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QNAP TS-470 NAS Review: Four GbE Links, With 10 GbE Scalability
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1. Gigabit Ethernet With Room To Grow

Most small and home office network-attached storage appliances are fairly similar in the feature sets and performance they offer at relatively comparable prices. So, what extras might you expect if you spend a little more on something higher-end? We recently received QNAP's TS-470, which falls into the category of a more feature-rich, but also pricier unit. At its heart is a Sandy Bridge-based Intel Celeron G550, a 2.6 GHz dual-core processor with a maximum TDP of 65 W and on-board HD Graphics able to hit 1 GHz. QNAP attaches 2 GB of DDR3 memory to the Celeron, which can be expanded to as much as 16 GB.

But those specs aren't what makes the TS-470 noteworthy. Rather, it's the appliance's four gigabit Ethernet ports, two of which are enabled through an expansion card, that make it different. And if GbE isn't enough for you, the add-in card can be swapped out for a 10 GbE option. With link aggregation enabled, QNAP claims you can get up to 432 MB/s writes and 450 MB/s reads. Or, with the 10 GbE board, writes should be able to hit 1.67 GB/s with reads topping out at 1.7 GB/s.

Naturally, hitting those rates requires the right storage devices. But you can expand the TS-470's capacity up to 144 TB by adding as many as 36 additional disk drives.

While you ponder the possibilities of that much storage, bear in mind that this NAS unit also sports an HDMI output. What's that good for? A direct connection to your TV, serving as a media server? Or how about in a medium-sized business, streaming video presentations into the board room? Frankly, most of would probably prefer to keep our servers and theaters separated by more than just an HDMI cable. However, video output is becoming an increasingly common feature, too.

QNAP TS-470 Technical Specifications

CPU
Intel Celeron G550 (Sandy Bridge), dual-core, HD Graphics
Clock Rate
2.6 GHz
RAM2 GB DDR3 (up to 16 GB through expansion)
Storage4 x 2.5"/3.5" SATA 6Gb/s or 3Gb/s storage (SSDs and hard drives)
Up to 16 TB (with 4 TB hard drives)
Connections4 x gigabit Ethernet (two integrated; two via expansion card); 10 GbE-ready
1 x USB 2.0 (front)
2 x USB 2.0 (back)
2 x USB 3.0 (back)
1 x HDMI
2 x eSATA
Audio in/out
Status Indicators
LCD, Status LEDs
Dimensions (HxWxD)6.97” x 7.09” x 9.25” / 17.7 x 18.0 x 23.5 cm
Weight8.3 lbs / 3.75 kg
Price$1000
2. A Familiar Chassis And More Modern Software Platform

QNAP's exterior design hasn't changed much over the years. Its TS-470 looks a lot like the TS-439 Pro from 2010, for example. Not that we consider this a bad thing.

The device is compact, yet robust. Its chassis is made of metal, and the front bezel is adorned by an informative LCD, which turns off automatically when there is no new information to display. At that point, only the status LEDs show that the appliance is operational. A toggle switch to the right of the LCD can be used to configure the NAS device, though the process is cumbersome. There are easier ways to administer the TS-470. You'll also find a single USB 2.0 port up front.

Four hard drive bays latch into place, and can be locked with a bundled key. Perhaps more important hot-swapping is supported.

The sticker on top, which explains how the drive bays are numbered, looks like an afterthought. A NAS device in this price range should have a more elegant solution for this.

Each of the drive drays is made of metal. Disks are screwed in, rather than snapped on. For a piece of hardware you won't be working in often, we'd call that a favorable means of securing the storage.

Except for the one USB 2.0 port up front, all of the TS-470's connectivity is around back. Up top is the expansion slot with its two GbE ports. A sticker spells out their MAC addresses, which could come in handy.

A Slick and Polished User Interface

In mid-2013, QNAP released version 4.0 of its operating system, giving the company's NAS devices a more modern and professional user interface.

The control panel is well-organized, and its icons are arranged logically to simplify setup and day-to-day administration.

We like the user interface’s broad functionality and professional presentation. QTS 4.0 appeals to both casual and technical users, which can't be said for every NAS system's software.

Unfortunately, we couldn't find the file system information screen in QTS 4.0, suggesting it might have been removed. In a few cases, we've seen storage vendors get rid of technical details as they try to clean up their UIs. Hopefully, the quest to present information more concisely doesn't lead to companies like QNAP hiding settings important to power users.

The TS-470 can also be configured through a dedicated client program. This could be easiest for some folks, since access to the appliance's Web-based page isn't as straightforward as it could be. You'd need to read the manual to know that you have to explicitly specify port 8080 to get there.

HD Station for Video Buffs

If you want to use the TS-470's HDMI output to serve video content straight to a TV, QNAP makes that possible through its HD Station. The portal hosts XBMC, Chrome, a YouTube app, and a utility called My NAS, which lets you configure the appliance.

We were even able to plug in a mouse (Logitech V550 Nano Laser) and keyboard (Logitech K800) to the TS-470's USB 2.0 ports, which became operational almost instantly.

As you may have noticed, the open source XBMC media center software is gaining popularity among NAS manufacturers. It is easy to use, supports a large variety of media formats and, via add-on apps, allows access to additional content like the archives of public broadcasting stations (partly even in HD quality).

QNAP's solution streams high-bitrate video without a glitch. That's something we've seen competing units struggle with in the past. Clearly, the combination of a powerful processor, plenty of memory, and lots of network bandwidth come together effectively.

Just don't try to install HD Station from the QTS 4.0 app center; it doesn’t work. To get the platform installed, with all of its components, use the Applications menu on the left side of the screen.

3. Testing QNAP's TS-470 NAS

QNAP sent us a review sample with four 4 TB Seagate ST4000VN000 hard drives already installed and configured in RAID 5, yielding 12 TB of accessible capacity. The internal file system is ext4, and our TS-470 came with QTS version 4.0.5 installed, dated 10-23-13.

Test Client Specifications
Motherboard
Gigabyte Z77X-UP5 TH, Rev. 1.0, Intel Z77 Express PCH, BIOS: F11
CPUIntel Core i3-3220 (Ivy Bridge) 3.30 GHz, 3 MB Shared L3 Cache
RAMCorsair Dominator Platinum DDR3 2 x 4 GB (8 GB)
(reduced to 2 GB to minimize the risk of caching)
eSATA ControllerIntel 7 Series/C216 Chipset Family SATA AHCI Controller
Hard DiskCorsair Force Series 3 120 GB, Firmware 1.2
DVD ROMSamsung SH-D163A, SATA 1.5Gb/s
Graphics CardHD Graphics
Network CardIntel Gigabit CT Desktop Adapter
Sound CardIntegrated
Power SupplySeasonic X Series 760 W
System Software & Drivers
Operating SystemWindows 7 Professional 64 Bit SP1
Intel Network DriverVersion 12.7.27.0
Intel Chipset DriverVersion 11.1.0.1006
Intel NAS Performance ToolkitVersion 1.7.1 (Test Backup with a trace from Version 1.6)

We determined the transfer rates with version 1.7.1 of the Intel NAS Performance Toolkit. If you are interested in details of this test methodology, you can read up about it in Benchmarking With Intel's NAS Toolkit.

The HD Station tests, which include media playback, are recorded with the Elgato Game Capture device, plugged in between the NAS and display. It gets power from a USB connection that's also used to retrieve the audio and video streams.

Sound Level and Temperatures

QNAP's TS-470 is not completely silent, but it's quiet enough. Unsurprisingly for a network-attached device, its fan is the number-one source of noise. Fortunately, QNAP uses a fairly conservative fan that emits a barely-audible 30.3 db(A).

The system’s temperature stays quite constant. Its CPU operates at 43 degrees Celsius (109 degrees Fahrenheit), and its motherboard sensor reads 33 degrees Celsius (91 degrees Fahrenheit). The hard disks remains quite cool at 31 degrees Celsius (88 degrees Fahrenheit).

Power Draw

When it comes to power consumption, the TS-470 is a mixed bag. On one hand, it's EuP-certified, which means it satisfies an EU requirement mandating the low power draw of inactive electronic devices. However, it neither supports wake-on-LAN nor automatic power-up after an outage in that mode. Makes you wonder how much value there is in EuP if it requires shedding functionality.

Even the power numbers for standby and wake-on-LAN mode are conservative, though, registering 1.2 and 1.6 W, respectively. If we were going to criticize any reading, it'd be the 26 W draw in disk-off mode, which is too high.

In the chart below, we also have readings for consumption while the TS-470 plays back high-def video.

Power Consumption
Off (Standby) 1.2 W
Off (EuP)
0.4 W
Off (Wake On LAN)
1.6 W
Disk Power Off
26.3 W
Idle41.4 W
Work (Copying Data)
48.3 W
Peak (Booting)
102.1 W
Media Player (HD Video Playback):
54.4 W

Performance Chart

Because the TS-470 sports relatively potent hardware and commands a premium price, we have high expectations of where its performance should end up, and QNAP's solution doesn't disappoint. Using a single gigabit Ethernet port, we often approached the interface's theoretical limit.

The device demonstrates its processing performance during tests with an encrypted volume, where it maintains approximately 90 MB/s.

For the sake of an easier comparison, we tabulated the test results for the plain text volume and the encrypted volume in a single graph.

4. TS-470: It's Pricey, But Offers Room To Grow

QNAP's TS-470 is a solid performer with plenty of features. But the main reason you'd want to spend $1000 on it would probably be its four gigabit Ethernet ports and expandability to 10 Gb Ethernet somewhere down the road.

Naturally, you're not going to realize this NAS appliance's performance potential using mechanical storage across a single gigabit link. In that configuration, you'll saturate the connection somewhere around 120 MB/s. But QNAP also supports link aggregation to enable much higher throughput. And if you're really serious about speed (and less concerned with capacity), you can load the TS-470 up with SSDs, snag that 10 Gb upgrade, and try pushing above the 1 GB/s range.

The TS-470 doesn't need to be a speed demon, though. It's also set up to serve media content straight into your home theater through an HDMI output and suite of software that includes XBMC. Here's the thing, though: there aren't many enthusiasts who want a NAS appliance sitting next to the TV. It's just not the right form factor. We're bigger proponents of the gaming-capable HTPC disguised as a rack component and capable of piping in video content through a gigabit Ethernet connection. If you don't care about gaming, though, and you have a discreet place to keep a NAS, then sure, QNAP's solution does feature hardware and software able to handle that environment, too.

It may be somewhat plain-looking. It may be expensive compared to what you could put together on your own (providing you're willing to put in the software work and validate your own storage). And four hard drive slots doesn't give you a ton of room to grow. But if a 16 TB ceiling sounds workable, and if you'd rather lean on the expertise of a networked storage vendor specializing in NAS hardware, QNAP's TS-470 is capable, quick, and scalable as you find yourself needing additional throughput.