Conclusion
With the TS-459 Pro and TS-559 Pro, Qnap offers two NAS devices in the upper class of the enthusiast segment that are a attractive when it comes to build quality and equipment, as well as features. We are not surprised to find that the suggested target audience includes small and medium businesses, too. The range of products is nice and broad, as Qnap’s portfolio stretches from two-drive NAS models to heavyweight eight-drive models for business applications.
For enthusiasts and ambitious home users, the four- and five-drive bay NAS models are probably the most interesting ones. At around $900 and $1100, they are far from affordable for home users, but attractive for small businesses and enthusiasts on a larger budget. However, our question is whether you should spring for the model with four or five drive bays?
If you were speculating that the extra hard drive in the TS-559 Pro would bring some extra speed to its RAID array compared to the four-bay version, prepare to be disappointed. Our benchmarks only show performance differences in the RAID 5 degraded mode and RAID 6 mode.
But there are arguments for the TS-559 Pro other than faster transfer rates. It obviously has a higher maximum storage capacity and allows for more flexibility when it comes to the configuration of RAID modes. Depending on the requirements, the TS-559 Pro could be set to run two hard drives in RAID 1 mode, while operating the remaining three hard drives in a RAID 5 array. Security-conscious users should be particularly attracted by the possibility of running four drives as a RAID 5 array, ensuring a high storage capacity, and use the additional available hard drive as a hot spare drive or drive for temporary data. Speed is not the highest priority in that case, anyway.