qnap lcd panel made in china

It"s also mentioned in the article that the specific chip was targeting the IPMI interface, something that as far as I know doesn"t exist on any Qnaps, not even enterprise models.

There"s nothing wrong with being a bit paranoid but I"d say that the risks for Qnap being a target of that kind of advanced attack is extremely small. I"m much more concerned with all the "normal" threats like software bugs, hacks and malware infections.

For the past 4 days, 2 days after setting up my qnap TS-231 i noticed in my system log that im getting constantly connected to by an outside source. I looked up the IP and its originating from China or either Vietnam at random intervals but mostly from China. I am in NO WAY a Network Admin, at best I am Tier 1 Tech Support. I really need a simple solution/instructions on getting ahead of this problem. I was hoping I would be able to copy paste a list of known IP address that have some of the IPs attacking me to a blocklist but QNAP made it so infuriatingly time consuming to put in a single IP adddress. Everyday I have this ** NAS im regretting it more and more and its caused me hours of work to setup and maintain (research into stopping these attacks). I DONT KNOW WHAT TO DO, please help me someone.

Note: Use only QNAP memory modules to maintain system performance and stability. For NAS devices with more than one memory slot, use QNAP modules with identical specifications.

Note: Use only QNAP memory modules to maintain system performance and stability. For NAS devices with more than one memory slot, use QNAP modules with identical specifications.

Note: Use only QNAP memory modules to maintain system performance and stability. For NAS devices with more than one memory slot, use QNAP modules with identical specifications.

My first impression of the QNAP TVS-473 was it took a page out of Apple"s design book, just like the TVS-463 I reviewed two years ago. Although it has been redesigned -- mainly shifting the LCD screen and drive bays to the left side of the company logo instead of the right -- the TVS-473 is quintessentially QNAP. However, similar to the TVS-463, instead of the standard black design, the TVS-473 is available in only gold. At least here in North America, gold colored devices have largely made way for black, silver, or chrome finishes since the late nineties. Why the resurgence? According to an article I read a couple of years ago, gold iPhones and MacBooks were a result of demand driven by the mainland China market, and this is probably no exception.

The QNAP TVS-473 is not going to win any living room beauty contests, and frankly, if it is going to sit front and center underneath my TV, you are looking at devices of a different form factor, which the company does sell. Meanwhile, the quad-bay QNAP TVS-473 measures in at 18.82cm wide, 27.96cm deep, and 19.93cm tall according to specifications -- just like the TVS-463 and everything that came before, except with a bit more depth. It features four prominent and easily accessible vertically mounted disk trays, and a small, dual-line LCD display placed near the top for the user"s convenience. An infrared receiver is found above the first drive bay, used for the included RM-IR004 remote control -- more on this later. Drive number order is reiterated by a diagram sticker placed at the top of the unit. The redesigned disk trays are no longer lockable by a key, but should still provide excellent airflow over the hard drives driven by the rear mounted cooling fan inside the QNAP TVS-473.

QNAP"s embossed logo is finished in brushed silver-colored metal, and placed near the top right corner; whereas a gold, textured hard plastic surface occupies the rest of the front face. Three cleanly finished buttons are placed at the bottom right corner -- where one is a power button, under it is a button labeled "Copy", followed by a USB QuickAccess port. The copy button is to be used with the USB 3.0 port placed neatly in the middle of it for quick backup processes. Having the USB port in the middle of the button looks pretty cool, but you will sacrifice some usability. Both buttons protrude slightly, so there is a slight chance that someone may accidentally knock the power button. Fortunately, the system will prompt you on the LCD screen to initiate the shutdown procedure after depressing the power button, so it is not really an issue with regards to accidentally powering off the machine. The USB QuickAccess port is for accessing files on your NAS directly from your computer without a network connection.

The QNAP TVS-473"s LCD display is navigated by two simple buttons adjacent to it: The Enter key, and the Select key. There is more than sufficient room for more, especially something like a D-pad may greatly enhance navigation. Fortunately, this screen is not necessarily used all the time. When on, its LCD screen features a blue backlight; and displays large, clear text in white to contrast with its background. The LCD display allows the user to monitor quick information, as well as easily perform some configuration and maintenance tasks. An array of LEDs can be seen under it to indicate system status, USB status, as well as LAN status, respectively. The system status LED will turn off when the hard disks are on standby. Each independent hard drive has its own status LED as well, which are cleverly placed on the system itself near the top of each hard drive tray. This can be seen if you look carefully at the photo above. The drive status LEDs flashes when there is disk activity, and remains on when it is idling. It turns red if the system determines the corresponding hard drive is in trouble. Even the M.2 drives have status LEDs in front. The easy to access drive bays in conjunction with convenience added by the simple LCD screen really added to the overall usage experience of these excellent network appliances on my network. By retaining its excellent design, there is absolutely no learning curve for users who are familiar with using QNAP NAS systems -- it is all plug and play.

While the QNAP TVS-473 is constructed on a steel frame, its shell that covers three sides of the system is composed of brushed metal in gold, just like the rest of the NAS. It looks pretty good in my opinion, but it is nothing we have not seen before from the company. For most business users, the NAS will be placed in a room where no one will bother spending time admiring your equipment. But for others, this may end up being in their living room, so appearance is important, although I still do not think the TVS-473 will blend in too well with your home theater receiver and PVR. At the top, a label is there to show the user how to quickly get myQNAPcloud up and running quickly. A key unique to your specific box is provided to streamline to the setup process.

Moving on, Two HDMI 1.4a ports are present for duplicating or extending your desktop; no HDMI 2.0 here though, unfortunately. Next, you are provided with three USB 3.0 ports for storage, peripherals, or up to three printers. Four integrated Intel Gigabit LAN ports reside below the USB ports. You can configure them for maximum performance, network redundancy, load balancing, and even multiple independent networks. Adjacent to all these are two 3.5mm microphone inputs and one 3.5mm audio output for all your karaoke needs. If you add a 10GbE card to the free expansion slot at the top, you can pull up to 1035MB/s in throughput according to the company"s internal testing. Of course, this is under a very specific configuration. A built-in speaker does things like announcing system status. Imagine the surprise on my face when I first booted up my TVS-473 and a female voice suddenly says out of absolutely nowhere, "System Boot Complete". Meanwhile, a large single 120mm YS Tech FD121225LB exhaust fan pulls heat out of your NAS server, with its exhaust vents cut into the steel panel. A proper fan grille would be better for airflow in my opinion. More information on this fan will be explored on the next page.

The shell is attached by three screws. Removing it may require some prying; more on this later. Notably missing as shown in our photo above is the dreaded warranty seal we have all come to hate, because with the promised user upgradeable memory, you are now given limited access to the QNAP TVS-473"s interior. We will show you where the seal went in just a moment. Additionally, you are also no longer forced to void your warranty if you need to open the unit just to clean out some dust off its fan.

There is nothing particularly exciting at the bottom of the QNAP TVS-473"s chassis; what you will see here are four large legs affixed on top of its steel frame panel. As always, they are installed to reduce vibration noise, increase grip, and prevent surface scratching. The bottom and left side of the network attached storage system features a neat array of small openings on its brushed aluminum shell. It is placed right next to where the motherboard is inside to make sure hot air does not get congested within.

Removing its vertically mounted 3.5" SATA disk trays reveals the connector back panel. The SATA backplane ports are powered by a controller native to its AMD RX-421BD accelerated processing unit platform. Since this is a SATA system, all hard drives are hot swappable. Removing the hard drive tray is very simple -- just unlatch the lock at the bottom, pull on a lever, and it is out. The disk trays are not labeled. Functionally, the installation order does not matter in a RAID system, but I think being able to discern which disk is which by a physical label can be very useful. Obviously, you can grab a permanent marker and mark them by hand, but labeling them "Disk 1" to "Disk 4" from the factory is probably not too hard. Each tray can accommodate one 2.5" or 3.5" drive. The latest trays are made out of plastic instead of metal to prevent any electrical short problems, and are not compatible with previous QNAP devices. The TVS-473 supports single disk, RAID 0 (Disk Striping), RAID 1 (Disk Mirroring), RAID 5, RAID 5 plus spare, RAID 6, RAID 10, and JBOD (Linear Disk Volume). If you want to encrypt your data, you have the option to enable its FIPS 140-2 validated AES 256-bit volume-based encryption.

An RM-IR004 remote control is included with the QNAP TVS-473. It is powered by two included AAA batteries, which is convenient and readily available. if you are looking to place your network attached storage system in your living room, and use it as a media center PC, this will be an absolutely invaluable accessory. The remote control is very compact, and extremely simple in nature. As you can see in our photo above, there is a power button at the top, with a Home and Info button under it. Volume control occupies the next line. A D-pad with an OK button in the middle is present to simplify navigation tasks. Below that, we a Play/Pause button with four auxiliary buttons. All of them are aptly labeled with its corresponding symbol, which should be quite self-explanatory. Overall, you will not find a remote control much simpler, and I am happy it is quite intuitively designed.

My first impression of the QNAP TVS-463 was it took a page out of Apple"s design book. Sure, the QNAP TS-463"s external design is practically identical everything in the same line of products we have reviewed from company in the past. This means it carries a strong family resemblance to everything ranging from the QNAP TS-439 Pro to the TS-470. However, instead of the standard black design, the TVS-463 is available in only gold. At least here in North America, gold colored devices have largely made way for black, silver, or chrome finishes since the late nineties. Why the resurgence? According to an article I have read recently, the gold iPhones and MacBooks were a result of demand driven by the mainland China market.

Other than that, from the angle of our photo above, the TVS-463 is your quintessential QNAP NAS, with its industrial/datacenter look beneath the gold paint. It is not going to win any living room beauty contests like the HS-210, and frankly, if it is going to sit front and center underneath my TV, I think a facelift will do wonders. Meanwhile, the quad-bay TVS-463 measures in at 18.0cm wide, 23.5cm deep, and 17.7cm tall according to specifications -- just like the TS-470 and everything that came before. It features four prominent and easily accessible vertically mounted disk trays, and a small, dual-line LCD display placed near the top for the user"s convenience. An infrared receiver is found above the fourth drive bay, used for MCE remote controls. As always, each disk tray is individually lockable, but they all use the same provided key (Actually, you can use the same key for all QNAP products, haha). Drive number order is reiterated by a diagram sticker placed at the top of the unit. The ventilated disk trays provide excellent airflow over the hard drives driven by the rear mounted cooling fan inside the QNAP TVS-463.

QNAP"s embossed logo is finished in brushed dark colored metal, and placed near the top left corner; whereas a gold, textured hard plastic surface occupies the rest of the front face. Two cleanly finished buttons are placed at the bottom left corner -- where one is a power button, and under it is another button labeled "Copy". This is to be used with the USB 3.0 port placed neatly in the middle of the Copy button for quick backup processes. Having the USB port in the middle of the button looks pretty cool, but you will sacrifice some usability. Both of the buttons protrudes slightly, so there is a slight chance that someone may accidentally knock the power button. Fortunately, the system will prompt you on the LCD screen to initiate the shutdown procedure after depressing the power button, so it is not really an issue with regards to accidentally powering off the machine. Like the last few generations of QNAP business class network attached storage systems, the QNAP TVS-463 features an internal power supply rather than a power brick; we will cover that in detail in just a moment.

The QNAP TS-463"s display is identical to the TS-470. It is navigated by two simple buttons adjacent to it: The Enter key, and the Select key. There is more than sufficient room for more, especially something like a D-pad may greatly enhance navigation. Fortunately, this screen is not necessarily used all the time. When on, its LCD screen features a blue backlight; and displays large, clear text in white to contrast with its background. The LCD display allows the user to monitor quick information, as well as easily perform some configuration and maintenance tasks. An array of LEDs can be seen under it to indicate system status, USB status, as well as LAN status, respectively. The system status LED will turn off when the hard disks are on standby. Each independent hard drive has its own status LED as well, which are cleverly placed on the system itself, on the clear strip near the top of each hard drive tray. This can be seen if you look carefully at the photo above. The drive status LEDs flashes when there is disk activity, and remains on when it is idling. It turns red if the system determines the corresponding hard drive is in trouble. The easy to access drive bays in conjunction with convenience added by the simple LCD screen really added to the overall usage experience of these excellent network appliances on my network. By retaining its excellent design, there is absolutely no learning curve for users who are familiar with using QNAP NAS systems -- it is all plug and play.

While the QNAP TVS-463 is constructed on a steel frame, its shell that covers three sides of the system is composed of brushed metal in gold, just like the rest of the NAS. It looks pretty good in my opinion, but it is nothing we have not seen before from the company. For most business users, the NAS will be placed in a room where no one will bother spending time admiring your equipment. But for others, this may end up being in their living room, so appearance is important, although I still do not think the TVS-463 will blend in too well with your home theater receiver and Blu-ray player. At the top, a label is there to show the user how to quickly get myQNAPcloud up and running quickly. A key unique to your specific box is provided to streamline to the setup process.

What we have at the back of the system are enough ports to function as a personal computer, rather than a simple network storage device as NAS devices are back in the days. It is not quite a TS-470, but the midrange TVS-463 still holds plenty of merit on its own. Not only can this system act as your media center computer. If you plug in a keyboard, mouse, and monitor, you can literally use it as your PC -- more on this later. Unfortunately, there is no S/PDIF output; the only way to get digital audio is via HDMI passthrough. The connection array is simple but standard; where you are provided four USB 3.0 ports for storage, up to three printers, or peripherals. Two HDMI 1.4a ports are present, but the second one is only used for mirroring the first. Also, while they do support 4K output, you cannot use it to play 4K videos, which is quite the bummer. Two integrated Gigabit LAN ports reside next to the USB ports. You can configure them for maximum performance, network redundancy, load balancing, and even multiple independent networks. If you add a 10GbE card, you can pull up to 1481MB/s in throughput, according to the company"s internal testing. Of course, this is under a very specific configuration. QNAP used a dual port LAN-10G2T-D 10GbE adapter on both the client and the server via a direct connection, and four Plextor PX-256M5Pro SSDs in RAID 5 in the NAS. IOMeter is set to transfer an 8GB file at 64KB block size.

A large single 120mm YS Tech FD121225LB exhaust fan pulls heat out of your NAS server, with its exhaust vents cut into the steel panel. A proper fan grille would be better for airflow in my opinion. The 120mm fan is specified at 1800rpm, 73 CFM airflow, 2.6mm-H2O static pressure, and 34 dB noise. A small opening at the top provides ventilation for its internal power supply"s 40mm fan. A vertically oriented power input male connector is logically placed at the top left corner. Since the power supply unit automatically selects input voltage, there is no need for the old fashioned voltage selector switch.

The shell is attached by three screws. Removing it may require some prying; more on this later. Notably missing as shown in our photo above is the dreaded warranty seal we have all come to hate, because with the promised user upgradeable network interface card, you are now given limited access to the QNAP TVS-463"s interior. We will show you where the seal went in just a moment. Additionally, you are also no longer forced to void your warranty if you need to open the unit just to clean out some dust off its fan.

There is nothing particularly exciting at the bottom of the QNAP TVS-463"s chassis; what you will see here are four large legs affixed on top of its steel frame panel. As always, they are installed to reduce vibration noise, increase grip, and prevent surface scratching. The left side of the network attached storage system features a neat array of small openings on its brushed aluminum shell. It is placed right next to where the motherboard is inside, to make sure hot air does not get congested within.

Removing its vertically mounted 3.5" SATA disk trays reveals the connector backpanel. The SATA backplane ports are powered by an external Marvell controller, connected to the AMD SoC on the PCIe bus. Since this is a SATA system, all hard drives are hot swappable. Removing the hard drive tray is very simple -- just pull on a lever at the top, and it is out. The disk trays are not labeled. Functionally, the installation order does not matter in a RAID system, but I think being able to discern which disk is which by a physical label can be very useful. Obviously, you can grab a permanent marker and mark them by hand, but labeling them "Disk 1" to "Disk 4" from the factory is probably not too hard. Each tray can accommodate a 2.5" or 3.5" drive, along with a maximum amount of ventilation openings at the bottom for improved heat dissipation. The latest trays are inner lined with a clear plastic layer to prevent short circuiting. The QNAP TVS-463 supports single disk, RAID 0 (Disk Striping), RAID 1 (Disk Mirroring), RAID 5, RAID 5 plus spare, RAID 6, RAID 10, and JBOD (Linear Disk Volume). If you want to encrypt your data, you have the option to enable its FIPS 140-2 validated AES 256-bit volume-based encryption.

QNAP is a long-time player in the NAS space, today we’re reviewing their TS-459 Pro+, a four bay unit that incorporates an Intel Atom 1.8Ghz processor, 1GB of RAM, dual Gigabit LAN, LCD display and a load of other features like being VMware Ready, Citrix Ready and compatible with Microsoft’s Hyper-V environment. With a laundry list like that, it’s clear QNAP’s TS-459 Pro+ means business.

The QNAP TS-459 Pro+ Turbo has a very high-tech vibe going on compared to some of the other consumer and small business NAS units we have seen. The front has four hot-swappable hard drives bays, all keyed to prevent unauthorized access, two function keys, as well as a multifunction display. From the front, users can quickly copy files to the internal drives at the touch of a button or quickly get important information like the IP address off the display. To put it bluntly, while other NAS models blink at you, this one actually tells you what it’s doing in text clear as day.

The look and feel of the QNAP TS-459+ Turbo is outstanding. All of the buttons engage smoothly, and look as if they are integrated into the design and not just added on at the last moment. Another nice touch to the internal design is the individually locking hot-swap hard drive caddies. The mounts are sturdy stamped metal, with a quick release bar on the front to firmly hold the tray in position. It was also nice to see each tray labeled (with a reference sticker on the top of the NAS) so you always know where you stick the tray back after you are doing adding or swapping drives.

There was very little disassembly required with the QNAP in either the initial setup or normal operation. Unlike the Synology units which require the entire back to be unscrewed to access the drive trays, QNAP mounts them front and center. The QNAP features four locking hot-swap bays which require no tools to remove.

Each tray is compatible with both 3.5” and 2.5” drives. QNAP is nice enough to label the screw holes as well, so you aren’t left wondering which ones to use depending on which size drive you install. It might not be a problem for everyone, but it is something that makes the process go smoother for beginners.

The QNAP TS-459 Pro+ is easy to setup out of the box with the user-friendly hot-swap drive bays. It took probably three or four minutes total to slide out the trays and install the test drives in the NAS. For this review we used four Hitachi UltraStar A7K2000 2TB hard drives. Initially, we tried using 2TB Western Digital Caviar Green drives, which had worked well in the past, but were incompatible with the QNAP model. They would work, but the long setup times (70+ hours) were painful to bear. Switching to non-4K hard drive model fixed the problem.

After installing completely clean drives, the QNAP TS-459 Pro+ will still fire up and operate its web server in a low-level mode to load on the latest software. Synology uses a similar approach with loading on software during setup, although they require the use of their Synology Assistant installed on a networked-computer to handle the data transfer. This means less temporary software needs to be installed on your computer and a reduced chance of compatibility problems in the off chance you are using an exotic platform.

Users interested in large storage arrays, high performance, and data integrity will enjoy the wide selection of RAID and other storage implementations offered on this QNAP model. This NAS supports single drives, JBOD arrays, and RAID 0, 1, 5, 5+ hotspare, and 6. We tested RAID 1 and RAID 0 using two drives and RAID 5 with four drives without a hot spare.

From an aesthetic standpoint the QNAP NAS software seems targeted towards the prosumer and business customers. The design gets right down to business without adding much in terms of interface beautification. This contrasts with the DSM 3.0 software we have seen on the Synology units, aimed at inexperienced or newcomer users who might not be as tech savvy (or those who just prefer a nicer looking interface).

Moving past the actual looks of the interface, the QNAP was easy to drill down into the setting area that you wanted to find. Each section was rich with settings, leaving everything in place for the advanced users. The only part that really felt as if it could have been improved upon was the speed of the disk management section. It felt as if some areas were slow to refresh while we were constantly changing hard drive configurations. Just note that this wouldn’t affect “normal” users who aren’t trying to test out all RAID configurations in the same night.

In the first test we look at the peak Samba and iSCSI performance using a “best case scenario” 2MB sequential file transfer with IOMeter. In the sequential transfer test the QNAP NAS led the charts. We measured an average read speed ranging between 68 and 69MB/s and an average write speed of 89 to 97MB/s.

The iSCSI performance improved read speeds in all but the RAID1 test. The QNAP also lost its complete lead in all tests compared to the Synology (although still held the top spot on the chart). Write speeds dropped across the board, from the 90s over Samba to the 70s over iSCSI.

In the next test we looked at random 2MB/s transfers using IOMeter. In this section the QNAP beat the Synology in all tests in terms of read speeds. It measured between 44 to 47MB/s in average read speeds to 27 and 31MB/s in write speeds.

Looking at the iSCSI results in the same 2MB random transfer tests, the QNAP NAS has lost its lead. While the Synology managed 52 to 55MB/s read speed, the QNAP only got 33 to 48MB/s. Write speeds were also down, getting only 31 to 48MB/s compared to the Synology’s impressive 49 to 69MB/s.

With the switch to 4K random transfers, the QNAP held the lead in read speeds ranging from 0.62 to 0.65MB/s. Write speeds were lower though, spanning between 0.37 and 0.45MB/s.

Looking at iSCSI performance the QNAP held the lead on read speeds, but fell drastically behind in write speed. The QNAP got between 0.36 and 0.39MB/s while the Synology got 0.90 to 1.04MB/s.

With the significant drop in random 4K write speed compared to the Synology DS411+, the QNAP averaged about 10ms of write latency in all drive modes (compared to 3-4ms on the Synology). Max latency was better on the QNAP though, with a peak of roughly 1 second.

Besides ease of use, one of the big draws for small servers is their embedded hardware approach that is easier on your wallet through lower power consumption. QNAP is kind enough to give three main power modes for the TS-459 Pro+ including 35W during normal operation, 19W in sleep mode (disks off), and 1W while powered off with WOL enabled.

The QNAP TS-459 Pro+ worked well in our tests, consistently ranking above the Synology DS411+ in most benchmarks. It offered impressive specifications, including front-loading hot-swap bays, four USB ports, two eSATA connections, and even a LCD panel on the front to give off status updates. For advanced users looking for every feature possible, the TS-459 Pro+ doesn’t disappoint.

For the average user building a NAS on a budget, the QNAP is one of the higher priced models on the market, going for $900 sans disks. It also has compatibility problems with some of the newer 4K sector hard drives, most notably the 2TB Caviar Green models. Using these drives would result in lower performance and excessive setup times sometimes exceeding three days (yes, days). Overall though, if you are in the market for a NAS and need something with every feature under the sun, the QNAP TS-459 Pro+ is a good way to go.

The QNAP TS-459 Pro+ is a NAS that looks great on paper and in testing, but has a few areas including interface and compatibility that could be improved with software updates down the road. Even so, it’s very well appointed and its top of class performance make it a great option.

As time goes by more and more of you ask me about my opinion surrounding NAS units and more specifically which ones i consider to offer the best bang for your buck. Things however are never black and white when we are talking about technology so in the end it all comes down to what your needs are and how much you are willing to spend on it. So if you just want to buy a NAS Server to use just as a download station then even the entry-level Qnap TS-119P II (review soon) will be more than enough for that purpose so there"s really no need for you to spend much. On the other hand if you want an NAS Server for multiple usages, for example use as a download station, media station, FTP server and webserver then you would do well to choose something more powerful like the Qnap TS-219P II. Performance however is only part of what makes a NAS server and so aside you deciding what use you need it for you also need to know how many drives bays you may require. Up until today we have mostly focused on 2 and 4 bay mid-end solutions but since many of you asked today we will be taking a look at the latest TurboNAS TS-469 Pro which as the name suggests is the latest high-end 4bay mid-end (SMB) solution from QNAP.

QNAP Systems, Inc. is a privately held company founded in 2004 and is dedicated to bringing world class NAS storage, professional NVR video surveillance, and network video players to consumer, small/medium business, and entry level enterprise market segments. QNAP leverages not only hardware design but also a growing core competency in software engineering that is precisely focused on bringing to market products that offer the highest available performance coupled with outstanding reliability, scalability, and ease of installation and use. QNAP is a multi-national company with headquarters in Taipei, Taiwan, and subsidiary offices in China and the United States.

Appearance wise the QNAP TurboNAS TS-469 Pro is almost identical to the TS-419P II I had the chance to test a while back but that’s just about the end of their similarities since the TS-469 Pro packs a much more powerful punch, specs-wise. So this time over we see an dual core Atom processor running at 2.13GHz, 1GB DDR3 RAM running at 1333MHz (expandable to 3GB), 512MB of flash memory and SATA III (6Gb/s) connectivity for all 4 drive bays which can in turn be used in various configurations such as single, JBOD, RAID 0, 1, 5, 5 + Hot Spare, 6, 6 + Hot Spare, 10, and 10 + Hot Spare. SATA III connectivity is something I’ve wanted to see for a while with SMB solutions and finally QNAP did it.

Much like the most 4 bay solutions by QNAP the TS-469 Pro arrived inside a large cardboard box with a large product image at the front alongside with its main features, drive compatibility and the QNAP logo.

The usual welcome message by QNAP awaits you once you open the box, however this time over we also see a quick showcase of how you can use the front LCD display.

Just like the TS-419P II only the front fascia of the TS-469Pro is black (the rest is plain aluminum), something that used to be the case with the previous generation of NAS Servers by QNAP and also something i didn"t enjoy much.

All 4 bays are hot-swap so you can add/remove drives at will just like with any QNAP unit. That aside you can setup the drives either in JBOD array in which case you can share both drives as one, as a RAID 0 array splitting all data in both drives, RAID 1 with the second drive backing up the primary one, RAID 5 which is basically similar with RAID 0 but also ads a parity check bit to ensure that the system keeps going even if one of the drives fail, RAID 6 which is identical to RAID 5 but allows for up to two simultaneous disk failures (dual parity) and finally RAID 10 which combines the best of both RAID 0 and RAID 1 by writing data on half of the disk drives available while the other half mirror the data of the first set. QNAP has also added a Hot Spare feature in most of the above configurations for improved data safety.

Before you do anything it’s highly recommended that you head over to the official QNAP support page to download the latest software version. QNAP has a very high rate of updates so you will probably have an older version on the supplied software CD.

What really changed from the last time i tested a QNAP NAS is the layout of the PhotoStation which looks really better than the old one and also features Google maps geotagging.

As you can see you can use up to 4 IP Cameras with the TS-469 Pro. Unfortunately it worked fine with just one out of the two latest IP cams i am currently testing here (Airlive). This is due to the limited support by QNAP for IP Cameras and although you can use compatibility settings to support many models that are not officially supported still i consider this as the single largest drawback QNAP has currently.

Since some of the NAS servers/devices we have tested in the past are no longer in our possession (naturally) we will keep performing the exact same testing methodology we did in the past for as long as possible in order to provide accurate comparison results. So as always we used a single Seagate Constellation ES.2 3TB SATA III hard disk drive with the QNAP TurboNAS TS-469 Pro (just like with all of the NAS units) and performed upload/download tests with a single 10.9GB file. Tests were repeated a total of 4 times after which we recorded the average numbers (from the 4 peak ones) into our charts. Finally the network device used is the same Netgear DGN3500 Gigabit ADSL2+ Modem/Router we always use when performing tests on NAS servers.

The TurboNAS TS-469 Pro by QNAP is without doubt a wonderful piece of hardware which will certainly cover 99% of the users out there (especially pros) due to its excellent hardware and software specifications. The 2.13GHz dual Atom processor along with the 1GB of DDR3 RAM (expandable to 3GB) make for a fine combination since not even once did we notice any speed issues while the 4 available drive bays give you a total available capacity of up to 16TB (and even more as new drives get released). The Web Interface is still my favorite since it"s by far the most user friendly i have seen, that however is something that comes down to personal preference. Honestly i can"t seem to find anything bad with the TurboNAS TS-469 Pro with sole exception the lack of support for many IP camera models in the market currently (if not most), something which i hope will change soon.

As we speak the current retail price tag of around USD799 (Newegg) inside the USA and around 790Euros inside the EU for the TurboNAS TS-469 Pro by QNAP may seem a bit high at first but you need to understand that for people who actually need the incredible extra muscle, features and drive bays it"s actually not. On the other hand if you don"t really need the extra drive bays you can always choose the TurboNAS TS-259 Pro+ which is quite cheaper and is not much slower, specs-wise that is (although it lacks some of the features found with the 469 Pro). Personally i can live with just 2 bays so the TS-469 Pro seems just a bit overkill for my home/office requirements, still it works as advertised, it"s extremely fast and gives you up to 16TB of storage so what more can any professional ask for? Because of all of the above we are awarding the QNAP TurboNAS TS-469 Pro with our Platinum Award.

Taipei, Taiwan, November 10, 2015 -QNAP®Systems, Inc. today announced the release of the quad-core 2-bay TS-251+ and 4-bay TS-451+ NAS that provide an uncompromising high-performance and scalable storage solution for small offices and workgroup users with appealing affordability. The new models feature virtualization readiness, containerized applications, advanced backup solutions, real-time & offline video transcoding, QvPC Technology, HDMI video playback with an included remote control, and many more functions that are beneficial for businesses and SOHO users to build a cost-efficient and modern storage solution.

The TS-251+ and TS-451+ are powered by a 22nm 64-bit quad-core Intel® Celeron®2.0GHz processor (burst up to 2.42GHz) with 2GB/8GB energy-efficient DDR3L RAM. They also include dual Gigabit LAN ports, and can deliver up to 225 MB/s throughput and up to 205 MB/s transfer speeds with AES 256-bit volume & folder encryption.“The TS-251+ & TS-451+ are ideal choices for those who demand the superior performance of a quad-core x86-based NAS without breaking the budget,” said Jason Hsu, Product Manager of QNAP. “Both NAS are speedy, versatile and provide future-proof scalability.”

Today’s businesses are also demanding economical solutions that provide flexible storage scalability for rapid data growth. The TS-x51+"s scalable design supports online capacity expansion by connecting a QNAP 8-bay UX-800P or 5-bay UX-500P expansion enclosure to provide a total capacity of up to 96TB.

The new TS-251+ and TS-451+ NAS are now available. For more information of these new products and the full QNAP Turbo NAS lineup, including where to buy, please visit

QNAP Systems, Inc., as its brand promise "Quality Network Appliance Provider", aims to deliver comprehensive offerings of cutting edge network attached storage (NAS) and network video recorder (NVR) solutions featured with ease-of-use, robust operation, large storage capacity, and trustworthy reliability. QNAP integrates technologies and designs to bring forth quality products that effectively improve business efficiency on file sharing, virtualization applications, storage management and surveillance in the business environments, as well as enrich entertainment life for home users with the offering of a fun multimedia center experience. Headquartered in Taipei, QNAP delivers its solutions to the global market with nonstop innovation and passion.