Specifications, Availability and Pricing

The heart of the Thecus N4800 is an Intel Atom D2700 from the Cedar Trail family. Clocked at 2.13GHz, this dual core, quad threaded processor features a 1MB L2 cache and 64-bit instruction set. With a max TDP of only 10 watts, this processor is feature rich and ushers in a completely new evolution to the NAS market.

The Intel D2700 processor adds audio and video capabilities, a new frontier for NAS appliances, but one that Thecus has yet to capitalize on. At the time of writing neither Thecus nor the third party software market have put together a software package that makes use of the new A/V capabilities. At Computex 2012, we were informed that will change in the coming months and a full functional A/V control system is slated for release in the coming months. At that time NAS functionality will change from a secure and distribute only model to an evolved system with the capabilities of direct to monitor playback, possibly replacing the media center in enthusiast's homes. As long as Blu-Ray ISO support is included, I'm all in!

Looking at the more traditional aspects of the N4800, you don't have to worry about the new functions pushing the key features to the side. We still have redundant RAID support so your data is protected from disk failure. Dual gigabit ethernet ports are included even though the typical installation uses just one. The increased DRAM capacity, now 2GB out of the box, means you won't see any performance reductions even though you're asking the NAS to perform additional functions.

Two features make this series stand out from the competition. We've already discussed the mini-UPS battery system, but the N4800 also has a very nice OLED display. The high-resolution display is accompanied by a traditional display that shows the system and disk status. This is a very nice feature to have when you need it, but most of the time it's out of sight, out of mind.

In the past the additional features moved the price of this flagship series to around $800. That is where we found both the N4200 and N4200 Pro at when we reviewed those products. The new Thecus N4800 is available now for $625 in the US, a price we found by searching through Google's Shopping engine. Even at $800, we still made a strong argument for the N4200 products, but the N4800 reduces the argument and turns it into an easy to swallow suggestion.

Let's take a look at the software features and then roll into the review.