NAS specialist QNAP, whose tribulations we’ve mentioned previously in these pages, has released a high-severity security advisory warning of a flaw that may allow attackers to gain remote code execution privileges on an affected storage device.

The bug is in PHP and affects NAS boxes running QTS 5.0.x and later, QTS 4.5.x and later, QuTS hero h5.0.x and later, QuTS hero h4.5.x and later, and QuTScloud c5.0.x and later. It was already patched in QTS 5.0.1.2034 build 20220515 and later, as well as QuTS hero h5.0.0.2069 build 20220614 and later.

The problem appears to be in the part of PHP that deals with FPM and isn't a new vulnerability. It's been known about in theory for three years, but only now has it been shown to be exploitable. FPM is a FastCGI Process Manager that a webserver passes requests to and which can spawn and kill PHP processes as needed. If set up in a particular way, this FPM can be manipulated into writing data past allocated buffers into the space reserved for FCGI protocol data, thus opening the possibility of remote code execution.

Note that this is totally different from QNAP's recent unfortunate experience with Deadbolt ransomware. The reason why QNAP, out of all the NAS vendors, appears to have so many problems is that it's both very popular and takes a conscientious approach to issuing security advisories and deploying patches. Given that the vulnerability hasn't been patched for all QNAP operating systems yet, it has been assigned the status 'Fixing.'

In the meantime, QNAP recommends users update to the latest firmware for their storage box. This can be done in the system control panel, using the Live Update panel, or by downloading an update file directly from the QNAP website.

QNAP branded Network Attached Storage (NAS) device users are being asked to rush to apply patches again. In a security bulletin spotted by Bleeping Computer, QNAP NAS users are warned that attacks by bad actors applying Deadbolt ransomware have been spotted by the QNAP Product Security Incident Response Team (QNAP PSIRT). The vulnerability being patched could leave you with your  files encrypted unless you cough up some Bitcoin for a decryption key. 

According to QNAP, there are two main families of its NAS devices being targeted with the Deadbolt ransomware: the TS-x51 series and TS-x53 series. If the word "main" sounds rather vague, QNAP explains further that the current attack wave is targeting NAS devices using the QTS 4.3.6 and QTS 4.4.1 operating systems. If you are still not quite sure if this affects you, you might as well check and apply any OS updates available anyway.  Better safe than sorry. Moreover, QNAP is asking all of its users to "avoid exposing their NAS to the Internet."

If you are wondering about whether your NAS is exposed to the internet, QNAP provided guidance with regard to blocking such remote access back in January -— after its last set of warnings about Deadbolt ransomware vulnerabilities. At that time, it recommended users block port forwarding on their home router and disable UPnP in the NAS control panel, as well as toggling off SSH and Telnet connections. To use your NAS away from your home intranet, QNAP would prefer you to use your router VPN, if you have one, or to securely access your QNAP NAS via the Internet through myQNAPcloud Link app.

Those who get their NAS devices infected with Deadbolt ransomware will find it has hijacked your QNAP NAS device login page with a notice about what it has done, and ways to pay to get access to your files returned.  Deadbolt will go through your files, encrypting them using the AES128 algorithm and appending .deadbolt extensions to the filenames. To recover your files you will be asked to pay a ransom in a Bitcoin transaction.

Bleeping Computer reports that Windows users affected by Deadbolt can use a free decryption app, published by ransomware expert Michael Gillespie. However NAS users won't have this option at their disposal and will have to pay up for the decryption key.

QNAP NAS hack attacks have been in the news often in recent months. The two most recent reports concerned the Dirty Pipe Linux exploit, and a cryptojacking malware attack. 

Network Attached Storage manufacturer QNAP has issued a security advisory warning that its devices may be vulnerable to the Dirty Pipe Linux vulnerability.

The warning covers QTS 5.0.x on all QNAP x86-based NAS and certain QNAP ARM-based NAS, and QuTS hero h5.0.x on all QNAP x86-based NAS and certain QNAP ARM-based NAS. QNAP NAS boxes running QTS 4.x are not affected. QNAP has a handy list online specifying which kernel version each of its storage systems uses, so you can quickly check if you’re likely to be affected. 

QNAP’s advisory notice, which has a severity rating of high (one down from critical, the highest level) and which is still being investigated at the time of writing, warns: “If exploited, this vulnerability allows an unprivileged user to gain administrator privileges and inject malicious code.”

As we reported last week, Dirty Pipe affects all Linux kernels, including Android, between 5.8 and 5.10.122, which has received a fix. Kernels 5.16.11 and 5.15.25 are similarly secure. The vulnerability is named CVE-2022-0847 in the National Vulnerability Database,  which describes how a hacker with local access to your machine can exploit a flaw “in the way the ‘flags’ member of the new pipe buffer structure was lacking proper initialization in copy_page_to_iter_pipe and push_pipe functions in the Linux kernel and could thus contain stale values. An unprivileged local user could use this flaw to write to pages in the page cache backed by read only files and as such escalate their privileges on the system.” Which is bad.

Luckily, the fix is already in place, so QNAP is recommending users wait for a security update, as “there is no mitigation available for this vulnerability”. There's no mention of taking their devices offline - or at least not exposing them to the internet -  as there was when the Deadbolt ransomware hit QNAP devices, among others, earlier this year.

QNAP has been speedy with such updates in the past, with the patch to prevent and remove Deadbolt arriving just eight days after the malware, which hijacked the NAS login page and encrypted files, began to infect systems.

Qnap has introduced the industry's first 4-bay NAS with two Thunderbolt 4 ports and 10GbE connectivity. The TS-464T4 NAS can house four 20TB 3.5-inch hard drives (80TB in JBOD mode), uses Intel's quad-core Jasper Lake system-on-chip, has two M.2 slots with a PCIe interface for SSDs as well as 2.5GbE and 10GbE connectivity. Perhaps the most critical improvement over TB3-supporting NAS is that this one promises to improve Thunderbolt bandwidth significantly. 

Modern 4-bay NAS devices with RAID 5 and SSD caching support tend to offer relatively high performance with premium drives. Still, when you need to load a large amount of data on them, their network interface becomes a performance bottleneck. Therefore, Thunderbolt 3/4-enabled NAS comes into play with their 40 Gbps interface. The problem is that some TB3-supporting NAS (including Qnap's previous-generation TS-453BT3) utilize outdated SoCs that can provide a TB3 controller with only about 1.6 GB/s of usable bandwidth (PCIe 2.0 offers 5 GT/s per lane and uses an 8b/10b encoding with a 20% overhead). It's far from saturating TB3's peak usable bandwidth of 25.92 GT/s (3.24 GB/s). 

Qnap's TS-464T4 brings numerous significant improvements over its predecessor in pretty much every aspect possible, including enabling higher TB3/TB4 bandwidth thanks to its eight PCIe 3.0 lanes.  

The new unit employs Intel's quad-core Celeron N5105/N5095 'Jasper Lake' SoC that has four Tremont cores at 2.0 – 2.9 GHz with 4MB of L3 and supports 16GB of dual-channel DDR4-2933. Other attributes include a Gen11 GPU, HEVC, H.264, VP9 encoding/decoding for 4Kp60 videos, eight PCIe Gen3 lanes, 2.5GbE MAC, and 10/15W TDP. As a result, it features considerably higher general-purpose performance than Apollo Lake (Goldmont) and Gemini Lake (Goldmont Plus) SoCs used for Qnap's more or less recent 4-bay NAS. That extra performance, along with support for 16GB of DDR4-2933 memory, will likely make performance-demanding workloads like rebuilding a RAID array faster. 

While eight PCIe 3.0 lanes is a significant improvement over six PCIe 2.0 lanes on the TS-453BT3, there are still some caveats. Assuming that Qnap uses four PCIe 3.0 lanes for its TB4 controller (Intel's JHL8440/Goshen Ridge, we presume), there are only four lanes left for the 10GbE controller and two M.2 slots for caching/Qtier SSDs. Probably, one PCIe 3.0 lane (8 GT/s or 0.985 GB/s with a 128b/130b encoding) is enough for the 10GbE controller, and we can speculate that one M.2 slot uses a PCIe 3.0 x2 interface, while another uses a PCIe 3.0 x1 interface. Even TB4 provides 25.92 GT/s, but the actual bandwidth available will be limited to 16 GT/s to the end-user if this drive becomes a medium for writing/reading. 

Like other modern 4-bay NAS from Qnap, this one comes with an HDMI 2.0 output and may be equipped with a remote to work as an HTPC. In addition to two Thunderbolt 3 ports on the front, it also has a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port near them. 

Unlike some other Qnap NAS, the TS-464T4 no longer has a PCIe slot for expansion cards. It's a logical compromise as there are no spare PCIe lanes left, but this is a good thing since original Qnap accessories (10GbE adapter or M.2 to PCIe card converter) are pretty expensive. Besides, nobody guarantees that third-party hardware will work with Qnap's QTS operating system. 

Speaking of QTS, the manufacturer will ship the TS-464T4 with the latest QTS 5 version that improves performance, enhances security. It also supports Coral Edge TPU that can do image recognition and even attempt to predict hardware failures using cloud-based AI. 

Unfortunately, QNAP has neither announced its official MSRP for the TS-464T4 nor disclosed its launch window.

NAS specialist QNAP has launched a drive failure prediction tool, in partnership with ULINK Technology, that uses cloud-based AI to protect against server downtime and data loss caused by hard drive failures. The announcement came via a QNAP press release.

The AI makes use of the reams of statistics generated by millions of drives reporting their status. The data is used to make predictions about whether particular discs are likely to fail, allowing them to be replaced before the worst happens. It should be able to predict drive failures that would be missed by the usual SMART tools, and comes with a friendly and intuitive interface. At the present time all QNAP NAS with QTS 5.0 / QuTS hero h5.0 (or later) are supported. NVMe and SAS drives are currently not supported. SATA drives support (HDD and SSD drive list) is determined by firmware compatibility. 

“QNAP is acutely aware that potential server down time is a critical concern for QNAP NAS users and sudden drive failure is one of its primary causes. We are honored to have the chance to partner with ULINK to develop the DA Drive Analyzer to help users, especially IT staff who must manage large numbers of NAS devices. We envision that the DA Drive Analyzer will be a great assist to users looking to build advanced disaster recovery plans,” said Tim Lin, product manager of QNAP.

A free trial of the DA Drive Analyzer is available until March 2022, after which it requires an annual subscription that scales with the number of drives you’re running.

QNAP today released a security advisory to say that all of its NAS products are being targeted by attackers installing cryptocurrency-mining malware on the devices.

"Once a NAS is infected," QNAP said, "CPU usage becomes unusually high where a process named '[oom_reaper]' could occupy around 50% of the total CPU usage."

NAS devices aren't equipped with the mightiest components—even QNAP's flagship products feature entry-level Intel Celeron processors—so losing half of the device's power to crypto-mining malware could lead to a noticeable loss in performance.

QNAP didn't offer additional details about how the malware is spreading, when it first appeared, or how many of its NAS products have been compromised to date.

The company did say that "if you suspect your NAS has been infected with the bitcoin miner, restarting the NAS may also remove the malware," however.

In the meantime, QNAP said its devices could be protected by taking these actions:

1. Update QTS or QuTS hero to the latest version.
2. Install and update Malware Remover to the latest version.
3. Use stronger passwords for your administrator and other user accounts.
4. Update all installed applications to their latest versions.
5. Do not expose your NAS to the internet, or avoid using default system port numbers 443 and 8080.

Additional information about how to take each of those steps is available via the security advisory.

The Record reported that [oom_reaper] is far from the first malware to target QNAP's products. Numerous ransomware strains (Muhstik, Qlocker, eCh0raix, and AgeLocker) and other cryptojackers have also been used to infect the NAS devices.

Qnap has introduced its new portable NAS designed primarily for laptop users and mobile workers who need to carry loads of data, but don't need extreme performance storage while on the go. The Qnap TBS-464 NASbook houses up to four M.2-2280 SSDs, weighs less than a kilogram, and you can use it to store data and backups, or it can serve as a cache for data that's stored in the cloud. Additionally, you can also use it as a media server. 

Qnap's TBS-464 M.2 NVMe SSD NASbook is based on Intel's quad-core Celeron N5105/N5095 system-on-chip (Jasper Lake) that combines low power consumption with decent performance and up-to-date multimedia decoding/encoding capabilities. The device also comes with 8GB of DDR4 soldered-down memory. 

The portable NAS supports up to four M.2-2280 SSDs with a PCIe 3.0 x2 interface, and you can connect to a network using two 2.5GbE ports. The unit also has two USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, three USB 2.0 ports, two HDMI 2.0 outputs (supporting up to 4Kp60 resolution) and an IR sensor.

Four M.2 SSDs can store up to 32TB of data, which is formidable for a device that only measures 30 × 230 × 165 mm and weighs in at 1.7 pounds (800 grams). However, the TBS-464 isn't fast primarily because of its 2.5GbE network connectivity. With a single port active, Qnap rates the NASbook for up to 287MB/s during downloads and up to 294MB/s during uploads, but it can hit 574 / 586 MB/s (respectively) with port trunking enabled with the two 2.5GbE ports. That's slightly faster than high-performance SATA SSDs. However, the network interface introduces a bottleneck, so you would probably prefer a DAS with a Thunderbolt 3/4 or USB4 interface if you need high read and write speeds.

Like other NAS from Qnap, the TBS-464 M.2 NVMe SSD NASbook is based on the QTS operating system (version 5.0 in this case) and therefore can run all the apps the company designed for its other NAS devices. Given the TBS-464's positioning, Qnap ships the NAS with the KoiMeeter app for enabling video conferencing and wireless presentations for small businesses and remote workers. In addition, the NAS can work as Plex Media Server and can stream content to compatible mobile and media streaming devices.

Qnap has not announced the TBS-464 NASbook's pricing or exact launch date. However, the company already lists the product on its website and offers support for the device, so we expect it to hit the market shortly.

Qnap has quietly introduced its six-bay TVS-675 NAS powered by an eight-core Chinese x86 CPU designed by Zhaoxin, a joint venture between Via Technologies and the Shanghai Municipal Government. The NAS for small businesses (SMBs) is one of the first (if not the first) commercial devices set to be available in the U.S. and Europe, with the KaiXian KX-U6580 processor developed primarily for the Chinese market. 

Zhaoxin was established in 2013 to build x86 processors in China for the local market and cut reliance on processors designed by AMD and Intel, but retain compatibility with the vast library of x86 software. The initial generations of Zhaoxin's products weren't successful because of utterly low performance, and the latest KaiXian KX-6000-series is also not a performance champion in general-purpose tasks (according to our review). But it looks like Qnap found the eight-core 2.50 GHz KaiXian KX-U6580 (with Zhaoxin C-960 graphics) good enough for its entry-level NAS.  

Usually, Qnap's entry-level network area storage devices use Arm-based SoCs or Intel's Celeron SoCs powered by the company’s low-power architecture. NAS manage files, run light applications, or encode videos, so these inexpensive SoCs are good enough for their workloads. Zhaoxin's KaiXian KX-6000 can certainly run light apps, but as our review revealed, its media encoding performance is very low by today's standards, possibly because it lacks certain hardware encoders applicable to our test scenarios under Windows, whereas its general-purpose architecture is not exactly suited for such tasks. Keeping in mind that Qnap's TVS-675 NAS is aimed primarily at SMBs that hardly need it for media encoding, this drawback of the KaiXian KX-6000 probably won't affect users of this NAS. Furthermore, Qnap says that the SoC does support H.264/H.265 transcoding with its OS.

Speaking of the Qnap TVS-675, this NAS promises to provide SMBs high capacity, high performance, expandability, and rather fast network connectivity. The NAS has six hot-swappable 3.5-inch bays for high-capacity SATA HDDs, two SO-DIMM slots for DDR4 memory modules (the system ships with 8GB, but you can install up to 64GB), two M.2-2280 slots for SSDs supporting a PCIe 3.0 x1 or SATA interface, and two PCIe 3.0 x4 slots for SSDs or network cards. The unit also has two 2.5 GbE ports, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A connectors, two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, and one HDMI 2.0 output.  

Qnap equipped the TVS-675 with three fans to cool down the PC-oriented SoC, six HDDs, two SSDs, and expansion cards. The company claims that the fans produce 23 dB of noise (though it does not disclose how it measured this level). 

The Qnap TVS-675 ships with a choice of either QTS or the enterprise-grade ZFS QuTS operating system. QTS supports all the capabilities expected from an entry-level NAS, including, Qsync cross-platform file sharing (for Apple, Windows, IBM AIX, and Linux machines), Qtier caching technology that automatically moves frequently-used file/data to SSDs, snapshots, RAID modes, virtual JBOD, FTP server, HTTP access, and so on. The NAS also supports QNAP-certified first-party and third-party apps.

Qnap hasn't disclosed pricing yet, though this is a business-oriented machine with rich features and will be priced accordingly.

Qnap has introduced a dual-port 100GbE network adapter that is aimed primarily at the company's flagship 24-bay NVMe all-flash storage solution that has a PCIe 4.0 x16 slot, but it is also compatible with other NAS systems as well as Linux and Windows-based PCs. 

The Qnap QXG-100G2SF-E810 dual-port 100GbE adapter is based on the Intel Ethernet Controller E810 and is equipped with two QSFP28 connectors. The card has a PCIe 4.0 x16 interface offering a bandwidth of 31.5 GB/s and is designed for Qnap's top-of-the-range 24-bay TS-h2490FU all-flash storage system that is based on AMD's Epyc 7302P processor and can pack up to 24 U.2 SSDs.  

The all-flash storage system equipped with a dual-port 100GbE network adaptor can be connected to a switch and use one 100GbE connection as the main connection and another as backup. Qnap says that it also plans to launch a quad-port 25GbE switch that can be connected to one 100GbE port (or both 100GbE ports) on the QXG-100G2SF-E810 and enable eight 25GbE ports to connect the NAS to multiple servers in a datacenter. 

The card fully supports all advanced networking capabilities, such as Forward Error Correction (FEC), including Base-R FEC featuring Firecode encoding as well as RS-FEC featuring Reed Solomon encoding. It will also support iWARP/RDMA and SR-IOV features for I/O-intensive and latency-sensitive virtualization workloads. 

"The QXG-100G2SF-E810 redefines ultra-high-speed networking with 100Gbps connectivity," said Stanley Huang, Product Manager of QNAP, adding "Users can also configure network redundancy to achieve network failover via the switch for continuous service and high availability." 

Qnap's QXG-100G2SF-E810 network card will be available directly from the company and its resellers shortly. Pricing is unknown.

Qihoo 360's Network Security Research Lab said Friday that vulnerabilities in QNAP products have been exploited to turn NAS devices into cryptocurrency miners. Those devices were tampered with to hide their CPU usage, too, making it difficult for their owners to discover something was wrong if they checked their system's diagnostics.

It seems like the efforts were pretty straightforward: Attackers reportedly exploited vulnerabilities in QNAP products to gain root access to them, installed mining software that was configured to use only half of the available CPU cores, and then covered their tracks by making CPU usage rates and temperatures appear normal.

The cryptocurrency mined by a single NAS isn't worth the trouble of finding a vulnerability, exploiting it, and configuring it in this manner. The attackers probably had no intention of limiting their efforts to a single NAS, however. Schemes like this are all about achieving as much scale as possible as quickly as possible.

Put another way: It wouldn't matter if each affected NAS only net the hackers $0.01 every day so long as they were able to infect a decent number of devices. They would also offset the costs of crypto mining—namely the upfront costs of buying a device and the ongoing cost of powering it—to their victims. All gain, no pain.

Note that while CPU mining of cryptocurrencies generally takes a back seat to GPU and ASIC mining, certain algorithms (specifically CryptoNightR used in Monero) can provide decent returns. Even an old Core i5-7600K 4-core CPU can do about $0.15-$0.20 per day (not counting electrical costs), while an i9-9900K can do nearly $0.50 per day. Infecting tens of thousands of NAS devices obviously gets into large sums of cryptocurrency very quickly, and Monero also happens to be a 'privacy coin' — meaning it's not possible to track where coin transfers go.

The researchers didn't offer many specifics, however, because they "speculate that there are still hundreds of thousands of online QNAP NAS devices with the vulnerability." That's a fraction of the nearly 4.3 million online devices they said they found using one of their security tools, but it's still nothing to sneeze at.

That number might be lower if the researchers had followed the industry standard process of giving vendors 90 days to respond to vulnerability disclosures. Instead the researchers at 360 Netlab said they discovered the scheme on March 2 and disclosed it to QNAP on March 3. They published a blog post about it on March 5.

The researchers said they rushed to share their discovery with the public "due to the possible big impact" of the security flaws. We've reached out to QNAP to confirm the timeline established in 360 Netlab's blog post as well as its potential impact and will update this post if the company responds.

For now, the researchers at 360 Netlab said the vulnerabilities it discovered were present in all of the QNAP NAS firmware released before August 2020. Ensuring a device has the most recent firmware should limit its exposure, and the researchers provided a list of IPs and URLs to block for additional security, too.

QNAP announced a new family of NAS devices on Tuesday. The TS-x53D 2.5GbE NAS series target both gamers AMD professionals that require high-speed network storage for their daily activities.

The TS-x53D series' biggest attraction is the built-in 2.5GbE networking. The NAS sports two 2.5GbE Ethernet ports to deliver transfer speeds up to 5 Gbps without a sweat. If 2.5GbE connectivity isn't enough for you, the TS-x53D series features a standard PCIe 2.0 slot that lets you install expansion cards that'll upgrade to 5GbE or even 10GbE networking.

Intel's Celeron J4125 quad-core processor powers the QNAP TS-x53D series. The 10W chip comes equipped with a 2 GHz base clock and a boost clock that climbs up to 2.7 GHz. The processor's integrated Intel HD Graphics 600 solution takes care of all the graphical responsibilities.

The TS-x53D series feature two SO-DIMM DDR4 RAM slots and can be configured with up to 8GB (2x 4GB) of memory. QNAP offers the TS-x53D series in 2, 4 and 6-bay configurations. The NAS can house both 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch devices, whether they be hard drives or lightning-fast SSDs. As expected, the drives communicate with the NAS via a SATA III interface.

QNAP TS-x53D Specifications

That PCIe 2.0 slot we mentioned has additional uses,. You can install QNAP's own QM2 expansion cards to add M.2 SSDs to your NAS or the QWA-AC2600 wireless adapter to enjoy Wi‑Fi 5 connectivity. It's important to note that only the 2-bay model provides four PCIe 2.0 lanes through the slot, while remaining models are limited to two PCIe 2.0 lanes.

Regardless of the model, each NAS provides the same level of connectivity. There's one HDMI 2.0 port that delivers 4K resolution at a 60 Hz refresh rate, two USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports and three USB 2.0 ports. If you're not using the PCIe 2.0 slot for anything else, you could also install an expansion card to get some USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports.

QNAP backs the TS-x53D series with a a limited three-year warranty, but you can extend it to five years by purchasing a warranty extension.

QNAP TS-x53D Price and Availability

The new devices are already available online. The 2-bay and 4-bay models sell for $469 and $579, while the 6-bay model retails for $699. Where applicable, the 8GB variants cost a $100 premium, which seems like an upsell. The cheapest 4GB SO-DIMM DDR4 module on the market goes for $15. We would recommend opting for the base model with 4GB and expanding the memory on your own. That should save you a lot of money.

Get your massive media libraries ready, because we have a massive cavernous NAS giveaway, courtesy of our friends at Seagate and QNAP. There are several terabytes up for grabs, and all you have to do is head to the forums and let us know what you would do with all that space.

Up for grabs is the slim QNAP TS-032X, paired with a  spacious pairing of a 16TB Seagate IronWolf hard drive and 240GB SSD. Seagate IronWolf drives provide 28% more capacity and up to 25% more speed than other NAS drives. And the IronWolf SSD is the first solid-state drive built for NAS. You can combine hard drives and SSDs to experience 2.7× faster cache. Paired with the slim 9-bay TS-932X from QNAP, you can back up massive libraries with less desktop space. Do you have what it takes to #RunWithIronWolf?

To find out, head to the giveaway thread in the Storage category of the Tom's Hardware forums. Here's a direct link. Once in the giveaway thread, follow the instructions there for your chance to win.

No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited. Giveaway is only open to legal residents of the fifty (50) United States, and the District of Columbia, 18 or older. For a complete list of rules please see the Terms and Conditions on the Gleam Giveaway Widget. This giveaway is open until September 27, 2019.

​

QNAP, a Taiwan-based network-attached storage (NAS) vendor, warned its NAS customers to make sure they're using strong passwords, have the latest version of its QTS firmware installed and are staying vigilant about their device's security in response to Anomali's disclosure of the eCh0raix Ransomware earlier this month.

IT security firm Anomali revealed eCh0raix on July 10. The ransomware appears to be fairly standard: it compromises QNAP devices "by brute forcing weak credentials and exploiting known vulnerabilities in targeted attacks," before a "malicious payload encrypts the targeted file extensions on the NAS using AES encryption and appends .encrypt extension to the encrypted files." That's where the ransom comes in.

The ransom note instructs victims to visit a website using the Tor browser for more information about retrieving their files. Most security companies advise ransomware victims not to pay the ransom; the attackers have little motivation to hold up their end of the bargain. 

According to Anomali, eCh0raix specifically targeted publicly accessible NAS from QNAP that weren't located in Belarus, Ukraine, or Russia, potentially because the attackers operate in one of those countries. The best mitigation against this attack, the company said, would be to restrict external access to the device while also following QNAP's advice regarding strong credentials and firmware updates.

QNAP released a security advisory related to eCh0raix on July 11. Here are the company's recommendations:

1. Update QTS to the latest version.
2. Install and update Malware Remover to the latest version.
3. Use a stronger admin password.
4. Enable Network Access Protection to protect accounts from brute force attacks.
5. Disable SSH and Telnet services if you are not using them.
6. Avoid using default port numbers 443 and 8080.

QNAP also said that it's "urgently working on a solution to remove malware from infected devices and will release it at the soonest possible time." Anyone who owns a QNAP product can reach out to the company via the QNAP Helpdesk for additional information about eCh0raix, protecting their devices, etc. In the meantime, this is simply another reminder to be diligent about strong passwords and firmware updates.

QNAP released new dual-port 25GbE and 10GbE network expansion cards (NECs) for use in high-end PCs and NAS setups. They're called the QXG-25G2SF-CX4 and QXG-10G2SF-CX4, respectively, and they're meant to help professionals manage a ton of data.

As QNAP product manager Dan Lin explained in a press release: “Cloud, big data, high-speed storage, virtualization, and AI are strongly pushing 25GbE into the mainstream. QNAP now provides users with a scalable solution for adopting 25GbE infrastructure by leveraging the industry-leading Mellanox Ethernet solution to deliver a next-gen 25GbE NIC for NAS, servers and workstations."

It's no secret that consumers and companies have both grown increasingly data-hungry. Content starts taking up more space as movies and games catch up with higher resolutions. More information is being tracked digitally. And artificial intelligence requires the use of massive amounts of data. All that leads to more demands of storage devices' performance than ever.

Both of the new NECs are built with a Mellanox ConnectX-4Lx controller, utilize a PCIe Gen 3 x8 interface, and come with a low-profile bracket pre-installed. They're also compatible with QNAP's QTS as well as Windows and Linux. (Provided you install the appropriate driver for each model.) The 25GbE version relies on an SFP28 connection; the 10GbE version uses an SFP+ connection.

Even QNAP notes on the 25GbE model's product page that "25GbE NICs are designed for data-intensive applications and enterprise IT environments." The company said reaching the product's full potential requires "at least three workstations with Intel Core i5/i7 processors (or similar) at 3.3 GHz (or higher) and NVMe SSDs" as well as a similarly specced QNAP NAS loaded with SSDs.

The 10GbE model is probably more suited to home use. But it only costs $20 less than the 25GbE model, and we suspect that most enthusiasts would rather spend that twenty bucks to get an extra 15Gb/s of potential performance just to be on the safe side. Who knows when storage needs will need to be adjusted, right? (Eh, who are we kidding, we just like higher performance numbers.)

QNAP is selling the QXG-25G2SF-CX4 for $287 from its Accessories Store with a two-three day wait time. The QXG-10G2SF-CX4 is also available now for $267 with the same waiting period. Both models are backed by one-year limited warranties.

Everyone in tech knows that person who takes it upon themselves to remind everyone, every chance they get, of the importance of backing up data. Annoying as this behavior can be, perhaps it’s for the better, because there’s also the other that person who never listens to this sound advice. I wasn’t quite the latter, but I definitely didn’t back up as much as I should and could have.

That changed early last year when, for the first time ever, I irrecoverably lost some of my data. Without any signs of impending failure, my Z77 motherboard went up in sparks and killed the SDD and all three of the 1TB hard drives inside my desktop. The SSD was a goner, but advice from the Tom’s forums gave me hope of recovering data from the hard drives. Unfortunately, life was only briefly restored to one of them, and it wasn’t for long enough to evacuate any data.

The CrashPlan Crash

Fortunately, I had backed up the important parts of those drives, so their loss wasn’t crippling. The event did, however, put the fear of god into me, and I resolved not to continue without a solid backup plan. I decided that the cheap and convenient cloud-backup service CrashPlan was the perfect solution. It took nearly a week to upload and synchronize with the server, but I felt I was well protected after. That cozy feeling didn't’ last long long, however, and my CrashPlan Home subscription metaphorically crashed when the service surprisingly ceased operation in late 2017.

I trusted CrashPlan because I knew the service had been operating for years and was generally well-received. CrashPlan did offer alternatives: upgrade to a small business account for exactly double the price or switch to a competitor. I decided to do neither and instead go back to doing local backups, but this time, I’d automate it with a NAS. As secure as cloud services claim to be, there’s no point to them if they stop servicing you.

Back To Local Backups

I was well aware of RAID, which most NAS makers expect people to use, but I was only looking to use my NAS as a device to store individual drives. After a few weeks of research, I settled on the Asustor AS3204T. It’s not the cheapest four-bay NAS--the Qnap TS-431P can be had for less--but it is pretty cheap for one with a quad-core x86 processor, dual rear USB 3.0 ports, and a direct video output. I wasn’t buying it to do video transcoding, because all my media devices have PCs attached to them, so the desire for an x86 processor was admittedly irrational. I planned to use the dual rear USB ports for external expansion and backup, and I convinced myself that the direct video output, which is only HDMI 1.4, might be useful in troubleshooting in case I can’t reach the NAS over the network.

The Asustor AS3204T Is More And Less Than I Need At Once

Although I won’t put the blame on Asustor, the AS3204T proved that my buying criterion were a bit out of line with what a NAS is meant to be. Setting up the device was simple, even for a NAS newbie like me. The AS3204T doesn’t have hot-swap drive bays, so you have to disconnect and open the unit to install drives. This process reveals a well-cooled processor, a well-placed 120mm fan that blows evenly over the drives, and generally high-quality construction. After connecting the NAS to my router, I used its web interface to complete the setup. You can also use an app to set up the NAS, but I didn’t need it, or the HDMI port, because I was instantly able to access the NAS using its IP over the network.

A flawless boot process was a welcome surprise for me, because I knew NASes can be finicky, but some of the limitations of an embedded Linux system immediately started to become apparent. For starters, I wasn’t expecting the NAS’ OS and apps to actually require some space on one of the drive volumes. The NAS itself has 512MB of flash to hold the OS, but that’s not considered a volume. Only drives in the drive bay can be volumes, so you’ll need at least one to even boot the NAS. It effectively uses one of the volumes as a “C:” drive. This doesn’t consume an appreciable amount of space, but it does mean that you can only freely swap out, at most, three of the four drives in the NAS.

Another thing I quickly discovered is that the Asustor can’t use external drives as storage expansion. Like all NASes, the AS3204T can access external drives formatted in file systems different from its own, but it can’t put them onto the network or add them as a volume. You’re limited to accessing them through the NAS’ file browser or backup app.

All-Around Decent

For an experienced NAS user, these limitations might be commonly understood, and they don’t detract from the fact that my AS3204T has operated and performed flawlessly. Its SMB service works by default, so mapping the NAS’ volumes as network drives in Windows is simple. Its speed over the network caps out at ~106MB/s, which is close enough to saturating gigabit LAN to satisfy me.

The AS3204T has also seen major and minor software updates applied without hassle. I don’t have any other NAS to compare to, but so far, I’ve found Asustor first-party software to be reliable. The UPnP server, which I briefly fired up to test, doesn’t transcode media unnecessarily and correctly sends native files according to what my devices support. The automated backup software has all the flexibility I need. And the NAS’ settings has detailed controls for power saving and drive spin-down.

I haven’t dug into the AS3204T’s other features as I basically use it purely as a device to host network drives and run backup routines. In truth, I probably paid much more than I needed to for this basic functionality, but at least it performs outstandingly in its most important functions.

QNAP released a pair of new NAS units, the dual-bay TS-253Be and the quad-bay TS-453Be. They feature a PCI-e slot that allows them to be upgraded with SSD caching, USB 3.1 Gen 2, or 10Gb Ethernet connectivity.

Compared to consumer or home NASes, SMB (small and medium-sized business) units usually include more advanced networking and RAID features. The TS-253Be’s and TS-453Be’s headline feature, PCI-e expandability, is an example of this. Even though a NAS is an embedded computer that should, provided it has the required software, be compatible with any device that complies with its standard interfaces, we wouldn’t bet on these NAS’ PCI-e slots being compatible with everything. QNAP markets it as a customizability feature with specific use-cases.

If you need faster transfer to direct storage, then you can add a USB 3.1 Gen 2 card. If you need faster drive performance over the network, and have the network back-end for it, then you can add QNAP’s QM2 card. It conveniently combines two PCI-e 2.0 x4 M.2 slots, which you’ll need for SSD caching to increase the drive performance, with a 10Gb Ethernet port. If you don’t need the SSD caching, presumably because your NAS is already completely filled with SSDs, then you can save a bit and opt for a 10Gb Ethernet-only card. If you want to bring Wi-Fi access to the proximity of your NAS, then you can add a wireless networking card. Again, to avoid a potential headache, we recommend sticking with QNAP’s list of compatible PCI-e devices.

Beyond advanced network features, businesses also more frequently need to expand their storage. The TS-253Be and TS-453Be has provisions for that both internally and externally. They support RAID 5, which allows for drives to be swapped for larger ones one at a time, but they’re also compatible with QNAP’s drive expansion stations. These NASes can even be hooked up to another compatible QNAP NAS to access its empty space.

Rounding out the business-focused feature set, the TS-253Be and TS-453Be support virtualized operating systems. This allows you to run multiple operating systems, such as Windows or Linux, on your NAS without having to actually replace the default OS with which it ships. Remote desktops on the virtual machines can be opened in the NAS’ standard browser interface.

Because SMB NASes aren’t purely for business, they still maintain standard consumer features. For the TS-253Be and TS-453Be, that includes hardware h.264/5 decoding, real-time video transcoding, support for video streaming to Android TV or Kodi, and one-touch USB storage copying. With only HDMI 1.4 ports, which are limited 4k @ 30Hz, these NASes won’t be doubling as your HTPC, however. Performance-wise, both units run on quad-core Intel Celeron JJ3455 CPUs and are available in configurations with 2GB or 4GB of DDR3L memory.

The QNAP TS-253Be and TS-453Be are available now, but their pricing wasn’t specified.

NAS units have never been cheap, and that is doubly so for SMB-targeted ones. Even without pricing, we don’t expect that these new QNAPs will be either. If you’re enticed by the potential of a 10Gb Ethernet-equipped NAS but don’t want to pay for middling HTPC features, then you can check out Asustor’s upcoming pure NAS units. If you’re just looking for a cheap, no-frills NAS for backup, then you can check out a pair from Thecus.

Introduction

Outside of hardcore enterprise systems that cost many thousands of dollars, the Drobo B810i stands alone as a mainstream dedicated iSCSI SAN-only device. The iSCSI feature is often included with lower-cost network-attached storage systems, but mostly as an afterthought. Drobo decided to take iSCSI seriously while maintaining the company's ease-of-use policy. The result is a user-friendly device that takes the complication out of a complicated setup process.

Some things just come with a certain expectation. Ferrari's are supposed to be fast, Lamborghini's are supposed to burn to the ground, and an iSCSI setup is supposed to be complicated. With network attached storage (NAS) devices, any system on the network, if it has permission, can access a storage volume through a simple command. Many NAS, even the low-cost products selling for $200, include the required software to setup a SAN running iSCSI. Most users don't bother jumping through the hoops required to set up an iSCSI pairing because it's difficult the first time. The process involves the language of both storage and network, two sets of principals most people never really want to learn more about after getting a good enough system up and running.

Storage Area Networks or SANs have several benefits over NAS systems. The data moves at the block-level, just like in your PC. The SAN storage array presents itself to your PC just like local storage, so it exposes itself as a hard disk drive in your Explorer window with a standard drive letter. Software that doesn't install or run well on a NAS will not know the array is offloaded to another PC. The software thinks the storage is local, and thus runs without hesitation.

SANs are most often used in large server arrays. The servers compute independently, but the storage layers reside in an easy to manage array in a dedicated system. This allows the servers to dedicate more CPU cycles to the compute process instead of managing RAID tasks.

Not only does it sound complicated, but it is complicated if you don't configure these systems on a routine basis. The system administrator responsible for keeping a network of fewer than 100 PCs and servers together may only need to configure such a system once a decade. An over-worked administrator usually spends most of his or her time dealing with password resets and virus control. Taking three days to stand up a new storage system means some employees may spend time idly. It's a scenario most administrators try to avoid even if it means running the network and storage on less than optimal hardware.

Drobo is the company that simplifies every product to enable a vastly different user experience. The company's NAS products can go from out of the box to full production in around 10 minutes. We've found that it actually takes longer to remove the systems from the package and figure out where to put them than it does to configure the system and begin storing data.

The Drobo B810i is the company's iSCSI solution that allows system administrators to quickly and easily setup a system in 15 minutes or less. The streamlined technology is the same found in the company's other storage devices, and it packs a big enough punch to satisfy the needs of a medium-sized office.

Specifications

The Drobo B810i is nearly physically identical to the B810n. The system uses the same Marvell quad-core CPU and 2GB DRAM combination to power through complex workloads. You would be hard pressed to identify one system from the other unless you glanced at the back. The B810i iSCSI system adds an Ethernet port for out-of-bandwidth management.

Two Gigabit Ethernet ports are your passport for data I/O to the network and your attached devices. You can configure the system to utilize the ports either for failover or to increase overall system performance. Drobo has yet to release a system with 10-Gigabit Ethernet, and the B810i doesn't support add-in cards to increase the number of Ethernet ports.

The system features eight drive bays designed for 3.5" products. Drobo's first claim to fame came from the ability to use any hard disk drive, regardless of manufacturer and capacity, to build a redundant array. That works well for home users, but more business-focused users will start out with a fresh matching set of drives built specifically for this type of application. The trayless bays are hot-swappable. You will not need any tools to install 3.5" drives, but 2.5" drives will require an adapter or a little patience and luck to fit.

We mention 2.5" drives because the B810i allows users to install SSDs for Drobo's automated Data-Aware Tiering. The algorithms place a copy of frequently accessed data on the SSD(s) to increase I/O responsiveness. In our opinion, iSCSI is better suited for cache algorithms compared to other forms of network storage. NAS systems tend to service users with more data, so the data sets are large, while SAN systems tend to distribute the same data with more frequency. This increases the number of cache hits because the data comes from the same pool more often. Of course, not every network is the same.

After you power on the system for the first time, the Drobo B810i goes to work configuring the storage system in the background. You can keep the default build or reconfigure the system for single or dual drive redundancy. The system doesn't require you to populate all eight drive bays, so you can add more as your requirements change over time. These are standard features of Drobo's proprietary BeyondRAID technology.

Drobo also supports its proprietary Smart Volumes, which are thin-provisioned volumes that automatically reclaims freed capacity, such as from deleted files, from the common storage pool. The process executes in the background and plays into the overall design of effortless, hassle-free storage that doesn't require administrators to babysit the array.

The B810i also has a built-in battery that supplies enough backup power to flush the data in flight to the array during a power failure event.

Pricing, Warranty & Add-Ons

The Drobo B810i sold for over $1,500 after the initial release. Over time, the price decreased to its current $1089 at Amazon. The B810n NAS has also seen a similar price reduction.

The B810i SAN comes with a standard one-year warranty in North America and a two-year warranty in Europe. Both include 90-day support. Users can opt for a DroboCare package that increases the warranty and support periods, but prices vary by region and currency.

The Drobo B810 products are rackmount-capable with an optional kit purchase. We found the kit available online for $199.99.

Packaging & Accessories

The Drobo B810i is a large product and requires a large package. Drobo does a really good job with the presentation. It's an experience to open a Drobo system and move through the layers of cardboard that have little messages. Most of these systems are sold online, so there isn't a lot of detail on the outside package to go over.

Drobo B810i Hardware

The Drobo B810i system has a removable magnetic cover that channels air to reduce hard drive and system fan noise. We didn't have any noise issues working in the same room with the system.

The drives slide into each drive bay, and the gray arm locks them in place. To remove a drive, you simply press down on the locking tab arm, and the spring mechanism gently ejects the drive. Drobo designed a solid system for keeping the inner components cool, including your expensive storage media. The spring-loaded door closes once you remove the drive fully, which forces air to flow through the cooling channels and not through the empty space.

The locking arms have a drive status LED embedded on the outer edge. In case you forget what all the color-coded LEDs mean, Drobo printed a handy guide on the back of the front cover.

The right side of the Drobo B810i shows power and network activity. A series of ten LEDs show how much data is on the array compared to the maximum available capacity.

The system is quite large by pedestal NAS standards and has a wide footprint on a desk. Even in a rackmount enclosure with the optional bracket, the system takes up several units of space. We wouldn't call the system optimized for space, but the design makes it easy to use; there are not any drive trays to worry about or rackmount sides to configure.

The system only has one button, and that is for power. We found the two Gigabit Ethernet ports for iSCSI and an additional Ethernet port for management on the back of the system. The B810i also features a Kensington security lock.

Two large fans keep the components cool. The airflow moves from the front of the system to the back, cooling all the components in its path.

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Software Features

NAS systems, and in this case a SAN, utilize a combination of hardware and software to deliver a storage solution. Very little happens when the hardware doesn't provide enough power for the software, and vice versa. We haven't held back in our coverage of the Drobo devices we've tested over the last two years. The software is excellent and works as intended, but the hardware is under powered by today's standards, and that won't change with a firmware update.

For most systems, we test the software management that comes with the NAS. Users need to log into the system and run a GUI. Drobo products like the B810i use a software utility that runs on both Windows and Mac OS X. The application controls system management, including the iSCSI SAN configuration.

The "Zero-Click iSCSI Configuration" is much simpler than the Windows setup process. The downside is you need to run the Drobo application on each connected system. If your task is to configure a backup for each desktop in your office, you will find the process redundant and may prefer just to use the Windows setup process to reduce configuration time. The Drobo software has to scan the network, and that adds time to each configuration.

Still, the Drobo process is the easiest way we've found to configure iSCSI in Windows. When the system arrived, I'd never setup an iSCSI connection on a Mac. I couldn't even tell you where to start. A friend came over with a MacBook Pro, and I used the Drobo software to setup a connection and build a volume in less than five minutes. I felt like a Mac pro! That's the system's value proposition.

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Performance Testing

Comparison Products

We selected a few products that sell at a comparable price point. These products also run CIFS/SMB, so they have a strategic advantage over the B810i. The QNAP TS-831X has the added benefit of onboard 10-Gigabit Ethernet from the factory, and you can optionally purchase additional hardware to enable it on the IX Systems FreeNAS XL. The Asustor AS6210T doesn't include provisions for 10GbE because it lacks a PCI Express port to add an Ethernet card.

Testing Notes

Our test system is a modified Quanta MESOS CB220 Cluster-In-A-Box multi-node server.

We upgraded the system with two Intel E5-2670 V1 processors and 128GB of system memory per node. An Intel X520 network interface card with two 10GbE ports resides in each node. The system allows us to deploy four test nodes that execute custom software scripts using industry standard test software to measure our base performance metrics. 

The test system and devices under test connect via a Netgear M6100 fully-modular switch, which provides ample 10GbE and 1GbE ports to sustain our large testing environment.

Drobo B810i Setup

We used the Drobo setup application to build our iSCSI storage, just as you would during a typical deployment. We loaded the system with eight Seagate Enterprise NAS HDDs for the first round. We removed two HDDs and replaced them with SanDisk Extreme PRO 240GB SSDs to test the cache features.

We ran a single gigabit Ethernet line to each system to simplify the setup and to provide a level playing field. Some of the systems support two or more Gigabit connections, and in some cases, 10-Gigabit.

Sequential Read

We began our testing with simple synthetic workloads to gauge baseline performance. The synthetic tests allow us to examine performance at various block sizes and queue depths. After looking at the Drobo 5N and B810n specifications, most readers shouldn't be surprised to see the B810i at a severe performance disadvantage compared to the systems shipping out of Taiwan. The B810i uses an older Marvell SoC that is long past its prime.

Sequential Write

The Drobo Data-Aware Tiering feature doesn't do much for our synthetic workloads. We did notice a nice improvement with trace-based testing that you will see later in this review. 

Like the Drobo B810n, the B810i running over iSCSI doesn't provide much of a performance improvement as we ramp up the queue depths.

Mixed Sequential Workloads

Mixing reads and writes doesn't seem to hurt performance as much on the B810i as it does on other systems. The performance line shoots across the charts with minor variation.

Random Read

The Drobo B810i delivers very good random read performance.

Random Write

We start to spot some performance improvements with the automated data-aware tiering during the random write tests. Even with the cache, the B810i fails to meet the same level of performance as the QNAP TS-831X with a Gigabit connection. The TS-831X retails for the same price as the X810i, includes 10-Gigabit onboard, supports CIFS, and can also use an SSD to cache I/O.

Mixed Random Workloads

Mixed random workloads show that the SSD cache will benefit users even when a small amount of the workload includes random writes.

Standard Server Workloads

The server workloads reveal that the Drobo B810i can outperform the other systems during light workloads. The SSD cache didn't have much of an impact on many of the tests. However, the SSD cache benefited the email workload and provided lower latency.

iSCSI Consumer Workloads

With iSCSI, you get a drive letter that you can use to install software, just like a local disk. That opens the door for diverse types of software running simultaneously on the SAN. The Drobo B810i struggles through most of the tests and consistently falls to the tail end of the chart. The SSD cache-enabled results paint a much brighter picture for the B810i, but that may be short lived. With two SSDs, the Drobo B810i can match the other systems operating without an SSD cache. The problem is the other systems can also use SSDs to deliver enhanced performance. 

Total Storage Bandwidth

The Drobo B810i falls far below the other products that sell for around the same price, but they have more complicated setup procedures. We also see how the data-aware tiering improves performance with real-world applications. The cache doesn't respond well to our synthetic testing, but Drobo claims it can double performance with a real workload.

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Conclusion

At CES this past January, we sat down with Drobo's CTO, Rod Harrison. We discussed several topics at our meeting, including our testing and why the company's systems struggle with our synthetic workloads. We also discussed what's in store for the company's larger systems in the future.

We've tested three network-attached devices from Drobo, including the B810i. All three systems perform as advertised and we can check a box next to every marketing claim associated with each system. We can verify, and even swear by, the ease-of-use claims and the over-simplified Drobo software.

The problem we've found is that Drobo doesn't make many marketing claims. We haven't found any performance information associated with their network-attached devices. If you want to research performance the information has to come from a third-party, such as someone who purchased a unit. When you dive into the company's website and analyze the content, it becomes clear that many of the claims are intentionally vague. The Date-Aware Tiering feature serves as an example. The website says it increases performance, and our testing shows it, but we only measured a minimal increase in most workloads. There isn't a lot of guidance for what you should expect without diving in head first. In this case, it means purchasing two high-endurance SSDs that may or may not accelerate your workload.

Drobo plans to increase the performance of its systems in the future. Drobo launched a new 5-bay 5N2 model that it dubs "The Next Era In Storage." It includes the claim of "up to 2x performance boost." We can only assume that is against the previous generation 5N that we tested in 2016. The 5N2 features a new processor and hopefully more system memory that allows it to run more applications simultaneously.

Over the last year, Drobo has increased the number of applications available for its NAS. The company doesn't want just to throw a bunch of applications at the wall and see what sticks like some other companies. The application additions thus far have all been strategic.

We also discussed the B810n and B810i systems. Drobo is looking at a way to make one unified model in the future and allow users to select either a NAS or a SAN in the software. This means you will not have to worry about which model to purchase--you can have both functions in one system. Sadly, you will only get to run one or the other. Your NAS will not have SAN functionality while still working over SMB/CIFS.

That leads us to where we are now with the B810i. The system originally retailed for $1600, much like the B810n. We had sticker shock with the B810n in our review, but the cost of both systems has come down significantly. The systems are now in line with other 8-bay products at $849 (B810n) and $1089 (B810i). The B810i's new price point makes it much more competitive in the market.

Pricing can't change performance, though. The Drobo B810i is still underpowered for heavy workloads. The system would fit in well with 10 to 40 active users, but in some tasks, like backing up Windows, the system administrator will want to stagger the process to prevent overwhelming the SAN and causing the process to take longer than necessary.

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Introduction

Two-Bay Network-Attached Storage (NAS) appliances offer excellent value for storing your data in a secure, central location. The smaller systems offer many of the same features as the larger NAS products, but at a much lower price point. In many cases, the smaller systems improve upon the setup procedures, thus making the initial process easier for less tech-savvy users. 

Users with more technical experience will find great value in some of the products we're testing today. The systems in our roundup fall under two categories; feature-rich or simple to use. None of the products is overly complicated, though, and you shouldn't overlook some of the most feature-rich models if you lack technical experience. Network-attached storage is an excellent way to learn a new discipline, gain experience and enjoy the advanced features.

All six systems in the roundup perform well at basic tasks. You can transfer files to and from the systems over a network at acceptable speeds. You can store the data in a redundant (i.e. safe) RAID 1 array, and even use the systems as a small application server. You may be surprised to learn that basic features now include the ability to access your data from anywhere in the world, even on a non-PC.

Advanced features found on some of the products include built-in antivirus, folder encryption, iSCSI support over the network and an HDMI port for direct video output to a display device, such as a TV. 

Specifications

The Western Digital My Cloud Mirror is slightly different from the other products in the roundup because it is the only model that ships with hard disk drives installed. The other products ship diskless from the factory, but some resellers will build your NAS with hard disk drives before shipping the package to you. Third parties create the bundle packages, so we will not cover the bundle pricing or value-add services that some resellers offer. 

We can divide the six systems into two categories based on processing power. The two key players here are Intel and ARM. The Intel-based systems typically offer more features, more processing power and also demand a higher price. The ARM-based systems support basic NAS features and often ship with less system memory. They do have an attractive cost advantage for users that are just looking for core features.

We laid out many of the key specifications in the chart above, and each system provides its own mix of features. Only some of the systems will support an HDMI output to use the system as a media center, for instance. Folder encryption and iSCSI support also vary.

Pricing, Warranty And Accessories

All six of the value-centric systems fall between $200 and $300, and the Western Digital (WD) My Cloud is the only system that ships with hard disk drives. The WD offerings retail from $299 (4TB model with 2x 2TB HDDs) to $699 (16TB model with 2x 8TB HDDs), and there are several price points in between to account for different capacities.

Five of the six systems ship with a standard 2-year warranty. The Asustor AS3102T is the sole exception with a 3-year warranty. Asustor is one of the newest NAS manufacturers, and it is part of Asus (yes, the motherboard company).

Each of the systems ship with an external power supply, an Ethernet cable and minimal documentation. Full manuals are available online for download.

The QNAP TAS-268 ships with a mini QWERTY keyboard / remote control in the package and Asustor sells an optional remote control. All of the systems that include an HDMI video output have software-based remote control options available for Android and iOS.

The ever-growing software and feature list is actually the ultimate accessory package for all of the products. Asustor, QNAP and Thecus release at least one new feature or software package each month. Synology and Western Digital bring new features at a slower pace, but the companies still have a solid foundation of industry-standard features.

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Asustor AS3102T & QNAP TAS-268

Asustor AS3102T

Asustor, a division of Asus, is the youngest NAS manufacturer in our group today. As such, the company is hungry. Asustor often prices its products aggressively, and they receive lengthy warranties and ship with more hardware features compared to similar products. Asustor's weakness is its software features. The company releases new software features each month, but its volume is lower than QNAP and Thecus. That said, Asustor has all of the basics covered, and most of the advanced features as well.

The Asustor AS3102T ships in a full-color retail-ready package. The kit includes an external power supply, Ethernet cable, screws for mounting 3.5-inch hard drives, power cable, paper quick start guide and an optical disk with additional manuals and software.

Asustor designed the AS3102T to sit in the open. The attractive (for a NAS) textured cover, and minimum LED lighting allows users to place the system in the living room next to a set-top box and Blu-Ray player. The single USB 3.0 port on the front is the only sign that the NAS is a computing device. The front of the system also has an infrared receiver for the optional remote controls, or users can just use the Android or iOS IP-based application.

Users can expand the system with other peripherals via the two additional USB 3.0 ports on the back. The system uses a single gigabit Ethernet port to connect to your wired network.

This system also comes equipped with an HDMI port. A menu that displays the video applications automatically appears when you connect the device to a TV. Asustor recently added Netflix, which accompanies existing applications that the user can select in the menu system. The standout feature here is Kodi, a media-focused application that has a cult following and thousands of users that contribute to building plugins that expand the feature set.

The system uses an Intel Braswell processor that is more powerful than the ARM-based processors found in many of the other systems in our roundup. Two gigabytes of system memory allow users to run more software applications simultaneously, and it also improves many of the core functions, such as DLNA multimedia distribution and file transfer performance.

QNAP TAS-268

QNAP leads the NAS industry in both software and hardware features. Over the last two years, the company has pushed the boundaries of commodity enterprise hardware with low-cost, mass manufactured systems that support features previously reserved to boutique builders of custom storage systems. The TAS-268 falls at the other end of the pricing spectrum, but the underlying software is nearly identical. QNAP's enterprise push has trickled enterprise features down to its low-cost Intel-based systems, but even some of the standard features are not available yet for the new ARM platform. 

This system is the first from QNAP to use a new dual operating system feature. The underlying software is QNAP's QTS system that the company based on Linux with a custom, easy to use graphical interface. The HDMI display runs Google's Android operating system. The software already supports all of the features and additional software that you would expect with Android, including PlayStore for Android's full catalog. We found the Android software to be functional, but it was not as polished as we expected.

We also found the QNAP software to be lacking, which surprised us. QNAP did not include many of its staple offerings that it developed in year's past, but the list of applications has grown since we first started testing the device.

The QNAP TAS-268 system is the only product in our roundup to include a remote control. The remote includes a USB cable for charging and features a full QWERTY keyboard. Other accessories include an external power supply and paper quick launch guide. The TAS-286 uses a tool-less design for the removable cover and hard drive bays.

The QNAP brand has been synonymous with build quality, but don't expect too much from this low-cost system. The piano black and white finish is probably the best way to display plastic. That said, its rare to see any QNAP system covered in plastic.

QNAP also designed the TAS-268 to sit in the open. The system features a single USB 3.0 port on the front for quick access to thumb drives or for charging cell phones and tablets. We found four USB 2.0 ports for additional expansion on the back of the system, as well as the HDMI port for multimedia functions. A single gigabit Ethernet port connects the system to your wired network.

The TAS-268 uses an ARM v7 dual-core processor with two gigabytes of system memory. The combination is powerful, but it does not deliver the same smooth user experience that we found with the Intel-powered systems. QNAP advertises the HDMI display as 4K compatible, but it only provides up to 15 frames per second with H.264 and 30 frames per second with H.265.

Synology DS216j & DS216+

Synology DS216j

We have two systems from Synology in our review. The DS216j follows the same path as the Asustor and QNAP systems we've already discussed, which means that Synology designed it for entry-level users who want redundant storage at a low price point. At $169.99, the DS216j has the lowest price of the products we're testing, but the processing power and system memory also trail many of the other products.

Synology is one of the most well-known NAS manufacturers and has a loyal following that it earned through years of successful releases, quality support and simplified interfaces. Synology, like Asustor, QNAP, and Thecus, uses the same software interface throughout its entire product line. If you master the setup and management of one Synology system, then you already understand how the software functions on its other NAS. Like the other companies, Synology aggressively brings new features to market, but it falls behind QNAP in the breadth of its library of applications.

Most NAS systems sell online in the US and Europe, so Synology isn't too concerned with flashy graphics on the package. If you do find a Synology NAS in a brick and mortar store, the simple label will explain the hardware inside and list a few basic facts.

The DS216j ships with a paper quick installation guide, screws for mounting the drives, gigabit Ethernet cable and the power hardware.

The Synology DS216j is our third and final system to use the new clamshell design. The system is nearly all plastic except for the inner cage and I/O ports.

The system is small so that the user can place it anywhere. Without an HDMI direct-to-monitor connection, the system doesn't have to be tied to the living room. The system supports DLNA, so users get a hefty dose of multimedia features, but the playback processing takes place on another device, such as a Smart TV or ROKU / Sonos-type of device.

This system uses an Armada 385 1GHz dual-core processor with 512MB of system memory, which is the same as the Western Digital My Cloud Mirror that we examine later in this review. The processor is powerful enough to manage local data transfers and push some light-use applications, such as over-the-web (cloud) data access, but we wouldn't try to run any heavy-lifting applications on this system. 

Synology DS216+

The Synology DS216+ moves up the product stack and is much more powerful than the DS216j (covered above). This system uses a more powerful Intel SoC processor that supports encrypted folders, and it is the first hot-swap NAS in our roundup, which means that if a drive dies in the RAID 1 array, you can replace it without turning the system off, thus avoiding downtime.

The DS216+ uses the same packaging we found on the lower-priced DS216j. Two stickers outline some of the features and its capabilities.

Users get a paper quick launch manual, external power supply and cable. An Ethernet cable is also included in the package, though it is not in the picture.

The DS216+ adds more hardware features to the mix than the lower cost products. The front panel places more emphasis on the features of the NAS with its status LEDs and USB 3.0 port. The system also has a one-touch-copy function button next to the port. Users simply plug in a portable hard drive and press the button to copy the contents of the USB drive to the NAS.

The DS216+ is the only system in our roundup that includes an eSATA port for storage expansion. Users can use the port with a single storage device, or with an add-on chassis that supports more than one drive via a SATA expander. Two USB 2.0 ports on the back give users more options for expansion or accessories, and a gigabit Ethernet port rounds out the IO options.

The system uses an Intel dual-core SoC and 1GB of system memory. This combination delivers high network throughput performance, but we discovered some odd behavior during our testing. The DS216+ supports Encrypted folders and iSCSI over a network, and similar to the other systems in the roundup, users can access data through the internet with a cloud application.

Thecus N2810 & Western Digital My Cloud Mirror

Thecus N2810

The Thecus N2810 is the last product of the group that truly looks like a traditional NAS. The N2810 is the most expensive system, but it is also the most powerful. It features an Intel SoC and dual Gigabit Ethernet ports that provide seven different link aggregation modes. All three of the USB ports are 3.0, and an HDMI port provides direct-to-monitor video playback. Thecus enabled all of its software applications for this system, and it even released its new Thecus OS 7 operating system in tandem with the NAS.

The N2810 ships in a full-color retail package with several paper manuals, a software disk that includes Acronis software for backing up your computers, and access to Thecus' extensive library of software applications. Accessories include an Ethernet cable, external power supply, keys for the locking drive bays and a cable clip to secure the cables to the back of the system (to ease cable management).

The system features three USB 3.0 ports, and two of the ports are on the back of the system for expansion purposes. Thecus tied the USB port on the front of the NAS to a one-touch-copy function. The Thecus NAS is the only system with locking drive bays and a metal exterior shell in our comparison pool, and the company supplies four keys for the two drive bays.

Dual Ethernet ports provide users with several connectivity options. You can run the system on two separate networks, or combine the ports for performance and/or redundancy.

The N2810 has ample processing power to make use of the dual Ethernet ports. It features an Intel Braswell SoC processor and 2GB of system memory from the factory. The Intel processor can use up to 4GB of system memory in a dual-channel configuration, and this is the only system in our roundup that users can remove the SODIMM modules and replace them with 1x 4GB stick. Increasing the system memory gives users a smoother user experience and the ability to run more applications at one time. The additional memory also boosts simultaneous file transfers and provides higher speeds.

WD My Cloud Mirror

The second-generation Western Digital My Cloud Mirror is the oldest product in our roundup, but it continues to be a big seller. Western Digital is the fastest growing NAS manufacturer and has products in many retail chain stores. Retail availability is a big advantage, and it provides local warranty coverage from a physical store, which for many users equates to extra peace of mind.

The system is unique in the roundup because it is the only system to ship with hard disk drives. WD offers the system in five different configurations that range from 4TB to 16TB.

All of the systems focus on simple setup and operation, but unlike many of the other systems, the My Cloud Mirror doesn't offer many third-party application packages. The system focuses on automatic PC, phone, and tablet backup as well as cloud access (accessing your data over the internet).

We used the My Cloud Mirror 4TB for our tests. The NAS ships in a full retail package that includes a wall-wart-style power supply with attached cable, an Ethernet cable and a quick start guide.

The My Cloud Mirror is the NAS made for your mother (or another non-technical person), and as such, it is the easiest of all of the systems to setup and manage. With that comes, or in this case, goes, many advanced features found on some of the other units in this review. The system features two USB 3.0 expansion ports on the back.

The WD NAS provides similar hardware to the Synology DS216j. Users get 512MB of system memory coupled with a low-power Marvell SoC processor. Western Digital offers some application packages to enhance the usability of the system, but the library is very spartan in comparison to the other products.

SMB Performance Testing

Testing Notes

All six of the systems work with traditional SMB/CIFS file transfers. SMB is the easiest NAS protocol because it simplifies file access to where you can simply type in "\\name_of_nas\folder_name" in file explorer to access the data on the system. We test and highlight the performance of SMB encrypted folders and iSCSI volumes on applicable models, but not all of the systems support the features.

Our test system is a modified Quanta MESOS CB220 Cluster-In-A-Box multi-node server. We upgraded the system with two Intel E5-2670 V1 processors and 128GB of system memory per node. An Intel X520 network interface card with two 10GbE ports resides in each node, as well. The system allows us to deploy four test nodes that execute custom software scripts in industry standard test software to measure our base performance metrics. 

The test system and devices under test connect via a Netgear M6100 fully-modular switch, which provides ample 10GbE and 1GbE ports to sustain our large testing environment. This round of NAS testing is the second time we've used this switch. We discovered an issue with our previous switch and some NAS products that significantly reduced file transfer performance. The Netgear M6100 doesn't give us the same performance issues, and it allows us to expand our test environment while still running a dedicated network. 

Sequential Read Performance

The sequential read tests reveal two distinct performance tiers. You would expect this segmentation with the different processors in these systems, but the dividing line is not that clear.

For this class of product, we are looking for high performance at low queue depths. Most users will use these systems for file transfers in single-user environments, so most of the transfers will take place one at a time (sequentially). Typically, when you copy and paste files from your desktop into a NAS folder, it occurs at a queue depth of one. The queue depth increases to 2 if you start two separate transfers simultaneously, and so on.

We expected the Intel-based systems to dominate nearly all of the tests, but that isn't the case. The Asustor AS3102T, Synology DS216j, and Western Digital My Cloud Mirror provide the best performance at low queue depths with 128BK data blocks. Of the three, only the AS3102T uses an Intel processor.

This behavior highlights that firmware and software play just as large of a role in performance as the hardware does, particularly during light workloads.

Sequential Write Performance

The manufacturers release new firmware at a fairly consistent rate to update the products, increase performance, add features, and smooth performance inconsistencies. Many of the systems use DRAM as a cache buffer, which helps to smooth performance, because hard disk drives, by nature, are inconsistent.

The sequential write tests expose some performance abnormalities. All of the products, except the QNAP TAS-268, provide similar performance while writing 128KB sequential data. At higher queue depths, the TAS-268 matches the performance of the other products, but it lags behind the other NAS during light workloads.

Sequential Mixed Workload Performance

The sequential sweeps test cycles through mixed workloads in 10-percent increments. We begin with 100-percent reads (on the right of the chart) and add more right data until we reach the left side of the chart with 100-percent writes. We highlight the 70-percent read test with additional charts because this is the standard mixture for measuring workstation storage performance.

The Western Digital My Cloud Mirror performs very well in these tests while the other products follow the traditional "bathtub curve."

Random Read Performance

The Thecus N2810 performs slightly better with random read data across the range of queue depths. The Synology DS216+ trails the other products in these SMB tests. We spent a considerable amount of time retesting the DS216+ in an attempt to smooth out the issue. Each system requires eight days to complete the full test suite, and we retested the DS216+ with four different software releases, but could not isolate the issue.

The other NAS appliances converge together and provide nearly identical random read performance.

Random Write Performance

The random write test spreads the test pool out and gives us more separation. Most of the products are very consistent and waver only slightly as the queue depth increases, but the Synology DS216+ is, for lack of a better term, all over the place. This pattern reveals high performance as the cache algorithm buffers the incoming data and then low performance as the NAS flushes the buffer to the drives.

Random Mixed Performance

The mixed random test shows how the cache allows the systems to absorb the incoming data at a higher rate than they can read it back to the host system. Again, we highlight the 70-percent read workload with additional charts to characterize workstation performance. 4KB transactions simulate running Windows-based software over the network, and 8KB data highlights VMware performance trends. 

Standard Server Workloads

Very few users, in any, will run a heavy-use email or database server on these entry-level systems, but we like to see the tests to examine the mixed-workload performance in the latency over IOPS charts.

Consumer NAS Workloads

Normally we sort the different products by arranging them based upon performance (best on top, worst on bottom). However, that makes isolating a specific model difficult in this case, because every model on the list is under examination.

Intel's NASPT program tests with recorded traces, which highlights real-world performance better than other techniques. We use the longer batch test setting to record the results, which repeats the workload three times and then provides us with the average results.

Most of the systems performed well in some tests but suffered in others. The Asustor AS3102T and Thecus N2810 provided relatively high performance during each workload, and they also stand out for delivering balanced performance.

Encrypted Folder SMB Performance Testing

Only half of the six systems in the test pool support encrypted folders. Encryption keeps lost or stolen drives from being accessed without the user-selected key. You can encrypt as many folders as you want and use a different key for each. Intel baked encryption-acceleration technology into its Braswell processors, and that shines through in the performance results. The Synology DS216j is the sole Marvell-based system that supports encrypted folders, but the difference between the accelerated and non-accelerated architectures is clear.

Sequential Read Performance

The two Intel Braswell Celeron-powered systems (AS3102T and DS216+) dominate the read bandwidth tests at a low queue depth with encrypted folders, but the low-cost Synology DS216j catches up to the other systems at queue depth 8.

Sequential Write Performance

The Synology DS216+ enjoys a performance advantage against the two other systems during sequential data writes to encrypted folders. The Asustor AS3102T trails slightly, but it doesn't deliver the same performance consistency.

Sequential Mixed Workload Performance

The Asustor AS3102T comes out on top during mixed-sequential transfers (data moving to and from the NAS simultaneously). The DS216+ isn't far behind in any of the 80% charts that we use to isolate desktop performance. The Marvell processor in the Synology DC216j is a bit underpowered for this workload, and it struggles to keep pace with the Intel-based appliances.

Random Read Performance

The Synology DS216+ displays an odd performance profile at various times throughout our test suite, and it trails the lower-cost DS216j in this test. Most users use SMB to transfer data for long-term storage, which is, by nature, a sequential workload. These tests are representative of relatively rare use-cases, such as storing a Steam directory on the NAS and mapping the folder to your PC. iSCSI works better for that use-case, though.

Random Write Performance

The AS3102T increases its lead during this test, but the two-bay Asustor systems don't exhibit the huge performance gulf that we see when we compare its larger NAS to others. Asustor uses more aggressive buffer settings on its large systems, but with only 2GB in the AS3102T, there isn't a lot of spare memory left for the performance-boosting additive.

Random Mixed Workload Performance

Again, we observe the two Intel-based systems with hardware-accelerated encryption deliver a 2x performance increase over the Marvell-based system. This test uses random data, so most users will not encounter this type of environment in a simple usage scenario. 

iSCSI Performance Testing

Four of the systems support iSCSI. The Thecus N2810, another Intel-based system, joins the group for this round. The three systems that support encrypted folders carry over, as well.

Many casual computer users have never heard of the iSCSI interface, or are even aware of what it does. The technology allows users to share a block of the storage space on the NAS with PCs as a local storage volume. Your desktop computer sees the space and manages it exactly as a hard drive mounted inside the chassis. The storage volume then presents itself to the user as a drive letter, similar to a secondary hard drive.

Unfortunately, some software will not install to mapped storage. iSCSI reports as a physical drive in Windows, which is an important technical distinction with a deeper underlying impact that affects how the operating system manages the drive. iSCSI also supports native command queuing (NCQ), which is a performance-enhancing feature that is not available for traditional mapped storage volumes. NCQ allows the system to reorder the incoming data requests to optimize, and reduce, head travel when the HDD retrieves the data. This increases performance when the drive returns the data to the host system. 

Sequential Read Performance

iSCSI performance is often better than mapped storage, and all of the systems provide similar performance while connected via iSCSI, too. The Thecus delivers a solid opening round with iSCSI by delivering slightly better performance than the other systems in two of the three tests.

Sequential Write Performance

The sequential write test highlights the separation between the Intel and Marvell processor systems when writing data. The Synology DS216j offers amazing value, but you shouldn't expect it to provide the same performance as the Intel-based systems.

Sequential Mixed Workload Performance

In general, iSCSI allows systems to provide higher performance than SMB does. The native command queuing (NCQ) support provides smoother performance for a more consistent experience with application workloads.

Random Read Performance

Windows applications rely heavily on 4KB updates, so any Windows application running on a NAS will be 4KB heavy. It's also possible to use these systems for VMware, but it optimizes the data traffic for 8KB random data. The two Synology systems scale the best during random read workloads.

Random Write Performance

The Asustor and Thecus systems perform better with random data writes. If anything, the tests today show that no system outperforms another in all workloads or formats. Each system has a strength somewhere, even if it is just its pricing or its performance during basic usage patterns. 

Random Mixed Workload Performance

Most of the systems group together during the mixed random workload test. The Thecus N2810 trails with lower IOPS performance, but it still delivers a strong showing.

iSCSI Desktop Workloads

In these tests, we measure the amount of time it takes to complete each task. The results are very close to, if not a little faster, than a local 7,200 RPM hard drive installed in the host system. The difference is that the NAS provides a resilient and redundant storage pool with less of a chance of data loss.

Final Thoughts

Unfortunately, there isn't a standout product in the group that outperforms the other competing devices in all tasks. In some ways, this is representative of the NAS market as a whole. Some may take that in a negative way, but we see things differently. The market has a lot of diversity from the many manufacturers, and competition is good for the market. It pushes each company to find new ways to deliver better of everything with the same common set of components.

Early in the review, we detailed each NAS appliance's components, such as the CPU, memory, drive bays, network configuration, HDMI and so on. In reality, all of the companies have access to the same set of components, and the component selection influences the features and the way we use the NAS. For the most part, every system we looked at supports the same basic features. If the feature you want runs in software and the system has enough processing power to support it, most likely it is included. This includes basic network file transfer capability, access to your data through PCs and non-PC devices over the cloud (internet connection and configuration required), and DLNA media streaming.

Some of the systems claim to support the features fully, but the performance and experience are just not the same during use. One of the most popular third-party applications is Plex Media Server, which allows you to stream content to other devices. It supports everything from your new 4K smart TV to tablets and even older cell phones with smaller displays. Plex can transcode the video stream, which is a CPU-intensive task, to match the device's playback capabilities. All of the systems we tested today officially support Plex, but that doesn't mean all of the systems run all of the features smoothly. The systems with Intel processors don't have a problem with the Plex software because the Braswell-class CPUs feature integrated transcoding engines that provide a radical boost to transcoding performance. The feature is so well implemented in the AS3102T, DS216+ and N2810 that the CPU usage doesn't even increase 10% while transcoding video on the fly. The Arm-based systems have a much harder time, and the end result is often choppy video playback on your viewing device.

Looking beyond the basic features, we found some nice additions on several of the systems today. HDMI video completely changes the NAS and our outlook of what we use it for. In my house, we have a small 2-bay NAS connected to every TV. The kids have a NAS; my wife has her NAS, and I have my NAS. All of the systems replicate the data back to a central NAS. Is it a NAS, is it a media center, or a "cloud storage" device? Well, yes, yes and yes. It is all three, and then some.

I would suggest either the Asustor AS3102T or the Thecus N2810. If the system's primary function were multimedia, then I would choose the Asustor AS3102T because I like the multimedia setup and features of this system. Asustor has spent a lot of time on enhancing the user's interaction with multimedia. It's one of the core features, and not on just this Asustor product, but of all the NAS we have tested from the company. If I needed a general purpose NAS that will never, or only occasionally, handle multimedia functions, then the N2810 is my pick.

The Thecus N2810 is the most well rounded of all the systems we tested today. The TAS-268 is not far behind, but QNAP needs to further optimize the new dual operating system feature. That said, the N2810 is the most powerful, feature-rich system of those tested today. It's also the most expensive diskless system of the group.

The two Synology and Western Digital systems offer the easiest setup procedure and friendliest software environment. It shouldn't come as a surprise that those systems also give users the least amount of extra features beyond the core basics. The Synology systems give users more features than the Western Digital NAS does. The My Cloud Mirror does ship with hard drives preinstalled and takes the whole premise of simple setup, simple use and "simple everything" to a new level. It's the minimalist of the group, and it is very good at making your new NAS experience easy. 

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NAS manufacturers have to rely on other companies to build the underlying structure. ARM, Intel and Marvell build the central processing units, other companies build the system memory, and another set of companies build the network interface. The NAS manufacturers play the role of puzzle builder. Once the components are chosen, a glue must be applied (in this case everything holds together via software), and a frame built (the structure that keeps it all together).

Over the last three to four years, QNAP has proven to be the best puzzle builder. The company has reached into the box of pieces deeper to pull out components others have not attempted to implement. The pieces give QNAP products unique capabilities such as 40-gigabit Ethernet, software-managed SSD cache that automatically builds hot and cold data alignments, and Thunderbolt capabilities that open the door for a new breed of product. 

Last week, QNAP invited us to take part in an internal celebration called Partner Day. At this event in San Jose, California QNAP gathered several top sales affiliates, company executives, and engineers that often work exclusively behind the scenes.

The event started off with a keynote speech from Teddy Kuo, QNAP's CEO. Unlike most CEOs with a spotlight, Mr. Kuo dove straight into the company message and the agenda on the table for the event. Everyone understood that this evening was to be about Thunderbolt capabilities and an aggressive entry into the software-defined datacenter.

Nearly a year ago, QNAP announced the TVS-871T, the world's first Thunderbolt-enabled NAS. The system combined the best connectivity options from both worlds of external, redundant storage. On the network-attached storage (NAS) side, the system utilizes 10-gigabit Ethernet. On the direct-attached storage (DAS) side, the system has Thunderbolt 2 with up to 20 Gbps of bandwidth.

The system won the Tom's Hardware Best NAS of Computex 2015, but I don't think even QNAP fully understood at the time how popular it would become. During the presentation, QNAP highlighted three companies using the TVS-871T today and how each utilized the system. Walt Disney Imagineering and NBC stood out to me, but VFX Studio Cantina Creative has been a customer since 2011. QNAP has been a behind-the-scenes player in the making of The Hunger Games, Pixels, Avengers and Captain America (among others).

QNAP's plan for the second half of 2016 expands on the capabilities of the TVS-872T with three new models that make up the TVS-x82T family. This series was built on a new chassis that enables greater expansion, new SSD cache tiering levels through NVMe, and support for 40-gigabit Ethernet (optional hardware purchase). The new product family also ushers in the HDMI 2.0 era with support for higher local playback resolutions and HDCP. The system also incorporates features from existing products such as storage capacity expansion through EX-500P / TX-800P JBOD enclosures.

The three new products join the existing model released last year and make up the only high-performance NAS / DAS combination product available today. The selling point is that two local users can connect via Thunderbolt to each NAS and JBOD stack, but the data can be shared across the network simultaneously.

Three other new features stand out from any other prosumer NAS on the market: QNAP has rolled NVMe product support into the system via two internal PCIe slots. QNAP is the first and only company with NVMe in the prosumer category today. The same can be said about support for Mellanox's Connect-X 3 Pro 40GbE network interface cards. This system also supports two dynamic microphone inputs like we saw on the TS-453A, a lower cost version that we called "The First Karaoke NAS".

We didn't have time or the capabilities at the event to test the three new systems for performance capabilities, but we suspect end users will see a massive performance increase in all workloads. The systems now incorporate 2.5" hot swap bays on the front for loading SSDs as well as internal M.2 SSD support. Users can take advantage of the new flash-enabled capabilities by building an all-flash array and/or building a robust flash tier to use the ever-improving Auto Tier (autonomous SSD cache) function. If SATA-grade SSDs are not fast enough for your cache efforts, the inclusion of NVMe-protcol SSD cache via PCIe will certainly do the trick. We look forward to seeing the support list for NVMe-enabled devices, as some products already shipping scale to 6+ terabytes of data capacity.

The Commodity Datacenter

QNAP had previously announced the 4th generation enterprise hardware at CES this past January, but the new products put more of a focus on enterprise-focused features. This hardware first bred the inclusion of 40GbE and Auto Tiering in the QNAP product lineup, and the technology trickled down to the prosumer products. 

The two new systems, TDS-16489U and ES1640dc, appear to be similar but take two different approaches to breaking into a new tier in the datacenter.

The TDS-16489U builds on QNAP's QTS Linux-based software stack that has evolved over the years to support most of the company's products. The ES1640dc uses QNAP's new QES Enterprise software that is based on FreeBSD and takes advantage of the ZFS file system first introduced by Sun Microsystems.

Both systems use Intel Xeon E5 class processors, but the ES1640dc is the first active-active controller architecture from QNAP. The configuration allows QNAP to move deeper into the datacenter or to bring datacenter features into smaller organizations that want datacenter features without the commensurate price tag and complexity.

QNAP demonstrated the active-active architecture feature in a live demo at the event. While the system recorded TPC-C transactions, one of the network cables was removed, but the data continued to flow through the other half of the system. This is not a feature unique to the ES1640dc, but this is the first system in this price class to support true active-active failover.

Value-Focused 8-Bay TS-831X

Near the end of the event, QNAP unveiled a new consumer / prosumer model that will enter the market next month. The upcoming TS-831X uses a low-power ARM-based Annapurna Labs Alpine AL-314 processor running at 1.4 GHz. We've tested other NAS with this processor before and found it to be capable of supporting high network performance bandwidth, but end users will be limited in other areas such as host-based video transcoding. This system should be the lowest NAS to feature eight drive bays. This allows users to store more data at a lower price point without paying for features that often go underutilized.

The new products will begin shipping as early as June 12, 2016.

Specifications, Pricing, Warranty And Accessories

We've discussed QNAP's broad portfolio in previous reviews, but we should have saved that conversation for today. The company sells a lot of products with the same processors, memory and number of drive bays—and that confuses some shoppers. It isn't until you start looking at form factors and feature sets that the strategy becomes clear. QNAP has several products with 453 in their name (like the TS-453mini we tested, the TS-453 Pro and the TS-453U). Based on nomenclature alone, you'd never be able to distinguish one from another without a deeper understanding of how QNAP classifies its products. And even with that understanding, nothing could prepare you for the company's newest feature, which has us looking for a disco ball.

In Asia, it's popular to go out with your friends to a special club called KTV. Essentially, you are in a big room with a large-screen TV, a few microphones and a server who brings beverages by the bottle. These rooms are billed by the hour and heavily trafficked late at night after young people leave the clubs. It's not much different from karaoke in the United States, except that you get a private space (until someone posts your performance to Facebook, of course).

What does that have to do with a storage review? Well, karaoke files are larger than MP3s because they use a video format. High-quality karaoke includes audio encoded at a high bit rate, complemented by good-looking video. All of that data needs to go somewhere, and it requires a powerful processor to play it back smoothly. You guessed it; QNAP is answering the call with the world's first karaoke NAS.

More accurately, QNAP sells four models aimed at that market, armed with high bit-rate audio. To enable it, QNAP uses the PCIe slot normally set aside for 10GbE connectivity and replaces the network adapter with a dedicated sound card that accepts two 6.3mm dynamic microphone inputs.

The TS-x53A series also features QNAP's new QTS-Linux dual operating system, which gives the NAS a Linux desktop through a keyboard, mouse and monitor (via on-board HDMI). QNAP released desktop virtualization through Virtualization Station several generations ago. The difference with this new dual operating system is that Linux is more integrated than before.

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The TS-x53A family offers as few as two and as many as eight drive bays. All four models utilize the aforementioned QTS-Linux OS and enhanced audio features. They also employ Intel's quad-core Celeron N3150 (Braswell) SoC that consumes just six watts of power under full load.

For each model, there are two SKUs with different amounts of RAM build-in. The -4G systems include two 2GB DDR3 modules, while the -8G configurations come with two 4GB DIMMs, hitting the processor's upper limit for expansion.

The TS-453A features four gigabit Ethernet ports that support several independent and shared modes, including 802.3ad (link aggregation). Many of the modes accelerate network bandwidth without a switch that supports active-active mode, but you won't see a speed-up connecting the NAS to a single PC.

As with many of its contemporaries, the TS-453A lacks USB 2.0 altogether. Instead, it boasts four USB 3.0 ports. The popular one-touch copy function returns, allowing you to plug a drive in to the front USB port and press a button to pull data down to a special folder on the NAS. 

We've tested other NAS systems with two HDMI ports, but the TS-x53A is the first with independent HDMI. This lets you run two applications simultaneously with video output from each. That's a great capability if you're planning to use the platform for more than just storage. 

Pricing, Warranty And Accessories

We found the QNAP TS-453A available from several online resellers for $600. The price falls in line with other four-bay systems equipped with Intel's Celeron N3150.

But similarities to the competition end there. QNAP includes a remote control with the TS-453A, which is an optional purchase from other companies. QNAP also includes two Ethernet cables, as well as a quick-installation guide, external power supply and a power cable.

The TS-453A includes a two-year warranty that protects the system from defects. QNAP offers an optional warranty package that adds up to three years to the base warranty.

Software

Software Features

QNAP recently released QTS 4.2, its latest operating system. In it, we find support for the company's Container Station, Qsearch function and various incremental updates to existing features. You can read more about QTS 4.2 on the operating system's microsite.

Feature Applications

Interface

There are so many software features that we could write an entire article on the operating system and what's inside. But for now, just know that there there are more native features and optional add-ons than we can discuss in a single device review.

There are hundreds of pages in the QNAP QTS operating system, all originating from the main screen. The icons are similar to what you find in Android; you can move and reposition them across the three default pages. Of course, you can also add and remove icons as needed.

The Health Check feature in the lower-right corner of the dashboard opens to what we see here. It provides a quick way to catch the latest QNAP software news, see details about firmware updates and view the system's status. You can monitor the storage array and the CPU, as well as keep an eye on memory usage and network traffic. Another pane shows if other users are logged in to the system; you don't want to update firmware or restart the NAS if someone else is using a shared file from a remote location.

Before we even get into the applications, let's look at the system's many configurable features. Everything comes set up from QNAP, but you can easily change the options to create a more customized experience.

For instance, you can disable and hide all of the home/multimedia functions by clicking a single checkbox. This helps save processing cycles and system memory if those capabilities aren't needed.

In QTS' Storage Manager, you can build arrays either in volumes or by pools of disks. The latter option, introduced a few years ago, allows the appliance to tackle storage like an enterprise-class SAN. For example, one part of a drive may be a member of a RAID 0 array, while another section is part of a RAID 5 array.

When we review QNAP NAS appliances, we use the single-volume option. Systems with seven or fewer drive bays are tested in RAID 5, while systems with eight or more disks are tested in RAID 6.

You get a lot of networking options, too. QNAP facilitates several modes of teaming, including 802.11ad link aggregation. And there are a few ways to connect to the system from outside your intranet: via QNAP's cloud feature, a free service through a specialized website, or through a third-party DDNS service.

QTS-Linux Dual Systems

The TS-453A supports some new functionality not found on other QNAP platforms. For instance, the QTS-Linux dual system opens up the Internet of Things (IoT) world for developers to build rich applications. Although the QTS App Center is light on IoT applications right now, we expect it to see new and exciting plug-ins over time. In some ways, this is an extension of QNAP's existing desktop virtualization that allows users to run a second operating system from the NAS.

Dual HDMI

The TS-453A also introduces independent HDMI ports, so you can have your Linux and HD Station at the same time. Use the two ports to mirror or extend a desktop from the hosted operating system—even Windows, if you choose to install it in the virtualized environment.

Audio, Video And More

HD Video Station enables Kodi, a successor to XBMC and one of the most popular applications for networked storage today. Kodi might as well be its own operating environment because once it's installed, you can install plug-ins that expand its utility. If you ever dreamed of cutting the cord, consider Kodi your sheers.

OceanKTV - Karaoke At Home

At this time, only QNAP offers the OceanKTV application through its on-board management system. The TS-x53A series was built to complement the software, and the model we're reviewing has a pair of dynamic microphone inputs that allow two people to sing along with music from a GUI.

Dynamic microphones are professional-grade, like what musicians use. The industry standard is the Shure SM58, and these models cost around $100 each. You will need a special cord to connect to the NAS or a wireless system. While there are lower-cost alternatives available, if you want the full experience, the SM58 is an excellent choice.

A Closer Look

QNAP's TS-453A ships in a brown package with a sticker that shows the model. The company actually got quite a bit of information on the small label. Most of these systems sell online, and several companies have moved away from full-color boxes to save money.

Inside the box, we find a well-secured NAS with accessories in a separate compartment.

After the initial setup, you mostly interact with the system's front. An LCD warns you of any errors that might crop up, in addition to conveying health status and network information. A series of status lights show system, USB and network activity. And an LED just above each drive sled reports individual drive activity with a green light. If a disk fails or has a problem, the green turns red, showing you where the issue is.

There's also a power button and special USB 3.0 port up front. Another button surrounding that port lets you connect a thumb drive, for instance, and copy data from it to a special backup folder on the NAS. The front USB port also charges mobile devices quickly.

Structurally, the system is built well using a steel frame and a brushed aluminum cover. The four feet on the bottom use foam rubber to isolate vibration. And a removable sticker up top gives you the access code for cloud functions.

Most of the I/O is naturally found around back, including four GbE ports and three additional USB 3.0 ports. Two HDMI 1.4a ports support 4K video at 30Hz, and again, both work independently so you can use the appliance as a desktop computer and run another application in the HybridDesk Station.

A single 120mm fan keeps installed disks and internal electronics cool. The platform is very quiet; the only noise you'll hear comes from the hard drives.

Finally, there are the 6.3mm microphone inputs we've been talking about. On the same PCIe card is a high bit-rate audio output to connect to an amplifier.

Four-Corner Performance Testing

Product Comparison

Several four- and five-drive NAS products go up against QNAP's karaoke-optimized TS-453A, some of which are bound to outperform it. Asustor's AS7004T has a faster host processor, but also costs more. On the other hand, Western Digital's My Cloud DL4100 sports the slowest CPU and lowest price. Everything else falls somewhere in between.

Sequential Read

These systems perform similarly when we hit them with sequential reads. As you might expect, throughput is also higher when we test with large blocks of data. And the queue depth benchmarks reveal very little scaling as we intensify the load.

Sequential Write

Aside from the Core i3-powered Asustor AS7004T, most of these machines are on fairly equal footing when we write to them sequentially. They utilize low-power SoCs from Marvell and Intel, so this isn't much of a surprise. Fortunately, every platform we're testing delivers exceptional single-workload performance that's likely limited by the upper bound of gigabit Ethernet. 

Sequential Sweeps

The sweep tests start with 100 percent sequential reads and end with 100 percent sequential writes. The numbers in the middle come from mixing the workloads in 10 percent increments. Our charts show how these systems slow down when they're asked to juggle reads and writes together, even though Ethernet is a full duplex technology.

QNAP's TS-453A follows a slightly different curve than the other systems, which comes from unique tuning. We've noticed the same pattern with the latest QTS firmware on other QNAP appliances. The TS-453A's optimizations result in more performance anywhere from 10 to 70 percent reads when we isolate 128KB blocks.

Random Read

The TS-453A also performs well in the random read tests, beating competing platforms at a queue depth of one. Asustor's entry fares particularly well at higher queue depths thanks to programming that caches more data in RAM. That speed-up makes it hard to see QNAP shine, though. Fortunately, our exploration into application performance later in the review will give us another opportunity to observe this.

Random Write

QNAP's latest NAS employs a modern Intel SoC, so we were expecting high random write throughput. But the synthetics don't bear that out. Sure, you can use an SSD to improve these numbers (QNAP enables caching on almost all of its products these days), but then you lose a drive bay for mechanical storage.

Random Sweeps

Despite the low random writes we observed, the TS-453A handles mixed workloads adeptly. Again, our sweep tests reflect different combinations of reads and writes, in 10 percent increments. Following the line graph, we see random performance increase as more writes hit the buffer. At 100 percent small-block writes, the systems all demonstrate big increases thanks to large DRAM buffers.

SMB, iSCSI And Standard Server Workloads

Each of the four corners come together in real-world application testing. The TS-453A is not the fastest NAS in our charts because we're including products from several different price points.

SMB / CIFS Client Workloads

The SMB tests are representative of transfer performance across your network in Windows. All of the charted systems take advantage of SMB 3.0, except for Western Digital's My Cloud DL4100, which uses SMB 2.0.

QNAP's TS-453A performs well, delivering the results we expected given its price tag. 

Multi-Client Office Workloads

The TS-453A wasn't designed for large offices with many people accessing it at once. With SSD caching, the appliance would serve up greater throughput and achieve lower latency. After all, cache weighs heavily on the multi-client metric, as does CPU performance.

iSCSI Client Workloads

iSCSI is a different protocol than SMB, and NAS manufacturers use a different engine for addressing it. As a result, you can't assume that faring well in the previous benchmarks guarantees a strong performance here.

In our opinion, iSCSI goes underutilized in the home and small business environments. It's much more reliable than SMB in many cases, and creates a drive letter on your machine that makes the volume appear local (rather than mapped). iSCSI consequently makes it possible to install software to networked locations.

Total iSCSI Storage Performance

The TS-453A performs well in our iSCSI tests. It's nearly as fast as Asustor's AS7004T sporting a Core i3 processor. To its credit, QNAP has always provided a strong iSCSI engine.

Standard Server Workloads

We run the server workloads over iSCSI as if in a SAN environment. QNAP's TS-453A doesn't scale as well across more taxing loads as Asustor's AS7004T, but it enables more IOPS than other NAS appliances in the chart.

Conclusion

We have several systems in the lab and more on the way with Intel's new Celeron N3150. So far, we're impressed with its low power consumption, performance and feature set. The connectivity offered by the platform's PCIe opens the door to more functionality, too.

Many NAS vendors load their systems with 10GbE as a differentiator. That's a safe choice for networked storage. QNAP does have several configurations available with 10GbE in the SMB segment, so there's little reason to do another one (especially with four drive bays).

The TS-453A is much more unique with its dual dynamic microphone inputs and high bit-rate audio output. The appliance should really fall into the high-end home/media server category. It does offer good value in the small business space, and includes the features to attract those customers. But we think the extras beg for a place in your living room.

This tug of war is the dilemma we face with a lot of QNAP products. Their feature sets are so broad, and the TS-453A extends out to an entirely new market. Of course, if we had to pay a premium for the A/V-based extras, we'd probably pass. But QNAP adds them as a value; they don't increase the TS-453A's price. It actually costs less than many other Celeron N3150-based systems. At the time of writing, you can find it with 4GB of RAM for $60 less than Asustor's AS204T. 

The 8GB version sells for $70 more on one site. However, we found it with a $250 mark-up on another. As enthusiasts, this makes us gravitate toward the lower-capacity model with an eye to upgrading it ourselves. Besides, we found 4GB sufficient to deliver a satisfying experience with many of the advanced features like Linux Station active. The more applications you load up, the more memory you'll want. At a certain point, it'll naturally make sense to pop another 4GB in to max out Intel's SoC.

QNAP delivers more software features than any other NAS manufacturer. Each package installs with just a few clicks, and a large support forum provides answers to questions that spring up along the way. Some applications focus on consumer tasks like video transcoding. Other applications focus on business requirements. But our favorites, such as CloudLink, land somewhere in between.

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Chris Ramseyer is a Contributing Editor for Tom's Hardware, covering Storage. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook.

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Specifications, Pricing, Warranty And Accessories

QNAP has two new NAS appliances designed for SOHO (small office/home office) customers: the TS-251+ and the TS-451+, and we have the latter in-house for testing. It's an updated model based loosely on the original TS-451, a dual-core Celeron-based system.

The TS-451+ adds a quad-core Intel Celeron J1900 at 2GHz and doubles the platform's RAM. The extra cores increase the NAS system's multimedia capabilities, while the memory upgrade allows more applications to run in the background. This is the new breed of network-attached devices that extends beyond storage. Many new home and small office QNAP systems fall into this category. Nobody has coined an official term for these systems, but someone really should. Continuing to call them NAS fails to capture everything they're capable of.

Many of the appliances we're seeing employ Intel's Celeron J1900 or a similar model from the Bay Trail family (with Silvermont-based cores). They're attractive processors because of their hardware-accelerated transcode engine and impressively low power consumption, which lowers cooling requirements.

QNAP recently introduced its QTS 4.2 operating system, which is backward-compatible with existing products. We installed the latest software package on a six-year-old TS-809 Pro during its beta phase and then when the release was finalized. We really like that QNAP steadily updates its OS, enabling new features. Not every capability works on the older systems since some are directly tied to hardware functionality, but that's inevitable. Fortunately, if a feature isn't supported, it doesn't show up in the software. In short, you can't do anything to get yourself in trouble.

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QNAP's TS-451+ ships in two configurations differentiated by memory capacity. We're testing the 8GB model. However, there's also a lower-priced 2GB version. Its Celeron J1900 SoC includes integrated HD Graphics and a hardware-accelerated transcoding engine. Some of the systems that cost less than the TS-451+ use AMD G-series and Marvell SoCs. Just above the Celeron J1900 are systems with Intel Core i3 processors based on the Haswell architecture. The TS-451+ falls in the upper-middle range, offering excellent single-user and moderate multi-client performance suitable for small offices.

There are four hot-swap drive bays, though you can expand to 12 with QNAP's UX-800P. While the system supports a typical assortment of RAID levels, most folks will opt for RAID 5 to balance user capacity and data redundancy. The TS-451+ also facilitates SSD caching. It's read-only with a single drive and read/write with a pair of them. The cache algorithm can be tuned for different workloads, but you'll probably go for storage and redundancy over better random-latency performance.

Moving data to and from the system takes place over gigabit Ethernet. A pair of ports allows access from two separate networks or just one in a teamed configuration. If your network can handle it, 802.11ad is supported. QNAP also enables a few specialty network functions that do not require specific hardware to increase performance or reliability.

There are five USB ports in total. The front USB 3.0 interface is enhanced by a feature called one-touch copy, and it works in conjunction with a button right above the port. Around back, one more USB 3.0 port sits just under two USB 2.0 connections that provide a number of additional features. You can quickly set up a print server or even connect a keyboard and mouse. With video output through HDMI 1.4a, you can use the TS-451+ like a virtualized computer running on top of the QTS operating system. That HDMI 1.4a output can also send video and audio signals to a home theater.

This system ships with a QNAP-branded remote control, and if you combine it with Kodi home theater software, you get a powerful combination. I have one friend who recently "cut the cord", but still enjoys live TV broadcasts from a number of Kodi plug-in packages over IP networks. Though that's not a QNAP-supported feature, you can still see how flexible the Kodi package and user-built plug-in system has become. To fully exploit the software's capabilities, you need a powerful processor. Intel's quad-core Celeron J1900 works nicely.

Pricing, Warranty & Accessories

The TS-451+ 8GB model has an MSRP of $649, while the 2GB TS-451 costs $529. Pricing is similar to competing products based on the same J1900 processor and system memory capacity.

QNAP's standard warranty lasts two years, but the company allows e-tailers to sell QNAP-backed warranties that extend coverage up to five years.

The system ships with two Ethernet cables, an external power brick, screws for mounting both 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch drives, a paper manual and a remote control.

A Closer Look

The TS-451+ ships in a brown box with a small list of specifications, features and capabilities printed on it. Most of these systems are sold online, so there's no real need for flashy packaging. I did recently visit a retail store and discovered NAS products from other companies on shelves in the same labeled brown box. They were easy to spot because there were so many, and they all had a layer of dust on top.

After reviewers started talking about how NAS appliances are packaged, the major players began using dense foam with extra protection in the corners. QNAP has always packaged its products well, and its TS-451+ maintains the status quo. The accessory package is even boxed separately, so your NAS won't get scratched in transit.

Inside the box, we find a quick-start guide and QNAP's 13-button remote control. This is the third QNAP product we've reviewed with this remote, and I was finally able to configure a system with QTS 4.2 and Kodi to use it. The remote is responsive, but lacks strong tactile feedback. Since it uses IR, you can easily clone the signals to a programmable remote from your home theater.

TS-451+ owners also receive two Ethernet cables, screws for mounting 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch drives in the corresponding sleds, and an external power supply.

If you are a fan of QNAP's two-line display, you'll be disappointed to find it isn't used on this model. I often use the read-out for initial setup. Without it, you'll have to rely on QNAP's Finder Utility to retrieve an IP address and get everything configured.

The original TS-451 had a dual-core Celeron processor and shipped in a white case with this same design. Somewhere around that time, QNAP started using more plastic in its construction, which tends to run warmer than metal enclosures. Given the low-power SoCs we see nowadays, though, heat is rarely a problem. 

A power button and one-touch copy button (tied to the forward-facing USB 3.0 port) are located on the far left side of the chassis' face.

The system has seven status LEDs that indicate power, network, USB and hard drive activity. Aside from them, the rest of the front is fairly sparse. QNAP's drive sleds do not lock, so you won't want to use the system anywhere security is a concern.

The drive sleds employ a newer design than many of the QNAP appliances I've tested in the past. In the image above, you can see that air must pass through a small hole that won't dissipate heat evenly. This could negatively affect drive temperatures, leading to louder operation if you end up choosing hotter-running disks. Manufactures are not afraid to ship six- and even eight-platter drives these days, and some of them get really hot. Fortunately, using our lab's 5900 RPM Seagate NAS disks, we didn't have any problems with noise.

One side of the system has a vent to keep the platform cool. Four rubber feet on the bottom of the enclosure minimize vibration to and from the NAS. Like the rest of the TS-451+ chassis, the rubber feet are low-cost parts. Many of QNAP's upper-range systems are built to a higher standard.

A large fan on the back of the TS-451+ is automatically adjusted to keep the system and drives cool. Without an internal power supply, a smaller fan isn't required to cool that component. Again, there are three USB ports back there, one of which supports third-gen transfer rates. Two GbE ports move data to and from the system.

The less common bit of I/O is a lone HDMI output. Over the last two years, we've increasingly seen HDMI show up in networked storage. It started appearing on high-end systems as Intel pushed integrated HD Graphics. Now the functionality is available down in the company's least-expensive models.

Software

Features

QNAP recently released QTS 4.2, its latest operating system. In it, we find support for QNAP's new Container Station, Qsearch function and various incremental updates for existing features. You can read more about QTS 4.2 on the operating system's microsite.

Feature Apps

Interface

There are so many software features that we could write an entire article just on the operating system and what's inside. In fact, we plan to publish comprehensive feature stories covering NAS operating systems and their GUIs in the future. For now, there are more native features and optional add-ons than we can introduce in a single device review.

There are hundreds of pages in the QNAP QTS operating system, but they all originate from the main screen. The icons are similar to what you find in Android; you can move and re-position them across the three default pages. Of course, you can also add and remove icons as needed.

The health check feature in the lower-right corner of the dashboard opens to what we see here. It provides a quick way to catch the latest QNAP software news, see details about firmware updates and view the system's status. You can monitor the storage array and CPU, in addition to keeping an eye on memory usage and network traffic. Another pane shows if other users are logged in to the system; you don't want to update firmware or restart the NAS if someone else is using a shared file from a remote location.

Before we even get into the applications, let's look at the system's many configurable features. Everything comes set up from QNAP to be completely usable. But you can easily change the options to create a more customized experience.

For instance, disable and hide all of the home/multimedia functions by clicking a single check-box. This helps save processing cycles and system memory if those capabilities aren't needed.

In QTS' Storage Manager, you can build arrays either in volumes or by pools of disks. The latter option, introduced a few years ago, allows the appliance to tackle storage like an enterprise-class SAN. For example, one part of a drive may be a member of a RAID 0 array, while another section is part of a RAID 5 array.

When we review QNAP NAS appliances, we use the single-volume option. Systems with seven drive bays and less are tested in RAID 5, while systems with eight or more disks are tested in RAID 6.

You get a lot of networking options, too. QNAP facilitates several modes of network teaming, including 802.11ad link aggregation. And there are a few ways to connect to the system from outside of your intranet: it's accessible from QNAP's cloud feature, a free service through a specialized website, or through a third-party DDNS service.

Four-Corner Performance Testing

We've updated our comparison units now that we have a sufficient number of mid-range models in the database. In the coming months, we'll publish reviews of Asustor's AS6104T and Netgear's ReadyNAS 214. You can read our review of the Thecus N5810 Pro here.

All of the systems in today's review are filled with Seagate NAS 4TB disks in RAID 5, and they run from a single GbE port through an enterprise switch.

Sequential Data Transfer by Block Size

The sequential read performance for every system is similar at each block size. This isn't a very stressful metric, but it does give us some idea of what to look for as our testing continues.

There's a lot more variation in the sequential write test. Asustor's AS6204T is on the first iteration of the company's newest operating system, and it clearly has some issues with smaller block sizes. The TS-451+ finishes without encountering any issues; it performs particularly well in the 64KB and 128KB tests, posting bigger numbers than Thecus and Western Digital.

Sequential Performance

Now we're looking at 128KB and 1MB blocks, charted across increasing queue depths. Interestingly, the mid-range systems we're measuring don't report higher throughput as queue depths go up. That would normally be bad. But many of these platforms saturate a GbE link at low queue depths, so that's our bottleneck.

The write tests again yield a wider range of performance results. QNAP's TS-451+ performs well, managing to saturate the gigabit Ethernet connection.

Sequential Mixed Data Sweep

All of the systems are optimized for workloads consisting of 80 percent reads. Back when the SSD 520 launched, Intel published a document claiming that 80 percent reads are typical for most client systems. Seventy percent reads are more common among workstations.

The bathtub curve observed here is what we're accustomed to. After all, mixing reads and writes presents a greater challenge than a pure read or pure write workload.

Random Data Transfer by Size

For the most part, if you don't run applications on the NAS or use the appliance as an active disk with a mapped volume, you will rarely transfer files in a random manner. Even when you send small blocks of data over SMB, the information moves sequentially. Hosting an app on the NAS is another story entirely, though.

In both the read and write tests, QNAP's TS-451+ outperforms its competition in random 4KB performance. This is important for running applications with Windows, where 4KB blocks make up a majority of the workload. The 8KB block size is often associated with virtual machines from VMWare. The TS-451+ also outperforms the other products there, though it falls behind two systems in 8KB random writes. 

Random Performance

Ratcheting up the random workload by scaling queue depth doesn't do much for performance. For the most part, these systems demonstrate fairly linear performance as the queue depth increases. 

Random Mixed Data Sweep

Under heavy random writes, all of the systems use cache algorithms to burst performance. None of them exhibit a bathtub curve as we sweep across the mixed workloads. We see very little variation until the test's end, where caching performance differentiates each appliance.

SMB, iSCSI And Standard Server Workloads

Single-Client SMB Performance

QNAP's TS-451+ performed well in the synthetic measurements, so it's not surprising to see it leading many of our real-world tests over SMB.

These benchmarks are traditional home and small business NAS metrics, where users transfer files to and from the system. For most folks, this is exactly why you buy networked storage.

Multi-Client SMB Performance

Each node in the multi-client test falls short of saturating our test subjects. We used real Microsoft Office software to record traces that run from each system with a dedicated gigabit Ethernet connection to the network. The combined workload does tax the GbE link. With some products, we hit other hardware limits before banging on Ethernet's ceiling.

We can see this happen on two of the charts; either throughput sharply decreases or the latency spikes. I like to use latency to determine the load level at which a NAS device still delivers acceptable performance. As you can imagine, it takes a lot of traffic to make a NAS fail outright. But you don't want the nasty user experience preceding that failure, either.

Single-Client iSCSI Workloads

iSCSI is the most underused feature on NAS appliances today. All of our comparison products have the feature installed right out of the box, but we rarely hear about it being used. iSCSI adds a drive letter to the volume and shows up on your computer as a local disk. It's a great way to deal with large game libraries, particularly since the data on a RAID 5 array is redundant.

These results are presented in time units rather than throughput.

QNAP delivers strong iSCSI performance, giving its TS-451+ the advantage it needs to come out on top. The throughput result is about as fast as a 7200 RPM disk inside of your own desktop.

Standard Workloads

Since none of the systems scale as queue depths increase, the snake charts that show IOPS compared to latency are nearly vertical. Only a small number of users will deploy their low-cost storage appliances in one of these single-workload applications, though the systems are powerful enough.

Response time starts out around 8ms across the board. You never want to push much beyond 100ms of latency, and 200ms is a practical maximum.

Conclusion

Even though the TS-451+ is sold as a small business model, its features are more compelling in the home, where you can really take advantage of the multimedia capabilities. To be fair, HDMI output can be used to run a virtual PC, but that's be a progressive application of what this system is meant for. We simply believe that accelerated transcoding, HDMI output and a bundled remote control, when added to a traditional network-attached storage device, scream home theater. Bonus points for connecting the TS-451+ to a receiver able to decode high bit rate audio. 

All of the NAS manufacturers have taken steps to streamline the initial configuration process. The whole network-attached dimension of these systems sounds like it could be complicated, but it's not. Within 10 minutes, you can have the TS-451+ up and running. And if you really do want to get elbows-deep, QNAP enables a comprehensive feature set for you to explore. Most of us don't sit down and spend hours setting up every capability; we'll usually configure the system and then enable the advanced extras as the need arises.

In order to make use of what the TS-451+ can do, you'll want more memory than what the 2GB model includes. I don't know where QNAP buys RAM, but I wish I was the supplier! The price difference between the 2GB and 8GB models is much larger than it should be. You're better off buying the lower-capacity version and adding your own 4GB DDR3-1600 SO-DIMM.

This system isn't perfect, though. It suffers a few negatives I've never encountered from QNAP before. The drive sleds, case structure and overall design fall short of the company's quality standards compared to its higher-end equipment. We expect to find a lot of plastic on appliances destined for home installations, but this thing costs more than $500.

The TS-451+ is also fairly redundant. QNAP's TS-453mini is nearly identical with the same processor, system memory, many of the same features, an included remote control and an extra USB 3.0 port. The TS-453mini's piano black finish also looks better, and it consumes less desk space due to a vertical drive design.

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Chris Ramseyer is a Contributing Editor for Tom's Hardware, covering Storage. Follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.

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This was a breakout year for QNAP. The company released several new products in multiple form factors, brought new exclusive software features and has yet to find the brake pedal. Case in point is the new TBS-453A, aka the NASbook.

The TBS-453A isn't QNAP's first slim desktop form factor NAS appliance, but it is the first to add network switching and four disk drive support. The NAS product segment has evolved over the last decade from a pure storage play to devices that sit in the middle of your digital life. The NASbook takes all of those elements and joins them in one small, easy to manage device.

The front of the system looks like a refined gaming console or exaggerated set-top box like your cable or satellite TV provider would supply. There are a few buttons, a pair of USB ports and a card reader. The button on the far left handles the one-touch copy function. When you plug in a device such as a cell phone, USB drive or possibly an SD card and press the button, the data is backed up to the NAS.

Things get a little more interesting and unique on the back. Dual HDMI ports and audio I/O connect to your monitor or TV. The system can run as an independent computer with QNAP's existing software package that supports Windows, Linux and other operating systems. Users can also use the ports in conjunction with KODI or other multimedia front end software that turns the system into a full-on media center. Audiophiles and users of high-end home theater products will appreciate the dual HDMI ports for connecting more than one device to the system.

There are five network switching ports that can be assigned via a new software module. This is essentially software-defined switching, a new carryover from the enterprise universe where software-defined everything has gained traction. Now your TV, DVR, gaming console and other theater equipment can link directly to your storage.

And oh, what great storage it is! To keep a slim profile, QNAP enabled four M.2 SATA storage ports (with the 2280 form factor). We suspect the system will be very fast, even when distributing several 4K videos through the network. The Intel Braswell quad-core processor enables the system to stream multimedia files to other network devices and even mobile drives like tablets at remote locations.

SanDisk's new X400 M.2 SSD that measures only 1.5 mm thin recently launched with the company's X3 NAND flash (TLC) in 1 TB capacity. The drive should offer great performance for a low-cost NAS SSD.

QNAP didn't have a firm release date for the new TBS-453A, but we suspect it will ship later in 2016. The hardware appears retail ready right now. Also, the major components in the system are standard parts used in other NAS products already shipping, like the TS-453A.

Dodging Robots And Ducking Drones

We've seen just about all we can see at CES 2016, even if we could see it all. We had to dodge robots and duck under drones, we had to ignore the "smart everything" (although we did see some really smart refrigerators... or as one person put it: a fridge too far). Among all of that were some gems.

As always, many of you will disagree with our choices for top picks from CES 2016, or wonder why oh why we're fascinated by some of them. Often we have no grand explanation, other than we were simply struck by something that stood out in the sea of sameness that CES can be.

The typical caveats apply: we didn't test these products. We did ask serious questions about them, or get demonstrations of them. Now, onto our picks.

MORE: News From CES 2016

Most Unexpected Innovation

ASRock's Mini-STX Motherboard And Mini-PC

ASRock's upcoming mini-STX motherboard and PC gives users the ability to build their own SFF system. Smaller than mini-ITX, the new mini-STX form factor is designed to be approximately 5x5 inches in size. The motherboard uses a desktop H110 chipset and an LGA1151 socket, allowing you to install any desktop CPU with a TDP of 65 W. The case is only about 3.1-inches tall, but there is still sufficient space to fit the standard CPU cooler that Intel supplies with every desktop CPU.

Although at this time we have seen only one motherboard and two cases that use this form factor, as more mini-STX products are produced, users will soon have a wide variety of new components that can be used to build customized SFF sized mini-PCs.

MORE: ASRock To Deliver Mini-PC Using Intel's New STX Form Factor
MORE: All Systems News From CES

Best New SSD

OCZ Storage Solutions RevoDrive 400 1 TB

OCZ's new RevoDrive 400 is the first performance-focused M.2 SSD to reach the 1 TB capacity size that power users and gamers demand. When demonstrated at CES 2016, the drive achieved nearly 2,700 MB/s sequential read and 1,600 MB/s sequential write speeds.

OCZ told us that the new NVMe 1.1b product, the first from the company, will be cost competitive with other NVMe products on the market today, while achieving a capacity size lead in the M.2 form factor class. Users will experience higher frame rates and lower game load times by choosing the RevoDrive 400 as a drop-in performance increasing replacement to existing hard disk drives. OCZ expects the drive to ship early in 2016.

MORE: OCZ Preps Second-Gen TLC, First NVMe SSDs For 2016MORE: All Storage News From CES

Best Networking Device

Linksys WUSB6100M

MU-MIMO (Multi-User Multiple-Input Multiple-Output) technology has taken the consumer networking market by storm, and rightly so. With the direction home network usage is headed, MU-MIMO is a much needed technology. Thus our networking award was focused on what we found to be the most compelling MU-MIMO product.

We saw a flurry of new MU-MIMO products released here at CES, but our award this year doesn't go to a fancy new router with a hundred bands and exorbitant speeds. Instead, it goes to the Linksys WUSB6100M, a simple AC600 USB MU-MIMO adapter.

Sure enough, potential customers looking to upgrade their home network with a MU-MIMO setup will want to get their hands on an enabled router as soon as possible. Little do they know, the devices connecting to their network (desktops, laptops, tablets, etc.) must be compatible with MU-MIMO to receive its benefits.

The WUSB6100M solves this issue, provided these devices have a USB port it can plug into. At $59.99, this dongle will allow users to upgrade to a MU-MIMO router without having to upgrade all of their wireless devices along with it.

MORE: Linksys Teases New MU-MIMO Products At CES 2016MORE: All Networking News From CES

Best VR HMD Update

HTC Vive Pre

Although the updates to the new HTC Vive Pre developer kit could be seen as more evolutionary than revolutionary, the Vive was already arguably the best VR solution available. That makes the improvements just icing on the cake. But still, the brighter displays, with their new Mura correction technology, are far and away the best-looking we've seen on any platform. And content that we had already experienced on the original Vive developer kit simply looks significantly better.

What we've been told is that the big breakthrough, the enhanced "Tron Mode" chaperone system, doesn't seem like a big deal on the surface, but it really is. It improves the Vive's room-scale VR safety net, instilling in you the confidence to feel free to completely explore the virtual space with no fear.

This subconsciously and significantly improves presence. Other improvements like the better controllers and easier-to-set-up lighthouse base stations further improve the package. In fact, if this wasn't labeled a developer kit, we would think HTC and Valve would have no problem selling it today.

MORE: The Vive Pre, HTC’s New VR Developer Kit: First LookMORE: All Virtual Reality News From CES

Best Smartphone

Huawei Mate 8

If you asked us a year ago who were the top smartphone OEMs, it's unlikely that we would have included Huawei on that list. But after being pleasantly surprised by the Nexus 6P, one of our favorite smartphones from 2015, we were eagerly waiting to see what would come next from the Chinese OEM.

The new 6-inch Mate 8 was announced this week at CES, and we were lucky enough to get one prior to the launch. Although we're a little iffy on Huawei's EMUI UI that runs on top of Marshmallow, every other aspect of the phone is superlative. It is an incredibly well-crafted device with a beautiful high-contrast 6-inch display, all in a body no bigger than other 5.7-inch devices thanks to its super-thin bezels.

It's also the most powerful Android phone we've tested, and it has outstanding battery life. The camera is excellent, utilizing a brand-new Sony image sensor. The only problem is that it isn't officially available in North America -- however, if you want one, you can order it online and import it over.

MORE: Huawei's Mate 8 6-inch Phablet Hands OnMORE: All Smartphones News From CES

Best Case

In Win's H-Frame 2.0

In Win's H-Frame 2.0 chassis will retail for a heavy price of $799, but it easily translates to one of the best-looking cases on the CES show floor.

The front of the case has three USB 3.0 slots and one USB 3.1 Type-C. For cooling, it can have three 120 mm fans at the top and one 120 mm fan in the rear. For water cooling, you can place up to a 360 mm radiator at the top, and the CPU heat sink can be up to 185 mm in height.

Aside from the tempered-glass windows, the massive case also features orange LED lighting along with a lighting controller. In fact, the case is so unique that In Win created a special 1065 W PSU that fits the case. However, the spec sheet said you can use an ATX12V and EPS12V PSU as long as it's at or below 210 mm. The PSU also has orange LED lighting for its interior, along with a small window so you can look at its innards. It also has a slider to control fan activity in various scenarios. For example, you can set the fan to continue spinning while the PC is off, or give it a short delay before it begins spinning.

Just like some of its other high-end showpiece cases, In Win's H-Frame 2.0 will have a limited run, with only 500 cases available.

MORE: All Cases News From CES

Best Enterprise Storage

Kingston E1000 NVMe Enterprise SSD

The Kingston E1000 AIC (Add In Card) melds four NVMe M.2 SSDs into a single AIC form factor card, which in turn provides dedicated power loss protection for each of the underlying SSDs. This allows users to reap the rewards of client SSD pricing while enjoying one of the key features of enterprise-class SSDs. Kingston developed the solution with IP from Liqid, a company that is still operating in stealth mode.

The Kingston E1000 AIC supports up to 8 TB of storage per card while providing up to 1.25 million IOPS of 4K random read performance and sequential throughput of 6 GBps. The E1000 also features heat sinks that provide additional cooling for the M.2 SSDs, which is an important consideration in demanding server environments. Kingston displayed a high performance flash array powered by six E1000's at CES with up to 3.25 million IOPS and 12.5 GBps of sequential throughput.

MORE: Kingston Unveils E1000 NVMe Enterprise SSD At CES 2016MORE: All Enterprise Storage News From CES

Best Monitor

Dell UltraSharp 30 Ultra HD 4K OLED Monitor

When we first looked at Dell's new top-of-the-range monitor, we couldn't believe its price tag of $5,000. But after spending a little more time with it at CES, we say to heck with the price. Yes, it's ridiculously expensive, especially when you compare it to even the highest-end 4K LCD monitor, but pricing is all relative.

The professional-grade Sony BVM-X300 30-inch 4K monitor is around $20,000, so the Dell UltraSharp 30 is a steal at $5,000 comparatively. Its OLED display is gorgeous and it has the best picture of any computer display we've ever laid our eyes on, with stunning inky blacks and colors that pop off OLED. It also has super thin bezels, a slim design, and uses USB Type-C for both power and video signals. Right now, it is the ultimate monitor, and if you can afford one, it should be on your desk.

MORE: Dell Introduces World's First 30-inch OLED MonitorMORE: All Monitors News From CES

Best Virtual Reality Peripheral

Virtuix Omni VR Treadmill

The Virtuix Omni is a new kind of peripheral called an omni-directional treadmill. It works in conjunction with a virtual reality HMD and allows you to run around in the virtual world, making it the perfect option for first person shooters in VR.

To use the hardware, you have to strap yourself into a harness similar to the type you would use for climbing. That harness is attached to the Omni on a swivel that will let you rotate in 360 degrees. The base of the unit is concave and made of hard plastic, so when you wear the special shoes for it, you can walk in place with very little friction.

Your steps are tracked by sensors that are placed on top of the shoes, and your body movement is tracked by the headset gyros and tracking sensors. Virtuix has also partnered with Vive and will support Lighthouse tracking for peripherals such as rifles or handguns.

"Active VR" is the term that Virtuix has coined to describe the experience, and we agree that it's an apt description.

MORE: Tom's Hardware Tries The Virtuix Omni VR TreadmillMORE: All Peripherals News From CES

Most Innovative Gaming System

CyberpowerPC's ProStreamer Series Gaming Desktops

Streaming and eSports are some of the fastest-growing market segments in the industry today, and CyberpowerPC has created a solution for amateur and pro streamers that can help save enthusiasts money by putting your gaming PC and streaming rig into one chassis.

The ProStreamer Series systems can house a micro ATX and a mini-ITX motherboard, with the mini-ITX acting as a streaming system. The mini-ITX boards can be equipped with 6th generation (Skylake) Intel Core i3, i5 or i7 processors and 8 GB of memory, and they use an Avermedia Live Gamer HD capture card. The dedicated system takes the encoding load off of the main rig (micro ATX system) and provides streamers with a dedicated streaming PC with as little or as much host processing power as you desire.

CyberpowerPC said that streaming rigs don't require huge graphics horsepower -- we were told that all that's really needed is a decent host processor, and therefore the mini-ITX board does not come equipped with a graphics card. Instead, it houses the Avermedia capture card. By combining two systems with dedicated purposes into one case, you can save some money on an additional PSU, liquid cooler and a chassis.

For anyone that streams on any level, CyberpowerPC is currently offering a one-of-a-kind solution that, despite its outlandish concept, should be practical for its intended use.

MORE: All Gaming News From CESMORE: All Desktops News From CES

Best NAS

QNAP TBS-453A

For the last few months, several NAS manufacturers have entered the home router market, but only QNAP has combined a private network router with a NAS and home theater PC technology. The new trifecta device is the TBS-453A, and it's about the same size as a netbook.

The system has up to 8 GB of system DRAM, four SATA m.2 SSD slots, a local WAN and four LAN ports. Those combined features would be an excellent start to a network attached storage device that doubles as the network, but the TBS-453A goes a step further by adding dual HDMI outputs, four USB 3.0 ports, audio ports and a card reader.

The HDMI ports allow for local display support (home theater PC with KODI or other supported software) and real-time 4K H.264 video transcoding to other network attached devices. The system will remain responsive thanks to a highly optimized Intel Braswell SoC processor that consumes very little power.

Regardless of how you use the device, it's small enough to fit in any location, or you can opt to take it on the road as a traveling all-in-one device that can double as a PC.

MORE: All Storage News From CES

Best New Graphics Tech

PowerVR Wizard

From a company known for solid but not exactly flashy mobile graphics solutions, the PowerVR Wizard from Imagination looks to be something new. It's a PCI card, built with a specialized ray tracing processor. It's a low-powered, 10 watt card with passive cooling, but in a head-to-head demo, it rendered a scene five times faster than an Nvidia GeForce 980 Ti. Now, the test was undeniably set up in Imagination's favor, but we always love to see David take a shot at Goliath.

In addition to the head-to-head, we also got to see the four PowerVR Wizards running in tandem to render a flythrough of a scene. The rendering was done in Unity, which has worked with Imagination Technologies (maker of the PowerVR) to implement ray tracing in its APIs. The scene had more than 300 million light rays being rendered simultaneously, but the four little cards kept up an admirable 30 fps at 1080p.

MORE: Imagination Demos Realtime Ray TracingMORE: All Graphics News From CES

Best System Concept

Razer Blade Stealth Ultrabook And Razer Core GPU Dock

You could argue that Razer swiped the idea of using a laptop paired with an external GPU dock from MSI and Alienware. You could further argue that Asus' new GPU dock is actually better than Razer's Core dock, because it uses PCIe x4 to pump full 40 Gbps over its USB-C connectors, whereas Thunderbolt 3 has an overhead penalty that drops its stated 40 Gbps to something lesser.

Those are strong arguments, but even so, we chose Razer's setup as our top pick. The docks from MSI, Alienware and Asus are all proprietary in some way and are thus married to a single device. It is true that so far, the Razer Core dock works just with the Razer Blade Stealth, and Razer reps wouldn't state definitively either way whether or not the Core would work with any device that had the correct USB-C port with Thunderbolt 3. But the Core (apparently) uses no secret sauce, so connecting other devices should theoretically work.

Further, there's the fact that Razer seems to have thought through an average gamer's ideal setup. You have the slim Ultrabook (with strong specs of its own), a powerful external GPU for when you need to rock and roll in demanding games, and a place to park all your peripherals. One cable connects that laptop to the whole schmeer, and charges it. (Asus' setup requires two cables.)

MORE: Razer's Blade Stealth Laptop And Core External GPU DockMORE: All Systems News From CES

Best Sign Of VR Promise

Jaunt VR

VR and 360-degree cameras made a rush at CES this year, but most of them, as impressive as they were, are consumer-grade products -- the GoPro of the VR camera world, as it were. Which is to say, they offer excellent-enough quality for you and me. But for the big boys, there's Jaunt. It's really not a product you can buy. It's a massive, professional-grade VR camera intended for movie making or broadcast recording (the company isn't going after live VR entertainment yet). The focus, if it isn't obvious, is quality. It has 24 HD camera modules, each with one-inch sensors with global shutters and HDR.

Most cameras employ rolling shutter sensors, which record moving objects from top to bottom. This scan-line effect can cause severe distortion when recording swift-moving objects. This is not ideal for immersive motion capture and makes it nearly impossible to stitch all of those images together perfectly. Global shutter records all scan lines at once. There's much more going on here, though, like the memory arrays behind the pixel cells (each pixel has a memory cell). The video gets uploaded to a cloud-based rendering system that combines all of the data and then reconstructs it as stereo output -- a virtual camera output for each eye. The company only does content partnership deals (which allows Jaunt to distribute the content on its own player in its app).

Okay, so shoot me: This is not really a product that's for you and me (although it's output is -- there's some really compelling content in the Jaunt app), but it's another sign that VR is serious business, and it's more than just gaming. Jaunt has raised $100m so far, just in case you're still not convinced.

MORE: All Virtual Reality News From CES

Specifications, Pricing, Warranty & Accessories

The QNAP models announced at least year's Computex are coming to market. The TS-563 uses AMD's low-power G-series system-on-chip (SoC) to bring award-winning features to this competitive market.

A while back, we tested the Synology DS415+ four-bay network attached storage (NAS) system and were critical of its limited features. After this review, when you see what QNAP is offering, you will understand why Synology had to endure our criticism. QNAP leads the SMB NAS market in features per dollar. Priced within a few bucks of the DS-415+, the QNAP TS-563 is a five-bay system with one-touch copy functionality, a powerful software suite and optional 10Gb Ethernet expansion. The hardware features complement QNAP's software, now up to QTS 4.2.

To achieve such an aggressive price point, QNAP employed AMD's new G-series SoC with hardware-accelerated encryption and video. Anytime I read the phrase performance per watt, I interpret it as poor performance at low power. AMD really likes to plug this marketing message into its press releases, so I didn't expect much from the G-series products. That changed when we tested the TVS-863+ and measured great performance on both 1GbE and 10GbE networks. The numbers weren't just great; they were even competitive with products using Intel's SoCs. We can't always say that about the other markets AMD serves.

MORE: All Storage ArticlesMORE: Latest Storage News
MORE: Storage in the Forums

The TS-563 ships in two versions with different amounts of system memory. The lower-price option ships with 2GB of DDR3 in a single SO-DIMM. The 8GB model we're testing today ships with two 4GB DDR3 SO-DIMMs populating both available slots. Either model can be updated with dual 8GB SO-DIMMs to a maximum of 16GB at 1600 MT/s. Why worry about RAM? Similar to your home PC, applications are loaded into system memory for faster access by the CPU. This system has an extensive list of software you can add, making more RAM an attractive attribute.

Powering those apps is AMD's GX-420MC SoC, sporting a 2GHz quad-core processor with 2MB of L2 cache and a 17.5W TDP. It's a Jaguar derivative, built on a 28nm process. AMD endows the SoC with AES-NI instruction support, accelerating encryption and decryption.

Data stored in the TS-563 is spread between as many as five internal drives, which can be a mix of mechanical and solid-state devices. SSD-based caching is supported, enabling high-performance application server functionality, if that's something you're interested in. But most folks will apply RAID 5 across the five bays, creating a more traditional array. RAID 6 and 10 are also possible, but RAID 5 is ideal for this type of system.

There are also several connectivity options. Out of the box, you get two GbE ports. Hook up to one of them, both on a single network or two ports on two networks. You can also team them with link aggregation or upgrade the system using an available four-lane PCIe 2.0 slot. Expansion options include single- and dual-port 10GbE.

The system also has five USB 3.0 ports that open up more options. I love using the front USB 3.0 port to charge my cellphone and tablet. It's surrounded by a button that, when activated, saves data from whatever is plugged in. Four additional USB 3.0 ports on the back of the system can be used for storage expansion with one of QNAP's available enclosures. You can also use them to control a UPS, host an optical drive or charge other mobile devices. 

Price, Warranty & Accessories

We found the TS-563 available for as low as $542.47 (for the 2GB model). The version with 8GB of RAM tips the scale at $709. Given the sizable delta, you're best off buying the lower-capacity NAS and upgrading it with additional memory.

QNAP offers a standard two-year warranty on the TS-563. You have the option to purchase an additional three years of coverage if your vendor of choice also sells the QNAP-backed service.

The TS-563 system includes a paper quick-start guide, screws for mounting hard drives (3.5- and 2.5-inch), a power cable and two Ethernet cables.

This model has an available four-lane PCIe 2.0 slot for network expansion, and QNAP offers four cards that fit it. The first is a dual-port GbE adapter (LAN-1G2T-D). The company also sells three 10 GbE add-in cards. The first enables a single SFP+ transceiver (LAN-10G1SR-D). The other two add-in cards support single (LAN-10G1T-D) and dual (LAN-10G2T-D) over 10GBase-T.

The TS-563 also supports QNAP's newest expansion chassis. Fully built-out, it'll take up to 21 drive bays.

Software

Features

QNAP recently released its latest operating system, QTS 4.2, which includes support for the company's new Container Station, Qsirch function and various incremental updates to existing features. You can read more about QTS 4.2 on the operating system's microsite.

Feature Apps

Interface

There are so many software features that we could write an entire article just on the operating system and what's inside. In fact, we plan to publish comprehensive feature stories covering NAS operating systems and their GUIs in the future. For now, there are more native features and optional add-ons than we can introduce in a single device review.

There are hundreds of pages in the QNAP QTS operating system, but they all originate from the main screen. The icons are similar to what you find in Android; you can move and re-position them across the three default pages. Of course, you can also add and remove icons as needed.

The health check feature in the lower-right corner of the dashboard opens to what we see here. It provides a quick way to catch the latest QNAP software news, see details about firmware updates and view the system's status. You can monitor the storage array and CPU, in addition to keeping an eye on memory usage and network traffic. Another pane shows if other users are logged in to the system; you don't want to update firmware or restart the NAS if someone else is using a shared file from a remote location.

Before we even get into the applications, let's look at the system's many configurable features. Everything comes set up from QNAP to be completely usable. But you can easily change the options to create a more customized experience.

For instance, disable and hide all of the home/multimedia functions by clicking a single check-box. This helps save processing cycles and system memory if those capabilities aren't needed.

In QTS' Storage Manager, you can build arrays either in volumes or by pools of disks. The latter option, introduced a few years ago, allows the appliance to tackle storage like an enterprise-class SAN. For example, one part of a drive may be a member of a RAID 0 array, while another section is part of a RAID 5 array.

When we review QNAP NAS appliances, we use the single-volume option. Systems with seven drive bays and less are tested in RAID 5, while systems with eight or more disks are tested in RAID 6.

You get a lot of networking options, too. QNAP facilitates several modes of network teaming, including 802.11ad link aggregation. And there are a few ways to connect to the system from outside of your intranet: it's accessible from QNAP's cloud feature, a free service through a specialized website, or through a third-party DDNS service.

A Closer Look

The Turbo NAS TS-563 ships in a brown box with a label that mentions some of the system's features. Again, the accessory package includes a quick-start guide, screws for mounting 2.5- and 3.5-inch drives, two Ethernet cords and a power cord.

As a pedestal NAS, the system can sit quietly on a shelf, file cabinet or right on your desk. Its small footprint doesn't consume much space, and that large AMD sticker can be removed, too.

QNAP arms its platform with an assortment of status LEDs and a large display that come in useful for setting the system up without the aid of additional devices.

The front USB 3.0 port features one-touch copy functionality that lets you plug in a portable storage device and either charge it or send its saved data to a reserved location on the NAS.

Bundled drive sleds support 3.5- and 2.5-inch devices. Air passes through the sleds to keep your disks cool. Sensors inside the system monitor drive temperatures and affect the fan speed to strike a balance between thermal readings and acoustics. The sleds also feature two LEDs each, one to indicates that a drive is present and the other to visualize activity.

Additional LEDs convey system status. Green is good and red lets you know there's a problem. USB and network activity are also displayed through LEDs.

The system pulls fresh air in through the component side to cool the SoC, memory and add-in components. The front face is made from plastic, while everything else is metal.

Almost all of the I/O is found around back. A large, 120mm fan exhausts air from the TS-563 to keep the electronics inside cool. A smaller fan up top is dedicated to cooling the power supply. Nevertheless, the system operates quietly (at least with our Western Digital Red and Seagate NAS hard drives installed).

The TS-563 doesn't output high-definition audio or video directly. DLNA and other software features do push multimedia files from the NAS to your connected devices through four USB 3.0 ports or two GbE ports on the back, though.

Four-Corner Testing

Before we jump into the real-world workloads, we'll run a handful of synthetic tests. This helps us understand each product's strengths and the areas where performance could be improved.

In all but one benchmark, we linked a single gigabit Ethernet port from the device being tested to a Netgear S3300-52X 100/1000/10,000 switch. We used a Quanta MESOS CB220 server on the other end to administer the workloads. The MESOS CB220 connects to the network via 10GbE.

Sequential Performance

With all of tested platforms attached through a single GbE connection, performance is hampered by available network bandwidth.

The fact that appliances like these use such tightly integrated SoCs with host processing, memory control and I/O on one die, and still operate under low power ceilings is nothing short of amazing. Asustor's AS7004T employs Intel's desktop-class Core i3, giving us a good point of reference to compare more modest platforms.

Sequential Mixed Workloads

The line graphs show the percentage of read operations in each benchmark. Our results start with 100 percent reads and transition to 100 percent sequential writes. We highlight the 70 percent read/30 percent write combination specifically because it's regarded to be a mix typical of professional workstations.

Using the taxing mixed workloads, we see some separation between the products we're comparing. QNAP's TS-563 rips through these metrics with higher performance than the more expensive AS7004T.

Random Performance

The TS-563 also dominates the random read tests at low queue depths. Asustor's AS7004T picks up the pace after a queue depth of two thanks to aggressive cache algorithms. But other than the random read test at high queue depths, which the AS7004T wins, QNAP's TS-563 is faster.

It also performs really well in the random data write tests, achieving performance that's higher than the other products in this discipline as well.

Random Mixed Workloads

With a performance lead in both 100 percent random reads and random writes, the TS-563 also leads the other products in random mixed workloads.

SMB, iSCSI & Standard Server Workloads

SMB/CIFS Workloads

Our trace-based tests employ real-world software that most of us use on our PCs or network appliances. The SMB benchmarks illustrate data transfer performance when you copy and paste files to a NAS.

There is enough data here that you should be able to identify the most applicable transfer types and isolate the products that best suit your needs.

Multi-Client SMB Testing

The multi-client test uses 10 dual Xeon servers, each loaded with two Hot Lava Shasta six-port network adapters. Each server runs 12 virtualized Windows 7 installations that run a script of Microsoft Office applications. One of these scripts isn't enough to saturate a gigabit Ethernet connection, but as the number of clients increases, so does the load. Also, adding clients changes the workload. Sequential transfers from multiple sources quickly become random in nature as the device being tested receives the data.

The data is presented two ways. A throughput chart shows the aggregated transfers to the system. But the latency chart is arguably more important, since it's indicative of the experience you get from a device communicating with the NAS. 

QNAP's TS-563 performs well under the heavy multi-client load. Surprisingly, it even outperforms the Asustor AS7004T. That appliance uses a different caching algorithm, which usually allows it to best the competition. AMD's G-series SoC in the TS-563 clearly means business.

iSCSI Desktop Workloads

Unlike SMB connections, iSCSI requires that you enable the protocol and configure shares on both the storage appliance and host PC. If you use your NAS as a secondary drive (with its own drive letter), then iSCSI is the best way to connect. Random transfers are usually significantly faster, and you can even use thin provisioning on the NAS. This only consumes whatever capacity that your system requests. Performance generally rivals a hard drive inside your PC, but the data is held on a redundant array, so it's theoretically safer.

Of course, different companies use different iSCSI code, so a system with high SMB transfer rates won't always achieve great iSCSI performance. QNAP utilizes efficient iSCSI code, and its TS-563 stays in the top half of every test in this section. Interestingly, there is a lot of variation in the results from competing appliances. You can read more about the workloads here.

Total iSCSI Storage Bandwidth

One 7200 RPM Western Digital Black 6TB in a PC delivers nearly 16 MB/s of bandwidth. The TS-563 gets close to this over an iSCSI network using 5400 RPM Seagate NAS HDDs in RAID 5. QNAP's TS-563 outperforms the other products in iSCSI desktop workloads using real-world software traces.

Traditional Server Workloads

Traditional server traces have been around for nearly a decade; they're a staple for evaluating performance. And these days, most network-attached appliances have built-in Web, email and database server applications.

The AS7004T's faster processor and cache algorithm help that system outperform the other products we're comparing. Of the platforms with low-power SoCs, QNAP's TS-563 enjoys the lead. Granted, most of these tests are very specialized, and few companies will employ a pedestal NAS for the workloads in a dedicated role. Still, the results show what is possible.

Conclusion

The four- and five-bay NAS market is saturated with options. This is the entry point for enthusiasts serious about storing copious data. QNAP alone offers 18 products in this segment, and there's no shortage of models from competing manufacturers. With so much competition out there, you'll find lots of value and innovative functionality. Even products like the TS-563, devoid of multimedia I/O, deliver plenty of differentiation to set stand out in a crowded field.

We've tested appliances with built-in battery backup, exceptional SMB performance and even an advanced file system and cache. QNAP's killer feature is its operating system with support for more than 100 applications. To be fair, other manufacturers also publish add-on libraries, though only a few offer more than a handful. What makes QNAP really stand out is the quality and uniqueness of its software features. Old favorites include the ability to run a guest operating system in a VMware-like environment; that's still unmatched more than a year after release.

QNAP also breaks ground on the hardware side. Its TS-563 uses an AMD G-series SoC, and we've yet to identify an issue with the new processor. Beyond its host platform, QNAP was one of the first companies to offer 10GbE-attached appliances. That support is trickling down to lower-cost devices like the one we tested today.

You can see that QNAP's pace on new features is aggressive. Two years ago, a 10GbE network card sold for as much as the TS-563 itself. When QNAP started pushing 10GbE, building up the network was very expensive. The switches still aren't cheap by any measure. Fortunately, the add-in cards are much more affordable (including Intel's X520, a supported model in the QTS operating system). What you'll pay today is more a less a third of what it would have taken to construct a 10GbE network two years ago. What we're trying to convey is that QNAP may seem ahead of its time─the company has everything in place before you know you need it. Another example of that is SSD caching; QNAP had it before most other manufacturers.

I'm impressed with the TS-563. Home users may prefer a NAS with multimedia functionality. But small businesses rarely use those features. The system is priced competitively with other products in its class. However, it offers an upgrade path through 10GbE and USB-based expansion. Both considerations make the TS-563 more attractive than many four- and five-bay appliances selling next to it.

MORE: All Storage ArticlesMORE: Latest Storage News
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Chris Ramseyer is a Contributing Editor for Tom's Hardware, covering Storage. Follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.

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Specifications, Pricing, Warranty & Accessories

QNAP is back with another innovative product that binds a unique design with the best NAS software available today. The TS-453mini has a 29 percent smaller footprint than typical four-bay NAS products but suffers from an identity crisis. 

QNAP has released several new NAS models and features this year. To date, the company has the most product SKUs available, but hardware innovation isn't where the company has pulled away from the rest of the market. QNAP was the first company to release support for Docker, an in-GUI search engine, and retained the in-board app lead. Moving away from the NAS, QNAP leads in mobile and off-site connectivity features as well. QNAP isn't just firing on all cylinders; it upgraded the whole car.

With so many models available, overlap is inevitable. The Intel Celeron J1900 quad-core processor used in the TV-453mini is powerful. This processor has hardware-encryption acceleration built in and multimedia features via Intel HD Graphics. The processor is also used in QNAP's TS-853U-RP 8-bay rack-mount NAS, so it scales well enough for serious business needs.

The TS-453mini is very small compared to most of QNAP's other products. It's not quite as small as traditional two-bay systems, but it's small enough to make the comparison. Unlike other SMB models from QNAP, the TV-453mini looks like a toy rather than a serious office product. The piano-black finish, plastic cover and thin, blue-line LED give this model a home-theater look. That's where the identity crisis comes in.

Most NAS models designed for home-theater use are underpowered and lack features that users want. Someone who purchases a dedicated NAS for home-theater use isn't oblivious to technology. This is the person getting the call about technology and not the caller. Multimedia NAS products with two drive-bays, underpowered SoC processors and the like work well for the cloud but are less than optimal when transferring a 50 GB Blu-ray ISO file.

So, even though the TS-453mini is designed for small businesses, we think it could be the best home-theater NAS ever made. With that in mind, let's take a closer look at the 453mini and discuses its features in more detail.

Specifications

The QNAP TS-453mini ships in two configurations from the factory. The first version has 2 GB of DRAM in a single SODIMM, and the second ships with 8 GB of DRAM in two 4-GB SODIMMs. The Intel J1900 processor can address a maximum of only 8 GB, and most users will want to take advantage of the larger model to run more applications at one time. The SODIMM location is easy to get to, so it is possible to add memory to the lower-cost TS-453mini-2G later.

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As mentioned in the introduction, the Intel Celeron J1900 is a powerful processor for NAS appliances. We've tested other products with this processor, and our only complaint is the 8-GB limit for system memory. If it weren't for that memory limit, this 2.0-GHz processor that burst to 2.41 GHz could run heavier workloads reserved for enterprise systems.

Integrated into the processor is a hardware-transcoding engine that allows users to convert video files on the fly for viewing. When you're streaming from your NAS over the Internet to mobile devices, this is a must-have feature. Over the last several years, Intel has made great progress on the processor's built-in graphics system. Intel HD Graphics are powerful enough now to enhance and not burden the CPU. Many people now use the onboard graphics in desktops, and it's even possible to play the latest games at medium resolutions in a desktop. QNAP took advantage of the CPU's video capabilities; the TS-453mini can play 3D content and supports up to HDMI 1.4a.

The TS-453mini ships with new, tool-less drive sleds. The 2.5-inch drives require screws for mounting SSDs, but the 3.5-inch drives go in tool free. The system can make use of SSDs for cache, but most users will not exercise that option for normal file use. We recently tested the cache option in the QNAP TS-863+ review, a system with eight drive bays.

Aside from the new case design, the rest of the TS-453mini is typical for QNAP products. Users get a liberal dose of USB for ease of use and expansion. The USB port on the front comes with a one-touch copy button that automatically backs up your phone, tablet or external storage drive. Four more USB ports on the back give users even more expansion options. Users can even use the HDMI in conjunction with a keyboard and mouse to turn the TS-453mini into a desktop.

Dual gigabit-Ethernet ports on the back allow data access from the network. Users can run the system on two separate networks or use one of many options that take advantage of both networks at the same time to increase network traffic speed or reliability.

The new case design is the star of the TS-453mini show today, and we'll talk about it in more detail further into the review.

Pricing, Warranty & Accessories

We found both QNAP TS-453mini models available online from several e-tail shops. Newegg listed both as available at the time of writing. The TS-453mini-2G (2 GB model) sells for $528.99. The 8 GB model (TS-453-8G) costs $689.00, but eliminates the hassle of finding compatible DDR3 memory and installing it yourself.

QNAP Home/SOHO products ship with a standard two-year warranty that covers the hardware. The TS-x53 product series is eligible for QNAP's extended-warranty program. You can read more about the service here. I'm not a fan of the two-year warranties; I would really like to see products like the TS-453mini we're testing today covered by a five-year warranty. That said, two years is the standard for nearly all NAS models in the price range.

One accessory really stands out from the included goodies list. The TV-453mini ships with a remote control. This is the first QNAP appliance we've tested that shipped with a remote. The system also includes two Ethernet cables, a power brick with power cable, screws for mounting 2.5-inch drives in the drive sleds and tool-less drive-sled rails.

A Closer Look

The QNAP TS-453mini sells in a retail-friendly package that gives shoppers a detailed look at the product and capabilities.

Inside, we found the NAS secured in closed-cell foam with extra depth on the corners. The accessories are housed in a separate box, keeping the main unit from getting scratched.

Users also receive a quick-start guide and a manual for the remote control. Yes, we said a remote control is included with the TS-453mini system. This is the first QNAP system we've ever received with a remote control, but not the only one. We have another four-bay Turbo NAS from QNAP that ships with the same RM-IR002 remote.

Scratches should be a concern with the TS-453mini. The system has a piano-black finish that is easily scratched, shows every fingerprint and is nearly impossible to take pictures of. Right out of the box, piano black looks amazing, but it doesn't take long before the mirror effect becomes irritating.

It's mirror-finished, but at the same time it's fragile and susceptible to scratches if you wipe it off with a paper towel. So don't use a paper towel on it. Not only can you scratch the finish, but also small fibers will cling to the finish. It would be a good idea to invest in a lint-free cloth.

On the front of the system, we found the power button and the one-touch-copy next to the USB 3.0 port. Further up, we found the LED display section that shows individual disk activity as well as network and USB activity. A long, blue LED strip lights up to show that the system is turned on. This strip also blinks when the system is in S3 sleep mode.

The TS-453mini uses a vertical-drive design that is different from every other QNAP product on the market today. The drives slide into the system from the top. The drive sleds are a tool-less design, so adding disks takes less than a minute each. Air flows from the bottom of the system to the top, where it keeps the disk cool. A top cover gives the system a nice look but also forces the air to make a 90-degree turn before exiting the system. This reduces system noise, working like a muffler on a car — not that the system is loud with the cover off though.

On the bottom, we see the vent where air is captured. This is the same area where the system memory is located. Users can employ a screwdriver or a coin to open the 45-degree turnscrew to access the memory area.

Four rubber feet keep drive vibration from transferring to whatever you have the system sitting on.

The myQNAPcloud key is printed on a stick and attached to the side of the TS-453mini. The back of the system is where we found a majority of the IO ports.

Moving from left to right on the back of the TS-453mini, we found a power port that connects to a power brick. Four USB ports, two USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0, hug dual gigabit-Ethernet ports that can be teamed or bonded. A single HDMI 1.4a port on the back expands the system's options with either media center or desktop use.

Software

Features

Early in the setup process, QNAP SMB systems ask if the system will be used in a business or home. Your answer dictates the initial system configuration and the applications installed. At any point, you can add business or home applications depending on your needs. I almost always choose business, because I don't use all of the applications for home users.

Over the last quarter, QNAP released QTS 4.2 Beta, our first look at the upcoming operating system GUI that sets the stage for years to come. QTS 4.2 isn't a radical departure from previous releases, but it does look and feel a little different.

QNAP's QTS software ships with several preinstalled features from the factory. The loaded QPKG packages, QNAP's version of an app for your NAS, are enough to get you started. The company has more than 160 additional QPKG apps available for free. Users can download the applications from the NAS operating system via a dedicated page. The software will automatically download the application and it install it without hassle. The apps offer a good mix of client software, the things you may use in your home and pure business applications. You can see the full list here.

QNAP's software also goes beyond the NAS. A number of mobile apps for iOS and Android allow users to take the content stored on the NAS on the road via an Internet connection. The transcoding feature in the TS-453mini plays an important role when streaming video to remote locations. The mobile applications support much more than just video. You can see the full list of mobile applications here.

By bundling the TS-453mini with a remote control and designing the airflow to make an already quiet product line even quieter, QNAP set the stage for this NAS to become a real media-center powerhouse. On-the-fly transcoding allows users to move the media beyond the theater in other formats as well. Your media can stream to other media players in the house over Ethernet, or outside of the network to mobile devices.

Interface

In the future, we will add comprehensive feature stories showing NAS operating systems and GUIs. There are too many pages, too many features and too many add-on packages to introduce in a product review.

There are hundreds of pages in the QNAP QTS operating system, but they all start here on the main page. The icons are similar to your Android phone icons; you can move and position them. There are three pages, so you can organize them by pages if you like. Users can also add or remove icons as needed.

A health-check feature on the lower right corner of the dashboard opens up to what we see here. The monitor provides a quick way to catch the latest QNAP software news, see details about firmware updates and view the status of your system. You can see the status of your array and CPU, and memory usage and network-traffic activity. There is also a pane that shows if other users are logged in to the system. This is useful in an office environment. You don't want to update the firmware and restart the system if a co-worker is using the system for a presentation at a remote location.

Before we even get into the applications, the system has a lot of user-accessible configuration features. Everything comes configured from the factory at usable settings. Users can easily configure options to suit their needs, providing a custom experience.

Users can elect to disable and hide all of the home/multimedia functions by clicking a single check box. This is a nice feature to save processing power and system memory if the features are not used.

In the Storage Manager area of the QNAP QTS OS, users can build arrays either in volumes or by pools of disks. Disk pools were introduced just a few years ago and allow the NAS appliance to tackle storage like an enterprise SAN. The same disk in the system can be part of two separate RAID arrays. For example, part of the drive may be part of a RAID 0 array, and another section of the disk may be part of a RAID 5 array.

When we test QNAP NAS appliances, we use the single-volume option. Systems with seven drive bays and lower are tested in RAID 5, while systems with eight or more disks are tested in RAID 6.

Users have a lot of options for the network. QNAP enables several modes of network teaming including 802.11ad link aggregation. There are a few ways to connect to the system from outside of your intranet. The server is accessible from QNAP's cloud feature, a free service through a specialized website, or through a third-party DDNS service.  

4-Corner Performance Testing

Sequential Data Transfer by Size

Regardless of all the extra features, the TS-453mini is still an NAS, and eventually you will want to read and write data to it. In the benchmark results below, we compared the QNAP TS-453mini against four other four- and five-bay systems. The prices vary among all of the systems, with some costing more than the TS-453mini and some costing less. All of the devices were armed with 4TB Seagate NAS hard disk drives. RAID 5 was also used across the field of products.

In all but one test, we use one gigabit-Ethernet port back to a Netgear S3300-52X 100/1000/10000 switch. We use a Quanta MESOS CB220 server on the other end to administer the workloads. The MESOS CB220 connects to the network via 10GbE Twinax.

Before we jump into the real-world workloads, we must first evaluate the systems with synthetic tests. This helps us understand where a product is strong and where manufacturers need to optimize performance.

The QNAP TS-453mini delivers consistent sequential performance across the block size range. We didn't observe any wild dips when reading or writing. As you can see in the charts, many of the systems deliver around the same sequential performance. The ASUSTOR AS7004T does have a leg up on the other products in some of the write tests, but it's also the most expensive model, costing nearly twice as much as the lowest-priced system in the charts today. The QNAP TS-453mini sits in the middle of the price range.

Random-Data Transfer by Size

Delivering consistent sequential performance is easy compared to the explosive nature of random data. Most of the data you transfer to your NAS is sequential in nature. Movies, music and pictures — the staples of NAS storage — are all sequential. As these systems became more powerful, they moved closer to the PC. In some configurations, they are the PC. Applications read and write a lot of random data. If you use a NAS as a secondary drive that holds programs that you run over a mapped drive or iSCSI, you are using a lot of random data.

We should always see a drop in the random charts as the performance lines move from the left (very small files) to the right (larger files). The TS-453mini performs as expected in both random tests but isn't the highest-performing across the board. The TS-453mini does give users the option of using an SSD for random-read cache. Users can also use an SSD to cache sequential data, but this isn't an optimal use for the flash, a resource that costs considerably more than hard disk drives.

Sequential Performance

In an office environment, the NAS is often accessed by many users at the same time. This increases the stress on the system. Each new transfer increases the queue depth. Again, we get nice smooth performance from the TS-453mini that is comparable with the other systems in the comparison.

Writing data at varying queue depths is more difficult for many NAS appliances. When we get to high queue-depths, the sequential data becomes random because we're pulling small pieces of data from the disks and from different locations on the platters.

Random Performance

The ASUSTOR AS7004T dominates this test, and there is a reasonable explanation for that. The AS7004T uses a Core i3 desktop processor and not an Intel SoC low-power chip like the other systems do. The Celeron J1900 in the TS-453mini is a powerful processor, but it isn't Core-class.

Some of the systems in the charts turned in unpredictable write performance in our synthetic tests. This comes from the cache in the systems where data is buffered in DRAM and the amount of time the system was subjected to the workload. We're working to contain the wild shifts, and our extended tests seem to have done the trick. This will be the last review with the older models tested using the older write tests.

Sequential Mixed-Data Sweep

The data-sweep tests show mixed read-write IO performance. We measure two block sizes for sequential and two block sizes for random transfers. Here, we see that a lot can change between two traditionally tested sequential block sizes in the 70 percent read mix. Smaller files put more load on the system and require more IOPS to complete. The TS-453mini compares well against the other products in the chart.

Random Mixed-Data Sweep

The random sweeps run just like the sequential sweeps but here use 4KB and 8KB blocks. The 4KB blocks make up the majority of Windows read-and-writes when the applications are held on the NAS and accessed over iSCSI. VMware virtual machines are tuned for 8KB random blocks.

The TS-453mini gives us another solid performance with increasing IOPS as we add more random data writes. As we add more writes to the mix, the internal cache aids in increasing the IOPS until we get to 100 percent writes with heavy cache.

SMB, iSCSI And Standard Server Workloads

Single-Client SMB Performance

The QNAP TS453mini takes the top spot on the SMB/CIFS workload charts only once. The system does lag behind some of the others in a few tests by a larger margin than we would like to see. Still, the performance is acceptable for a small four-bay tower NAS.

Multi-Client SMB Performance

The multi-client test moves us away from the Quanta CiB system and over to 10 dual Xeon servers loaded with two Hotlava Shasta NICs each that supply 12 gigabit-Ethernet ports per server. Through the magic of Hyper-V, each server mimics 12 office-class desktops that run workload scripts with real Microsoft Office software applications on the device under test.

In this test, we've taken advantage of the dual network interface on the QNAP TS-453mini. In dual NIC mode, we used the 802.11ad protocol, also known as Link Aggregation. We also tested the TS-453mini with a single network interface.

The QNAP TS-453mini delivers exceptional throughput that reaches peak performance at 24 clients. The latency holds steady all the way to 56 clients but quickly skyrockets up from the stress on the CPU from the small file reads, modifies and writes.

Single-Client iSCSI Workloads

QNAP's iSCSI engine is very good. We've yet to see poor iSCSI results from any of the company's products, even the very low-cost units designed strictly for home users.

In the end, the QNAP TS-453mini outperformed most of the other products in the iSCSI desktop workloads running from a mounted volume. The ASUSTOR AS7004T with a Core i3 processor was a bit faster. The AS7004T didn't run away from the TS-453mini as much as we expect and not by enough to justify the additional expense.

Standard Workloads

Until this point, the QNAP TS-453mini delivered very consistent performance without large peaks or valleys in the results. That carries over to the traditional-server workloads, in which we see very little deviation regardless of the queue depth applied to the load. The system is able to absorb additional workload but doesn't increase the IOPS performance. The latency does increase, though, an attribute we can see in the snake charts.

Conclusion

QNAP doesn't lead the NAS category in market share, but if shoppers were educated, the company would be on top. QNAP offers a wide range of products that scale from two drive bays to 24 drive bays, and it doesn't miss any marks in between. The QTS software offers the most options for configuration and features, and while it's not the easiest to use, it's still easy enough to navigate for first-time NAS buyers. Moving beyond the basic configuration, QNAP has the most applications, some developed in house and others from third-party developers. Even though the NAS market-share leader now sells applications though an online portal in the OS, QNAP still offers them for free.

Of course, having the widest product range and the best software doesn't make QNAP the best at this time. The hardware plays a significant role here as well. QNAP isn't afraid to mix things up. The TS-453mini we tested today must have taken the product manager out of his or her comfort zone. The fresh design moves away from the traditional front-drive-bay, metal look found in most of QNAP's products. This isn't the first time QNAP has sidestepped tradition in search of something different. What really stands out on the hardware front are the new options for the hardware, with two choices of RAM levels. Other products in the company's lineup go much further. Some of the newer models ship with the same design, but users can choose the processor — Core i3, i5 or i7 — along with the amount of system memory. Users no longer have to push a square peg into a round hole, simply accepting the base products as is.

Still, with all of the options, the innovative designs and accessories included, it still comes down to software. The QTS operating system is the same for the most part across the product range. Some features are hardware-specific, like the transcoding function on the TS-453mini, but for the most part the software and the applications are the same. This is the base for all QNAP NAS products, and when compared to everything else on the market, QNAP stands at the top with a very wide gap to second place.

Looking specifically at the TS-453mini now, this model is like a designated hitter: You can put it anywhere in the lineup. QNAP placed this model in the SMB class, but it's just as comfortable in a small office as it is under your television. You are not going to run serious databases off of it, but it's powerful enough to run several applications when outfitted with 8 GB of DRAM.

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Chris Ramseyer is a Contributing Editor for Tom's Hardware, covering Storage. Follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.

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Introduction

NAS industry veteran QNAP has brought a new product series to market and given AMD a design win along the way. QNAP plans to tap AMD's extensive GPU knowledge to solve problems with playing back codecs that were never fully resolved in Intel processors. The flagship model using an AMD APU in the QNAP product line is the TVS-863+, the unit we're testing today.

Windows Media Center is dead, but that doesn't mean the principle will not live on. Video on a big screen is the ultimate viewing experience. Sadly, many of us don't have a lot of time to binge-watch  "Star Wars," so we absorb content on our phones and tablets. Keeping content on demand requires storage, the native function of NAS products. By supporting high-definition video playback on local and remote devices, NAS products finally have the killer app that pulls many consumers in the door.

The TVS-863+ is a step above what we see in most home theaters and is designed for small business use. The unit still leverages AMD's powerful APU processor that provides superior video support for a wide range of codecs. This model goes well beyond video playback capabilities. Video is just a big feather in the hat. The unit we're testing today comes equipped with a 10-gigabit Ethernet and 16 gigabytes of DRAM to run more applications than most off-the-shelf models. The TVS-863+ is so powerful that it can operate as a desktop computer without degrading network storage performance.

QNAP leads other NAS builders in software features and has no plans to slow development. In June, the company displayed QTS 4.2, the next-generation proprietary operating system for QNAP products. Version 4.2 adds container support for Docker and LXC while improving on a number of existing functions. What are containers you ask? That is the point. QNAP incorporates the next big thing before most even know it's a thing.

Technical Specifications

NAS products should be treated as complete system solutions rather than components. That said, the hardware allows users to run more software features at the same time and plays a role in the user experience.

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The TVS-x63 product series consists of four models that range from four to eight drive bays. The TVS-863+ leads the series in features, while the TVS-863 nonplus model is nearly identical but lacks 10GbE connectivity out of the box and ships with either 4GB or 8GB of low-power DDR3 DRAM. All TVS-x63 products include a user-accessible PCIe 2.0 x4 expansion slot for 10GbE add-in-cards and two DDR3 memory slots that accept up to 8GB memory sticks each.

Today, we're testing the TVS-863+ -16GB, the flagship of the series with every hardware option included right out of the box. This series is considered an affordable way to give users access to 10GbE network capabilities and up to eight drives in a storage pool. The next tier up in the QNAP product line is the TVS-871, which costs $2,199 (Newegg) and is configured with a Core i7 processor, 16GB of DRAM and 4x gigabit Ethernet ports (optional 10GbE, but not included). The affordable AMD-powered TVS-863+ allows the system to be used for more virtual machine storage, thanks to the 10GbE network.

QNAP is an innovation leader in hardware features. The TVS-x63 product series can use any two drive bays for SSD cache. When enabled, SSD cache increases read and write performance and can be tuned to accelerate small random files or all file types.

The heart of the system is an AMD 64-bit APU that features Radeon HD graphics technology for hardware-accelerated transcoding. The processor also provides a hardware-accelerated encryption engine with AES-NI that is full AES 256-bit.

I've always felt the increased video capabilities are out of place on many of the SMB NAS products but this market is all about filling in boxes with check marks. The system can be used for digital signage, playing videos like presentations in conference rooms and so on. The transcoding features paired with the always connected software does give the video features some legs. Businesses can keep sensitive presentations in house on the NAS but allow company representatives to play them in remote locations without the digital data actually moving to insecure offsite computer systems.

Software Features

Early in the setup process QNAP SMB systems ask if the system will be used in a business or home. Your answer dictates the initial system configuration and the applications installed. At any point you can add business or home applications depending on your need. I almost always choose business because I don't use all of the applications for home users.

Over the last quarter QNAP released QTS 4.2 Beta, our first look at the upcoming operating system GUI that sets the stage for years to come. QTS 4.2 isn't a radical departure from previous releases but it does look and feel a little different.

QNAP's QTS software ships with several pre-installed features from the factory. The loaded QPKG packages, QNAP's version of an app for your NAS, are enough to get you started. The company has more than 160 additional QPKG apps available for free. Users can download the applications from the NAS operating system via a dedicated page. The software will automatically download the application and  install it without hassle. The apps offer a good mix of client software, the things you may use in your home, and pure business applications. You can see the full list here.

QNAP's software also goes beyond the NAS as well. A number of mobile apps for iOS and Android allow users to take the content stored on the NAS on the road through an Internet connection. The transcoding feature in the TVS-863+ plays an important role when streaming video to remote locations. The mobile applications support much more than just video. You can see the full list of mobile applications here.

Pricing, Warranty & Accessories

We found the QNAP TVS-863+ 8GB and 16GB available from a number of e-tail stores in the U.S. SimplyNAS, a specialty store for NAS storage products, had the lowest prices when we researched this product. The 8GB DRAM model cost $1,399, while the 16GB model was $100 higher, at $1,499. Newegg and Tiger Direct also carry this model.

The TVS-x63 product series includes a standard two-year warranty. QNAP offers optional extended warranty periods that take effect after the original warranty expires. The extended warranties come in one-, two- and three-year increments but must be purchased within the first 60 days of the initial purchase.

The TVS-863+ model under test today already ships with every option, but a few accessories are available. The system comes with a single port 10GbE NIC but QNAP offers a dual 10GbE card that works in the system. The RM-IR002 remote control is also supported (but not included) with this unit for media playback.

A Closer Look

The QNAP TVS-863+ ships in a full retail package that gives shoppers a lot of relevant information in a retail environment.

Most SMB NAS products are sold online in North America, but we give QNAP kudos for printing the information on the package. In some countries you can find NAS in retail stores or computer malls.

Inside the package, we found the TVS-863+ secured in closed cell foam with the accessories in a separate compartment from the main unit. The corners are well protected, making it very unlikely for this model to be damaged during shipping.

The TVS-863+ ships with a quick installation guide, fine and coarse screws for mounting 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch drives and two sets of keys for the locking drive bays. The system also ships with a power cables and three Ethernet cables.

The gold standard? The TVS-x63 series comes in a champagne gold color that is popular in home theater products in Japan. I'm not sure if that was QNAP's inspiration for producing this series in gold rather than the traditional black, but it's a nice change-up in the test lab.

The system allows users to see IO activity in a number of ways. LAN and USB LEDs on the front fascia indicate activity and LEDs that shine through the drive bays also show disk connectivity for the bay and activity. A long, thin LED-lit area on the far left indicates power.

The power button to turn the system on is just above the one-touch-copy USB 3.0 port. To shut the system down you need to hold the power button. It's a thoughtful feature given the nearness to the copy function for external storage devices.

The front LED display gives system status information and warns in the event of a drive failure. The display is useful for the initial setup as it displays the number of loaded drives, IP and other useful information.

A sticker on top of the system gives users the key to connect to QNAP's myQNAPcloud feature for mobile devices.

The system is designed so most of the air flow passes over the hard drives to keep them cool. The compute side does have vents so air can pass through to keep the processor, chipset and RAM cool.

The back of the system has a majority of the IO ports. This is a full feature system with four USB 3.0 ports on the back as well as two HDMI ports for 1080P video playback and NAS-as-Desktop functions. Users can use the NAS as a computer by plugging in a keyboard, mouse and video to the system.

The star of this system is the 10-gigabit Ethernet. This one port has the same throughput as 10 traditional gigabit Ethernet ports. Two gigabit Ethernet ports are also on the back of the system for fail- over or connectivity to a separate network.

This system has an internal power supply so you don't have to manage placement of an external power brick.

Software Interface

In the future we will add comprehensive feature stories showing NAS operating systems and GUIs. There are too many pages, too many features and too many add-on packages to introduce in a product review.

There are hundreds of pages in the QNAP QTS operating system but they all start here on the main page. The icons are similar to your Android phone icons -- you can move and position them. There are three pages, so you can organize them by pages if you like. Users can also add or remove icons as needed.

A health check feature on the lower right corner of the dashboard opens up to what we see here. The monitor is a quick way to catch the latest QNAP software news and details about firmware updates, and  to view the status of your system. You can monitor the status of your array, CPU and memory usage, and network traffic activity. There is also a pane that shows if other users are logged into the system. This is useful in an office environment. You don't want to update the firmware and restart the system if a co-worker is using the system for a presentation at a remote location.

Before we even get into the applications the system has a lot of configuration features that are user- accessible. Everything comes configured from the factory in at usable settings. Users can easily configure options to suit their needs giving a custom experience.

Users can elect to disable and hide all of the home/multimedia functions with a single check box. This is a nice feature to save processing power and system memory if the features are not being used.

In the Storage Manager of the QNAP QTS OS, users can build arrays either in volumes or by pools of disks. Disk pools were introduced just a few years ago and allow the NAS appliance to tackle storage like an enterprise SAN. The same disk in the system can be part of two separate RAID arrays. For example, part of the drive may be part of a RAID 0 array and another section of the disk may be part of a RAID 5 array.

When we test QNAP NAS appliances we use the single-volume option. Systems with seven drive bays and lower are tested in RAID 5, while systems with eight or more disks are tested in RAID 6.

Users have a lot of options when it comes to the network. QNAP enables several modes of network teaming, including 802.11ad link aggregation. There are a few ways to connect to the system from outside of your intranet. The server is accessible from QNAP's cloud feature, a free service through a specialized website, or through a third-party DDNS service. 

Sequential Data Transfer by Size

In the coming weeks we will detail our extensive testing process and share how we configure systems. In today's review we're comparing the QNAP TVS-863+ to two other products on the market. We are also testing the QNAP TVS-863+ with and without SSD cache-enabled.

Without SSD cache, the TVS-863+ uses eight Seagate NAS hard-disk drives and 10GbE connectivity back to the network. For the SSD cache test we used a SanDisk Extreme PRO 240GB SSD as the cache device and seven Seagate NAS hard disk drives. We configured the SSD cache with the default settings that omit sequential reads and writes but accelerate random data. All QNAP tests were run with the EXT4 file system and RAID 6 for dual redundancy.

For comparison products, we chose the ASUSTOR AS5108T, an 8-bay solution without 10GbE. This system uses the EXT4 file system. The 10GbE comparison product is the Netgear ReadyNAS 716X with six drive bays and the BTRFS (B-tree File System). Both the AS5108T and ReadyNAS 716X were tested in RAID 6 to match the QNAP TVS-863+.

To start the testing portion of the review, we swept sequential block sizes from small to large to see the throughput scaling and find peak QD1 performance. This test also shows us that with the default settings, the QNAP cache algorithm doesn't waste time with sequential data. Users can uncheck a box in the setup procedure to cache sequential data, but most users will not run the system that way.

Here we perform the same type of test-writing data instead of reading it. Again, the cache-enabled test doesn't show a difference, as expected. The QNAP TVS-863+ does show a dip in the performance curve at 128KB, the standard measurement block size for sequential data. In our testing we also show sequential performance with 1MB block sizes as well, so the dip will only affect half of our sequential tests.

Random Data Transfer by Size

As a pure storage server, random data makes up only a very small portion of the workload. The closer you push the NAS into an application server role, the more important random data performance becomes.

The SSD cache really takes off here and accelerates random read performance. The performance increase will depend on the cache hit ratio that you can monitor in the operating system software. The monitor is important for tuning the SSD cache with the limited but effective settings.

The SSD cache has a slightly negative effect on random writes outside of 4KB blocks, where it helps performance. With or without the cache, the QNAP TVS-863+ delivers blistering random write performance. QNAP spent a lot of time tuning systems for virtual machine storage. Many VM writes take place at 8KB. The chart shows QNAP's tuning has paid off at that block size.

Sequential Performance

In this section we measure sequential reads at two block sizes while we increase the queue depth. The 128KB block is the traditional size used by many manufacturers to measure sequential performance. The 1MB block size helps us to determine performance while transferring larger data such as pictures, videos and so on.

Users can tune the storage for heavy sequential or random workloads during the array setup process by changing the stripe size.  We use the default 64KB stripe that balances sequential and random performance. This is important to remember when setting up an array. QNAP uses pools so it's possible to direct your data to tuned areas that can use the same physical disks.

Reading back sequential data, the QNAP TVS-863+ is a little slower than the ReadyNAS 716X. That said, the TVS-863+ does deliver consistent performance after the initial ramp-up in queues.

The QNAP unit delivers the highest peak sequential write performance but only overtakes the Netgear model after 4QD. When we add several streams of sequential load, the data takes on a random nature as the array takes in all of the steams and pushes the data to the drives. This will come into play in the next set of charts where we measure random performance at scaling queue depths.

Random Performance

The SSD cache random read results delivered by the TVS-863+ are truly impressive to a degree that is rarely seen in NAS products at this price level. QNAP has improved the algorithms since first releasing the feature just over a year ago on several models. Without the cache enabled, the TVS-863+ falls in line with the Netgear comparison NAS but trails the ASUSTOR model from QD4 on. 

The TVS-863+ delivers exceptional random write performance as well. Here the cache slows random write performance slightly but again we see more consistency over the ASUSTOR unit and a larger increase in IOPS over the Netgear.

Sequential Mixed Data Sweep

A sweep across the storage area starts out on the charts as 100 percent reads and adds writes 10 percent at a time. On the far right side, we get to 100 percent data writes. The charts highlight 70 percent reads with 30 percent writes, traditional workstation workloads.

The 128KB sweep is quite different from the 1MB sequential sweep. The 128KB sweep shows signs of tuning for 80 percent reads, a workload associated with client systems and possibly for virtual machine desktop system storage. The 1MB load gives us the traditional bathtub curve we see on most storage products.

The TVS-863+ fares well in these tests but trails the RN716X slightly.

Random Mixed Data Sweep

All three systems use the same hard disk drives and the random performance at 4KB and 8KB are very close in all tests. The SSD cache test does stand out, as you would expect. The three systems running without SSD cache show sharp spikes with 100 percent random writes. This is from the DRAM cache in the systems.

The TVS-863+ APU is able to keep up with the Intel Xeon in the Netgear ReadyNAS 716X. We really expected the Xeon system to run away from the others in random data tests but that wasn't the case today.

Single-Client SMB Performance

Windows users mostly employ two methods for transferring data to network storage: SMB/CIFS and iSCSI. In this set of tests, we're using SMB 3.0 from a Windows Server 2012 R2 machine to transfer data to a network share. In this case the share is //nas/test; in other words, a shared folder on our test devices. Intel's NASPT tool tests with workload traces and is designed specifically for network storage.

In many of these tests the SSD cache increases performance over the non-cache configuration with the TVS-863+. The system configuration and file system also play a role in these tests. The Netgear with a Xeon processor and BTRFS dominated many of the tests. Both Thecus and Synology support BTRFS now, but QNAP hasn't moved beyond the EXT4 file system. QNAP's pool system is more in line with the type of storage we'd find on large enterprise SAN systems, so we don't think a move to BTRFS makes a lot of sense at this time.

Multi-Client SMB Performance

Our SMB multiclient test represents years of hard work, a lot of money and several companies coming together to make the test a reality. There are 10 dual Xeon servers, each with two Hot Lava Shasta 6-port NICs. Each server has 12 Windows 7 Hyper-V installations and each Virtual Machine has a dedicated gigabit Ethernet connection back to a series of linked enterprise network switches. The Windows 7 VMs run custom software that runs Microsoft Office traces with programs like Excel, Access, Word and Power Point.

In high-client count environments, the sequential data is randomized because so much data is reaching the system at one time. With a low number of clients, the sequential data stays sequential but the block size of the file updates is still very small since we are dealing with Microsoft Office files.

This is the first test where we really start to see the AMD APU have issues with performance compared to the other products in the charts. The first chart shows throughput and it takes the SSD cache to bring the TVS-863+ performance to the same level as the Netgear ReadyNAS 716X. We've run this test on a large number of QNAP devices over the years with various Intel processors, and this is the first system that performed so poorly on this specific test.

The second chart shows the average latency for each client. This test is actually more important than the first as it has a direct relationship to the user experience at each office desktop. If you plan to use the TVS-863+ with several users running office software off of the central storage, you will want to take advantage of the SSD cache option.

Single-Client iSCSI Workloads

iSCSI is an amazing technology that allows users to mount a volume to a host computer and have it control the volume as a local drive. You can even set the computer up to boot from the iSCSI share, just like a SAN.

QNAP's iSCSI configuration delivers some of the best performance in the business. The cache-accelerated volume manages to shave a few seconds off of each test that you may use at home. Even without the cache enabled, QNAP's iSCSI runs circles around the other systems.

Standard Workloads

In this series of tests we ran traditional server and workstation storage workloads. There are two charts for each workload. The first chart simply measures IOPS performance with increasing queue depths. The second chart is one you don't see used very often. In the snake charts we show latency (vertical) with IOPS (horizontal). Ideally, the second chart will show the IOPS moving to the right and staying very close to the bottom of the results area (showing lower latency).

In many of the workloads we found very little performance scaling as the queue depth increased with the TVS-863+ without cache. The Netgear ReadyNAS 716X delivered the same flat-line results and the ASUSTOR AS5108T showed a little variation. With the SSD cache enabled, the TVS-863+ picked up the pace quite a bit and manage to increase performance until reaching peak. After the peak performance the IOPS drops due to the latency increasing for each additional IO.

The snake chart shows the latency and allows system administrators to tune the system for quality of service. Using the database test as an example, system administrators can use the cache system to get 5400 IOPS at roughly 3ms response time from the storage system. Any more IOPS past that point will have a negative impact on latency.

Conclusion

There is a lot of hype about the TVS-x63 series. Some of the hype is justified and some not so much. I don't think users will buy the system just for the AMD processor unit and very few will purchase the 8-bay model we tested today for the enhanced video for the Radeon GPU. The TVS-863+ with eight drive bays is a little too large for most home theater installations -- the TVS-463 (4-bay) and TVS-663 (6-bay) fit the home theater replacement a little better. The 8-bay model we tested today is a good fit for business use and offers powerful features at a great price point.

Starting with the primary function, storage. The TVS-863+ uses eight drive bays that support the latest in hard disk drive technology. With HGST's new He8 drives with 8TB density, users can easily store up to 64TB of data. After RAID 6 overhead, that comes out to about 48TB of usable space with dual disk failure redundancy.

Your data shares are no longer limited by wires or proximity. QNAP's cloud service gives your users access to permission-based files from anywhere in the world. The cloud service is one of the standout features for this model as it keeps the files local rather than sharing them to Google or Amazon. You control the content and who has access to it.

Other software add-on packages extend the range of useful business features as well. Virtualization and soon-to-come Docker support open the door for any operating system and feature you may want to add. Many features already exist, though, in the low-overhead QTS operating system via apps, even CPU- hungry databases run on the system.

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Chris Ramseyer is a Contributing Editor for Tom's Hardware, covering Storage. Follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.

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The QNAP TVS-871T is already a Tom's Hardware award winner and is now shipping in the channel. First introduced at Computex 2015 last June, the TVS-871T marries traditional NAS functionality with high speed direct attached storage (DAS) features through Thunderbolt 2 technology.

We awarded the TVS-871T at Computex for its impressive feature list and innovative design. This is not only QNAP's first Thunderbolt 2 system, but it's also the industry's first DAS/NAS/iSCSI SAN combination product that will decrease workflow latency for audio and video professionals. QNAP also incorporated dual 10-gigabit Ethernet into the system for high speed transfers to network attached users. Thunderbolt 2 technology powers the direct attached function with up to 20 gigabits of bandwidth that can be shared among five devices chained together.

The system can also expand for a larger storage pool by attaching either the TX-800P or TX-500P expansion enclosures. Using the TX-800P products, the TVS-871T is able to scale to 448 TB of raw storage.

QNAP's latest release has two part numbers. The first uses Intel's flagship Core i7-4790S quad-core processor running at 3.2 GHz. The second product SKU uses a quad-core i5-4590S at 3.0 GHz. Both systems ship with 16 GB of system DRAM and support AES-NI hardware encryption. The embedded QTS 4.2 operating system is housed on a 512 MB DOM that retains system configuration data even with the hard disk drives are removed.

“We at Intel are extremely pleased that QNAP has chosen to embed Thunderbolt 2 into their TVS-871T DAS/NAS/iSCSI/IP-SAN storage solution," said Jason Ziller, Intel's Thunderbolt Director of Marketing. “Thunderbolt is clearly cemented as the key connection technology for simultaneously supporting high-speed data transfers and high definition video displays. The new QNAP product is a testament to this vision."

Industry professionals are excited to see a dual purpose system that allows more users to share and manipulate data at high speeds. Until now, it was difficult to purchase an off-the-shelf product that delivered the same capabilities as the TVS-871T. QNAP's software sets this system in another league compared to offerings from other NAS manufacturers.

The TVS-871T is also the first model from QNAP to ship with the new innovative QTS 4.2 operating system that features more applications and third-party functions than ever before.

The system is also able to utilize solid state drives to accelerate random data read performance. The SSD cache function was introduced by QNAP in other products over a year ago, and it works remarkably well to deliver datacenter-like performance for small random file transfers to the host system.

Both the Core i5- and i7-powered system are available today. The i5 system sells for $2,799, and the i7 for $3,199 -- these are both prices from B&H.

Front and center in the QNAP booth was the new TVS-871T. This new system brings Thunderbolt 2.0 DAS connectivity while retaining NAS and iSCSI SAN like the company's other products. Bringing Thunderbolt 2.0 to the system allows professionals to connect a PC or MAC directly to the TVS-871T. The NAS has two Thunderbolt 2 ports to connect more TVS-871T units to increase capacity and spread the workload. 

The QNAP TVS-871T won our Best of Computex 2015 award for the NAS category. The unit is based on the TVS-871 model already shipping in the channel from QNAP. The base TVS-871 features two PCIe expansion slots. The updated Thunderbolt model uses one PCIe port for a Thunderbolt add-in card with two 10 GbE ports and the other for a dual 10 GbE card. The extra connectivity allows professional users to maximize the full potential of the Core i7 processor. Audio/video professionals will benefit from the extra Thunderbolt 2 DAS feature without purchasing expensive 10 GbE switches and add-in cards. 

QNAP also expanded the company's growing number of AMD-based systems. The new TS-563 is a 5-bay NAS with a quad-core AMD SoC that features Radeon graphics and AES-NI hardware encryption. The system uses a low noise fan, holds a large amount of data, and delivers exceptional graphics quality. This model also allows users to run 10 GbE to the network.

Owners of QNAP products are in for another update that brings a new interface to QNAP products. QTS 4.2 is on track for a late June release. QTS is QNAP's GUI operating system. The company updates the software with major updates around once a year, with incremental updates peppered in to increase the capabilities of the NAS products. QTS 4.2 looks very good, and we're excited to test the new software. For years, QNAP has led the charge for ease of use and integrating advanced features.

Last year, QNAP released Virtualization, which allows users to run a virtual operating system on the NAS outside of QTS. Users can think about this as QNAP's version of Hyper-V or ESXi. The virtualization world is going ga-ga over a newer technology called containers.

Container Station integrates LXC and Docker for users to operate multiple isolated Linux systems on a QNAP NAS. This approach reduces the virtual OS footprint by sharing some files and resources among the virtualized installations.

QNAP's new Qsirch tool was released prior to Computex, but we spent some time with the add-on at the show. Anyone who has searched for a file on an NAS with multiple directories understands the need for a local search tool. QNAP delivered what users needed -- a Google-like search tool that quickly finds files and allows users to sort the results by file extension. This is a great addition for everyone. Your Need-to-Sort folder will finally be manageable.

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The yearly National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show gives media professionals from multiple disciplines the chance to meet and peddle their wares. Every year, NAB spurs a flood of new product releases from a variety of vendors, and this year is no exception. NAB has it all, from enterprise storage products to the latest in displays and client storage technology.

Intel is a strong proponent of Thunderbolt technology, and it has a number of new products in its booth from multiple vendors to highlight the expanding number of Thunderbolt 2 products on the market. Thunderbolt 2 is well suited to media professionals due to its flexible nature and high bandwidth. The jump to Thunderbolt 2 actually didn't increase bandwidth, but it provides channel aggregation of the previously-separated 10 Gbps channels. This enables new capabilities, such as simultaneously transferring and displaying 4K video.

Thunderbolt users can connect up to six devices, such as 4K monitors and storage products, through a single port that carries both DisplayPort and PCIe data. What kind of craziness does this spawn? Let's start with the "world's first" 4K Thunderbolt 2 monitor.

LG Electronics 31MU97Z 

LG ships five different Thunderbolt 2 monitors, but the LG 31MU97Z steps away from the pack as it's a 4K display. The 31" monitor sports two Thunderbolt 2 ports and pushes a 4096 x 2160 resolution (17:9) to the IPS panel. The display will certainly set you back a few clams, but details are sparse and LG isn't commenting on the list price or availability as of yet.

The monitor also allows a direct connection to the Thunderbolt cable in lieu of the pesky adapters or docks with DisplayPort/HDMI connections that are required with other monitors. Thunderbolt 2 works as advertised, and the capability to both display and simultaneously transfer 4K video streamlines workflows.

QNAP Thunderbolt 2 NAS 

QNAP is making an entrance into an entirely new category with its Thunderbolt NAS solution. The QNAP Thunderbolt NAS features two Thunderbolt 2 ports that provide enough speed to transfer 4K video in real time. QNAP has yet to make an official announcement of the new product, so we don't have many details, but it is a compelling product because of the fast transfer speeds that rival 10 GbE. 

We'll follow up with more details once they're available.

The Thunderbolt booth at NAB 2015 also has several demos, including Thunderbolt NAS, 4K content creation with card reader, and Thunderbolt networking. A bevy of Thunderbolt product releases were announced this week, including the new LaCie Rugged Thunderbolt enclosure with a 1TB SSD; the Pegasus2 R2+ RAID 0/1 media station with an included USB 3.0 port; the Sonnet Fusion PCIe Flash Drive in 256 GB and 512 GB capacities; and the m.2-powered JMR PCIe Flash Drive in 128, 256 and 512 GB capacities; among many others. 

The leading-edge Thunderbolt 2 products highlight some of the new features we can expect to see in the future. As more ports make their way onto motherboards with Intel chipsets, we can expect the ecosystem to continue to expand. Thunderbolt 2 is much faster than USB 3.1, but we wouldn't hold our breath on it usurping the ol' USB standby for most external devices in the near future due to cost concerns.

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SMB-Grade NAS Storage

QNAP is a key player in the network-attached storage market. A while ago, the company introduced its TS-x53 line. Unlike the TS-x51, which centers around Intel’s dual-core Celeron J1800 CPU, the TS-x53 line utilizes the J1900 with four cores. The more powerful host processor is also equipped with 2MB of L2 cache, whereas the J1800 only has 1MB. In order to maintain a reasonable TDP, the J1900 operates at a lower clock rate. Still, the two additional cores offer better performance overall.

The TS-453 Pro-8G we're evaluating today comes with not only with a quad-core CPU, but also 8GB of DDR3 RAM. That gives it a huge advantage over other NAS servers equipped with 2 or 4GB.

Without a doubt, the major advantage of QNAP products is their QTS operating system, which is based on Linux and offers an intuitive, yet powerful interface that allows even inexperienced users to fully exploit the capabilities of the server. In addition, the TS-453 Pro supports the QNAP virtualized Personal Computer (QvPC) technology, which transforms the NAS into a fully usable PC. If you plug a monitor into the available HDMI port, along with a keyboard and mouse, you can operate the NAS through its "HybridDesk Station" application. In addition, QvPC features include Virtual Machine (VM) integration, multimedia transcoding, cloud integration and various other NAS connection technologies.

Obviously, network-attached storage isn't the best way to describe devices like the TS-453 Pro nowadays, since these servers provide much more functionality than simply adding networked storage space. For years now, companies like QNAP have equipped their NAS products with tons of features. Today, there is almost nothing that a modern NAS cannot do, at least as far as networking functions go.

The TS-453 Pro-8G's increased memory capacity, along with native support for Intel’s Virtualization Technology (VT-x), makes it ideal for QNAP’s Virtualization Station, through which the unit is transformed to a virtual platform supporting multiple operating systems. Another interesting feature that home users will likely appreciate is the server's HD video transcoding capability, which even covers 4K content.

Finally, the TS-453 Pro is compatible with QNAP's UX-800P and UX-500P expansion enclosures, which allow a total of 12 and nine HDDs, respectively (NAS + enclosure disks combined). 

Technical Specifications

Again, the TS-453 uses an Intel Bay Trail-D-based Celeron J1900 with four cores and 2MB of L2 cache. The base clock rate is 2GHz, though Turbo Boost can take lightly threaded workloads up to 2.41GHz. A low 10W TDP makes passive cooling possible, which helps reduce noise and increase reliability by minimizing the number of components with moving parts. The J1900 is manufactured using 22nm lithography, and contrary to the Rangeley CPU family that other NAS manufacturers leverage, it doesn’t support AES-NI.

The normal TS-453 Pro comes with 2GB of DDR3 RAM, while the TS-453 Pro-8G model includes 8GB to improve performance in intense usage scenarios. As far as storage goes, the unit can take up to four hard drives, so if you use 6TB disks, that's up to 24TB before formatting. All popular RAID configurations are supported, along with iSCSI. Briefly, that's a storage area network service enabling access to consolidated block-level data storage. To put this as simply as possible, iSCSI lets you "see" a remote storage location as a local one through your workstation, which makes expanding any system's storage space a simple task.

In the networking section, we get four GbE ports. Other I/O includes three USB 3.0 ports, one of which is located conveniently on the front of the NAS; two USB 2.0 ports; and an HDMI output. The only significant omission is eSATA, though you can achieve external expansion just as easily through USB 3.0.

The NAS' dimensions are defined by the amount of space that the four hard drives take up. It's a compact enough unit, considering that the TS-453 Pro uses a fairly beefy internal Delta PSU, and not an external brick. Cooling is handled by one 120mm ball-bearing fan. It should be a reliable unit, not just because of its bearings, but also due to the low rotational speeds QNAP uses.

Although the almost-$1000 price tag looks intimidating, remember that this is an SMB-oriented NAS, so it's intended for customers who prioritize performance and reliability over cost. A NAS appliance typically operates continuously; under those conditions, two years of use exceed the normal utilization of a typical PC.

Packaging, Contents And Exterior

Packaging

On the front of the box is a photo of the NAS with its LCD screen activated. You'll also find a short list of features, along with an icon depicting the quad-core Celeron inside. Finally, in the bottom-right corner, there are three icons describing Citrix and VMware compliance, along with DLNA support.

On this side is a multilingual description of the unit's most important functions. Near the bottom-left corner, QNAP provides an online address for its up-to-date HDD/SSD compatibility list. You'll want to check that out before buying storage for your appliance. Finally, there are photos of the device's front and back, along with a useful description of the LED indicators, buttons and I/O ports.

There is a small photo of the NAS on the top of the box, along with its model number and MAC addresses.

Contents

When you open the top flap of the box, a welcome note appears, along with various QR codes that take you to websites containing product data. Inside, the appliance itself is protected by huge foam spacers, and is also wrapped in a thick plastic bag.

A small box contains all of the accessories that come with the product, including two Ethernet cables, the AC power cord, keys for the lockable trays and two sets of screws for mounting either 3.5- or 2.5-inch disks. The bundle also includes a quick-start guide that walks you through the configuration process.

Exterior

Up front, most of the space is devoted to the lockable trays. In the bottom-left corner, there's a power switch, along with the Copy button, which actually surrounds the front USB 3.0 port. Finally, QNAP’s logo resides in the top-left corner. The TS-453 features tray locks for physical security. Any NAS appliance aimed at the SMB space should have these.

There are three LED indicators (Status, USB and LAN) below the two-line LCD screen. A button on the opposite side even allows you to perform several basic administrative tasks: get the NAS' IP address, check on system temperature and so on. The LCD screen deactivates automatically once the start-up or reboot phase finishes, thus keeping power consumption as low as possible.

A small sticker on the top provides the HDD sequence, while another, much larger one depicts the cloud key, which you're prompted to enter at the beginning of the NAS' cloud installation. 

Only one of the two sides is ventilated.

On the back, there are two fans. The smaller one belongs to the unit’s PSU, while the larger one (120mm in diameter) cools the hard drive and platform components. On the right side and near the bottom are four Gigabit Ethernet ports, along with a Kensington lock slot. A little higher up, there are two pairs of USB 3.0 and 2.0 ports. The single HDMI port is above the USB connectivity, and in the top-right corner is the reset switch. It's buried inside the enclosure, so you need a needle (or something else as thin and long) to press it. Surprisingly, the TS-453 Pro doesn’t feature any eSATA ports—most likely because USB 3.0 is more popular and provides similar bandwidth.

The NAS is equipped with four plastic stands that are wide enough to ensure stability. There is also a small label that provides information about this product's power input range.

We removed the trays to take some internal shots. However, we will fully dismantle the NAS later on, so you will have the chance to see more detailed photos of its layout.

The trays support 3.5- and 2.5-inch disks. They're metallic and reflect high-quality construction. Our only criticism is their lack of sound-dampening material. So, you may experience some noise due to hard drive vibrations. Also, the trays aren’t numbered. Really though, the hard drive sequence doesn’t matter unless you're using an SSD for caching alongside mechanical storage.

A Look Inside And Component Analysis

Breaking this NAS apart wasn’t an easy task, since we had to remove many screws. On top of that, getting to the motherboard required completely detaching the front panel from the metal chassis. Nevertheless, the whole process was easier than the disassembly of other high-end NAS servers (of different brands).

As you can see, we fully took apart the NAS to show you its internals. The drive cage and enclosure are metallic, while the front cover is made of plastic.

The functions of the LCD screen are handled by a Microchip PIC16F73 8-bit controller.

The mainboard is small, but includes all of the necessary components needed by a high-end NAS. On its solder side are two RAM slots; both of them are already occupied.

On the component side of the motherboard, you'll notice the CPU's tall heat sink. It is much larger than the one used in the TS-451, since the Celeron J1900 has two more cores than the J1800, used by the aforementioned NAS.

Both memory slots are populated with 4GB Adata SO-DIMMs (DDR3-1600).

An ASMedia ASM1442 controls the HDMI port that the HybridDesk Station exploits. The USB 3.0 ports are controlled by a Genesys Logic GL3522 hub controller. The hardware monitor IC is a Fintek F71869AD. Only polymer caps by Nippon Chemi-Con are used on the motherboard. In addition, an NCP6133 phase controller regulates the voltage that feeds the CPU. The NAS' flash memory module is provided by Toshiba. Its model number is TC58NVG2S0FTA00 and has 512MB (4Gb) capacity. Because this unit has four Ethernet ports, the same number of controllers is required. Therefore, QNAP utilizes four Intel WGI210ATs. Two of them are located on the solder side of the mainboard, while the other two are installed on the opposite (component) side. We also find two Avago PEX8603 PCI Express Gen 2 switches. The serial flash memory used by the BIOS is a 25L4006E chip with 4Mb (512KB) capacity. There are two fan headers on the mainboard, but only one of them is used since the NAS is equipped with a single 120mm fan.

The PCIe expansion card that hosts all four SATA ports is attached to the motherboard's single PCIe x4 slot. The card accommodates two Marvell 88SE9215 controllers and a single PIC16F722A microcontroller.

The 1U PSU is provided by Delta Electronics, and its model number is DPS-250AB. It has a 250W capacity (up to 17A at +12V), which is more than enough for the hardware we're dealing with. According to the 80 PLUS organization, Delta's PSU meets the 80 PLUS efficiency requirements. It powers the mainboard through a 24-pin ATX connector and another 20-pin to 12-pin adapter. It also provides power to the SATA PCIe expansion card, which obviously needs more power than the four-lane slot can provide. Finally, the PSU's small 40mm fan is very quiet. In fact, its noise is masked by the 120mm cooler's acoustic output.

The fan is made by YS Tech, and its model number is FD121225LB (120mm, 12V, 0.18A, 1800 RPM, 73 CFM, 34 dBA, 80,000-hour MTBF). It uses ball bearings, so it should offer an increased life span.

Quick Configuration

QNAP has an online quick-start guide that will help you quickly and easily set up the NAS. We will follow the steps of this guide below.

First, you have to install the HDDs and make all of the necessary cable connections. Then you switch on the NAS. Once you do that, you'll be asked to type "start.qnap.com" in your favorite browser and enter the cloud key found in the quick-installation guide and on the sticker that resides on the top of the NAS. If you don’t have an Internet connection or if you lost your cloud key, you can select the local installation option through QNAP's Qfinder application. First you'll have to download the app though; there is no software disc provided in the bundle.

Once you enter the cloud key, you're asked to register the NAS by creating a myQNAPcloud account.

After you complete the myQNAPcloud settings, you're ready to start the installation process. At first, you're asked if the NAS is intended for home or business use. According to what you select, the relevant applications are installed. For example, the multimedia-oriented apps are chosen if you select "home use". Otherwise, only the essential utilities are installed. Probably the most important step here is the RAID level selection for your installed HDDs.

Once the installation finishes, you get a page providing you with three options: Connect and log in to QTS, check your email for the myQNAPcloud activation mail or get more utilities for your NAS. We chose the last option to show you all the utilities QNAP provides for its NAS servers before proceeding to the QTS login page.

QNAP offers seven utilities that help you get the most out of your NAS server. We will take a look at them later on in this review.

After the configuration finishes, you're able to access the administration interface's log-in page.

QNAP Utilities And Interactivity With Smartphones

QNAP Utilities

The NAS doesn’t come with any bundled software, so you have to visit QNAP’s page and download the compatible applications. The company probably does this to make sure that future buyers will download the latest versions of relevant applications from its Download Center.

In the Download Center, all you have to do is select your NAS model and operating system. Then, all available utilities, firmware updates and mobile apps are listed.

The myQNAPcloud service provides various remote access services, such as DDNS and CloudLink. It ensures that no matter where you go, you can always securely access your QNAP devices.

The most crucial utility is probably Qfinder, through which you can also perform the NAS server installation (in case you are unable to use the aforementioned cloud installation). Once you install and run Qfinder, it finds the NAS' IP address on the network. It also checks for any available firmware updates, since QNAP releases these quite often. In addition, with Qfinder, you can check the server details, map network drives, search for network cameras, shut down or restart the NAS and perform other useful functions.

Qfinder also lets you alter important settings, like the network configuration.

QNAP's free download management utility is called QGet, and it is available for Windows and Mac computers. This application allows you to manage BT-, HTTP- and FTP Download Station tasks on multiple QNAP NAS servers, additionally giving you the ability to add, remove or watch your BT download jobs on the NAS from a workstation PC.

QGet supports an intuitive way of dragging and dropping torrent files and HTTP or FTP URLs into its interface.

NetBack Replicator backs up the data on a workstation or client PC to the NAS, and the Qsnap utility allows you to easily capture screenshots on your PC and edit, save or share them. The vSphere client plug-in lets you manage VMware datastores on the NAS directly through the vSphere client console.

The Qsync utility makes it possible to synchronize files across different devices and share files across groups and communities.

Interactivity With Smartphones

You can also use some of the features of a QNAP NAS on your smartphone. QNAP built some rather interesting applications for Android and iOS. You can find them in the Google Play store and Apple App Store, or you can download them directly from QNAP’s app center.

QNAP’s mobile applications include Qfile, Qmanager, Qmusic, Qphoto, Qvideo, Qnotes, Qget, VMobile and Qremote. Here's a short description of each of them:

• Qfile: Browse and manage files stored on your QNAP NAS through this app.
• Qmanager: This application allows you to monitor and manage a QNAP NAS. It's free, and comes in handy if you don’t have access to a client PC or if you just want to quickly access the server’s interface.
• Qmusic: Through this app, you can listen to the music collection on your NAS.
• Qphoto: This app lets you browse and share the photos on your NAS on the go.
• Qvideo: This app lets you use your smartphone to access the video collection stored on your NAS.
• Qnotes: Collect, edit and share notes on the go via your mobile devices.
• Qget: This app lets you add download tasks to the Download Station.
• VMobile: This is a mobile video surveillance application for remotely and wirelessly monitoring IP cameras and video playback on your Android/Apple phone or iPad. As long as you have network access, you can connect to and manage your video surveillance system.
• Qremote: This mobile app can replace your remote control, keyboard and mouse. This is QNAP's exclusive remote control for the HybridDesk Station, and we highly recommend it.

Administration Interface

QNAP’s operating system, called QTS, is among the best for this type of server. It is both user-friendly and rich in features. It resembles a multi-tasking-capable iOS or Android environment.

The QTS desktop is nicely designed and, through intuitive application icons, helps users find their way, even without a manual. You have the ability to tailor everything to your needs. You can move and rearrange icons on the desktop and immediately access basic administrative functions, logs and external devices. It also supports many languages, so you can easily switch to one you like.

This menu gives you the ability to restart, shut down or log out; change the password; jump to the QTS page; and put the NAS into Sleep Mode if it's supported. It also allows you to configure the administrative options.

The administrative options allow you to specify your email address, change the password or profile picture, or set a wallpaper by picking an existing one or uploading yours. There are also several other options you can configure.

QTS' help resources are incredibly useful. They can be accessed by pressing on the question mark in the top-right corner.

The dashboard is easy to follow. It provides you with important system-specific information, including HDD and system statistics. The resource monitor is also quite important because it shows CPU, RAM and bandwidth usage. The hardware section tracks hard drive and system temperatures. When applicable, it conveys fan speed, too. The online user portion of it displays all of the currently-connected clients. If you want to disconnect or block a user or IP, just click on the user and pick the action. All of these dashboard widgets can be dragged onto the desktop.

The color of the dashboard changes based on the system's health status, giving you a quick way of figuring out whether everything is running as it should.

The Control Panel icon gives you access to System Settings, Privilege Settings, Network Services and Applications.

The first time you log in to QTS, you're greeted by Quick Start, which offers a quick (and informative) tour to familiarize you with the NAS' major functions. If you've never used a QNAP product before, the guidance is quite helpful.

Administration Interface: Important Settings

The Network group gives you access to all TCP/IP settings, where you can enable Port Trunking mode. If you want to enable higher bandwidth between your NAS and Ethernet switch, enable the aforementioned option. Your switch must support the Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP) or you won’t notice any speed increase. LACP obviously requires multiple Ethernet cables for connectivity to all NAS ports. Another important option is Jumbo Frames, a reference to Ethernet frames that are larger than 1500 bytes. Jumbo Frames are designed to boost networking throughput and reduce CPU utilization on large-file transfers by allowing larger payloads per packet. But there is a catch: the Jumbo Frames setting applies only to gigabit-class environments, and all connected clients must enable the option with exactly the same MTU value in order to see a performance boost.

In the Shared Folders menu, you can create new folders and share them with users and user groups. From here, you can edit access permissions for both the newly created shared folders and the existing ones. Finally, if you want a shared folder to be accessible by guests, use the corresponding options in this menu.

The most advanced users will probably enable the Telnet and SSH services. Once you enable them, you can use a free program like PuTTY to access the console, facilitating access to many interesting options not exposed through QTS' graphical interface, such as increased RAID rebuilding and synchronization speeds. 

Although the TS-453 Pro is equipped with a pretty strong CPU for a NAS appliance, it still takes a while for a RAID array to fully synchronize the first time it's created. Rebuild times are equally long, in the event that a disk fails. This is because minimum RAID construction speeds are, by default, set to a mere 5 MB/s. This keeps CPU utilization low and provides enough resources to keep the NAS snappy. If you want to speed things up significantly, you can increase the threshold to 70 MB/s or more. Just keep in mind that other services slow down as the CPU dedicates its resources to the RAID synchronization procedure.

Through PuTTY, send the following command to check the current min speed limit: cat /proc/sys/dev/raid/speed_limit_min

To increase speeds to 15 MB/s, type the following into the console: echo 15000 >/proc/sys/dev/raid/speed_limit_min. We tried up to 75 MB/s on the TS-453 Pro, but its response was too slow at that speed.

To monitor the RAID sync or rebuilding procedure in more detail, use the following command: cat /proc/mdstat.

To make RAID reconstruction speed changes permanent, you must put and save the command line to "autostart.sh," or the speed_limit_min value will drop to the default 5 MB/s after each reboot. QNAP includes an easy-to-use editor with the NAS: "nano."

External Devices, System Status, Storage Manager, App Center

External Devices

All connected external storage disks, USB printers and UPS devices can be configured using these options.

System Status

The System Status window allows you to look at a summary of system and hardware, your network's status, all running system services and the resource monitor.

The resource monitor is crucial for monitoring the server's hardware. From here, you can keep tabs on CPU, memory, disk and bandwidth usage, as well as check the running processes and disk performance.

Storage Manager

The Storage Manager is one of the most crucial applications, so we decided to take a more thorough look at it. Through this app, you can configure the disks that are installed in the NAS. It offers plenty of features, so you better know what you are doing before you change an existing configuration.

Storage Manager tracks the model, size and status of all installed HDDs. Through it, you can format and check drives, as well as choose the RAID level that suits your needs. The TS-453 Pro supports the following RAID levels with four HDDs installed: RAID 0, 1, 5, 6 and 10. You can also configure the HDDs in JBOD (Just a Bunch of Disks), where all drives are seen as one big repository. The best options for increased data security are RAID 5 (at least three disks are required), which can tolerate the failure of one HDD, and RAID 6 (at least four drives are required), which can tolerate the failure of up to two disks.

Through the Volumes option, you can create, expand, remove, check, rename or format a volume. You can also create new shared folders inside of an existing volume. In addition, you should enable System Cache if you want faster speeds. Finally, if you decide to use an SSD to improve responsiveness, you will find some interesting options in the Cache Acceleration menu.

Like most advanced NAS servers, the TS-453 Pro supports iSCSI storage arrays. The Remote Disk menu allows you to add the iSCSI targets of other QNAP NAS or storage servers to the NAS as virtual disks for storage expansion purposes.

App Center

App Center is a management platform for installing add-ons. You can search for, install, remove and update already-installed apps. It's sort of like the Apple App Store for iOS.

In the App Center, you can check the activated camera licenses and add new ones, should you need more recording camera channels. You can also see which applications are currently installed and make them accessible to the log-in screen (if they support this feature, of course).

Applications are separated into categories. There are also lists of QNAP's selected applications and the recommendations they make. The list of available applications is pretty large, and you will find more with a quick online search. However, in order to avoid complications, you should only install applications that have been verified by QNAP.

HybridDesk, XBMC, Multimedia Performance And Virtualization

HybridDesk Station

HybridDesk Station is a platform onto which you can install tools and apps like XBMC, Google Chrome and the Surveillance Station. These tools let you browse the Web, monitor connected surveillance cameras or play back multimedia content on your TV through the HDMI interface. Home users will probably find this feature incredibly interesting, as it makes HTPCs redundant. With that said, HybridDesk Station can still be useful in business environments, enabling local access to the NAS administration interface without a client. We recommend using a USB keyboard and mouse to navigate the HybridDesk applications, especially XBMC and Chrome. Or, if you have a smartphone, you can also use QNAP’s Qremote app.

To install and enable the HybridDesk Station, click on HybridDesk Station under Applications and hit Get Started Now. You should also pick the applications you want to install. XBMC, Chrome, YouTube, CodexPack, Spotify, TuneInRadio, Surveillance Station (Local Display), Clementine, DeadBeeF, Firefox, OpenTTD, Supertux, Wesnoth and QTS are available. We installed all of them.

The new interface looks nice and resembles that of a smartphone. QNAP adds new applications to HybridDesk on a regular basis, vastly enriching its features.

The Settings menu allows you to configure HybridDesk’s options. You can enable or disable applications, and the Display group settings let you change resolutions and set the screen to turn itself off after a certain amount of idle time. The options under Preferences allow you to change the language or type of remote control used.

XBMC/Kodi Entertainment Center

The provided XBMC application (now Kodi) is based on the older version (13.2), so we expect QNAP to upgrade it soon. It also has a custom skin already installed, though you can easily change it to the default if you prefer.

The system's summary pages provide you with some useful information. For example, the hardware information page lists the CPU — a Celeron J1900 clocked at 2GHz.

Multimedia Performance

In the following tests, we play several high-bit-rate video clips off an external USB 3.0 drive before playing them off the NAS' internal storage volume (four Seagate ST500DM005 hard drives in RAID 5). All of the tests include playback of videos with a bit rate of 20 to 90 Mb/s, including M2TS files. The obtained results can be found in the table below.

The TS-453 Pro-8G's capable component easily handle our test videos; we're confident that the TS-453 Pro-8G will do an excellent job as a media player.

QNAP's Virtualization Station enables virtualized desktop operations on the NAS, enabling multiple virtual machines.

You can easily install the Virtualization Station through QNAP’s App Center.

An intuitive interface makes it easy to manage all virtual machines created on the NAS. You control them through a Web-based interface, and you can download more from VM markets. In addition, the Virtualization Station provides a snapshot feature to record a VM’s status at a point in time, facilitating easy recovery it in case something goes wrong.

There are several templates for creating VMs quickly and easily. However, it is better to create one on your own, based on your specific demands.

We went through a full Windows 8 x64 installation to gauge how snappy the VM would be. Although its response is satisfactory, you're better off controlling it remotely through VNC and avoiding QNAP’s Web interface, which isn’t as fast. 

Test Setup And Methodology

Test Setup

Our test system (client PC) consists of the following components:

As you can see, we use a capable client test system with a fast SSD from which all tests are executed. This helps to ensure there are no bottlenecks on our side, since the specific SSD can achieve up to 560 MB/s read and 510 MB/s write (sequential). 

Methodology

We use three different programs to evaluate NAS performance. The first is Intel's NAS Performance Toolkit. Our only problem with this software is that using a client PC with more than 2GB of memory heavily affects the HD Video Record and File Copy to NAS tests, since they end up measuring the client's RAM buffer speed and not the network performance. Therefore, we set the maximum memory of our test PC to 2GB via msconfig's advanced options. We also exploit the utility's batch run function, which repeats the selected tests five times and uses the averages for its final results.

The second program is custom-made. It performs 10 basic file transfer tests and measures the average speed in MB/s for each. To extract results that are as accurate as possible, we run each metric 10 times, using the average as our result.

We also perform multiple client tests (up to 10 clients are supported by one server instance) through the same program. The server utility runs on the main workstation/server, while clients run the client version. All are synchronized and operate in parallel; after all of the tests are finished, the clients report their results to the server, which sums them up and transfers them to an Excel sheet to generate the corresponding graphs.

The third program we use in our test sessions is ATTO, a well-known program for storage benchmarks. In order to use ATTO for benchmarking, we are forced to map a shared folder of the NAS to a local drive, since ATTO cannot directly access network devices.

Performance Results

Overall, the TS-453 Pro-8G does well, which isn't surprising given its high-end hardware and big pool of RAM.

Intel NAS Performance Toolkit

The NAS achieves average transfer speeds higher than 70 MB/s on all of the configurations we tried. This is definitely a good result for a single-client scenario.

NAS Test Suite Non Encrypted Files

The average transfer speed drops below 70 MB/s only during the external storage test with the disk formatted in NTFS.

ATTO - Internal Storage

Images left to right: Single-Disk, RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6

ATTO - External Storage

Images left to right: EXT4 File System, NTFS File System

All of the ATTO results demonstrated aggressive transfer speeds, which we expected since ATTO isn’t particularly intensive.

Performance Summary: Internal and External Storage

The following graph shows the NAS' overall performance in the tests we ran through our custom-made software, with non-encrypted and encrypted file transfers.

The difference between encrypted and nonencrypted file transfers is noticeable, but not large. The highest drop was recorded on the external storage test with the EXT4 file system.

Performance Comparison Graphs – Nonencrypted File Transfers

Now let's check the performance of the TS-453 Pro-8G compared to other NAS devices.

The TS-453 Pro-8G easily takes first place in all of the tests. This result is due not only to its strong CPU (for a NAS appliance), but also its 8GB of RAM.

Performance Summary with Multiple Clients

The following graph depicts the server’s performance in multi-client environments, where intense file transfers take place at the same time.

In multiple-client test scenarios, the NAS easily handles the increased demands. And with five clients, the total transfer rate reached 200 MB/s, showing that the teaming of its Ethernet ports provides high transfer speeds.

Power Consumption, Noise And Temperature

We're using a GW Instek GPM-8212 power analyzer for all of our power consumption measurements.  

Sleep, Idle and Load

Despite its potent platform, the TS-453 Pro-8G is energy efficient, drawing less than 50W under heavy data throughput conditions and with four HDDs installed. This is the main advantage of a NAS appliance. It can offer high performance along with low power consumption. And given that it will most likely have to operate continuously, over time, the energy savings are significant compared to what you'd get from a traditional storage server. 

Power Consumption Comparison Graphs

With the EuP Mode Configuration setting disabled, the NAS consumes a little more than 1W in standby mode, which is the best result we've seen from any network-attached storage device. If you plan to use the Wake On LAN, AC power resume or power schedule settings, then you have to leave the above option disabled.

With ErP mode enabled, the NAS consumes less than 0.5W in standby, making it compliant with the requirements of the ErP Lot 6 2013 directive.

When it's idle, power consumption is low (particularly for such a beefy platform). 

Under load, the NAS continues to demonstrate conservative power requirements. And if we take its high performance into account, then the final result is even more impressive. Obviously, the Celeron J1900 CPU is efficient.

Output Noise

For these measurements, we used a CEM-8852 Sound DB Meter installed 20 inches (50 centimeters) away from the NAS. Ambient noise in our lab was below 30 dB(A) when these noise measurements were taken.

We enabled the “Smart Fan” mode for our testing, and the fan’s noise remained low throughout our benchmarking. You can build your own fan profile through the Control Panel's Hardware menu. Or, set the Smart Fan rotation speed manually to Low, Medium or High. When the fan is on High, its noise gets annoying. You don't need to use that setting though. Just enable the Smart Fan mode and let it handle thermals.

Output Noise Comparison Graphs

The following graphs compare the TS-453 Pro-8G's noise to other units we have tested.

Under normal operation, the TS-453 Pro-8G is quiet, especially for a NAS targeting SMB environments.

With the fan working at full speed, the NAS gets noisy. But as we said, there is really no reason to operate the fan that fast. Even under our intensive benchmark loads, the control circuit never increased the fan’s speed to high RPMs.

CPU & HDD Temperatures

To stress the CPU, we performed a RAID 6 rebuild scenario with 75 MB/s minimum construction speeds. For the hard drives, we measured their operating temperatures after a long testing session.

The maximum temperatures reported by the QTS system status page were 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius) for the CPU and 89 F (32 C) for the hard drives. Those are low enough to demonstrate the cooling system's solid performance.

Performance Analysis And Conclusion

Performance Rating

The following graph shows the NAS' total performance rating compared to other units. The comparison is pretty straightforward, with the tested unit appearing as 100 percent and every other unit presented relative to it. 

This chart only measures raw performance, not the functionality or available features of each unit. Also, at least right now, we don’t take into account the performance of each NAS in encrypted file transfers. 

The TS-453 Peo-8G easily smokes its competition, leaving the second-place Synology unit in the dust.

Performance Per Dollar

The following graph is the most interesting because it tells you how much each server's performance sets you back. We looked up the current prices of each NAS, along with relative benchmark data, to calculate our performance-per-dollar index. If the unit isn't available in the U.S., we searched popular European Union-based shops and converted the price to dollars.

Thanks to its high performance, the TS-453 Pro-8G's lofty price doesn't hit performance per dollar as hard as we might have expected.

Conclusion

QNAP chose to implement a four-core CPU in its TS-x53 line; our results fully justify the company's decision. This is among the fastest NAS servers we have ever tested, and it easily smokes the competition in transfer speeds and power consumption.

In addition, the TS-453 Pro-8G is fully loaded with advanced features like QvPC technology, which allows you to use the NAS as a PC by plugging in a monitor, keyboard and mouse. In addition, the NAS can play a key role in your home or office's surveillance infrastructure through its Surveillance Station application. It only comes with two camera licenses though, so if you need more (it supports up to 24), you have to buy them at $60 each. Ouch.

The other interesting features of this NAS include real-time, full-HD video transcoding; HDMI 1.4a connectivity; and, if you purchase the QNAP RM-IR002 remote control (or just use Qremote in your smartphone or a wireless keyboard/mouse set), a fully featured media player. This NAS addresses not only SMB environments, but also enthusiast home users who are willing to pay the high price.

Modern NAS appliances are much more than storage devices, and products like the TS-453 Pro-8G are clear proof of this. There are so many things that you can do with a modern NAS. It can perform practically every function needed in a modern home or office. In addition, with QNAP’s firmware, you don’t have to be a hardcore administrator to perform the tasks you want; it is easy to use the administration interface—everything is designed to walk you through the steps.

The only major downside of this product is its premium price. However, for slightly more than the competition, you get a product offering performance in excess of everything else out there. If you are searching for a high-performance NAS server and price isn't your top consideration, then you should seriously consider the TS-453 Pro-8G. It's fast, energy-efficient and offers a ton of features, including rich multimedia capabilities.

Over the past few years there have been a heap of developments in the public and private cloud spaces. Qnap's latest NAS, the TS-x70 Pro 16 GB Series, continues on the path of improvement.

The Qnap TS-x70 Pro NAS units have already been available for a while, but only in 2 GB variants. Today, the company is announcing availability of the 16 GB variants, which according to Qnap makes it the first company to support virtualizing multiple machines on a single NAS without the need for additional hardware or software.

The units still feature the dual-core Intel Core i3 processor, two Gigabit Ethernet ports (with upgrade options for quadruple Gigabit Ethernet or dual 10 Gigabit ports), two USB 3.0 ports and three USB 2.0 ports.

You'll also find two eSATA ports, an HDMI port, and headphone and microphone jacks. Depending on the model, you get four, six or eight hot-swappable hard drive bays with locking mechanisms, giving you room to install up to 48 TB of storage (using 6 TB hard drives) if you so desire.

Of course, it's important to remember that these NAS devices are not only aimed at enthusiast home users, but also small businesses. That's reflected in the price tag, as the original TS-870 Pro with 2 GB of memory could be yours for "only" $1500.

The company gave no word on pricing for the 16 GB units, but it should be safe to say that it will still address a very specific crowd. If warranty isn't one of your concerns, it might be cheaper or quicker to just open up an existing TS-x70 Pro unit and add more memory yourself. Heck, you can even swap the Core i3 CPU for a more powerful Core i5 or Core i7 if you're daring.

Follow Niels Broekhuijsen @NBroekhuijsen. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

QNAP Systems introduced on Tuesday a new entry in the company's line of Silent NAS series, the HS-251. This unit is designed for the living room, sporting a fanless, 2-bay set-top-box form factor that looks right at home next to the HDTV and cable box.

According to the specs, the HS-251 includes an Intel Celeron dual-core processor clocked at 2.41 GHz (burst up to 2.58 GHz), 1 GB of DDR3L RAM, 512 MB of flash memory, and enough room for two 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch SSD or NAS hard drives. There are also two hot-swappable trays, two Gigabit Ethernet ports, one HDMI output, two USB 3.0 ports and two USB 2.0 ports. QNAP suggests that customers use SSDs or WD Red and Seagate NAS drives.

"With its powerful dual core processor, HDMI connectivity and completely fanless design within a set-top box, the HS-251 is a marvel of engineering," said Jason Hsu, product manager of QNAP. "This amazing product is coupled with an unrivaled set of apps & software features that will allow home users to enjoy a perfect home theater experience, secure & centralize their files & data, and much more."

The device is powered by QNAP's QTS 4.1 operating system, which features a multi-window operation and a familiar user interface. This platform allows users to centralize their files, data and backups, stream movies and other videos to various network players, and access and manage files using a tablet or smartphone. The platform also enables users to sync files across all computers, tablets and mobile devices on the network.

"The HS-251 can flexibly convert videos into formats that can be played smoothly on PCs, mobile devices and smart TVs, as well as allowing multiple devices to simultaneously watch different videos," states the PR. "Users can enjoy high quality videos by selecting a suitable resolution via File Station, Video Station, or the iOS and Android Qfile app even when in remote sites with limited/restricted Internet access."

The HS-251 follows the company's HS-210 NAS device that features the same fanless set-top-box form factor. This $329.99 unit includes a Marvell processor clocked at 1.6 GHz, 512 MB of RAM, 16 MB of flash memory, and only one Gigabit Ethernet port. However, unlike the newer HS-251, this model also provides an SD card slot for adding even more storage.

For more information about the new HS-251 NAS storage device, head here. Although it is available now for purchase, the pricing is currently unknown. Given the HS-210 is currently selling for $330 USD (Amazon shows $269.99), the newer version will likely have a higher price tag.

Follow Kevin Parrish @exfileme. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Asus At Computex 2013

This month our editorial teams from Germany, Italy, and the U.S. were on the ground in Taiwan, covering the Taipei International Information Technology Show (better known as Computex) to bring you information about upcoming and prototype products. In this third and final installment, we have information from 19 different manufacturers!

Asus

Beginning with Asus' booth, we caught a glimpse of the MB168B+, an external 15.6" 1080p display driven by a USB power for mobile multi-monitor functionality. With a thin 8 mm profile and weighing in at just 800 grams (less than two pounds), it's as easy to tote as a tablet. The screen's carrying case doubles as a stand, and the MB168B+ adjusts its orientation automatically if you have it in landscape or portrait mode.

Asus' 27" VN279QLB was the second display we checked out. Boasting a resolution of 1920x1080, this IPS-based screen is clearly intended for use in multi-display configurations, owing to that super-thin bezel. Expect it show up for sale sometime in July.

The PQ321 is Asus' first 4K monitor. A 31.5" diagonal measurement and resolution of 3840x2160 yield a 0.182 mm dot pitch. It comes equipped with one DisplayPort and two HDMI 1.4 inputs. It's expected to arrive this month at a $3800 MSRP. Later this year, the company says it's planning to launch a 39" model, pictured to the right.

The upcoming Zenbook Infinity Ultrabook employs a 2560x1440 multi-touch screen, Gorrilla Glass 3, and a fourth-gen Core processor based on the Haswell architecture. This svelte machine weighs in at 2.6 lbs and should be available in September.

Perhaps the most interesting mobile platform at Computex was Asus' Transformer Book Trio. The three-in-one design includes a 10" Atom-powered tablet that runs Android 4.2.1 and a keyboard/docking station equipped with a mobile Haswell-based CPU driving Windows. You can plug the tablet into the dock and use the combination in Windows or Android. Or, use the dock separately with an external monitor (not included) as a workstation. When the dock and tablet are joined under Android, both batteries combine to deliver a purported 15 hours of runtime. Availability is expected in September.

Another mobile device, Asus' MeMo Pad HD7 is a 7" tablet also running Jellybean. It includes a 10-point multitouch IPS panel at 1280x800, a MediaTek quad-core processor, 16 GB of on-board storage, front and rear cameras, a microSD slot, and a Type D Micro HDMI output. According to company representatives, the MeMo Pad HD7 offers up to 10 hours of battery life.

None of those specifications sound particularly impressive, until you hear that it's supposed to cost about $150. Expect this tablet to surface in the third quarter in four different colors.

On to the PC components. We went hands-on with Asus' new ROG Poseidon graphics card design, featuring what the company claims is the world's first hybrid air/liquid cooler on a GPU. It will launch aside GeForce GTX 700-series boards in the near future, we're told.

Asus' mini-ITX ROG Maximus VI Impact motherboard was on display as well, and it earned Tom's Hardware's Best Of Computex 2013 award for high-end features like an 8+2-phase voltage regulator, 802.11ac Wi-Fi/Bluetooth 4.0, an overclocking tool panel placed near the rear I/O panel, including LED debug display, power, reset, and clear CMOS buttons, and a SupremeFX audio card with high-end capacitors, amplifiers, and shielding. Expect it to arrive in the $300 range.

The Mini-ITX Z87I-Deluxe is pretty much a cheaper $200 counterpart to the ROG Impact, with a similar multi-phase power daughterboard and 802.11ac connectivity. It sports six SATA ports, and Asus claims it's the first mini-ITX board with four controllable fan headers.

We also saw some artistic-looking Z87-based motherboard mods that were worth checking out.

Finally, we scoped out Asus' ET2702IGTH all-in-one PC with a 27" 2560x1440 display, Haswell-based Core i7 processor, Radeon HD 8890A graphics, 16 GB of DDR3, Thunderbolt connectivity, SonicMaster audio, and an external subwoofer. This system is expected to be available in July for $2000, including a Blu-ray combo drive.

Corsair And Quantenna At Computex 2013

Corsair

In Corsair's booth, we started with its newest enclosures. The Carbide Series Air 540 is a double-wide dual-chamber EATX case that puts actively-cooled components on one side of the motherboard, and passively-cooled items on the other. The idea is that with cables and drives out of the way, air flows freely in the chamber that holds the CPU, PCIe cards, 3.5" hot-swappable drives, and fans. It's designed for air cooling, but liquid cooling is supported. According to Corsair, the case will cost about $139 when it hits retail.

Next up was the 330R, an enclosure designed for quiet operation with sound dampening material on every panel. Everything else about the 330R is the same as Corsair's 300R. The company says the 330R will sell for $89.

A representative at the booth mentioned that customers have been asking for different mechanical switches in Corsair's keyboards, so it had a number out on display at Computex. Additionally, Corsair acquired Raptor Gaming, a German company that also makes peripherals.

Speaking of, the K50 is the first Corsair-developed Raptor keyboard. It's backlit, with a full set G keys, and features anti-ghosting functionality. This model costs $100.

The K70 is not new, but it can be had with Cherry MX Brown and Blue switches now.

We got a kick out of the K65 portable keyboard due to its size and the fact that it sports the same key spacing as a full-sized model for $89.

There are two new mice from Corsair in the shot above. The M30 (right) is an updated version of the Raptor M3DKT, sporting a 4000 DPI sensor and a $50 price tag. The M40 (left) sits at the high end of the Raptor family, with the same optical hardware as the M60 and M65, but no metal on the bottom. It does feature a system to allow customization of weight and balance, and should sell for $60.

Finally, Corsair showed off some new memory. Its Vengeance Pro line-up fits between the Vengeance and Dominator Platinum families. This memory will be available with a 3200 MT/s C11 XMP profile, in multiple colors.

Quantenna

Next, we sat down with Sam Heidari, CEO of Quantenna. He told us about the semiconductor company's goal to drive Wi-Fi performance, range, and fidelity with a zero-packet error rate. Company reps showed some demos of its second-generation 802.11ac chipset, featuring 4x4 multi-user MIMO. Sam told us that he considers 4x4 MIMO to be the most important part of the ac standard, with signal processing that allows double the bandwidth when communicating with two receivers at the same time.

The first demo was actually a video that showed Quantenna's chipset delivering a high-def video stream without dropped frames or reduced quality more than 400 feet through multiple walls, and over 1500 feet outdoors.

Given limited space, the live demo wasn't as expansive. Instead, Quantenna pushed three high-def streams to three separate receivers in the same room from a single access point. The technology isn't available yet, but we look forward to putting the chipset through its paces when it shows up in a testable product.

Rosewill At Computex 2013

Rosewill had a ton of new products on display at this year's Computex. The company is working hard to transcend its Newegg house-brand roots. For starters, the Stealth chassis reps showed off to us is an attractive, tool-free design that prioritizes easy access with a hard drive dock up top (like the Blackhawk cases), 1/2" of cable management space in the back, and three 120 mm fans. It should be available toward the end of this year for $70.

The company's Throne chassis was announced at CES, though a new gunmetal color showed up at Computex. The black model with red LEDs should be available in July, a while version with blue LEDs is expected in a few months, and the gunmetal chassis will show up later this year. If you hadn't previously heard about this one, it's an EATX upgrade from Rosewill's Thor with an interchangeable hinge, four controllers able to handle four fans each, and one inch of cable management space in the back. Vents up top are adjustable for airflow and appearance. The case supports two 140 mm intake fans in front, two under those top vents, and one exhaust fan in the back. Rosewill says its Throne will sell for $180.

Rosewill had a custom-painted Throne on display called AirRunner. The side panels are adorned with gold leaf; it's no wonder the company didn't want anyone touching this exhibition piece.

Next, we were introduced to the Neutron, an enclosure designed to house a mini-ITX motherboard. It offers one externally-facing 5.25" bay for an optical drive and four 3.5" bays for hard drives. The motherboard tray is mounted horizontally and comes off with one screw. The side bezels (with USB ports and the power button) are interchangeable, facilitating some degree of customization. Rosewill bundles two 140 mm fans in front and one on the back. You can even use liquid cooling if you want.

The last case Rosewill's reps showed off for us was called the Rise. It's distinguished by a very short 17" front-to-back length, while still offering the height of a full tower. Its optical drive slots are mounted above the motherboard, while it puts the power supply underneath to facilitate that horizontal constriction. To demonstrate the way this looks in practice, three GeForce GTX Titan cards were installed in SLI, all fitting perfectly. Airflow through the case is facilitated by two 140 mm fans in front, one up top, and an exhaust fan in the back, though the demo system employed liquid cooling instead. Expect this one to be available later in 2013 for $160 or so.

Rosewill also introduced us to its Silent Night-series power supplies, which are fully modular and fanless. The 500 and 600 W models should show up in the third or fourth quarter of this year.

The Epoch is Rosewill's first digital power supply brand, including 850, 1000, and 1200 W models. They come with a mini-USB 2.4 GHz wireless dongle that transmits data to the PC. The software UI that corresponds to the power supply is attractive, allowing you to monitor fan speeds, efficiency, and voltages.

At the top of Rosewill's power supply hierarchy is the 80 PLUS Platinum-rated Tachyon family, available in 1000 and 1200 W models, and the 80 PLUS Gold-rated Capstone at 1000 and 1300 W.

Rosewill also introduced new mechanical keyboards at the show. The company claims its RK-9200 is the world's first dual-LED mechanical keyboard, with red and green backlit keys and four lighting modes. It comes with a braided, removable USB cable and is available with Cherry MX Blue, Brown, Red, or Black switches. It should be available soon for about $140.

The compact RK-9000 and RK-9100 are also coming in the latter half of this year. The -9000 has dedicated function keys, while the -9100 does not, instead offering backlit red LEDs. These keyboards are also bundled with a removable braided USB cable.

Of course, what are new keyboards without mice? The optical RM-9100 has three profiles, on-board memory, and four settings from 800 to 8200. Expect it to arrive in the second half of this year. The RM-9000 is programmable, has removable weights, adjustable colors, and a resolution range between 400 to 3200 DPI. Both mice should sell for around $40.

Rosewill also offers wireless routers. The T900N-X is a dual-band 802.11n model a few months out, though we already know it'll sell in the $90 range. The T1750AC-X is a 2x2 (450) and 3x3 (1300) 802.11ac router with two USB ports, coming in the second half of 2013.

Finally, we saw the upcoming Aiolos Plus cooler with four direct-contact heat pipes. Unfortunately, the company doesn't have an estimated price for it yet, but expects it to show up sometime in the second half of the year as well.

Lian-Li, Patriot, NZXT, And SanDisk At Computex 2013

Lian-Li

Lian-Li had some new enclosures in its booth at Computex this year. First, we saw the double-wide PC-D600, an EATX case with two 120 mm and three 140 mm fans, which the company hopes to make available by the end of this year.

The large EATX PC-V2130 includes two 120 mm fans in front, one in the rear, and four on the side of the enclosure.

The microATX PC-V358 folds open, and your motherboard mounts flat on the bottom. This case sports three 120 mm fans.

Lastly, we checked out the PC-Q30, a uniquely stylish mini-ITX enclosure that employs a single 140 mm fan for airflow. It's expected to arrive in the U.S. next month for $139.

Patriot

Patriot is in the process of shifting its focus to address an increasingly mobile-oriented market. Company reps started by showing off its Fuel+ external battery line-up. The small square-shaped 1500 mAh charger works exclusively with Apple devices sporting a Lightning connector. Thankfully for PC enthusiasts, the larger 2200 and 3000 mAh rectangular models feature a generic USB port. The largest 5200, 6000, 7800, and 9000 mAh versions offer 2.5 A output to charge devices faster. Patriot claims the mobile batteries retain 70% of their potential after 300 cycles (estimated to be two years of use), and members of the Fuel+ family will cost between $40 and $100.

Next, we were introduced to the Aero, a wireless mobile hard drive and Wi-Fi pass-through device available with 500 GB or 1 TB of capacity. Essentially an upgraded 320 with tweaked firmware, Patriot says the Aero might achieve a bit more wireless range. But the main feature is support for larger drives.

We also saw Patriot's new 64 GB s-mini and Tab USB 3.0 thumb drives.

Patriot wrapped up our booth tour by showing off its Supersonic Magnum USB drive, available with up to 256 GB of capacity for $299.

NZXT

NZXT was exhibiting a handful of fully-modular power supplies for value-oriented shoppers. Its Hale82 V2 is 80 PLUS Bronze-certified. The 550 W model sells for $80, while the 700 W version is $100. Both feature a 135 mm fan, which is quieter than the 120 mm coolers used previously due to fewer RPM.

The new H230 chassis was also on display. This is an entry-level enclosure, designed to be affordable, but also quiet with three 120 mm fans (one for exhaust in the back, and two for intake up front). It has a removable hard drive cage and uses the same sound dampening material as the H2 at a $70 price point.

Company reps also showed us its Phantom 530, a revamped version of the original Phantom at the same price point, with features like steel latches, fully modular hard drive cages, liquid cooling support, room for a 360 mm radiator up top, and a 240 mm radiator in the front. While the original Phantom had a 120 mm fan in back and 24 mm of cable management space, the Phantom 530 sports a 140 mm blower and and 35 mm of space behind the motherboard tray. Expect the new version to go on sale this month for $130.

Incidentally, a demo system based on the 530 was on display with three Kraken coolers; the original Phantom wasn't Kraken-compatible.

Speaking of liquid cooling, we spotted a prototype universal VGA bracket that's compatible with the Kraken X40 and just about any other Asetek-branded cooler. These were demonstrated on two GeForce GTX Titan cards, each using a Kraken X60. This bracket is expected to cost about $15 when it's launched.

SanDisk

SanDisk released the mainstream Ultra Plus in January, and now the company's higher-end Extreme II is available as well. You can purchase the 120 GB model for $130, the 240 GB version for $225, and the 480 GB flagship for $450 on Newegg. It's an exceptionally fast drive based on 19 nm flash memory. Read our review of this product here: SanDisk Extreme II SSD Review: Striking At The Heavy-Hitters.

ECS And Zotac At Computex 2013

ECS

ECS surprised us with the number of products it was showing off at Computex. To start, we caught our first glimpse of its new L337 Gaming sub-brand. As the name suggests, hardware in this family is aimed at enthusiasts. Two boards, the Gank Domination and Gank Machine, were both prominently on display, representing ECS' Z87 Express-based L337 platforms. We're told the word Aggro will accompany AMD-based boards in the same family.

The Gank boards we saw were feature-rich, sporting multi-GPU support, Sound Core3D audio chipsets, 802.11n Wi-Fi controllers, Bluetooth, and dual Killer Ethernet controllers.

The high-end Z87H3-AX Domination and Z87H3-AX Extreme are virtually identical except for a different color scheme. Both feature four PCI Express x16 slots, but don't incorporate a bridge chip to divide bandwidth up. Naturally, then, bandwidth is limited depending on the configuration you use.

The more mid-range Z87H3-A2X Domination and Z87H3-A2X Extreme enable three PCIe slots for graphics cards.

Next, we learned that ECS' product portfolio is being restructured into three categories: Pro (for use in the workstation space), Deluxe (light gaming and multimedia functionality), and Essentials (home desktop, theater, and general productivity). All three tiers employ the same orange and blue branding, which we find a little confusing, though the text and size of the orange band on the boxes varies. That aside, the result is much more cogent than the company's past efforts at segmentation. Many of the newly-named Pro, Deluxe, and Essentials boards are simply re-branded products, though it's easier to tell where they exist in ECS' line-up now.

One of the new boards we saw was the Kabini-based KBN-I Essentials. You can choose between an A6-5200 or E-2100 APU.

The Z87H3-A4 Deluxe and H87H3-TI (mini-ITX) are also fresh models in ECS' line-up.

Our eyes were drawn to a prototype H81 Express-based motherboard with an MXM slot for graphics. Expect it to arrive in the September time frame, accompanies by a Radeon-based module for use in all-in-one enclosures optimized for Intel's Thin Mini-ITX standard. The platform isn't branded; it's for use by system integrators.

Speaking of all-in-ones, ECS manufactures the G24 chassis with a 21.5" touchscreen. It sells on Tiger Direct for between $430 and $615, depending on whether you buy it with a motherboard. Most of these things are probably going to be purchased by integrators, though we've also shown enthusiasts how to put their own all-in-ones together in Take That, iMac?: Build Your Own All-In-One PC. 

The last thing we saw in ECS' booth was a mini-ITX ARM-based motherboard for Android-based platforms. We're intrigued to see the x86 and ARM overlap grow in the low-end PC market.

Zotac

We saw Zotac's GeForce GTX 770 AMP! at the show, already shipping and significantly overclocked with a 1150 MHz GPU and 7200 MT/s memory data rate. Zotac's dual silencer cooler finishes the package.

The Zbox ID90 is an impressive micro-sized computer containing a desktop-class Core i7-3770T processor with HD Graphics 4000, unlike most small PCs that leverage mobile components. It has two DDR3-1600 memory slots (supporting up to 16 GB), HDMI and DVI outputs, dual-gigabit Ethernet ports, 802.11n Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity. It comes two ways: barebones or Plus, the latter of which includes 4 GB of RAM and a 500 GB hard disk. Expect to see it available in the near future.

SilverStone At Computex 2013

This year is SilverStone's tenth anniversary, and the company had a variety of new products to display at Computex. We'll start with the ARM22SC LCD monitor mounts, available for about $220 (Ed.: This actually just landed in our SoCal lab). The display arm allows for lots of vertical and horizontal movement, as well as 90 degrees of rotation for monitors up to 24" in size. It shouldn't be difficult to find just the right position for your desk. 

The next stop on our tour is good news for audio enthusiasts: SilverStone's EB01-E digital-to-analog converter and EB03 Amplifier. Both should be available within the next quarter around $200.

We also saw a prototype graphics card enclosure that relies on Thunderbolt connectivity. Equipped with a 450 W power supply, we'd say this product has potential given our experiences with external graphics solutions already.

SilverStone is updating its flexible SATA power bridge with the new CP06-E4 (sporting four connectors) and -E2 (a two-connector model). Like the previous version, it contains capacitors to stabilize power for hot-swapping, though this improved version is much more flexible and longer, putting less stress on the connectors. It should be available in July.

The NB04 is a one-piece notebook cooler with a large 160 mm fan under its vented surface. The solid aluminum structure accommodates up to 15" laptops.

The new Tundra-series liquid cooling system employs an all-metal waterblock with no screws on the nickel-plated copper base, which is soldered for better thermal performance. Even the mounting bracket is aluminum. SilverStone's radiator design is incredibly robust, and we found it impossible to bend the fins with our fingertips. In addition, the radiator is designed with pipes traversing the fins to increase surface contact area for more efficient heat transfer. The single-fan TD03 is $80, while the TD02 and its double-sized radiator is $110.

SilverStone's representative showed us a prototype liquid cooler than uses heat from the CPU to act as a pump. It employs a slim water block and liquid with a low evaporation point, requiring only that the radiator is mounted higher than the CPU. While this design removes the pump as a failure point, it does rely on relatively high temperatures to work, so the company is assessing its viability.

Starting with SilverStone's NUC-based enclosures, the PT14, PT15, PT16, and PT17 are pictured above. The first two are pretty standard, but the PT16 can pop up its top to accept an extra 2.5" drive for storage. The PT17 is an AMD-based design, built around the promise of a NUC-sized motherboard that Sapphire pledged to produce this year. We expect all of these cases to cost around $40 when they hit retail.

The DS380 is a mini-ITX case that's a little larger than most. It offers eight hot-swappable 2.5" drive bays with a SATA/SAS-compatible backplane, three 120 mm fans, and room for a full-sized graphics card. Company reps say this case will be available by August for about $150.

SilverStone's slim HTPC-oriented cases make an appearance in the shot above. On the left is its ML04, almost the same as the popular microATX ML03, but with different front panel. The ML05 are next, both essentially shrunken mini-ITX versions of the ML03 employing SFX power supplies. The ML05 has an acrylic panel, while the ML06 features aluminum up front.

Here's a prototype of SilverStone's Raven case, which is particularly exciting to us. Clearly designed as an alternative to game consoles and some of the boutique enclosures out there, it includes a riser card to support full-sized graphics cards. The name and design aren't final. However, we might see something that looks a lot like this by the end of 2013.

The last new case that SilverStone's team showed us was the MM01, code-named the mammoth. That nickname doesn't refer to the enclosure's formidable dimensions, but rather its ability to survive harsh conditions. We're told it's the only case able to cope with the restrictiveness of a HEPA filter, ensuring that dust stays out and air leaving the case is cleaner than the air coming in. It also sports angled vents to ensure that any spills flow away from the parts inside. Expect to see the MM01 in late 2013 selling for somewhere around $300.

We also looked at a number of power supplies, beginning with the SFX form factor. In addition to the company's ST45SF-G 450 W modular offering (boasting a 37 A +12 V rail), the new ST30SF 300 W with a 22 A rail features a silent mode where the fan disengages under less than 40% load, or less than 55 degress Celsius. Expect that one to show up in August for $50.

Next up was the 1200 W Zeus with digital controls. SilverStone's software lets you pick between one or multiple rails (similar to the unit we just previewed from Rosewill), alter voltages, and even adjust the fan curve. This fully modular unit should be available in the next quarter.

Finally, the Strider family is updated with modular 750, 850, and 1500 W flavors that include soft cables for easy installation, including the 24-pin ATX connector.

Antec And In Win At Computex 2013

Antec

Antec demoed its upcoming digital power supply control software called Grid. which lets you set a target voltage on each rail, define current limits, and customize fan speeds (notice a pattern here with the latest crop of PSUs?). The representative even made it a point that logs are not kept so that writes to an SSD are minimized.

The new software is married to Antec's High Current Pro Platinum (HCPP) Grid power supply family, available in 850, 1000, and 1300 W flavors. These PSUs feature 80 PLUS Platinum ratings, modular cabling, and a new feature called OC Link that allows two power supplies to work in tandem. They're expected to start selling before the end of the year.

In support of its OC Link technology, Antec introduced a Nineteen Hundred case with space for two power supplies. It's absolutely colossal, and will be available in a couple of months for around $300. This case and the OC Link infrastructure earned Tom's Hardware's Best Of Computex 2013 award for introducing heretofore unknown power scalability to the PC market.

Next, we were introduced to the LSK600, a mini-ITX option that should be available in the second half of this year. It accommodates graphics cards up to 11 inches long.

The NSK4100 is Antec's new budget-minded ATX offering, supporting liquid cooling and two fan mounts.

The P100 is a fresh addition to the company's performance line, an entry-level version of the P182 designed to minimize noise. This ATX case has a removable drive bay and should arrive in 2 or 3 months at a reasonable $70 price point.

And now for the company's Kuhler H20 family of liquid cooling systems. To avoid Asetek's patent, Antec moved the pump behind the fan shroud and deployed diffuser fan blades to move more air through the dead spot. Three new models include the 1250 (double-wide radiator and two fans), the 950 (double-height radiator with two fans), and the 650 (single radiator and one fan). These products are expected to land in July or August for $110, $100, and $70, respectively.

Finally, we were reintroduced to Antec's wireless Bluetooth speakers, first shown at CES. The SPZero weighs only 500 grams and can be daisy chained to an unlimited number of SPZeros, which is an interesting feature for parties. The SP1+ is a step up from the SPZero, with added NFC capability and eight hours of play time on a three-hour charge. The larger SP3 can't be daisy chained, but features two internal speakers with a 20 W output for $219. Expect them all to hit the market at the end of this year.

In Win

In Win is becoming known for manufacturing limited runs of spectacular, unique (and expensive) PC enclosures. The company didn't disappoint at Computex, showing off the KingSize case. Available for $1500 in August, it features aluminum construction and real glass panels.

Next up was the Tou, built with semi-transparent aluminum tempered glass. The buttons in front are pressure sensors on the glass panel. You might find the case available in Q4 for $800.

Lastly was In Win's upcoming Serenity power supply. This 900 W model should be available in August for $180.

Gelid, Netstor, Qnap, Synology, OCZ, And G.Skill At Computex 2013

Gelid

Gelid had an interesting idea on its hands: a dedicated router cooler. Expect to see this item toward the end of July for around $15.

The company was also showing off fans, braided cables, and its GC-Extreme thermal compound. Representatives were claiming that its thermal paste is ideal for LN2 overclocking because it doesn't conduct electricity, corrode, bleed, or cure. In fact, ASRock bundles it with its Z77 OC Formula motherboard.

Netstor

Netstor showed us the NA333TBS, an external enclosure that hosts up to 16 hard disks and three PCIe slots. This product uses a Thunderbolt cable for connectivity and includes an 80 PLUS Silver-rated power supply. Expect it to show up in a couple of months for about $2000.

Qnap

QNAP specializes in business-oriented NAS hardware, but also sells some more mainstream offerings. The new TurboNAS TS-470 Pro will be available soon, featuring a 3.3 GHz Intel Core i3-3220, 2 GB of RAM, and space for four hard disks with a maximum capacity of 16 TB. It comes with a built-in media center and is capable of encoding 4K video streams.

Synology

Synology presented its new USB Station 3, an enclosure that turns any external USB hard disk/flash drive/SDXC memory card into a compact and convenient NAS. Expect it to arrive around August.

Like all of Synology's NAS products, the USB Station 3 comes with the company's DiskStation Manager software. It features a clean interface with a lot of options, and works in Windows and OS X. A new version should launch in July, too.

The DS214 and DS214+ are higher up the company's product portfolio, each with two hard disk bays. Availability is expected in the third quarter of 2013. They both support hot-swap functionality and come armed with 1.6 GHz Atom processors. The DS214+ is additionally able to transcode 1080p video on the fly. It sports 1 GB of memory and has additional connectivity options like an SD card reader and extra eSATA ports.

OCZ

OCZ was showing off two new modular Fatal1ty power supplies: a 550 W model available on Newegg for $70 and a 750 W version still on the way.

The Vertex 450 is also pretty new. It employs 20 nm NAND, and is available in 128 and 256 GB capacities. If you want to know more, check out OCZ Vertex 450 256 GB SSD Review: Can We Call It Vector Jr.?

G.Skill

At the G.Skill booth, we saw the company's 3000 MT/s Trident X memory, available now in a 16 GB kit with a 32 GB option a few weeks out. Representatives claim it's the fastest memory validated by Intel.

We were then shown G.Skill's new entries into the audio market. The Ripjaws R71 headset features 10 drivers for surround sound, a noise-cancelling microphone, and a touch-control pod. Expect it at the end of 2013 or the beginning of next year.

The Ripjaws D71 is the company's low-end model, with two drivers and a simpler control pod.

QNAP has launched the Turbo NAS TSx-20 and TS-x21 series for “home users and home offices” that offer one, two or four SATA drive bays and are powered by the company’s QTS 4.0 Turbo NAS operating system that brings a number of interesting features to the market.

One such feature is Qsync and “smart mobile apps” that allows remote access and sharing of files stored on the server from mobile devices and seamless file synchronization. The Turbo NAS can also act as a media up and supports both DLNA and Airplay, which enables it to provide a versatile multimedia experience.

“The QTS 4.0 is a major evolution of QNAP’s software design,” commented Meiji Chang, general manager of QNAP. “It aims to reverse home users’ typical impressions towards the networked appliances as being complex and hard to use. The QTS 4.0 integrates Turbo NAS hardware design and features multi-window intelligence and smart mobile apps, making home digital data storing and management easier and multimedia entertainment more fun.”

QNAP has yet to announce pricing or availability for its Turbo NAS TSx-20 and TS-x21 series of devices.

QNAP has launched the Turbo NAS TS-421U and TS-420U, two entry-level NAS devices that feature Marvel 6282 processors, 1 GB of DDR3 memory and support for a maximum of four drives. Both these models aim to provide a "well-rounded backup solution with comprehensive backup alternatives" such as Real-Time Remote (RTRR) for real-time or scheduled backups.

In addition to local storage, the devices feature native support for a variety of cloud storage services such as Amazon A3, ElephantDrive and Synform and fully supports third-party backup solutions such as Acronics True Image, Apple Time Machine and Veeam Backup & Replication.

The TS-421U and TS-420U also support cross-platform file sharing for Windows, Mac, and Linux/UNIX users, and provide a centralized storage solution. Additionally the Windows AD and LDAP directory service features enable IT administrators to retrieve user accounts from Windows AD or LDAP-based directory server and efficiently assign access rights. These capabilities are further expanded with support for Windows Access Control List (ACL) which offers sophisticated shared folder permission settings.

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Thecus And Open-E: Enterprise-Class Storage For SMBs?

Small and medium businesses, government offices, health care providers, and research institutions generate lots of data every single day. All of that information needs to be archived and protected. As a case in point, the German Electron Synchrotron, DESY, in Hamburg, generates 100 TB of raw data per experiment, and a typical health care provider can generates hundreds of gigabytes per month in patient records.

Beyond simply storing data, managing it cost-effectively is critical, as is delivering the information to users and applications where and when they need it. Business-class storage devices are designed to do that over a number of different interfaces. Direct-attached and network-attached are two of the most popular, though storage area networks built on Fibre Channel or iSCSI technology are popular as well.

Even as enterprise-grade technology increasingly finds its way into SMB environments, NAS remains a moderate-performance, affordable technology for small- and medium-sized businesses. Flexible protocol support and provisions for backup technologies like data replication and synchronization are particularly attractive.

There are plenty of network-attached appliances available. However, the selection thins out considerably you filter by reliability, performance, enterprise support, and reasonable cost. Thecus sent over its N8800PRO to demonstrate that a storage server with redundant power supplies, a multi-core host processor, and performance-oriented networking can be had for about $1600 without hard drives. Add eight of your own 2 TB nearline SATA disks and the unit's cost hovers around $3600.

But an accessible price tag isn't the only interesting aspect of this NAS device. You can also install Open-E's Data Storage Software V6 on it, which expands its feature set beyond what Thecus' own firmware offers. Some of Open-E DSS 6.0's capabilities include iSCSI, CIFS, and Fibre Channel support. Installing the third-party firmware is relatively easy from a flash drive or CD. As the installation process progresses, device drives (needed for the storage and Ethernet controllers) are automatically configured.

In the pages that follow, we'll discuss how Open-E DSS 6.0 and Thecus' N8800OPRO interact, with an emphasis on the third-party operating environment. There are integrators who offer package deals, pre-installing Open-E DSS 6.0 on the Thecus appliance. The cost of that combination often depends on the features you enable and the storage array installed.

Thecus' N8800PRO Eight-Bay Storage Server

Thecus claims that its N8800PRO is an enterprise-grade NAS device. It's driven by a 1.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU and 4 GB of DDR2 memory. The motherboard is the same one found in Thecus' N7700, in case you're familiar with that appliance. Two gigabit Ethernet ports are exposed through a factory-installed PCI Express-based add-in board, and an optional 10 Gb card can be plugged into an available PCIe x8 slot. The rack-mountable N8800PRO is 2U high and features two power supplies for redundancy. Its firmware is stored on two DOM (disk on module) devices, also for redundancy. Our test unit from a German integrator included DOMs with the Open-E software, which replaced Thecus' default modules.

You can install as many as eight 3.5” 66 Gb/s SATA drives into the N8800PRO. The drives are attached to caddies with screws, and the caddies can be hot-swapped. RAID levels 0, 1, 5, 6, and 10 are all supported. Moreover, operation as an iSCSI target is supported right out of the box.

Dig a little deeper into the hardware and you see that four pairs of two disks correspond to a quartet of SiL3132 PCIe x1 to two-port SATA 3Gb/s controllers. This means you don't get hardware-accelerated RAID support. Rather, the Core 2 Duo shoulders the processing load of software-based RAID.

Technically, you're able to daisy-chain as many as eight JBOD enclosures using the N8800PRO's single eSATA port. Although that'd give you a theoretical 72-disk ceiling (and, factoring in the 3 TB models already on Thecus' compatibility list, a 216 GB capacity limit), the performance limitations of that many disks communicating through a single 3 Gb/s port should be pretty clear...and potentially debilitating.

The appliance's eight drive bays are arranged as such: three on the left, two in the middle, and three on the right. Instead of giving you a ninth bay, that space is occupied by an LCD read-out that conveys the server's IP address and subnet mask, plus system status.

In addition to its integrated gigabit Ethernet jacks, the N8800 features an RS-232 port for communication with a UPS and two USB 2.0 ports for attaching external hard disks and other peripherals, such as printers.

Thecus N8800PRO: Peeking Inside

Removing the top cover of the N8800PRO exposes its innards. You see the eight hard disk bays on the right, two power supplies in the upper-left, and the motherboard below them.

Here's a front view without the top cover:

Looking around back, we see the redundant power supplies and a quartet of fans responsible for keeping the hard drives cool.

Here's a close-up on the four fans, which cool eight drive bays.

Although this is a storage appliance, the motherboard looks like something you'd find in a PC, for the most part. An embedded processor is actively cooled, and a couple of memory modules come pre-installed. Risers enable PCIe-based expansion.

Now we zoom in to the new DOM with Open-E's firmware pre-installed.

Thecus' N8800PRO With Open-E DDS 6.0

Regardless of your experience level with network-attached storage devices, Open-E DSS 6.0 (actually, a customized version of the software installed on our appliance) is easy to set up and configure thanks to a number of helpful wizards, a well thought-out Web interface, and unambiguous menu designations.

After logging in for the first time and entering a license key, you can start setting up the NAS server. It's a five-step process if you're configuring the device for a Windows-based network: configure the network card, configure the software RAID, creating a volume group, create users, and configure network shares.

Most folks will typically set the system up using a wizard after logging in for the first time. That involves choosing an interface language, picking an administrative password, configuring IP addresses, selecting a time zone, setting the time, and assigning a server name. The German builder who sent our sample already specified a default configuration, though, so we were able to skip that step entirely.

Open-E: Configuring A RAID Array

After selecting the disks that you want to be part of the RAID array , Open-E sets up the software-based configuration on Thecus' N8800PRO. We chose to use all eight disks in a RAID 6 arrangement. Initializing the 16 TB array took about 12 hours, which is neither impressively fast or frustratingly slow for an array of this size.

Once the array is in place, the system displays a summary screen of all RAID-oriented parameters.

As an aside, if you want to optimize the array for throughput or I/O performance, you can modify its block size between 4 and 256 KB. In addition, you can choose the algorithm to use for RAID 5 and 6, affecting the array's performance.

Open-E: Creating A Volume Group

After a RAID array is created, you're able to form one or more volume groups on it. One of the advantages that a volume group offers is the ability to dynamically expand or shrink down the road, as capacity needs change. Furthermore, a volume can be replicated to another storage device over a WAN, for example, or used as a WORM (write once read many) volume for data archiving. WORM volumes are particularly useful for archiving, a task that goes hand-in-hand with the target audience for this appliance.

Open-E: Creating Users And Network Shares

In order to use the Thecus N8800PRO with Open-E as a NAS server, access permissions have to be configured. You can create users and user groups directly on the server, or alternatively make the server a member of a Window domain or Active Directory server. For fine-tuning access to individual folders, you can use Windows access control lists (ACLs).

As you can see in above screen shots, quotas are not supported in this customized version of Open-E. If you need quotas, however, you have the option of upgrading to the full version of Open-E.

Creating Network Shares

The Web interface allows you to conveniently create Windows-based network shares.

Open-E: Admin Settings, iSCSI, And Fail-Over

Apart from its typical storage management menus, Open-E DSS 6.0 also has menus that allow you to control access to the server itself.

You can restrict Web-based GUI access to one particular IP address.

Connections to the server can be secured by TLS, SSL v3, or a combination. You can obtain usage statistics like server load and network traffic via SNMP, and then graph them with RRDTOOL.

In addition to the Web GUI, password-protected console access via SSH is also available.

iSCSI Initiator

Open-E DSS 6.0 can not only serve as an iSCSI target, but also an iSCSI initiator, facilitating storage expansion.

Fail-Over

If a server is mission-critical, availability becomes an even more important consideration than even performance. Downtime is simply not acceptable. Because hardware defects are almost impossible to anticipate, enterprises typically employ redundancy in those mission-critical environments. Thecus addresses this to the best of its ability, employing redundant power supplies and, of course, support for RAID modes that withstand one or two drive failures.

But what if the appliance's memory goes out, or maybe its RAID controller? Open-E DSS 6.0 has a built-in fail-over mechanism able to designate a primary and a secondary node. In the event of a hardware failure, the redundant node automatically assumes the primary server's role, and service continues uninterrupted without intervention. Then, with slightly less urgency, the failed node can be replaced with a working system, which then becomes a redundant secondary.

Open-E: System And Hardware Status

The Web-based UI lets you view the most important system parameters in your browser.

All connections to the server via SMB/CIFS, FTP, NFS, AppleTalk, and iSCSI are listed.

The same goes for the network parameters.

Performance data, such as CPU and memory usage, plus network load, are logged over time and can be displayed as graphs, making it easier to spot load peaks or bottlenecks.

Log files are also available, making it easier to pick out and analyze problems. They can be downloaded through the GUI for printing or post-processing.

Test System And Benchmarks

Of course, we couldn’t help but to benchmark Thecus' appliance with Open-E. The N8800PRO is currently our only eight-bay NAS server, precluding comparisons to competing models. However, in the interest of including some degree of baseline performance, we do have data for a couple of five-bay servers, Qnap's TS-559 Pro+ and Synology's DS1511.

You'll want to take these results in context. Depending on your own target environment and performance-oriented settings (stuff like the block size, RAID algorithm, physical disks operating concurrently, or addition of the 10 Gb Ethernet option), the throughput you see could be higher, or even lower. There's also the fact that we're comparing different drives. The N8800PRO submitted to us included Hitachi Deskstar 5K3000 disks, while the drives installed in the Qnap TS-559 Pro+ and Synology DS1511 were Samsung HD103SJs.

Intel NAS Performance Toolkit

We use Intel's NAS Performance Toolkit to test the NAS devices that make their way through our lab. You can read more about this software in Benchmarking With Intel's NAS Toolkit.

Sound Level and Power Dissipation

It is fairly obvious that a rack-mounted server like the N8800PRO was never intended to live its life next to your workstation. Its power consumption, which hovers around 114 W, isn't too bad. However, its acoustic output is less tolerable. Eight total fans generate a sound level of 53.4 db(A). This is certainly no personal video server.

Benchmark Results: Multimedia

In short, the video playback and recording performance of Thecus' N8800PRO running Open-E trails the five-bay NAS servers from Synology and Qnap. It's worth noting, however, that the N8800PRO's host Core 2 Duo has to perform XOR operations for an eight-disk RAID array, whereas the other servers are presented with a comparatively lesser five-drive load. Thus, we'd expect to see the lower throughput reflected here.

Benchmark Results: Office

The N8800PRO's showing in our office productivity suite is likely affected by the same issue. The block size we used, 64 KB, is best-suited for applications that write and read many small files. It's possible that performance could be optimized by adjusting that setting.

Open-E Makes Creating Storage Servers Easier

Although we installed Open-E's Data Storage Software V6 on a purpose-built network storage appliance, DSS is really just a plug-and-play solution able to turn any system into a NAS server with iSCSI functionality. The fact that it's not a full-fledged operating system simplifies the initial setup and ongoing administration. No, you won't find print server functionality or iTunes server support, but that's intentional. More of an enterprise focus means you see additions like InfiniBand and Fibre Channel SAN support instead.

While the scope of DSS V6 seems limited compared to some of the consumer-oriented storage devices currently available, the operating environment has plenty of functionality for the applications it most effectively addresses. DSS appeals to business users with features like replication and fail-over, snapshots, and WORM support for archiving of business data. It can even be used to satisfy high-availability, mission-critical requirements. Because it supports Windows domains as well as NIS and LDAP domains, businesses can seamlessly integrate DSS into their existing IT infrastructure and expand their networked storage. In contrast to the firmware that Thecus ships, Open-E is compatible with VMware ESX, ESXi, and vSphere, as well as Citrix Xen Server, Microsoft Hyper-V, and KVM. The default firmware is only certified with VMware ESX and Citrix.

The fact that Open-E's software is easy to set up and use is a big plus. You can install it directly to a NAS or boot into it from a CD or flash drive. In the case of our NAS device, even a DOM works really well. If your organization standardizes on Open-E's DSS, you can use hardware from many different vendors and run the same software on them, simplifying day-to-day management and tightening security at the same time. Open-E maintains a comprehensive knowledge base and offers several support levels. The company says its operating environment is continuously being enhanced and maintained. Moreover, a comprehensive list of drivers ensures that the sixth generation of Data Storage Software runs on almost any hardware. Our Thecus 8800PRO only encountered one compatibility issue: its LCD seemingly wasn't supported, remaining stuck on a boot message that reads “Self Test in progress..." 

Although the N8800PRO is fairly affordable, there's no doubt that it's intended for business environments with a server room and dedicated rack space. In that context, it, along with Open-E's DSS software, serves as an affordable vector into the world of professional-grade storage solutions. And support for volume groups makes it easy to set up a first NAS appliance or consolidate existing servers to optimize a company's storage infrastructure.

Open-E offers a free version of DSS V6 for IT managers interested in auditioning the software. It's called DSS 6.0 Lite. And although that build lacks iSCSI fail-over, 10 Gb Ethernet support, and is limited to 2 TB of storage, most of the full version's features are there and worth trying out.

MS-2000 Media NAS

QNAP is showing off at Computex a new media player, the model MS-2000, with NAS capability. Based on a two-bay design and a Marvell chipset, the MS-2000 is compatible with HD video and multichannel audio in Dolby Digital and DTS. It's not clear if it will support any of the online streaming services in the U.S., but we do know it can access Picasa and weather services.

There are four USB ports on the rear panel and one in the front, an HDMI port and Ethernet jack. In future it will be possible to connect a USB dongle to receive digital terrestrial TV.

Availability is scheduled for as early as July to as late as September. Pricing has not yet been decided.

NAS for Business

QNAP also showed two new products from its NAS Business Series, the model TS-1079 Pro with 10 bays and the TS-879 Pro with eight bays. Both integrate Sandy Bridge, 2 GB RAM, 2 USB 3.0 ports (one front and one rear), four USB 2.0 ports and one expansion slot for an additional network adapter. The model with eight disks allows maximum storage capacity of 24 TB, which become 30 for the 10-bay model.

The rear panel also hosts two Ethernet ports, VGA and two eSata. There's also an HDMI port, which at this time is unused, but it has been implemented for "possible future development." Could this mean a media manager for the hardcore?

Look for these in Q3. No pricing yet.

Mobile Routers

Finally QNAP showed a pair of mobile routers, the MR-101 and MR-102, which can take 3G/4G signals to create a Wi-Fi hotspot. The model MR-101 is the smaller of the two and needs an external power source. The MR-102 is bigger thanks to a built-in battery.

Look for these in July or September.

Qnap TS-x59 Pro+ Series: Incremental Improvements

For a long time, mass-produced network-attached storage devices have given our readers a mixed impression of what they can do (and why they cost so much, frankly).

The included software often only includes basic functions like network file sharing via SMB/CIFS protocols. Moreover, the data transfer rates for important tasks like writing file backups fall disappointingly in the low double-digit MB/s range. Performance is, to a great degree, dependent on the processor built into the device. And most of the time, those processors are pretty darned anemic.

That's one reason why NAS manufacturers tend to focus on other value adds. Over time, they optimize their respective firmwares, rework the hardware internals (while still abiding by strict thermal and power requirements), and equip them with as many convenience convenience-oriented features as possible. For instance, it's difficult to find a NAS device these days that doesn't function as a media server, as well as a data storage unit, delivering multimedia content via UPnP DLNA. Firmware with integrated Web serving capabilities, including a PHP interpreter and MySQL database, is equally widespread. And there are still other differentiators cropping up all over.

Bear in mind that most of the value-adds tacked onto each vendor's firmware is enabled by adequate processing power. While many devices use ARM- and PowerPC-based processors due to their efficiency (for example, the Synology DS408j, which is based on an 800 MHz Marvell Kirkwood 88F6281 ARM processor and ranked in the top third of our NAS Charts), a significant increase in performance is generally achieved by using Intel's Atom processors.

Historically, most NAS manufacturers used the Atom D510, which is equipped with two cores and runs at a clock speed of 1.66 GHz. This CPU was released in the first quarter of 2010. A further evolution of the Atom processor lineup was presented in the second quarter with the D525 model. This one has the same two cores and four threads (enabled by Hyper-Threading), but runs at 1.8 GHz. Not only does it support DDR2-667/800 memory, but it also accommodates DDR3-800 RAM. The benefit of higher clocks and faster memory support are reasons enough for appliance engineers to rework and refresh their products.

At the end of December 2010, Synology released its DS1511+, based on the Atom D525, while Thecus introduced the N4200 Pro, also using the 1.8 GHz processor. A third popular NAS vendor, Qnap, also has devices using the same generation of low-power processor. It released products ranging from two-bay to eight-bay products, all of them equipped with Intel’s Atom D525 processor, as indicated by the plus in this family's nomenclature.

We were curious whether the "+" would be represented by an increase in data transfer rates. Therefore, we asked for a test sample, which found its way to our lab in the form of a Qnap TS-559 Pro+. Our findings are summarized on the following pages.

Hardware And Pricing Details

We only recently had an opportunity to take a closer look at the sister model of the device reviewed in this article. The Qnap TS-559 Pro (without the +) scored well thanks to its quality workmanship, efficiency, reliability, and good data transfer rates. The drawback to fairly well-polished NAS devices is usually their price. The applied to the TS-559 Pro, and it again becomes a discussion point with Qnap's TS-559 Pro+. At launch, it sold for more than $1000, and a quick look online reveals prices that still exceed that four-figure sum. And that's without hard drives, which you'll still need to buy.

Been There, Done That: The Housing

If you're prepared to shell out serious cash for the TS-559 Pro+, you of course expect something in return: mainly, good performance, an attractive housing, and capable software. If you're familiar with this unit's predecessor, the Atom D525-equipped TS-559 Pro+ won't hit you with any visual surprises. As before, Qnap's TS-559 Pro+ is housed in a rugged steel case.

Familiar Layout At The Rear Of The Housing

To be perfectly clear, the TS-559 Pro+ uses the exact same same housing as its predecessor. The dimensions are identical (185 mm height x 210 mm width x 235 mm depth). The same can be said about the connections at the rear of the device. Qnap relies on its tried-and-tested configuration of four USB 2.0 ports, two SATA 3Gb/s interfaces, and two gigabit Ethernet ports. The VGA connection familiar to users of the TS-559 Pro is also available, attributable to the Atom D510 and the Atom D525's integrated graphics unit. That's a cost-saver, since it circumvents the need for a motherboard-down graphics solution. 

Ventilation of the TS-559 Pro+'s interior is achieved through a regulated 120 mm fan. A second, smaller fan transports waste heat from the integrated 220 W power supply.

Sticking With What Works

If you're hoping to find new features on the front of the devices, we have to disappoint you. As with the rear of the device, the design of the plastic-covered front is reminiscent of the TS-559 Pro. The new model also comes with a USB 2.0 port and a one-touch copy button. The power button at the lower-left is also in the same location as on the previous model. Ditto for the status, LAN, USB, and SATA LEDs, along with the LCD display and its Enter/Select button, which switches the information shown on the LCD and allows for basic input, such as IP address configuration.

Qnap's deliberate reproduction of the TS-559 Pro's exterior design indicates that the manufacturer intends only to refresh and not to overhaul the product line, as can also be seen with the lockable drive bays. These are also installed vertically into the TS-559 Pro+, following the design of the TS-559 Pro model. Accordingly, the solid disk tray accommodates not only 3.5" hard drives, but also 2.5" drives.

The Interior Is New

If you're looking for fresh features on the TS-559 Pro+, you have to look inside. As already mentioned, the Intel Atom D525 dual-core processor is new. The TS-x59 Pro series used the somewhat older Intel Atom D510 with its clock rate of 1.66 GHz, while the TS-x59 Pro+ series runs at 1.8 GHz thanks to the upgraded processor. A glance into the interior reveals that the TS-559 Pro+ uses the same DDR2 memory as its predecessor. Qnap doesn’t highlight this fact; the product description on its Web site speaks only of 1 GB of RAM, omitting to mention which type of RAM this is. To avoid creating false hopes, we would appreciate a little more transparency in this matter.

However, the question of whether DDR3 RAM would have had a significant effect on data transfer rates is an unresolved one. From a business standpoint, it is fully comprehensible that Qnap does not opt for DDR3, as it would have required a redesigned motherboard. Aside from the fact that DDR2 and DDR3 are supplied with different voltages, they are not pin-compatible. In the end, a new board may have resulted in a more substantial redesign of the NAS system, incurring development costs, which would have probably driven the device beyond its already-steep $1000+ price tag.

A Glance At The Software And Specifications

As with the housing, Qnap's software displays no weaknesses and demonstrates what a modern NAS device can do. A detailed discussion of its functionality is beyond the scope of this article, but we’ll provide a quick summary: the functions leave almost nothing to be desired. Experienced users should accomplish the rapid configuration through a Web browser in a few minutes.

For inexperienced users, the Web interface of a new TS-559 Pro+ presents an installation wizard that guides the user in six steps through the initial configuration. The name of the NAS server and the IP address are entered here along with indications of which network, file, multimedia, and Web server services are to be activated. The Qnap TS-559 Pro+ accommodates heterogeneous networks and supports access to AppleTalk and NFS via SMB/CIFS. Network users can access content over an iTunes or UPnP multimedia server and Web presence is enabled by the integrated LAMP servers (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP). The decision whether or not to activate only the Apache server or the MySQL server is left to the user.

The firmware supports RAID 0, 1, 5, and 6, of which the latter two can be operated with a spare drive in a hot-swap configuration. For professionals and businesses, it is possible to integrate the Qnap TS-559 Pro+ with a network as an iSCSI device. The TS-559 Pro+ supports the virtualization solutions VMware vSphere (ESX/ESXi 4.0 and higher), Citrix XenServer (5.6), and Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V.

If you want to test the administrative interface before buying the device, we recommend taking a look at the live demo provided by Qnap. There you can use your own data to try out the system prior to purchasing it, including the administration interface, the Web file manager, as well as the download and multimedia stations.

Brief overview of specifications

Test System And Power Consumption

Test Configuration

We used the default settings of the NAS device for our testing, meaning that we didn't use the jumbo frames setting. Each of the RAID arrays used the firmware-recommended sxt4 file system. For our tests, we used the firmware version 3.3.4 Build 1019T. Instead of the Samsung 320 GB HD321KJ hard drive with 16 MB cache found in past NAS tests, we transitioned over to the HD103SJ model with a capacity of 1000 GB and 32 MB cache.

Intel NAS Performance Toolkit

We tested the NAS device with the Intel NAS Performance Toolkit.

Noise Level

As both the housing and the fan of the TS-559 Pro+ are identical to those of the TS-550 Pro, we don't have anything new to report about noise levels. The 120 mm fan runs quietly and unobtrusively. It would be inaccurate to describe its operation as completely silent, but the gentle hum of the fan in normal operating mode is hardly noticeable, and would be drowned out by many PCs on the market.

Unfortunately, the vibrations of the hard drive in both the TS-559 Pro and the TS-559 Pro+ make an annoying rumble. A gentle pressure on the HDD bays is required to quiet the noise.

Power Consumption

Benchmark Results: Multimedia

For a better overview, we summarize the results sorted by RAID modes. For the purposes of comparison, we include the Synology DS1010+ in our charts, which we ran with firmware version 3.0.

In a direct comparison to its predecessor, the 1.66 GHz Intel Atom D510-equipped TS-559 Pro, the 1.8 GHz TS-559 Pro+ demonstrates an increase of just under 5 MB/s. In the other RAID modes, our testing also returns elevated data transfer values. However, as these range from 0.6 and 3.8 MB/s, they are not significant compared to the overall transfer rate.

More distinct differences are observable when looking at sequential reads. In RAID modes 0, 1, and 5, the speed increases by about 5 MB/s due to the higher processor clock speed. In the RAID 6 configuration we noted an increase of almost 17 MB/s. Apparently, the faster processor has more of an impact at double redundancy.

When transferring many small files ranging from four bytes to 102 KB, we see that the "+" model consistently delivers higher transfer rates than the Atom D510-equipped model. The increases were between 1.1 MB/s (RAID 1) and 2.7 MB/s (RAID 5) and are therefore not at all significant.

More benchmark results can be found in our image gallery.

Benchmark Results: Office

The results for our simulated system backup in a single container file benchmark are similar to those seen in the multimedia benchmarks. Here, too, the transfer rate increase is barely noticeable. Only RAID 6 shows a notable result: there is a transfer rate increase of 8.1 MB/s.

As with the HD video playback benchmark, a noticeable increase in speed occurs in RAID 6 here, with a bump of 15.2 MB/s. The difference between the TS-559 Pro and the TS-559 Pro+ is slightly higher in RAID 0, providing 16.5 MB/s better throughput.

Significant differences between the Qnap TS-559 Pro and the TS-559 Pro+ are not to be found with regard to office files. The influence of the Intel Atom D525 processor in Qnap TS-559 Pro+ mode is limited to increased performance of only 0.2 to 0.7 MB/s. When seen through the lens of a margin of error, the difference between the two devices in this discipline is essentially zero.

More benchmark results can be found in our image gallery.

Conclusion: Higher Speed, Higher Throughput

The Device

In renewing its TS-x59 series and specifically the TS-559 Pro, it was easy for Qnap to avoid mistakes. Take the quality casing and the interior of the previous series, add a mature and proven firmware, and exchange the processor for a newer model running 133 MHz faster. The move is of course evolutionary in nature, and it's a fairly logical step forward. From Qnap's perspective, simply adopting a new processor makes sense; it didn't incur any development costs, and the existing firmware is ambivalent to whether its commands are executed by an Atom D510 or an Atom D525 running slightly quicker. 

The Processor

The remaining question is precisely how much of a benefit is offered by the Intel Atom D525 dual-core processor. Considering the 133 MHz clock speed increase on the TS-559 Pro+, the boost to data transfer rates seems rather low. Quantifiably-higher transfer rates are mainly achieved in RAID 6 operation and where the transfer of data happens sequentially. But if a TS-559 Pro+ replaces a TS-559 Pro in a real-world environment, we'd bet that the difference wouldn't be noticed. Whether or not the processor makes itself evident depends on the application and user profiles; it's too small of a change to impress, though.

Recommendation

Currently, the TS-559 Pro and the faster TS-559 Pro+ are listed on Qnap's Web site. Both devices are also available from online vendors, and a closer look reveals a price difference of about $100 between the two.

Already priced up around $1000 without storage, these five-bay units are expensive. Near-term, users who've been toying with the idea of buying a TS-559 Pro will want to weigh the lower price with slightly lower performance in certain situations. Long-term, though, the TS-559 Pro will likely disappear (it was already deactivated on Newegg's site), only leaving the newer unit. It's 1.8 GHz processor doesn't offer any speed miracles on Windows networks, but a higher clock is always welcome, especially when it comes to the little Atom CPU.

Atom D510 And Encryption

Once you start getting into higher-end networked storage devices for SMBs, you often see value-added features like the ability to encrypt stored data to improve security. There are different ways to achieve this, which depend on the vendor. Some employ encryption at the partition level, while others encrypt at the file level.

Since these features generate a lot of interest from professional users concerned about protecting sensitive information, we decided to take a closer look at the encryption capabilities of several NAS devices: the TS-459 Pro by Qnap, Synology’s DS1010+ Synology, and Thecus' N4200.

Acceleration Through a Dedicated Cryptography Unit?

The NAS devices in this roundup all use the symmetric-key encryption AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) with a key length of 256 bits. The encryption standard is generally considered very safe and is used industry-wide, as well as by authorities in various fields (it is approved by the U.S. government for encrypting documents, for example). It is not uncommon for USB flash drives or hard drives to employ AES, and because of the high computational cost of data encryption, these often come with dedicated encryption/decryption processors, greatly accelerating the cryptography process.

Intel’s addition AES-NI to its 32 nm Clarkdale-based Core i5 desktop CPUs, six-core Gulftown processors, and second-gen Core i5 and Core i7 chips impressively demonstrates how much dedicated acceleration hardware can increase the speed of the encryption/decryption process. More information about this can be found in the article AES-NI Performance Analyzed; Limited To 32 nm Core i5 CPUs.

Inevitable Performance Degradation Through Intel’s Atom?

Unfortunately, none of the tested devices from Synology, Thecus, or Qnap have a dedicated hardware cryptography unit for encrypting/decrypting data, revealing a huge potential drawback of data encryption directly on the network storage device. As a result, if you actually plan to use encryption, that functionality must be handled by the NAS device's host processor. In all three of our test cases, that's a meager Intel Atom D510, which of course lacks the AES-NI support that'd be needed to accelerate encryption in hardware.

The dual-core Atom processor is also tasked with handling XOR operations for the NAS devices’ RAID arrays. It is partly responsible for the data transfer rates of 100 MB/s and more (in gigabit Ethernet networks). Its network performance suffers once you apply the additional demands of compute-intensive cryptographic calculations, though. Just how much network performance do you lose when you trade throughput for security? Let's find out!

Thecus N4200

Thecus positions the N4200 as a business solution for small- to medium-sized companies, and it costs around $660. Customers can equip the NAS with up to four hard drives, and then apply RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, or 10. You can also integrate the N4200 using iSCSI. Again, it comes with a dual-core Intel Atom D510 processor and 1 GB of DDR2 SDRAM.

Encryption Setup

The encryption setup is easily accessible via Thecus' Web interface, similar to the other two devices we're testing. When creating a RAID array, you can enable the encryption option. After the array built, its storage space is completely encrypted via a partition-level approach. The encryption password can be any string consisting of anywhere from one to sixteen characters.

Here's another interesting detail: you need an external drive connected to one of the N4200's USB ports when you create an encrypted partition on Thecus' NAS. This is just one more hassle, of course, but it's all in the name of security. For practical reasons, you'll probably want to use a thumb drive, on which key to decrypt data stored on the partition is stored.

Restart with the USB Drive

Once the encryption process is complete, the USB drive can be removed. Thecus recommends that you make a copy of the key and keep both the USB drive and the file in a safe place.

The USB drive is also required whenever you migrate or expand the RAID configuration. Once you're done with it, put it back in its safe place.

When creating the RAID configuration, you must select the option “Encryption” and enter a password in order to use the feature.

When creating an encrypted partition, Thecus notifies you of the fact that a USB drive is required and that this drive should be kept at a safe location. The dialog window does not mention that encryption might slow down data throughput, but the PDF manual does.

A password must be entered if the encryption mode is selected, and the encryption/decryption key file is generated based on what you enter.

A padlock icon indicates that the partition is encrypted when the operation is successfully completed.

Be careful: if the NAS is started without the USB drive, it does not indicate that there are any RAID configurations available.

The key files required for encryption/decryption are stored on an external drive that should be kept at a safe location, protected from unauthorized access.

Qnap TS-459 Pro

The Qnap TS-459 Pro also comes with a dual-core Intel Atom D510 CPU, 1 GB DDR2-RAM, iSCSI functionality, and four hard drive bays that can be used in the RAID modes 0, 1, 5, and 6. The NAS device offers good sequential data transfer rates of about 100 MB/s under normal operation, depending a bit on the RAID mode.

Encryption: Password or Key File

Just like the Thecus device, Qnap also uses partition-level encryption using standard tools like Linux dm-crypt and cryptsetup. You do not have to rely on the command prompt to set it up though, as this can be done easily via the Web-based interface. You cannot enable encryption for existing RAID partitions; it has to be done at the time of creation.

The setup process is rather similar to activating encryption on the Thecus NAS.

You have to activate the encryption feature and select a password when creating a RAID array with encryption enabled. The option “Save Encryption Key” saves the password on the NAS device, which means that the encrypted partition will be automatically opened and integrated into the system configuration after rebooting. Anyone who recognizes the potential vulnerability in this can disable the option and instead unlock the encrypted partition by entering the password manually in the Web administration interface after rebooting the NAS.

The Qnap NAS device requires a password between eight and sixteen characters.