NAS by stefan @ 2014-02-13
HS-210 is the new fanless 2-bay NAS from QNAP which supports both 2.5’’ and 3.5’’ drives; the top cover acts as a large heatsink and is powered by a 1.6GHz Marvell processor along with 512MB of RAM. Thanks to the QTS 4.1 operating system, the NAS is fully featured but unfortunately it does not have a HDMI port for connecting directly to our HDTV.
At first I would like to thank QNAP for offering a sample of their HS-210 2-bay fanless NAS for testing and reviewing.
“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.”
Silent & dust-free
The HS-210 was created as a silent NAS solution that allows users to enjoy files and media with no distractions, providing a perfect match for home theater enthusiasts and audiophiles looking to maximize their audiovisual experience and users who wish to constantly run their systems without any background noise. Being fanless, the HS-210 has no internal moving parts for improved reliability and remains clean and dust-free even after long-term usage.The HS-210 is best used with SSDs or WD® Red™ & Seagate® NAS drives as a reliable storage solution.
Modern & stylish
Created for the living room with a revolutionary fanless architecture, the HS-210 features a modern set-top design that fits alongside your HDTV, game consoles and other elements of your digital lifestyle. Underneath the stylish & compact brushed metal aluminum body, the HS-210 is packed full of cutting-edge features & apps to provide day-to-day entertainment, storage, and backup needs. The HS-210 is easy to use and maintain. With its accessible layout, adding and removing drives are remarkably easy even for beginners.
Enjoy the HS-210 with the intuitive QTS 4.0
Powered by QNAP’s new QTS 4.0’s user interface, browsing the HS-210 ‘s wide range of features has never been easier. Featuring multi-window operation with a familiar user interface, QTS 4.0 makes controlling every aspect of your HS-210 – from system operations to multimedia features – fully accessible and easy to use. QTS 4.0 enables you to:
Organize your data/content and backups in one centralized location.
Sync files across computers, tablets and mobile devices, and share files across different groups and communities.
Collect, enjoy and share your large photo, music and video collection.
Enjoy HD movies or family videos on TV when streamed through various network players.
Access, manage and enjoy all your files with your tablets and smartphones.
Extend your diverse applications on the HS-210 by installing more than 100 apps on demand in the App Center.
Easy system setup
Installation process is done completely through the cloud. Simply visit the setup portal start.qnap.com and follow the setup guide to complete the system setup and download the utilities you want. For beginners, the HS-210 features an "Auto Setup" option to provide an easy way to set up the HS-210 with recommended settings. All settings can be flexibly changed at a later time after the installation.
Store all your data in one place, and access anywhere
From enjoying your media on HDTVs, smartphones and tablets to syncing files between different computers and mobile devices, the HS-210 can be depended on to be the cornerstone of all your home digital needs and becomes your personal cloud so you are always connected to your data. Take advantage of the myQNAPcloud service, which allows you to remotely access your HS-210 wherever you are. Instantly stream or share your multimedia contents and share them with your friends.
Archive your photo memories. Share your life.
The HS-210 acts as your photo vault for you to back up your favorite photos. The Photo Station makes photo sharing simple, and you can designate your own access right controls. Simply upload your photos to the HS-210 to create and organize your photo albums through a web browser, and share with your family and friends through social networking sites such as Facebook, Google+, Twitter and Pinterest. Your mobile devices are useful too, with the Qfile mobile app in your iOS® or Android™ devices you can instantly upload photos to the HS-210 . Now, you can just take as many photos as you want and trust your precious photo collections with the HS-210 , worry-free!
Build your home music library and enjoy music anywhere
The Music Station helps categorize your music collection, and displays album covers to easily organize your personal playlists. Through the Music Station you can enjoy your music anywhere anytime with a few clicks. Thousands of local & global online Internet radio stations are built-into Music Station for you to enjoy as well.
A sharing center for your home theater
The HS-210 is the perfect video storage center for you to store your movies & home video collection. It features high-speed data transfer – fast enough to support multiple 1080p HD streams – and the silent running of the HS-210 helps deliver the best cinema-grade home theater experience right to your living room.
Enjoy your videos via AirPlay
The HS-210 also supports Apple® AirPlay. Available in the App Center, QAirplay allows you to steam your media content directly on TV via AirPlay-enabled devices such as Apple TV. The media contents are streaming on Apple TV, bypassing your mobile device, thus saves the energy of your mobile device. Alternatively, the Qfile mobile app allows you to browse videos and photos stored on the HS-210 and play on the TV via AirPlay-enabled devices such as Apple TV. It is just that convenient to enjoy multimedia entertainment through the wireless experience.
Back up & protect your data
The high performance and cross-platform compatibility of the HS-210 allows you to centralize and protect your important with a range of backup options.
Time Machine is fully supported to help Mac OS X users create a more efficient and convenient backup solution. The HS-210 works with Time Machine wirelessly over the same network so you no longer need an external drive.
NetBak Replicator is QNAP’s license-free backup software that allows you to back up your files from multiple Windows PCs in real time or schedule. You can also gain a disaster recovery solution with the RTRR (Real Time Remote Replication) feature by replicating data in multiple shared folders from one NAS to another NAS over the network to ensure the safety of your important data. Besides, the data can also be backed up to another FTP server, external disk, or to online cloud storage services.
Dropbox-style file sync across computers & mobile devices
With Qsync, your HS-210 is turned into a safe data center for file synchronization. Any file uploaded to the HS-210 will be made available for all linked devices including computers, laptops and mobile devices. Qsync is especially useful for frequent travelers in managing files and ensuring that different devices have the most up-to-date files. Qsync provides multiple ways of file synchronization and group file sharing, greatly enhancing the flexibility of team projects and collaboration.
Fanless, revolutionary thermal design and power efficient
Instead of a fan, the HS-210 features a remarkable thermal design that intelligently dissipates heat, allowing us to create a sleek, modern design without the bulk of conventional NAS systems. This innovative thermal design helps keep the HS-210 running smoothly even under the heaviest loads. The HS-210 is also eco-friendly, with power saving features including hard disk standby when not in use, and power management scheduling options.
24/7 download center
The HS-210 is a perfect download center for high speed BT, Magnet, PT (Private Trackers), eMule, FTP, and HTTP download. After the download tasks are set ready, you can turn off the computer, and the HS-210 will download as many HD videos as you want. With the QGet utility you can manage your download tasks on multiple NAS devices remotely on the local network or the Internet. The HS-210 also supports continuous NZB download, and eMule download by installed App Center apps without turning on a PC. Now, it also supports RSS download (broad catching) for automatic BT download.
Surveillance Station Pro - protect your home and valuables
The HS-210 is a professional surveillance station to view IP cameras from your web browser and mobile devices. With the user-friendly interface and the expandable IP camera channel licenses, Surveillance Station Pro builds a professional surveillance center for you to safeguard your home/office and valuables. The HS-210 also supports UVC-compliant (USB Video Class) USB webcam, enabling users to utilize the Surveillance Station Pro to record and playback videos and build a budget-saving surveillance system for home environments by installing the QUSBcam app from the QNAP App Center.
A private space for work & sharing
SocialLink Station
The SocialLink Station is an interactive space with a familiar social networking site interface that enables you to create a private community for file sharing and discussion. It provides flexible privilege settings and search functions, and is ideal for private groups to share & discuss sensitive or confidential materials.
Notes Station
Notes Station provides a private and secure way to share and collaborate on digital notes. With just a few steps it’s easy to create notes from web pages or by importing from HS-210 , edit with the intuitive web editor, and even create to-do lists and calendar alerts.
Signage Station - Creatively present your animated content
With the Signage Station, it’s easy to create content for a wide range of materials such as menu boards, adverts, posters, business profiles, personal animated resumes, or life memory books. The iArtist Lite application with intuitive editing tools helps you to easily create these signs with drag and drop tools. Your creativity can now travel around the world with simple steps.
Access, use, sync and enjoy with your tablets and smartphones
The HS-210 is your private cloud storage that virtually enlarges the capacity of your smart mobile devices. Qfile allows you to access, upload, download, manage, and share stored files easily as if you are carrying everything in your pocket. Music, photos and videos can be streamed, enjoyed and shared anytime, anywhere. Qmanager also lets you monitor and manage the HS-210 remotely and efficiently without turning on a PC.
Add near-unlimited functionality with QNAP’s App Center
In addition to these preinstalled apps, the HS-210 has a built-in App Center that provides various install-on-demand apps developed by QNAP and third-party developers, including tools for backup/sync, business, content management, communications, downloading, entertainment, and much more. It is also a centralized location for managing & updating installed apps. In addition, QNAP’s development platform embraces the spirit of open source and allows you and other developers to create their own apps, adding near-unlimited opportunities for the HS-210 .
In this article we will look upon an interesting and recent NAS offering from QNAP, the HS-210 fanless solution. The product packaging has been also updated and features a cleaner, professional look; on the frontal side of the packaging we can spot a photo of the NAs in operation along with a list of product highlights:
The product components are further explained on the side, along with the recommendation of using WD RED or Seagate NAS-specific HDDs in 3.5’’ format, which were tested extensively by the manufacturer:
On the back side of the box we will be able to observe some of the software functions of the operating system:
After opening up the box, we will be able to see that the unit is fully protected with foam material and nearby we will get to see the accessories box:
Speaking of the accessories box, inside it we will be able to find the necessary mounting screws for both 2.5’’ and 3.5’’ drives, one LAN cable, the power brick and also one power lead:
The power supply is rated on the output 12V, 5A:
A small leaflet shows us the installation procedure:
The NAS chassis is further wrapped inside a transparent plastic bag to avoid scratches during transport:
After removing the bag we have also spotted that the plastic margins of the case are also covered by a transparent tape; this measure taken by QNAP is understood since the plastic parts are transparent and shiny:
The HS-210 NAS has quite a modern look and the top side of the unit acts like a heatsink, to dissipate the heat from the drives but also from the internal processor:
The frontal cover is removable and comes with the QNAP logo and product branding:
The NAS sides are made from the same plastic shiny material, with no additional ventilation holes:
In the back side of the NAS we have the DC-IN port, one small Reset button hole, a SD Card reader, two USB 2.0 ports, one LAN port, two additional USB 3.0 ports but also one Power button:
On the bottom side of the unit we will be able to spot four large and circular rubber feet:
Here we will find an additional sticker with the product power rating:
After removing the top NAS cover, the two bays are visible:
The release buttons must be pushed inwards for getting the trays out of their bays:
Here are some several views of the internal trays:
We can clearly see holes designated for both 2.5’’ and 3.5’’ drives:
If we look more carefully inside the bays, we will get to see the SATA Power/Data connectors; the HDDs/SSDs will be inserted inside the NAS with their bottom side upwards:
The bottom cover of the NAS is easily removable:
The top side is even more interesting, which shows the hardware placed on a “T”-shaped PCB:
On this side of the motherboard we will be able to take a look at the connectors, the card reader and also one of the SATA ports:
The motherboard also comes with a battery for keeping the settings saved:
A circular buzzer is also present on the opposite side of the PCB; near it we can also see a possible FAN header, which was probably included in the first stages of the project and removed afterwards:
Let’s dig even further and remove the printed circuit board from the top cover:
A coin-shaped heatsink can be easily spotted this way, which is meant to keep the Marvell processor cool:
The central processor is covered by a small thermal pad which acts as an interface:
On the board we have also spotted one Etron EJ168 USB 3.0 Host Controller:
The LAN interface is provided by the Marvell 88E1318-NNE3 Gigabit controller:
Near the CPU we will find two Hynix H5TQ2G83CFR chips, each having 256MB of DDR3:
A PIC16F690 8-bit microcontroller can be also spotted in the vicinity:
Here are some examples of both 3.5’’ and 2.5’’ drive mountings inside the trays:
In order to start setting up the NAS, we will download and install the QNAP Qfinder utility which will list the current configuration:
The software will offer us a Quick Setup method, which is quite automated or Manual Setup:
Then we will be prompted to confirm the current disk configuration:
The next step would be to specify the NAS name inside the network, a password for the administrator account, an email address but also a desired disk configuration:
We will be able to leave the NAS obtain a network IP automatically or specify a manual configuration:
The firmware can be chosen to be uploaded automatically from the QNAP servers or we can specify a file we have already stored on our HDD:
Afterwards the software will require us to confirm the desired configuration settings:
During the setup procedure, which will take a while, we will be able to see the configuration steps and watch the progress bar:
When the configuration has been completed and the NAS has automatically rebooted, we will be informed of the operation success:
In QTS 4.1 the login screen has changed slightly, but the older version is also available/selectable from the software interface:
We will be prompted to enter up the login username/password combination:
The interface of the QTS 4.1 OS is quite intuitive and on first boot we will be also shown a wizard to guide us through the further setup steps:
The desktop widget shows various info regarding the current system status including transfer rates, temperatures, available resources and so on:
From the Control Panel we will be able to adjust several system settings:
The Storage Manager menu will allow us to see the currently installed drives and available logical volumes:
QTS will check the HDD status regularly and update the health information inside the HDD S.M.A.R.T. menu:
Next we will be able to adjust options like the system time, login screen appearance and so on:
From the Network menu we can modify the current settings, also including Wi-Fi (with a compatible adapter), IPv6, Proxy, DDNS and so on:
The Hardware section allows us to modify the HDD standby times, light signal alert, write cache, but also the buzzer behavior:
Next we could access the EuP Mode Configuration menu, WoL configuration, Power Recovery and Power schedule menus:
In order to keep the firmware updated, we can either use the Live Update option for doing this automatically or manually via the Firmware Update tab:
The NAS can save the system settings to a file via the Backup/Restore settings tab, but we can also bring it to the factory defaults:
A separate menu is creating for dealing with External Storage devices, Printers but also UPS systems:
The System Status menu allows us to check the System Information, Network Status, currently running System Services or Hardware Information:
The Resource Monitor tab also has other sub-sections like CPU Usage, Memory Usage, Disk Usage, Bandwidth Usage or Process:
To know what happens “under the hood” we have to check out System Logs:
Inside the next menu we will be able to define new users and also modify settings regarding the current ones:
User Groups are already pre-defined by the manufacturer:
Next we will be able to check the current folders along with their sharing permissions:
If needed, we can specify a disk quota for all users, or individual:
We can enable different networking services in the next menu:
Network Recycle Bin is handy when we delete files or folders by mistake since they will be first moved to a specific folder and not deleted permanently:
For syncing files between different devices we can always use Qsync:
Let’s also take a look a little at some of the regular applications; we can install plenty from the interface even made by 3rd party developers. First we would like to mention the Download Station which permits file search on different portals but can also support file download from private torrent trackers. We only have to download the *.torrent file on our computer and drag-drop it to the Download Station window; the operation will then start automatically:
Photo Station application allows us to organize our private photo collection, but also run slideshows:
Music Station will pick up our files from the respective folders, index them and pick up the album art from the web. Online radio can be also listened from the same interface via TuneIn:
With Video Station we will be able to watch our entire video collection, after it has been processed and thumbnails have been assigned to each file; during playback, each video will open up in a new browser window (via VLC plugin):
A very important application is also File Station which helps us to organize the files on our NAS or transfer new ones from other different sources:
Backup Station helps replicating the data to another storage device, including cloud; here we can also access the remote NAS to NAS backup function:
Via myQNAPcloud service, we will be able to create a private data “cloud” and access the NAS contents from over the web:
CPU : Intel I7 3750K Retail @ 4.7GHz
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14
Motherboard : ASRock Z77 OC
RAM : GeIL EVO CORSA 16GB 2400MHz C11
(2GB Exceleram DDR1333 for NASPT compatibility)
Video : Sparkle GeForce GTX 560 Calibre
Power Supply : Cooler Master 850W
HDD : OCZ Vertex 4 256GB SSD
Case: Cooler Master ATCS840
To test the NAS performances, the HS-210 NAS was populated with one OCZ Vertex 4 SSD, formatted with a single volume and the NAS was connected directly to the computer, to avoid any limitations by implying additional hardware like a router. The first simple test was performed by loading the test file onto a RAM drive and then it was copied to the NAS, at its shared folder. The speed was recorded with Total Commander:
The second test was to copy the same file back to the computer; for eliminating any HDD speed limitations, the file was copied back to the RAM drive:
For performing a more advanced test, the Intel NAS Performance Toolkit was used, for performing 5 different test runs. Here are the results:
As extras, we have also included ATTO Disk Benchmark and Anvil:
We really like what QNAP has done with this product, by adopting a fanless design so only the drives inside would most likely make some noise when operating; this is more likely to happen while using 3.5’’ drives, while with 2.5’’ we needed to place our ear quite near the unit in order to hear a slight buzz during seek. The new design occupies very little space and uses the top cover as a large heatsink for both drive and also for the internal processor.
QNAP has equipped quite a lot of NASes with the HDMI port and we cannot really explain why this one does not feature one, since it would have been quite an interesting option to use the product as a media center by directly connecting it to our large diagonal TV, especially because of the lack of noise.
Besides HDMI, the NAS stays quite well in the connectivity department by having dual USB 2.0 ports but also two USB 3.0 ports. We can use all these ports for connecting additional storage or printers, compatible WiFi adapters and so on.
Regarding the performance of the unit, we can say that we are not dealing with a high-performance product, but it should be enough for home users to play back media content over the network. We are dealing with a power-efficient 1.6GHz Marvell CPU and 512MB of RAM; this type of configuration can be also found in some of the mainstream NASes nowadays.
The NAS runs on the latest version of QTS 4.1, so we have the software support which is also present on the high-performance models. We’ve got Video Station Pro with license for one camera, Music Station, Photo Station, File Station, support for AirPlay, DLNA and many more.
While using 3.5’’ drives, the top side of the chassis can get quite warm to the touch and it is recommended to place the unit in a well-ventilated environment. We ran our tests with two 2.5’’ drives and they have never exceeded 37 degress Celsius after downloading some torrents and seeding afterwards.
The QNAP HS-210 NAS can be found online for about 265 Euros, which we think it is acceptable for what the manufacturer offers us.
We would like to thank again to QNAP for making this review possible!