Performance Analysis
Despite the bland interface, there wasn't a lot to dislike about the TN-200's performance in our file transfer tests. It managed to keep up with many of the more expensive NAS boxes we've looked at over the last 18 months or so, and its read speed with large video files was particular pleasing at 78MB/sec. The most surprising result was with our torturous small file read test where its speed of just under 20MB/sec was enough to see off the majority of the competition.
It struggled a little writing the same large video files, with speeds dipping to a rather lowly 47MB/sec, but again for the price this is actually extremely good bang for buck. Once again it fared well dealing with our mass of small files and managed a speed of 22MB/sec when writing them - just a few megabytes per second slower than our best result. With a single hard disk, the maximum power draw was 13W, rising to 25W with two installed when reading from the NAS in a RAID 1 array.
Noise-wise, the TN-200 was mostly quiet on its standard smart fan setting but after a few minutes of heavy use, the little 50mm fan did spin up to deal with the heat from two hard disks and became quite audible. This was enough to mean that using it in a lounge or entertainment room is likely to see it confined to a cupboard so not to be too intrusive. In short, if you want less noise, you'll need to spend a bit more cash, or employ a few modding skills to fit a quieter fan.
Conclusion
What the TN-200 lacks in OS style compared to more expensive examples it more than makes up for with surprisingly-good file transfer speeds. In fact, for the most part it out-performed many more expensive NAS boxes and was far from terrible even in its worse test. You'll actually be bottlenecking some of its potential even with the fastest powerline adaptors or even 802.11ac WiFi - something we never expected to see from a sub £80 NAS.
However, it depends what you need if for. There are few features here over and above the basics such as DLNA and iTunes server support - there's no Cloud storage, video, photo or additional music servers for starters. If you just need a basic NAS, though, for dishing out files and streaming content to your devices, then we don't think you'll be disappointed, especially as you'll be saving £40-50 compared to similar models from Synology and QNAP.
Despite the bland interface, there wasn't a lot to dislike about the TN-200's performance in our file transfer tests. It managed to keep up with many of the more expensive NAS boxes we've looked at over the last 18 months or so, and its read speed with large video files was particular pleasing at 78MB/sec. The most surprising result was with our torturous small file read test where its speed of just under 20MB/sec was enough to see off the majority of the competition.
Click to enlarge
It struggled a little writing the same large video files, with speeds dipping to a rather lowly 47MB/sec, but again for the price this is actually extremely good bang for buck. Once again it fared well dealing with our mass of small files and managed a speed of 22MB/sec when writing them - just a few megabytes per second slower than our best result. With a single hard disk, the maximum power draw was 13W, rising to 25W with two installed when reading from the NAS in a RAID 1 array.
Noise-wise, the TN-200 was mostly quiet on its standard smart fan setting but after a few minutes of heavy use, the little 50mm fan did spin up to deal with the heat from two hard disks and became quite audible. This was enough to mean that using it in a lounge or entertainment room is likely to see it confined to a cupboard so not to be too intrusive. In short, if you want less noise, you'll need to spend a bit more cash, or employ a few modding skills to fit a quieter fan.
Click to enlarge
Conclusion
What the TN-200 lacks in OS style compared to more expensive examples it more than makes up for with surprisingly-good file transfer speeds. In fact, for the most part it out-performed many more expensive NAS boxes and was far from terrible even in its worse test. You'll actually be bottlenecking some of its potential even with the fastest powerline adaptors or even 802.11ac WiFi - something we never expected to see from a sub £80 NAS.
However, it depends what you need if for. There are few features here over and above the basics such as DLNA and iTunes server support - there's no Cloud storage, video, photo or additional music servers for starters. If you just need a basic NAS, though, for dishing out files and streaming content to your devices, then we don't think you'll be disappointed, especially as you'll be saving £40-50 compared to similar models from Synology and QNAP.
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