Product Reviews

The Thecus N299 is a machine for storing and playing media files across a network. This simple concept can be a little daunting when you come to set up the system, but at least some effort has been made to simplify things. Plug in half-shoebox-size machine, turn it on and it whirs into life. There's no built-in WiFi, so you can only connect it to a wired network, but since you won't need physical access to it you could sit it beside your wireless router. There are two network ports in case for any reason you run two separate networks.

Our unit arrived with a pair of 500GB hard disks installed, a configuration that will cost around £300, but you can also buy the N299 as

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an empty rack (as priced here) or with up to 2TB of storage. Fitting new disks yourself in the two 3.5 in SATA drive bays is straightforward, and you can use a single disk or a pair of drives in a RAID array. This is as simple as following the instructions in the N299's HTML-based menu system, and should only take five minutes.

Enter your N299's IP address into a web browser on any of your networked PCs, and you can use its built-in slideshow to view pictures. Not only that, but fill its iTunes folder with music, and any PC running iTunes on your network will be able to play songs from it.

The unit has three USB ports, which be used to attach shared printers or security webcams to your network. The N299 does hit a bump at this point: a firmware bug means the rear two ports can't be used simultaneously. However, the front port is connected to a 'quick copy' button, which is handy. Plug in a USB disk drive, press the button, and the entire contents will be copied to the N299.

The N299 performed well in our tests: 100MB of medium-sized files copied at a rate of 4.6MB/sec, while 100MB of small files copied at 1.6MB/sec. That's more than good enough for media streaming, and will come into its own if you use it with well-compressed formats such as DivX.