To install the Hard disks you need simply unlock the bay, flip out the silver cover and pull out the HDD tray for step one. The Hard disks have to be mounted in place with screws as this is not a screw less HDD tray as found on some cases. After mounting the HDDs, and putting the system back together, attach a LAN cable to the WAN port that is separate from the four Gigabit Ethernet ports and LAN cables to the Ethernet ports as needed and you’re ready to begin your journey into NAS land.

Installation on the N5200BR is one of the most simple and straightforward procedures to get done. I’ve already covered the HDD installation part, so after installing four Western Digital 400GB HDDs and a 1TB GreenPower HDD into the unit, I plugged in the network cable to the Gigabit Ethernet port and turned on the NAS. After two beeps and an array of flashing blue lights, I was ready to start the setup of the NAS server. The latest Firmware update was put on Thecus’s website on 9/5/2008 and is version 2.00.12. The version on Thecus’s install CD is from 2007, meaning last year and its almost time for an updated version.

Upon running the setup wizard, the application will try to determine the Thecus NAS server. After clicking the Next button, and the Admin ID and password menu pops up. The default Admin ID is admin and the default password is admin as well. The next step in the process is the Network Configuration process, whether you want to use a Fixed IP or a DHCP. The last step is to change the admin password. Unless you want someone logging into your system, I would strongly suggest changing it.

At this point the setup wizard is complete and you’re ready to set up your NAS. After logging in, I would suggest upgrading the Firmware from the System, Firmware Upgrade menu options and adds functionality to the 5200BR. The firmware process is painless and the 2.00.12 Firmware is about 32MB a small file. At this point you are ready to set up the RAID array from the Storage tab of the main menu button.

I decided to make a RAID 5 array, and also a RAID 10 array with four 400GB WD HDDs and a single TB HDD for the fifth HDD. This will mean that there will be two mirrored 800GB~ RAID 0 arrays with a fifth HDD thrown in for good measure as a general HDD. One thing, setting up a RAID 10 or a RAID 5 array takes a long time. The four 400GB HDDs set up in RAID 5 mode took around 4.5 hours to set up on the N5200BR. The same four HDDs in RAID 10 mode took an amazingly long 12 hours to set up and was a long waiting process to say the least. After setup was complete however the unit was up and functioning and ready to begin its role as our main backup.