After having spent lots of quality time with the N5550 NAS, my thoughts about it are mixed. It was very reliable and performed well during all testing, registering high enough network transfer speeds. I also liked the fact that Thecus provides the option to skip disk check during RAID creation since it curtails RAID creation times significantly. Yet the problems some modules gave me during their installation and the long hours I spent finding a solution aren't among my fondest NAS-testing memories. A good NAS device ought not to bother a user with such problems, and especially official modules/apps should install without the slightest hitch. The administration interface does, on top of that, though it is responsive and has all necessary options, look rather old fashioned compared to the competition's windowed UIs, so I think Thecus should spend some time on improving its look and usability. Some additional options, like the option to format and check external drives, set the fan profile, a firmware live-update, etc., would be nice too. The inability of the XBMC module to play any of the video files I tried properly was also frustrating, but XBMC is developed by a third party developer and not Thecus. XBMC not working properly with a NAS that has all the necessary I/O ports to replace a dedicated multimedia player or, why not, your HTPC, is, nonetheless, disappointing. I am pretty sure that the hardware capabilities are there since the Atom CPU is strong enough and the N5550 has enough RAM at 2GB. It is the software that needs tweaking.

Continuing with the things that made an impression, both good and bad, I liked the LCD screen, although its usability is limited. I also found the front USB 3.0 port handy, but it is behind the front bay door, and I wasn't too thrilled by the fan's noise, yet this NAS is mostly for SOHO environments where noise isn't a big issue. What puzzled me was the high memory utilization during heavy network throughput since other NAS servers with half the memory of the N5550 utilized less. Something fishy must be going on here, and Thecus should look into it.

To sum up, I admit that I was hard on the N5550 since I expected even more and because the competition is really rough. I am pretty sure Thecus can fix all of the shortcomings I found to deliver a spotless product. The N5550 has a long list of very strong points despite the problems I found. Also, it is very reasonably priced, and it actually has one of the top price/performance ratios in its category. If you are looking for a reliable and quite fast NAS with strong hardware that won't empty your bank account, and you don't mind the downsides I listed, which will thankfully be worked out by Thecus in time, put the N5550 on your list. For a five-bay NAS with an Intel Atom processor, its price is a bargain compared to similar offers by the competition. Its hardware has potential, and the N5550 will be a great NAS if Thecus manages to resolve the software issues I pointed out.