at something that not many may know about and my post will be slightly technical. I will however try to make it as layman friendly as possible. I currently share an apartment with my cousin  Adrian and between us we do a lot of media sharing. Media meaning movies, songs and games in digital format.  We have a router at home, as most people that have broadband access might have, and we use that as a connector between our two desktop PCs, 1 Laptop, and 2 mobile devices. The problem we faced were long waits to access each others shared folders and we also thought that constantly copying huge media files from one PC to another was a huge waste of precious time that we could use for other purposes. I longed for a solution to speed up this process and make everything much more simple and user friendly. I did some research on the web and found exactly what I needed, a NAS.

Where To Buy

A NAS (short for Network Access Storage) is a small self contained box that holds a few Hard Disk Drives for the purpose of sharing, backing up and streaming digital data. I went down to Fuwell to look for one of these babies and after some deliberation I decided on Thecus N3200Pro NAS because it looked “cool” for a NAS and aside from that, Thecus seemed to be a solid brand name specializing in NAS’es. As I recently received my annual bonus, I was in a spending mood and I whipped out SG$529 for the NAS itself and another SG$408 for 3 pieces of Hitachi 1TB (1000 GB) 7k1000.B Hard Disk Drives which came to a whopping total of SG$937. Was it worth it? We will see in a minute.

Unboxing

Without ado, lets start with some pictures!

The NAS and the 3 hard disks all neatly packaged.

Quick start guide right at the top.

The NAS itself protected by custom fitted foam. The unit itself feels quite heavy giving it a solid feel.

The remaining contents, consisting of a quick start guide, a warranty card, a network cable and an installation CD, power adapter and power cord.

A closer look at the power supplied power adapter. Note the special 4 pin connector type.

A Category 5E cable is supplied. Supposedly it can transmit data at speeds of up to 1000 mbps per second, or otherwise know as Gigabit LAN. However in order to fully utilize the feature, your router/switch would also need to support Gigabit LAN, else it would just run on the plain old 100 megabits standard, which is actually already quite speedy to use at home.

Lets move on to the NAS itself, upon taking off the plastic wrapping, a packet of silica gel is included, I suppose to soak up the moisture from condensation during transportation if any.

The NAS unboxed! Looks pretty cool doesn’t it. The front and back is made from plastic while the sides are made from aluminum. The finishing is matte, so no worries about fingerprints.

Practically the entire back of the NAS is occupied by a huge fan. There’s als an expansion slot, 2 LAN ports (1 in, 1 out), a USB slot and a eSATA slot.

Hardware Installation

I opened the NAS by pulling up the front cover. It was surprisingly easy to detach, almost effortless. However its not loose by any means as it snaps back in place with a reassuring snap. The picture above shoes the back of the front plate.

This is how the insides look. No need to attach any cables to the hard disks, they snap in to the slots with the help of three brackets which can be unscrewed by hand.

A closer look at the bracket. They fit into the screw slots on either side of the hard disk without having to use any screws. Really convenient installation concept.

This is how it looks after one of the hard disks have been slotted in and then when all three of them are in. I put back the front cover and that completes the hardware installation.

Turning It On

I plugged in the power adapter and the LAN cable (into the WAN port) and proceeded to press the power button on the front of the NAS.

The small LCD screen lights up and displays some informative messages such as tempreature, fan speed and IP address.  The messages will automatically switch after a certain interval or you can control them by pressing the controls on the front panel. To prevent accidental shutdown of the NAS, when you press the power button it will ask for confirmation before actually turning off.

Software Installation

Before actually being able to use the NAS, a one time initial software setup is required. This is mainly to setup the Administrator and user accounts and access rights to folders.

So I move over to my PC and slip in the provided installation disk. This automatically brings up a selection screen with a few options. Being someone that dislikes reading manuals, I quickly selected the Setup Wizard option.

It automatically installs .net components into my PC, which I suppose is required for the setup to continue.

After finishing with the Microsoft .NET installation, the setup continues with the actually installation of the NAS software.

Once the installation of the software is complete, the NAS setup started automatically with device discovery. It will actually detect if the NAS can be located on your LAN or not.  You will also be required to specify an Administrator password. Its important not to lose this as it allows access to the entire NAS.

Once the basic setup has finished, I could access the NAS user interface by typing the NAS’s LAN IP address in my web browser. I was prompted to create a RAID array before being able to access the hard disks. I followed the on screen instructions and left the NAS to build the RAID 5 array on its own. This took a couple of hours.

Using It

One everything was ready, I started to actually use the NAS. First thing was to copy over all my existing music, games and movies over from my PC to the NAS for storage. This not only freed up tonnes of space on my PC but also allowed me to easily share my media with my cousin in the next room. The copying process was quick and I did not notice any hiccups. Previously before procuring the NAS, I would copy files directly to and from my cousin’s PC through our LAN but the process seemed slow compared to copying files to the NAS itself.

Once I had moved my stuff over, I started testing the NAS by directly playing a movie located in the NAS on my PC. To my surprise, it played just like it was on my PC with no stuttering whatsoever. To further test my new toy’s capabilities, I started to seek through the movie and it all went smoothly. “Very Impressive” I thought to myself. Streaming music would definitely not be an issue.

The next step was to install the Bit Torrent Module. Yes the NAS supports customized software modules that can be installed to provide extended functionality.

The BT module worked flawlessly. However the downloads did not seem any faster as when compared to downloading on my PC. I suppose the bottleneck is at the ISP itself. On the brighter side, now I will be able to turn off my PC and save some electricity costs every month while still able to satiate my Bit Torrent needs.

Conclusion

The NAS works exactly as advertised and really helps greatly in organizing and sharing my personal media collection as well as freeing up space on my PC. It also excels in a multi-user environment in which files need to be shared frequently. The simple tool-less installation also is a huge plus point for me. Build quality and aesthetics are great as well, with a nice black aluminum chassis and cool looking blue LCD display panel in front. While the $529+ price tag (without hard disks)  may be slightly prohibitive for some, one can consider it as a long term investment (due to reduction in electric bills). In my personal opinion however, Thecus N3200Pro has won me over, allowing me more time to enjoy my media and less time managing it.

New Balance 576 Classic – Heaven and Hell Edition

Introduction

There was once upon a time when I was looking to improve myself hoping to impress some girls (a semi futile attempt to find a soul mate) . At that time, I decided that I could look better by portraying a “cool” and “in” image. I somehow succeeded to a certain extent with the help of my best friend, the Internet. I googled for various reputable fashion web sites and forums and it was through these sites that I got hooked onto sneakers (my other addiction is jeans :/ ), and it was not long before I got my first pair of limited edition sneakers. Soon my collection of feet protectors grew and now I have about 7 pairs of them (some of which I have neglected – Sorry! and one that I have passed to my dad ).

Anyway about a month ago, hypebeast reported that Leftfoot was going to release 2 sick pairs of New Balance 567s. Apparently two famous sneaker customizers were involved in the design, SBTG and Methamphibian. These two people are the current leaders of the pack, the kings of customs, and who in his right mind would pass over a chance to own one of their works?? (Its not everyday that you can get something that was designed on by both of them.) Based on the entry at hypebeast, the shoes would be released today, so I scurried down to Leftfoot after a long day at work and hoped and prayed that they still had my size.

Where to buy

I reached Cathay Cineleisure right before 7pm and headed straight for the Leftfoot branch there. I noticed that they weren’t displaying any of the drugs shoes I wanted, so I immediately approached their staff who courteously informed me that they were releasing one of the designs today and another one on the next day. The one that was being released today would be at Leftfoot Far East Plaza. I was anxious and I quickly inquired if he taught that there might be anymore pairs left, and to my relief, he said “They launched it at 6, so yah you should be able to get it”. I quickly said my thanks and left for Far East Plaza.

I reached there about 20 minutes later, and to my utmost delight, there was no queue!. The shop however was quite full with customers, many of them already holding Leftfoot paper bags with the goods in them. I headed to the counter and asked how much was a pair, and the guy there told me they were priced at SG$249. I replied “Can I get a size 9?”. The guy left the counter and abruptly returned with a beautiful custom designed box which contained the holy grailshoes. I quickly paid by NETS (they accept credit cards as well) and then headed to Hans for dinner with my girl friend.

Unboxing

The Leftfoot paper bag was of very good quality. The paper on the outside is glossy and the handles are made of the same material and are riveted into the body of the paper bag.

The custom designed shoebox was beautiful. Its theme matched that of the shoe itself. Instead of having the usual top-opened design, it had a drawer style opening method instead.

There’s also a sticker on the side of the box containing information regarding its contents. Aparrantly there are only 444 pairs in existence. Pardon me for the blurry picture from my mobile phone camera

There also half of a piece of art on the box with a very unique concept @_@. I suppose that the other half of the picture can be found on the Heaven edition of this shoe.

Review

The shoe itself is a quality product. The details on it are immaculate. As you can see the overall design is based on black and dark purple with camo print on certain parts of the shoe. These prints can only be seen clearly when there’s adequate light as they are glossy. However, I believe that if worn roughly, some of it might actually rub off. The toe box, tounge and upper sides of the shoe are made from patent leather. I always thought that the days of patent leather had vanished along with the diminishing popularity of Bapestas, however the use of patent leather on this shoe really brings out a very evil-sleek quality. The stitching uses a contrasting color to clearly show the outline of the shoe. There were no loose ends or stray strings which is a further testimonial to the quality of New Balance. The tags that came with the sneaker has Japanese words printed on them. Perhaps this shoe was commissioned to the Japanese New Balance branch.

An intriguing aspect of this shoe is the use of a different material which I have not seen on other sneakers before. This material has a reflective quality to it akin that of a beetle’s shell and is used as an underlying piece behind the famous N sign as well as on the upper heel. When viewed at different angles, it will reflect different shades of metallic colors from green to purple. There’s also a micro camo design etched on it which is different than the one on the front and back of the shoe. The N sign itself has a snakeskin pattern on it. I suppose that the designers had in mind that since this shoe was to be called Hell, they would derive its design from things which were evil, such as beetles and snakes.

The shoe comes with and extra set of laces. These laces are different from the ones that were already laced on the shoe itself. Most limited edition shoes come with an extra set of laces which are usually different from the original pre-laced ones. The extra laces had a snake skin texture on them and the ends are clipped using the standard plastic lace endings. They also are round in shape and black in color. The original laces on the shoe are flat, black in color and had nickle colored metal endings.

This pair had a standard black colored New Balance 576 sole. While on the tongue of the shoe the label states “Five Seven 666″ to complement the Hell theme. Again, I’m sorry for the blur pictures.

Conclusion

This is very well designed shoe that portrays its theme stylishly and is a must have for all sneaker heads. Well even if you aren’t a sneaker fan boy, you might still just want to go down to Leftfoot Singapore to check them out for yourself . These shoes are sure to turn heads.