Thecus N8200XXX 8-Bay Rack Mount NAS Server Review

Introduction

Thecus has widened their product range a great deal over the last couple of years with new products forming at both the high and low end of the scale. This has opened the door for multiple products to fill in spaces once occupied by a single product. The end result is a vast range of options made available to consumers, small businesses and even enterprise clients.

With the economy the way it is today, businesses don't want to spend to get more than they need. When most of us think about rack mount servers, we tend to get a picture of large rooms full of racks with exotic cooling and more blinking LED lights than you'd find on the Death Star. The reality is, though, that most small and medium sized businesses need only one or two servers and those servers are tasked with multiple roles.

At the time of writing Thecus lists ten rack mount NAS servers on their webpage. Today we're looking at the N8200XXX. The N8200XXX sites in the lower end of the midrange, but you would hardly know it after using one. The outside design was taken directly from the N8800PRO we reviewed last year, so even though the XXX model sits in a lower position on the scale, Thecus didn't cut corners in the quality department.

The main difference in the N8X00 product line that includes (bottom to top) the N8200XXX, N8800+ and N8800PRO, is the processing power and RAM configuration. The 8200XXX that we are looking at today uses an Intel Atom D525 and 1GB of system RAM. At the high end of the N8800 scale is the PRO model that uses an Intel Core 2 Duo with 4GB of DDR2. Both of these systems will provide you with gigabit speed file transfers, but the PRO model will run more background operations and support a higher number of simultaneous users.

Before you can determine which model best suites your needs, you first need to figure out what your new NAS will be running. For unencrypted file serving the D525 powered N8200XXX can be a great bargain and you still have enough processing power to run a webserver, database and other tasks.

Let's take a look and see what the N8200XXX has under the hood.

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IMEC foresees 450mm wafer availability in 2015

EE Times reports IMEC presented its 450mm wafer fab roadmap:

European nanoelectronics research institute IMEC sees 2015 as about the time when the first extreme ultra-violet lithography system able to run 450-mm diameter wafers will be available and hence as the time it will need to have a dedicated 450-mm wafer clean room available.

Luc van den Hove, president and CEO of IMEC laid out a timeline to a press gathering here. It began in 2012 with 450-mm wafer tool and metrology testing, moving on to 450-mm process development between about 2013 and 2016 and then into advanced production starting in about 2016.

IMEC foresees 450mm wafer availability in 2015 - More news at DV Hardware

Another 93,000 Sony accounts hacked

Sony announced hackers have breached about 60,000 PlayStation Network accounts as well as 33,000 Sony Entertainment accounts. According to details released by Sony Chief Information Security Officer Philip Reitinger, hackers obtained a large amount of user data from other companies or websites, and used a brute-force attack to hack the Sony accounts:

According to Sony, the hackers obtained a large amount of user data from other companies or websites. The hackers were attempting to sign-in to numerous accounts using ID and password pairs, and while the �overwhelming majority of the pairs resulted in failed matching attempts� there were still approximately 93 thousand accounts (globally) in which the hackers succeeded.

Of those 93 thousand accounts, 60 thousand were PSN accounts and 33 thousand were SOE accounts. Reitnger had this to say regarding the hacked accounts:

�Only a small fraction of these 93,000 accounts showed additional activity prior to being locked. We are currently reviewing those accounts for unauthorized access, and will provide more updates as we have them. Please note, if you have a credit card associated with your account, your credit card number is not at risk. We will work with any users whom we confirm have had unauthorized purchases made to restore amounts in the PSN/SEN or SOE wallet.�

More info at Vivid Gamer.

Another 93,000 Sony accounts hacked - More news at DV Hardware

Sony recalls 1.6 million Bravia TVs due to fire hazard

Bad luck just keeps striking Sony. A report over at Bloomberg reports the company is forced to recall 1.6 million Bravia LCD TVs sold worldwide since 2007 because a faulty component can lead to melting and/or fire.

Sony recalled the liquid-crystal display TVs after a September incident in which a customer noticed a small fire and smoke, said Yuki Shima, a Tokyo-based spokeswoman for the world�s No. 3 maker of televisions. Eleven incidents have been reported in Japan since 2008, according to a company statement, and no injuries have been reported.

A faulty component in the backlight systems may be the source of overheating that can melt the top of the TV set, Shima said. It�s the second recall involving Sony products in a month, with KDDI Corp., Japan�s second-largest mobile-phone operator, saying it would replace Sony-made batteries in as many as 2 million handsets because they may overheat and melt.

Sony recalls 1.6 million Bravia TVs due to fire hazard - More news at DV Hardware

Gabe Newell sees Apple redefining the games console market

Could Apple have plans for a living-room product that may redefine the games console market? According to Valve founder Gabe Newell, such a product may be in Apple's pipeline:

'I suspect Apple will launch a living-room product that redefines people's expectations really strongly and the notion of a separate console platform will disappear,' said Newell.

However, Newell admitted that he wasn't hiding any insider information and did not know if there really was such a product in Apple's pipeline.

Newell then moved on to discuss the problems of closed platforms and, according to The Seattle Times, said that if Valve were to ever release a a hardware platform itself then it would be designed as open to competing services.

Source: Bit Tech

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HP said to be reconsidering PC spin-off

Despite earlier statements by HP that it will not reverse decisions made by its former CEO L�o Apotheker, WSJ now reports that new CEO Meg Whitman is having seconds thoughts about spinning off the PC division.

Quoting "people familiar with the matter," the Wall Street Journal reports that "fresh analyses show the costs [of a spin-off] might outweigh the benefits." The Journal says HP is considering scrapping the spin-off route, as a result.

That would leave a sale of the PC business as an alternative�although of course, HP could just as well keep the unit in-house and retain its status as the world's biggest PC vendor. We should find out about HP's strategy for sure later this month. Whitman promised last week to come to a decision before the end of October.

Source: Tech Report

HP said to be reconsidering PC spin-off - More news at DV Hardware

GeIL EpicGear shows off first hybrid dual sensor mouse

GeIL's new EpicGear gaming brand showed off Meduza, world's first mouse with "hybrid dual sensor technology" (HDST). Pricing and availability is unknown, but the launch should occur pretty soon.

This mouse features what EpicGear is calling the world's first "HDST" and that stands for hybrid dual sensor technology. As you'll see in the pictures, on the back surface of the mouse where you usually see either a laser or optical sensor for tracking, EpicGear include both a laser sensor and an optical sensor. EpicGear says that super fast laser sensor with speeds up to 6000 DPI and the stable optical precision with jitter-free operation leads to an overall much better feel and use than traditional mice.

Source: TweakTown

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Adobe demonstrates motion blur correction technology

PC World reports Adobe has demonstrated a new technology that corrects motion blur. Unfortunately, the YouTube clip of the demonstration is no longer publicly available.

Peter Elst captured a sneak peak of Adobe�s motion blur correction feature when it was demoed at the Adobe MAX 2011 conference. In the demo, an Adobe rep corrected a horribly blurred image by setting some predetermined parameters, analyzing the image for exactly how the camera moved when it blurred the image, and then hitting a "restore" button.

The rep also demonstrated that he could select part of the image to be corrected and that it can bring back unreadable text.

Adobe demonstrates motion blur correction technology - More news at DV Hardware

Tablets with Retina-quality screens to arrive in 2012

X-bit Labs reports next-gen tablets may get screens with a resolution as high as 2048 x 1536 pixels:

Increasing demand for high information content and multimedia capability in mobile devices continues to drive flat panel display resolution to higher levels of pixel density. For example, the next generation of tablets may get screens with 2048*1536 resolution. As a result, the average pixel density of flat panel displays is expected to grow over the next few years.

At present panel makers are developing ultra-high resolutions, such as 2K (2048*1556) or 4K (4096*2160) for TVs and QXGA (2048*1536 pixels) for tablet PCs. According to the latest report from DisplaySearch, the average pixels per inch (PPI) of large-area (over 9.1�) TFT LCDs will increase from 88ppi in 2010 to 98ppi in 2015, while average ppi for small/medium (less than 9.0�) TFT LCDs will grow from 180 to 210 over the same period. Mobile phones are the most obvious driver of increasing ppi due to growth in smart phones, with displays like 3.5� 960*640 resolution (330ppi), 4.3� 800*480 (217ppi) and 1280*800 (330ppi).

Tablets with Retina-quality screens to arrive in 2012 - More news at DV Hardware

OCZ proclaims success in SSD market

Solid state disks are OCZ's main gig now and according to CEO Ryan Petersen, the company is now one of the largest SSD suppliers on the planet:

"Unlike our publicly traded SSD peers, OCZ was not a purpose built enterprise SSD company. Last year we set out to do what might have seemed improbable if not impossible, transition completely away from [DRAM] business to focus on SSDs while simultaneously growing revenue. Now, we are proud of our progress. [...] Today, we sell more SSDs than just about any other company in the world," said Ryan Petersen, chief executive officer of OCZ, during the most recent conference call.

The company claims that among the companies, who do not have their own NAND flash manufacturing facilities (Samsung, IMFT, etc.), it is among the largest suppliers of solid-state drives among both enterprise and client categories.

Source: X-bit Labs

OCZ proclaims success in SSD market - More news at DV Hardware

DRAM prices flatten in October

X-bit Labs has a report about the DRAM market, you can read it over here.

In spite of seasonality and activities of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) producers to boost pricing of computer memory contract prices on 4GB DDR3 modules remained flat in the first half of October, according to DRAMeXchange, a research division of TrendForce, market tracking company.

4GB at $10.5, 2Gb at Less than $1
Benefitting from continual inventory replenishment for the holiday season as well as account balancing at the end of the third quarter, DDR3 4GB module contract price stayed almost flat in the first half of October and cost $10.5. The price of a 2Gb chip fell slightly, DRAMeXchange reports.

DRAM prices flatten in October - More news at DV Hardware

Intel X79 to arrive next month

FUD Zilla writes Intel's X79 is slated to arrive in November for $79 a pop.

Intel's high end X79 chipset is going to sell for a saucy $73 when it becomes available in November. Intel's Z68 remains the runner up chipset with $48 while the old X58 is out of the focus.

Since X58 stayed in operation much longer than many expected Intel has decided that X79 is a better codename considering that Sandy Bridge E successor probably won�t ship before earliest Q4 2012.

The $73 price tag is not exactly cheap for a USB 2.0 only chipset but Intel is winning to give you 10 SATA 6Gb/s ports, PCIe 2.0 for graphics and PCIe 3.0 dedicated for storage. Not what top gamers had in mind but what can you do. Naturally the chipset supports 1Gbit internet as well as an SCSI controller.

Intel X79 to arrive next month - More news at DV Hardware

Palit GeForce GTX 560 Ti Twin Light Turbo revealed

TC Mag published a picture and the specifications of the Palit GeForce GTX 560 Ti Twin Light Turbo graphics card. The pricing and availability of this custom model with overclocked clockspeeds is unknown.

As its name suggests, Palit's card makes use of the Twin Light Turbo cooler which takes up two slots, packs four copper heatpipes, two fans, and can brag with a sound output of under 10 dBA. Other goodies include 384 CUDA Cores, a 256-bit memory interface, 1GB of GDDR5 VRAM, 2-way SLI support, and D-Sub, dual DVI, plus HDMI outputs.

Palit GeForce GTX 560 Ti Twin Light Turbo revealed - More news at DV Hardware

Scythe Big Shuriken 2 processor cooler launched

Scythe presents the Big Shuriken 2, a new low-profile cooler with a nickel-plated copper base, five copper heatpipes, aluminium fins and a 120mm Slip Stream Slim PWM fan that delivers 12.13 - 45.47CFM at a noise level of 9.32 - 33.67dBA. The cooler measures 125 x 135 x 58 mm, it weighs 410g and is compatible with Intel LGA775/1155/1156/1366 and AMD Socket AM2/AM3/FM1 processors. The Scythe Shuriken 2 cooler will retail for around 30EUR (excl. VAT).

Japanese cooling expert Scythe announces the successor of Big Shuriken CPU Cooler. Big Shuriken 2 had to undergo further development on the heatsink and axial-fan side to provide better even performance and compatibility.

Applied improvements of heatsink are not obvious at first sight because main heatsink structure was inherited from Big Shuriken (1) CPU Cooler. Total amount of copper-heatpipes was increases from four to five pieces. Curved heatpipes are connecting the nickel-plated copper-base with the two upper layers of aluminum fins. Big Shuriken (1) was equipped with a solid heatsink on top of the copper-base which has been removed in the new version.

Consequently socket mounting is no longer achieved by using VTMS mounting mechanism but the F.M.S.B. 4 (Flip Mount Super Back-Plate 4) using screws and backlpate. Socket compatibility list has been kept long as usual, including latest Intel socket LGA1155, LGA1156, T / LGA775 and LGA1366 as well as AMD socket AM2, AM2+, AM3, AM3+ and FM1.

New Version is furthermore equipped with a Slip Stream Slim 120 PWM axial-fan with a thickness of only 12 mm allowing the total height of Big Shuriken 2 being only 58 mm. Supplied 120 mm fan supports the PWM feature offering variable fan control between 500 and 2.000 rpm. Depending on fan speed and requirements the supplied fan is able to create airflow from 21 to 78 m�/h respectively from 12,13 to 45,47 CFM.

Scythe Big Shuriken 2 processor cooler launched - More news at DV Hardware

October Halloween Pumpkin Carving Contest @ Bjorn3D

Bjorn3D is giving away Rosewill prizes, you can check out their new pumpkin carving contest over here.

October Halloween Pumpkin Carving Contest @ Bjorn3D

Bjorn3D is having a great contest. You can read about it at the URL above.

October Halloween Pumpkin Carving Contest @ Bjorn3D - More news at DV Hardware

Western Digital Shuts Down Facility Due to Floods

Corsair Hydro Series H100 Liquid CPU Cooler Review

iBoot 3.2 Update

type="html">iBoot has been updated to 3.2. As always, this boot CD facilitates the direct retail installation of Mac OS X 10.6.x Snow Leopard via iBoot + MultiBeast. Pick up the latest version at tonymacx86.com/downloads. Updated bootloader to Chimera v1.5.4Updated Lnx2Mac's Realtek RTL81xx Ethernet Driver to v0.0.90For 10.6.x Snow Leopard onlyPlease do not upload or redistribute iBoot to any other sites

Demystifying HDMI Audio in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion

type="html">HDMI Audio + Video can be enabled on Mac OS X Lion for most graphics card and motherboard configurations without much hassle using the replacement audio driver VoodooHDA. Using the supplied AppleHDA.kext for HDMI audio is something of a challenge, but provides numerous benefits including native Mac OS X support, high quality digital surround audio and overall system integration.Since Lion's

Mac OS X 10.7.2 Update

type="html">Today Apple released Mac OS X 10.7.2 the 2nd major update to Mac OS X Lion. This is the first time all Macs are running the same build of Mac OS X Lion, Build 11C73. It is an extremely important update, rolling in iCloud integration, and is recommended for all users. To update for any supported configuration, do not use Software Update. We recommend that all users update systems using the

AMD FX-8150 Bulldozer Gaming Performance Analysis

Introduction

Looking at the performance of the new AMD FX-8150 in our original launch coverage is really important. It's important to cover those synthetic benchmarks as well as those CPU orientated tests like Media Encoding and Image Manipulation. You can't really test a new CPU, nor come to any form of real conclusion without covering those areas.

The problem is, you can't cover a CPU properly without going into detail to see how it performs in games, because we know that a large portion of users who are going to jump on any new platform, be it Bulldozer or the already established Sandy Bridge one, intend to do a lot of gaming.

So what we'll be looking at today is the performance of the new FX-8150 against the much loved i7 2600k. Because both brands have so much focus on the overclocking side of things, that was today our focus as well. If you're going to opt for a high end CPU and video card, you want to make sure that you don't create any kind of bottleneck which is of course another reason why we're overclocking here today.

Because we've already gone into detail on the FX-8150 and the Bulldozer launch in detail, there's not much that has to be covered. Instead we can just get into the testbed side of things to see what exactly our setup has in it while also covering the overclock we're going to be running today.

Once that's done we'll of course get into the benchmark side of things where we're not just looking to see who is the fastest, but to see what setup makes sure we can play our games. The simple fact is if one setup is running at 150 FPS and the other is at 200 FPS, while one is clearly faster, those 50 FPS extra do absolutely nothing for performance. So let's not drag on any longer and just get into the testbed setup before we get into the performance side of things and we can see exactly what's going on with the platform here.

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Microsoft finds zero-day exploits are limited threat

Microsoft found less than one percent of the most prevalent malware threats in the first half of 2011 used zero-day exploits.

SOFTWARE GIANT Microsoft has analyzed the various methods of malware propagation used by attackers during the first six months of 2011 and concluded that zero-day exploits are the least of its concerns.

"As part of SIRv11 [Microsoft Security Intelligence Report, volume 11], we conducted research to quantify exactly how pervasive the threat posed by zero-day attacks was in the first half of this year," said Tim Rains, director of product management with Microsoft's Trustworthy Computing Group.

"We found that none of the most prevalent malware threats used zero day exploits to propagate in the first half of 2011, and less than one percent of attacks using exploits, leveraged zero-day vulnerabilities," he added.

More info at The Inq.

Microsoft finds zero-day exploits are limited threat - More news at DV Hardware