Review: Thecus Yes Box N2100 NAS drive

The Yes Box N2100 from Thecus is yet another network attached storage (NAS) drive aimed at those with burgeoning media collections and those with wireless media streamers.

Various ports are dotted around the bulky yet stylish chassis. Two USB ports sit at the rear with an additional port at the front - these can be used to attach additional storage or copy data directly off a USB flash drive.

You can hook the Yes Box up to your router using one of the two Gigabit Lan ports while a series of LEDs at the front indicate what the box is up to.

Our review model came preinstalled with a pair of 250GB hard drives but various other sizes are available. You can also purchase a barebones Yes Box (where you supply the drives) for £235.

Installing the drives is a simple process; remove two screws at the rear of the case, pull out the metal drive bay and slot in your drive(s).

To maximise storage capacity, the drives can be set to a Raid 0 array, but if it's security you're after a Raid 1 array will mirror the two drives to limit the chances of data loss.

When it's hooked up to your network and has grabbed an IP address, you can access the Yes Box N2100's web interface.

Despite the colourful design, it's not the easiest to navigate around and NAS beginners will need to regularly refer to the manual.

The device is UPnP compatible and will therefore be discoverable by UPnP media streamers. Apple fans will be pleased to hear the Yes box will also function as an Itunes server.

Should you want to access your data from afar the FTP feature will no doubt come in handy.

With two hard drives contained within, the Yes Box requires the help of a small fan to keep it cool. This will kick in whenever things start getting warm, but even when it's not active you'll be able to hear the hard drives clicking away if the unit is in a quiet room.

The Yes Box is more expensive than most NAS drives. A 250GB Iomega Storcenter comes in at £245, while a similar sized Yes Box (with a single 250GB hard disk) costs £340.

However, you do get the benefit of having a scalable NAS with the Yes Box - if you start running out of space, you can simply upgrade one or both of the hard drives.

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