NAS by stefan @ 2014-09-21
The new high-performance TS-251 NAS from QNAP is built upon the Intel Celeron J1800 dual-core processor at 2.4GHz and is able to support on-the-fly video transcoding (thanks to Intel Quick Sync Video Technology), while offering very good transfer rates. While the tested unit was equipped with only 1GB of RAM, there is a 4GB version available too, which also supports running virtual machines.
At first we would like to thank QNAP for offering a sample of their TS-251 2-bay 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.”
High-performance NAS with one-the-fly & offline video transcoding for SOHO and home users
The TS-251 provides a high performance & high capacity storage solution for SOHO & home, workgroup, and SMB users. Powered by the advanced QTS operating system, the TS-251 performs as an easy-to-use yet powerful NAS for data backup, file synchronization, remote access, home entertainment, and is ideal for users to build a personal cloud to access their data easily.
Transcode Full HD videos on-the-fly or offline
Play 1080p videos with 7.1 channel surround sound pass-through via HDMI output
Create a personal cloud and stream your multimedia library via DLNA, AirPlay, and Plex
Centralize your file storage, sharing and backup
Run a virtual machine and extend the functionality of the NAS with an integrated virtualization solution
Expand the total raw storage capacity up to 60TB (with maximum 10 hard drives) with the economical QNAP expansion enclosure UX-800P
High performance
Powered by a new 22nm 64-bit dual-core Intel® Celeron® 2.41GHz processor with 1GB energy-efficient DDR3L RAM (upgradable up to 8GB), coupled with the support of dual LAN ports and HDMI connectivity, the TS-251 is a powerful home NAS with supreme value and great performance to deliver up to 220MB/s read & write speeds. The TS-251 can also automatically increase the processor's clock rate from 2.41GHz to 2.58GHz when needed for CPU-intensive tasks. The TS-251’s fast encryption and decryption performance provides transfer speeds of up to 68MB/s with AES-256 bit volume encryption, boosting system performance & security while ensuring the safety of sensitive personal data stored in the TS-251. When installed with the latest dual-band 2.4GHz/5GHz 802.11ac Wi-Fi network card, the TS-251 can offer remarkably high speeds for transferring large amount of files and streaming bandwidth-consuming multimedia.
QTS - Simple and efficient
Thanks to the intuitive user interface of QTS, system operations of the TS-251 are smooth and handy. Its intelligent desktop allows you to find desired functions quickly, create desktop shortcuts or group shortcuts, monitor important system information on a real-time basis, and open multiple application windows to run multiple tasks concurrently, bringing greater operating efficiency.
Easily build your personal cloud and access anywhere
QNAP’s myQNAPcloud provides an always-connected infrastructure for business and home users to build their private or personal cloud with ease. Through any web browser or the free mobile app the TS-251 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 TS-251 wherever you are. Instantly stream or share your multimedia contents and share them with your friends.
Real-time & offline HD video transcoding
The TS-251 delivers superior real-time Full HD video transcoding to convert your videos to formats that can be smoothly played on PCs, mobile devices and Smart TVs. It allows for up to 5 devices to simultaneously view different videos stored on the TS-251 with on-the-fly hardware accelerated transcoding. The TS-251 allows you to enjoy instant videos on multiple devices - even those that lack computing power or have limited file format support - without the need for complicated and time-consuming file conversion.
With the benefit of offline transcoding, if you can only connect to an Internet connection with limited/restricted bandwidth, you can still enjoy smooth videos by selecting a pre-rendered lower resolution to play the videos via File Station, Video Station, or the Qfile app for iOS & Android without affecting the TS-251’s performance running other applications. This also allows more people to play videos via streaming. The TS-251 also allows you to set a dedicated folder for automatic video transcoding.
Stream media via DLNA, AirPlay, and Plex
You can use DLNA-compatible devices such as HDTVs, Smart TVs, Sony® PS3, Microsoft® Xbox 360 and Hi-Fi systems to enjoy HD quality videos and high-resolution audio content such as DSD (Direct Stream Digital) audio format stored on the TS-251. You can also use the Qfile app on an iOS device to browse videos and photos stored on the TS-251 and play on the TV via Apple TV. By installing the QAirplay app, available on the QTS App Center, you can stream your media content directly on a TV via Apple TV. The media contents are streaming on Apple TV, bypassing your mobile device, thus saving the energy of your mobile device. The TS-251's support for Plex Media Server organizes all of your media with rich information and transforms the TS-251 into a powerful & easy to use streaming machine with DLNA, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, and Google TV support.
Enjoy Full HD videos with HD Station via HDMI
QNAP HD Station integrates the powerful XBMC v12 media player and web browser. With HDMI 1.4a connectivity, you can connect the TS-251 to a HDTV to enjoy your rich multimedia content on the big screen. The splendid user interface and support for 7.1 channel surround sound audio passthrough* bring smooth playback of Full HD videos providing a quality home theater experience**. You can also turn your mobile devices into remote controls by installing the Qremote app or use QNAP RM-IR002 remote control and MCE remote controls via the built-in IR receiver of the TS-251 for convenient & easy control of the HD Station. Moreover, the HD Station supports YouTube Pairing, allowing you to select a YouTube video on your smartphone, tablet or computer and play it on HDTV via the TS-251.
Use your TS-251 as a PC with the exclusive QvPC Technology
QNAP’s exclusive QvPC Technology consolidates a number of high-end technologies including VM integration, multimedia transcoding, HDMI output, cloud integration and NAS connection technologies, allowing users to operate the TS-251 as a PC when they plug in a keyboard, mouse and monitor. With QvPC Technology, the TS-251 is transformed into a cost-effective device with PC functionalities for users to directly access stored data, run multiple applications using Windows/Linux/UNIX/Android-based VMs, surf the web on Google Chrome, enjoy Full HD videos with up to 7.1 channel audio with XBMC, monitor Surveillance Station in real time with local display, and much more.
Extend the functionality of the TS-251 with Virtualization
Introducing the world’s first consumer-grade NAS with integrated virtualization technology. The Virtualization Station transforms the TS-251 into a 2-in-a-box NAS that can function as an all-in-one NAS and a virtualization platform supporting multiple operating systems, fast virtual machine creation, virtual machine import/export, snapshot, and enables desktop operations on web browsers. With the easy-to-use interface, you can centrally manage all of the virtual machines created on the TS-251 with minimal effort. You can also download VMs on demand from online VM markets and import them to TS-251 without any complex procedure.
Note: The TS-251 comes pre-installed with 1GB RAM. In order to use the Virtualization Station on the TS-251, you must upgrade the RAM to at least 2GB. 4GB or more is recommended. Maximum 1 VM can be run at the same time.
Cross-platform file sharing, centralized data storage
The TS-251 supports SMB/CIFS, NFS, and AFP protocols for file sharing across Windows, Mac and Linux/UNIX. Data, logs and ISO image of CDs and DVDs can be centrally stored in the TS-251 and protected by an integrated antivirus solution.
Well-rounded backup solutions to secure data
QNAP NetBak Replicator supports real-time and scheduled data backup on Windows including Outlook email archiving. Apple Time Machine is also supported to provide Mac OS X users with a solution to effortlessly back up data to the TS-251. The USB 3.0 port on the front panel of the TS-251 features a one-touch-copy function for you to instantly back up data on external drives to the TS-251 with just one click, or alternatively to back up data from the TS-251 to external drives. A wide range of third-party backup software such as Acronis® True Image and Symantec® Backup Exec are also supported.
Disaster recovery solutions bring peace of mind
The TS-251 offers various data recovery options. RTRR (Real-Time Remote Replication) supports real time and scheduled data backup to remote Turbo NAS or FTP servers and synchronizes files to remote folders from local folders with better backup efficiency and reduced backup time. The TS-251 also supports rsync protocol to back up data to remote servers on a scheduled basis. Data can also be backed up to and restored from a range of cloud storage services, including Amazon® S3, Amazon Glacier, Microsoft® Azure, ElephantDrive®, Symform®, Dropbox® and Google® Drive.
Optimize home computer management with the IT Management Station
The IT Management Station, powered by Mandriva® Pulse, provides a flexible service for managing your home computers. By installing the IT Management Station on the TS-251, you can easily manage multiple family computers with different operating systems, effortlessly handle backup & restore jobs to protect your precious data, and centrally install & update software on multiple computers with greater efficiency.
Archive your photo memories. Share your life.
The TS-251 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 TS-251 to create & 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 TS-251.
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 web player, you can enjoy your music anytime, anywhere with a few clicks. Thousands of local and global online Internet radio programs are also built-into the Music Station for you to enjoy.
Stream music and high-resolution audio (DSD) content to your DLNA Hi-Fi system and indulge in a high-quality sound experience.
Stream music via AirPlay to compatible devices.
Listen to your favorite songs streamed from iTunes Server, or play music via web browsers on your PC.
Listen to your music on mobile devices through the Qmusic app.
24/7 download center
The TS-251 is a perfect download center for high speed BT, Magnet, PT (Private Trackers), eMule, FTP, and HTTP downloads. After the download tasks are set ready, you can turn off the computer, and the TS-251 will download as many HD videos as you want. With the QGet utility you can manage your download tasks on multiple Turbo NAS devices remotely on the local network or the Internet. You can also install HappyGet app to back up abundant online videos to your TS-251.
Dropbox-like file synchronization across computers and mobile devices
With Qsync, your TS-251 is turned into a safe data center for file synchronization. Any file uploaded to the TS-251 will be made available for all linked devices, such as 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 for file synchronization and group file sharing, greatly enhancing the flexibility of team projects and collaboration.
Comprehensive surveillance solution providing 24/7 security
The TS-251’s Surveillance Station offers a professional surveillance solution with a user-friendly management interface, a wide range of over 2,600 compatible IP camera models, and expandable IP camera channel licenses. It supports real-time monitoring, video & audio recording and playback with a wide range of customizable settings. You can also install the VMobile app on your iOS® or Android™ devices to manage the monitoring of cameras anytime, anywhere, for total surveillance of your monitored environment.
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 personal animated resumes or life memory books. The Signage Station is a great tool to bring your resume to life with rich media content to creatively present your background and accomplishments. You can also create personal memory books to edit and record each life event. The iArtist Lite application, with intuitive editing tools, helps you to easily create these signs with drag & drop tools. Your creativity can now travel around the world with a few simple steps.
Access, use, sync and enjoy with your tablets and smartphones
The TS-251 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 tons of files in your pocket. If Qfile is installed on an iOS device, users can also browse videos & photos stored on the TS-251 and play on a TV via Apple TV. Qmanager lets you monitor & manage the TS-251 remotely and efficiently without turning on a PC, while Qmusic allows you to listen to your music collections on the TS-251 anytime and anywhere, and download to enjoy offline.
A private space for work & sharing
Notes Station
The Notes Station provides a private & 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 the TS-251), edit notes with the intuitive web-based editor, and even create to-do lists & calendar alerts.
Install-on-demand apps to extend NAS functionality
The TS-251 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, download, entertainment, and much more. It is also a centralized location for managing & updating installed apps. In addition, QNAP’s development platform embraces the open-source spirit to enable developers to create their own apps, adding potentially limitless potential for the TS-251.
Economical storage expansion with scale-up solution
The TS-251 offers a high performance yet affordable storage solution to fulfill the needs of small/home offices in archiving rapidly growing data & large files. The TS-251 supports online capacity expansion by connecting a QNAP expansion enclosure. With the QNAP scale-up solution, the raw storage capacity can be expanded on demand, making the TS-251 an ideal file center with large storage capacity for personal video collections.
Energy-saving
The TS-251 utilizes a 22nm CPU and DDR3L RAM which feature low voltage, low power consumption, maintaining high performance in system operations with the benefit of energy-saving. Other eco-friendly designs include S3 sleep mode, HDD standby, scheduled power on/off, hard disk standby mode, and Wake on LAN.
One of the latest NASes from QNAP is the TS-251 with its two-bays and at its core we have one Intel Celeron processor at 2.41GHz which is paired with 1GB of DDR3L RAM. The product is shipped inside a medium-sized white-themed cardboard box, with a photo of the NAS on the frontal side:
Some of the main features can be spotted on the side like backup, media file sharing, streaming, hardware 1080P video transcoding, up to 6TB of storage support in RAID0 or RAID1 configuration, but could also build our personal multimedia library with DLNA, AirPlay and Plex:
These functions can be also seen as translated on the opposite side:
Also here we have photos of the front and back sides of the NAS, with explanations of the main components:
A more in-depth explanation of the product features can be also found on the packaging:
After lifting the top cover, we will end up with the Package Content list and also some QR codes:
The box is carefully layered and we can clearly spot the NAS which is held between protective foam material and the bundle which is located in a separate plain cardboard enclosure:
The power lead occupies more space so it was placed outside the bundle box:
Here we will find the necessary screws to perform the installation for both 2.5’’ and 3.5’’ drives, two LAN cables, one Quick Installation Guide along with the Get Started Guide, but also the power brick:
Both guides are carefully documented with drawings and text:
The TS-251 NAS is quite compact and features a plastic grey/white themed enclosure:
The needed boot sequence is represented with a small sticker on the top:
A closer look at the front reveals the activity LEDs, extra buttons, the USB 3.0 port, but also the two white trays:
We have small, discrete LEDs for the System status, LAN activity, USB, but also one HDD LED for each bay:
Near the Power On/Off button, we also have an USB Copy button:
On the top side, there is one metallic grey QNAP logo:
While the right side of the NAS is quite plain, on the left side we have several ventilation holes which act as intake for the motherboard:
On the back side of the unit we will be able to spot the 70mm silent fan, one HDMI port, two LAN ports, two USB 2.0 and one USB 3.0, but also the DC-IN port; on the left there is one Kensington lock port along with a small sticker showing the MACs and the product serial number:
The bottom area sports an additional sticker, four rubber feet in the corners, but also some additional ventilation holes:
The trays are really easy to remove from the bays and we will only hear a silent “click”:
With both trays removed, we will be able to see more clearly the daughter-board, which holds the SATA Data/Power connectors:
Coming back to the plastic trays, these are made from good quality material and have holes drilled for both 2.5’’ and 3.5’’ drives:
We usually test the NASes with our SSDs, so here is an example of the OCZ Vertex 4 installed on the tray; we will need to use only three screws on the bottom, not four:
After powering up the NAS, we can go straight to the QNAP website in order to download the latest software available or we can use the wizard for a more automated process:
QNAP Finder will locate the NAS on our network and prompt for initialization:
Then the wizard will check for the latest available software and will also prompt us to download it:
In the following window, we will be also able to take a look at the installation progress:
After the OS has been installed, we will be prompted to enter a bit more details:
These details comprise of the server name, administrator password, email address or disk configuration:
Afterwards, we can either set the IP via DHCP or manually:
The final configuration steps are applied and a separate window shows us the progress:
The last page only comes to confirm the fact that the installation has completed successfully:
The intro page looks quite nice and from here we can login to the recently created administrator account or access so called “public apps”:
The QTS desktop welcomes us with a Quick Start Wizard, so we will know what to do next:
To see if everything is OK with the volumes, we can check out Storage Manager; for the sake of testing, we have initialized a RAID 0 setup with the help of the two SSDs:
The Shared Folders section can be also configured fully, in order to have control over what we have visible on the internal network:
The QTS desktop is well organized, with a top menu and accessible information widgets on the right side; in the middle we have icons of the currently installed applications, which have a similar placement as in a mobile operating system:
Right after we have connected our USB 3.0 HDD to one of the spare ports, we have been welcomed with a pop-up window:
The widgets give us a quick look at the health of the system, used storage space, LAN activity and more:
The Control Panel contains most of the settings which we can alter for modifying the system functionality:
The General Settings section offers us options concerning System Administration, Time, Daylight Saving, Codepage, Password Strength and so on:
Storage Manager section opens in a separate window and here we will be able to create/discard volumes, set up iSCSI Storage, LUN Backup and more:
The Network menu allows us to customize the LAN interfaces, enable WiFi with a suitable dongle, IPv6 and more:
Next we have Security, with options regarding Security Level, Network Access Protection, Certificate & Private Key:
The Hardware menu can customize, HDD standby mode, light signals when the remaining free space is low, write cache, but we have also tabs regarding the Buzzer signals and Smart Fan settings:
The Power menu is next, with its EuP Mode Configuration menu, WOL, Power Recovery or Power Schedule:
Notifications can be set up and customized from the next menu:
We can update the firmware from the next menu, automatically or manually:
The Backup / Restore menu is quite self-explanatory:
External Device will list the connected storage on USB, but also printers or UPS:
System Status is another option which will open inside its own window and here we will be able to see detailed information regarding the NAS like System Information, Network Status, running System Services, Hardware Information or the Resource Monitor:
The System Logs window will come with information regarding the System Event Logs, System Connection Logs, Online Users, Syslog Client Management:
Next we have the Privilege Settings menu with the usual Users, User Groups, Shared Folders, Quota, Domain Security and Domain Controller sub-sections:
Network Services menu is in charge of different file services, FTP, Telnet/SSH, SNMP, Network Recycle Bin and more:
Qsync allows data synchronization across different devices and share files across groups and communities:
The Applications section includes miscellaneous options regarding the installed services and apps:
HybridDesk Station is the interface we are accessing when using the HDMI; we can install different modules we are using or uninstall the ones we do not feel necessary anymore:
App Center is the place where we can install QNAP and 3rd party applications, which will help enhance the server functionality:
Through the representative photos, we could remind Photo station, which allows organization of our favorite creations in separate albums, run slide-shows and more:
After the indexing has been finalized, we will find our audio content ready to play in the Music Station application:
Download Station allows torrent files download and also supports drag-and-drop:
File Station application is pretty flexible and with it we can organize the files on our volumes or copy data straight from the external storage devices:
Here are some of the file operations we can perform; if we right-click on a file, we will also see Transcoding options:
Speaking of Transcoding, QNAP has placed a separate menu just for it inside the Control Panel:
We also have available Backup Station with different options like Rsync, RTRR, Time Machine, NAS to NAS and more:
myQNAPcloud allows easy access to the server from outside the network, this with very little configuration necessary:
An antivirus module is available for scanning the stored files against malware, viruses and so on:
Notes Station is a more advanced Notepad-like application which allows integration of voice memos, photos or even web pages:
DJ Station is another QNAP application which allows creating our own broadcast station:
Despite the QNAP recommendation, we have also tried to fire up Virtualization station:
Our tries were in vain since there is not a lot of system memory available to complete the operation:
The NAS can be easily used as a standalone media center thanks to the HDMI port; the first menu which will appear on-screen will be the language selection:
Afterwards the selectable icons will appear in the center and thanks to the mouse/keyboard we will be able to navigate through them:
The Chrome module, if installed, permits easy browsing on any page:
The QTS module allows accessing the NAS GUI without the need of using a PC:
The Spotify service is available through another module:
The main point of attraction is XBMC, which allows navigating and playback through all available multimedia content:
Via the System Information tab, we will be able to see some more details regarding the installed hardware:
The YouTube module allows navigating the online content as on many other Smart TVs:
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 TS-251 was populated with one OCZ Vertex 4 SSD along with one KingFast SLC E-Drive in RAID 0, 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, on 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:
The new QNAP TS-x51 series is available in 2-bay, 4-bay, 6-bay and also 8-bay variants; the tested model contains at its core the Intel Celeron J1800 dual-core processor at 2.4GHz and is able to support on-the-fly video transcoding (thanks to Intel Quick Sync Video Technology) while offering very good transfer rates. While the tested unit is paired with only 1GB of RAM, there is another version available too, with 4GB of RAM, which also allows working with virtual machines. In the case of the TS-251, we have both internal SATA ports served by one PCI-e link and uses the ASMedia ASM1061 for PCIe x1 to SATA bridging.
The QTS OS is solid and has got better and better in the last time frame regarding stability and ease of use; we can always use the App Center for downloading separate modules in order to enhance the server functionality. Separately, we can install different utilities in order to use the NAS as a standalone device while connected via HDMI to our high definition TV (HDMI 1.4a connectivity is offered with 7.1 channel surround sound pass-through).
The chassis has now a different, lighter design and the trays are not provided with locks, which tell us that this solution was mainly thought for home and small offices. After the boot procedure has completed, the back 70mm fan becomes silent enough so we won’t notice it during operation.
The QNAP TS-251 NAS Server is available online for about 366 Euros, while the 4GB version can be found at a much higher price of 626 Euros.
We would like to thank QNAP for making this review possible!