At first we would like to thank QNAP for offering a sample of their TS-531P Quad-core Business-class NAS for testing and reviewing.

 

 

 

About QNAP:

 

“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.”

 

Quad-core CPU and hardware-accelerated encryption

 

The TS-531P is equipped with an Annapurna Labs Alpine AL-314 quad-core 1.4 GHz ARM® Cortex-A15 processor with 2GB/8GB DDR3-1600 RAM (upgradable to 16GB), SATA 6Gb/s, and four Gigabit LAN ports (expandable to 4x GbE + 2x 10GbE ports) for lightning-fast multi-tasking performance with SSD cache support. The TS-531P's hardware-accelerated encryption engine provides unmatched encryption performance in its class, up to 400 MB/s with AES-256 bit full NAS volume encryption, boosting system performance & security while ensuring the safety of sensitive business data stored in the TS-531P.

 

Flexible 10GbE connectivity

 

The TS-531P offers 4 inbuilt Gigabit Ethernet ports and supports 10 Gigabit high-speed networks by installing a 10GbE SFP+ or 10GBASE-T network adapter (optional purchase). The 10GbE-ready TS-531P delivers lightning-fast data throughput for businesses that demand higher bandwidth for virtualization and fast backup and restoration for an ever-growing amount of data. Coupled with its large storage capacity potential, the TS-531P is perfect for companies to store massive data and excels in fast data transmission.

 

High Efficiency with quad LAN support

 

The TS-531P supports multiple port-trunking modes, enabling IT administrators to set up link aggregation to increase total data transmission capability. Failover and dual IP are also supported to ensure continuous system operations. The supported port-trunking modes include: Balance-rr (Round-Robin), Active Backup, Balance XOR, Broadcast, IEEE 802.3ad, Balance-tlb (Adaptive Transmit Load Balancing) and Balance-alb (Adaptive Load Balancing).

 

SSD cache acceleration

 

The TS-531P supports SSD caching which can greatly boost IOPS performance of storage volumes to increase operational efficiency. It is perfect for improving overall workflow of IOPS-demanding applications and allows the best of both cost and performance by combining SSDs with HDDs.

 

Container Station – LXC and Docker Containers inclusive

 

QNAP Container Station exclusively integrates LXC and Docker® lightweight virtualization technologies, allowing you to operate multiple isolated Linux® systems on the TS-531P as well as download apps from the built-in Docker Hub® Registry. It supports container import/export and permission settings, and features an informative dashboard and flexible user interface for you to manage multiple containers. You can experience the amazing Container Station and enjoy the playground of virtual containers with the TS-531P. Container Station also supports Online Document app*, which allows you to directly view, edit and store files of various types anytime on your NAS, including Office documents, images and text files.

 

Qsirch – A smarter, faster way to search

 

TS-531P with 8GB RAM supports Qsirch, QNAP's unique, powerful, Google Search-like search tool that helps you find what you need on the NAS. You can quickly and easily find documents, photos, videos, and music. Simply type in as much as you know about what you are trying to find, including parts of the file name or even words/phrases in the document, and Qsirch will display a list of matches – complete with thumbnails – as you type. Qsirch even remembers your search history so you can quickly navigate to files you've previously searched for. Qsirch is a huge productivity boost that greatly reduces the time spent looking for files on the NAS, allowing you to focus on other tasks.

 

QTS - Simple and efficient

 

Thanks to the intuitive user interface of QTS, your NAS experience is smarter, smoother and spectacular. Its modern flat design streamlines loading times, and the 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.

 

Cross-platform file sharing, centralized data storage

 

The TS-531P supports SMB/CIFS, NFS, and AFP protocols for file sharing across Windows®, Mac®, Linux®/UNIX® networks. Data, logs and ISO images of CDs and DVDs can be centrally stored on the TS-531P and protected by an integrated antivirus solution. The Windows AD® and LDAP services enable system administrators to configure user permissions by using an existing Windows AD server, LDAP server or built-in LDAP service. The TS-531P supports SAMBA v4 and can act as a Windows domain controller to manage privilege settings.

 

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-531P. The USB 3.0 port on the front panel of the TS-531P features a one-touch-copy function for you to instantly back up data from external drives to the TS-531P with just one click, or alternatively to back up data from the TS-531P 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 brings peace of mind

 

The TS-531P offers various data recovery options. RTRR (Real-Time Remote Replication) supports real time or scheduled data backup to a remote QNAP NAS or FTP server and synchronizes files to a remote folder from a local folder with better backup efficiency. You can enjoy backup versioning to preserve a certain amount of versions, with options of simple versioning to schedule how many versions should be retained and for how long, or smart versioning with a rotation scheme that automatically replaces earlier backup versions. The TS-531P also supports the rsync protocol to back up data to another remote server 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®, Dropbox®, Google Drive™, Google Cloud Storage™, and more.

 

File synchronization across multiple devices and clouds

 

Qsync utility turns your TS-531P into a safe, large-capacity data center for file synchronization. Any file uploaded to the TS-531P will be made available for all linked devices, such as computers, laptops or mobile devices. Qsync is especially useful for frequent travelers to manage files and always have the most up-to-date files on different devices. You can also install the Cloud Drive Sync app from QTS App Center to easily sync files with Google Drive™ and Dropbox® cloud storage.

 

Comprehensive security options

 

In open network environments, business data may be exposed in a potential hack. The TS-531P provides numerous security options, such as encrypted access, IP blocking, and more. IT administrators can also control the access rights of each user to different folders, preventing unauthorized access to important files. The TS-531P supports AES 256-bit encryption, preventing sensitive business data from unauthorized access and breach even if the hard drives or the entire system were stolen.

 

Comprehensive surveillance solution providing 24/7 security

 

Surveillance Station is a professional network surveillance Video Management System (VMS) that offers a user-friendly management interface, over 3,000 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 monitored channels anytime and anywhere to safeguard your office environment, or install the Vcam mobile app to turn your device into a network camera to instantly record to your TS-531P. The TS-531P offers 2 free IP camera channels and you can expand up to 30 channels by purchasing additional licenses.

 

Install-on-demand apps to extend NAS functionality

 

The built-in App Center 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-531P.

 

Expand storage capacity easily

 

The TS-531P supports online capacity expansion for archiving rapidly growing data by connecting 2 QNAP expansion enclosures. With the QNAP scale-up solution, the raw storage capacity can be expanded on demand, making the TS-531P an ideal file center with large storage capacity for storage-intensive business applications such as video surveillance, data archiving, TV broadcast storage, and more.

 

Energy-efficient

 

The TS-531P utilizes an energy-efficient quad-core ARM® processor that features low voltage and low power consumption, maintaining high performance in system operations and suitable for an always-online business cloud without running up a high electricity bill. Additional energy-saving features include S3 sleep mode, hard disk standby, scheduled power on/off, and Wake on LAN.

 

Additional SMB-ready features

 

The TS-531P supports various business applications as an all-in-one Turbo NAS with cost-efficiency.

 

The Turbo NAS supports Web server which allows numerous websites built on the same server conveniently. Administrators can manage up to 32 websites on the single one Turbo NAS with reduced IT cost.

 

The Turbo NAS supports Surveillance Station to connect and manage multiple IP cameras remotely, including real-time monitoring, video recording, playback, and event notifications.

 

 

The new 4-bay NAS model from QNAP is oriented toward a very low power consumption goal and in order to achieve this the manufacturer has equipped the unit with an Annapurna Labs Alpine AL-314 Quad-core 1.4GHz Cortex-A15 processor, which is paired with 2GB of RAM (there is also a version available with 8GB pre-installed).This product is recommended for business applications too because it does have no less than 4 Gigabit LAN ports available in the back, for LAG, failover or connecting the NAS to different networks and also we have a spare slot for expanding the connectivity with two more 10GbE ports via an optional card. The product is shipped inside a medium-sized cardboard box, with a sticker in front, showing us the main product highlights and hardware specifications:

 

 

 

Some of the main product functionalities are also shown further down:

 

 

 

After lifting the top cover, we will get to see the server fully protected in foam material, along with its bundle in the middle:

 

 

 

The product bundle is not stored in a separate cardboard enclosure, but in re-sealable plastic bags:

 

 

 

We will receive the documentation leaflet, two LAN cables but also mounting screws for both 2.5’’ and 3.5’’ drives:

 

 

 

 

Besides the foam material we have reminded you guys a little back, the server is also wrapped inside a transparent plastic bag:

 

 

 

 

On the top area of the unit there is a small sticker, representing the HDD sequence boot order:

 

 

 

We are dealing with a chassis we have seen many times before, which has proven itself as being very solid, while incorporating on some models a top LCD screen on the plastic front (for this model it is not the case):

 

 

 

In the top left corner, we will get to see a chromed QNAP logo:

 

 

 

Further down, we will get to see one sticker, informing the user that we are dealing with an Annapurna Labs Alpine AL-314 CPU, and some other product highlights:

 

 

 

Near the Power button, we do also have an USB Copy button along with the respective USB 3.0 port:

 

 

 

Despite the fact that we do not have a LCD display on top, some LEDs are available on the placeholder, for showing the current NAS Status, USB connectivity status, but also LAN activity:

 

 

 

On top of each tray we do have a green/red LED which does show the drive activity/status, but there are no frontal locks as we have been used to before when talking a look at SMB units:

 

 

 

On the left side of the unit we will get to see a ventilation grill which helps with air intake so the back side of the motherboard will always stay cool:

 

 

 

In the back area we will get to see a large 120mm fan which is meant to cool all drives, and also various interfaces around it; let’s take a closer look!

 

 

 

In the top left corner, we do have the included power supply with its own cooling fan:

 

 

 

Moving to the right we have an I/O shield where the expansion card should go, and also a Reset button hole:

 

 

 

Also on the right side we’ve got no less than four Gigabit LAN ports:

 

 

 

Nearby, for connecting different other devices, we do have two more USB 3.0 ports, along with a debug jack:

 

 

 

QNAP did not forget to also include a Kensington lock port:

 

 

 

On the bottom area of the unit, we will get to see four large and circular rubber feet, along with some additional stickers:

 

 

 

The TS-531P trays are sporting the classic design, with an aluminum body and a plastic frontal cover:

 

 

 

The frontal area does also feature a ventilation grill, which acts as intake:

 

 

 

The 2.5’’ holes are marked, pre-drilled and we only need three screws:

 

 

 

After the removal of all bay trays, we will be able to take a look of the daughter-board, which features the SATA Data/Power connectors:

 

 

 

Since the Annapurna Labs Alpine AL-314 Quad-core CPU is a low-powered component, it is only cooled by a small aluminum heatsink:

 

 

 

The top cover of the unit can be lifted easily by simply removing three screws which are located in the back:

 

 

 

Between the drive cage and the back fan there is quite a bit of space left for maintenance:

 

 

 

A closer look at the motherboard will reveal the PCI-E Gen2 x4 slot for expansion purposes:

 

 

 

QNAP is always using high-quality power supplies on their servers; this time we are looking at a DELTA ELECTRONICS DPS-250AB-44D PSU which can deliver a maximum combined power of 240W:

 

 

 

Usually, with low-powered SoCs we are not used of seeing an upgradeable memory system; with the TS-531P this is not the case since on the back side of the motherboard there are two SODIMM DDR3 slots available, one of which is populated. We can install up to 16GB of SODIMM DDR3 RAM from a 2x8GB configuration, but make sure that both modules sport the exact same specifications:

 

 

 

 

In order to find the QNAP NAS server with ease, we can always use the QNAP QFinder helper application, which can be downloaded from the manufacturer website:

 

 

 

The next initialization steps will occur in a browser window and first we will be asked to install the latest available firmware version:

 

 

 

A Wizard will then appear to guide us through:

 

 

 

During setup, we do have the possibility to change the current server name along with the administrator password:

 

 

 

Time zone comes next, along with other time settings:

 

 

 

Afterwards, we will be asked to perform the network configuration:

 

 

 

Depending on the platforms used, we can select an appropriate service or multiple; the Wizard can also perform installation of the usual QNAP QTS applications for multimedia purposes:

 

 

 

We can next select the disk configuration; for testing purposes we will create a RAID0 configuration for maximum speed:

 

 

 

 

A summary screen will be finally displayed:

 

 

 

During the initialization phase, we will be shown a progress bar:

 

 

 

After the installation completes itself, we can log in to the QTS interface:

 

 

 

 

A quick check inside the Storage Manager section confirms that the RAID0 volume has been created successfully:

 

 

 

Lastly, we will check the currently created shared folders; we will use the Public one for testing purposes:

 

 

 

After logging in to QTS, we will be presented with its desktop interface, which is quite easy to work with, providing us with quite a bit of information; the installed applications can be extended on multiple desktops, as we have seen on smartphone operating systems:

 

 

 

The included widgets give us plenty of information like system health, hardware temperatures and fan speeds, a live system monitor, HDD health per each bay, online volumes statuses and more:

 

 

 

We can access the full application list even faster from the top left corner:

 

 

 

Control Panel is the place to go when customizing the system properties; we have the menus split in different sub-sections like System Settings, Privilege Settings, Network Services and Applications:

 

 

 

The General Settings menu allows us to modify the login settings, server time, choose codepage, adjust the password strength or customize the login screen:

 

 

 

Storage Manager opens up in a separate window and from here we will be able to create storage pools and also volumes on our liking; we can also enable cache acceleration with a SSD, work with ISCSI Storage and LUN Backup and more:

 

 

 

 

 

The Network menu allows the user to work with the LAN interfaces, enable port trunking, work with the Wi-Fi configuration in case we do have a suitable dongle connected to the server, adjust iPv6 settings, Service Binding, Proxy settings but also configure the DDNS Service (if applicable):

 

 

 

The Security menu allows the user to set a security mode, by allowing or denying certain IP addresses or network domains, adjust the Network Access Protection or system Certificates:

 

 

 

The Hardware menu is available for us in order to adjust some miscellaneous system settings, change the Buzzer behavior or adjust the Smart Fan profiles:

 

 

 

Power menu comes with the EuP option, WoL, Power Recovery and Power Schedule sub-sections:

 

 

 

System notifications can be enabled from the next menu via E-mail, SMS or Push services:

 

 

The Firmware update can be performed automatically (QTS will automatically search for it), but when an automatic update is not available and on the website there is already a new QTS file available, we will have to go the manual route:

 

 

Backup & Restore menu allows the user to save current server settings for later restore, but also from the same menu we can reset the system to factory defaults:

 

 

External devices can be also configured from the next menu:

 

 

System Status does have its separate window available, which opens up to show the current System Information, Network Status, running System Services, Hardware Information but also a live Resource Monitor:

 

 

System Logs menu does sport a similar behavior, with its own sub-sections: System Event Logs, System Connection Logs, Online Users and Syslog Client Management:

 

 

 

 

The Privilege Settings main menu is next, with its Users sub-section, which allows the administrators to define new users which will operate the server resources:

 

 

 

User Groups with different privileges can be created too:

 

 

 

Various shared folders are created by default, but the user can always create new ones, with different permissions for each user:

 

 

 

Disk quotas can be enabled next:

 

 

 

Domain security menu allows logging to an AD service as a domain member, LDAP authentication, but the server can also function as a domain controller:

 

 

 

 

The Network Services main menu is next, with its services available for different platforms:

 

 

 

 

 

Here also resides the Network Recycle Bin feature, which is very useful if files are deleted accidentally:

 

 

 

Several installed applications have some miscellaneous options available in the “Applications” main menu:

 

 

 

 

From here we can also configure the DLNA Media Server:

 

 

 

Multimedia Management menu will “instruct” the default multimedia applications where to look for indexing media files:

 

 

 

Transcoding options are also available here:

 

 

 

Web Server is often enabled by default, because a lot of application modules are using it:

 

 

 

File Station application offers us an easy way to navigate through the NAS files:

 

 

 

Different file options are available when right-clicking on a file:

 

 

 

Next we could remind of the Backup Station, which allows NAS backup on different other servers or devices, but also in the cloud:

 

 

 

myQNAPcloud facilitates our connection to the NAS from the Internet:

 

 

 

Qsync Central Station is here for us when willing to sync files and folders via different platforms:

 

 

 

The Antivirus application configuration menu opens up in Control Panel:

 

 

 

App Center is the place to go in order to install application modules of our choice or perform updates of the previously installed ones; its interface has been fully revamped in the last QTS versions:

 

 

 

 

Photo Station 5 will display our photo collection, allows creation of albums, play slideshows, while maintaining a very easy-to-use interface:

 

 

 

 

Music Station will reorganize our music collection and display it in an organized manner, with album art if available:

 

 

 

Online radio services can be also accessed via TuneIn menu:

 

 

 

Video Station does basically the same thing, but for video files:

 

 

 

Different playback options are available when clicking on a specific file:

 

 

 

The video playback will begin in a different tab:

 

 

 

Other useful applications we would like to remind of is Image2PDF, which will help us transform any image to a PDF file and Notes Station, which is a word processor for creating different presentations or documents:

 

 

 

 

If we feel that Video Station is not enough for us, then we can install and run the dedicated Plex multimedia application:

 

 

 

Besides the actual playback function, we will get in-detail information about a specific movie/TV episode, which is picked up the web after all files have been indexed:

 

 

 

 

 

Test Setup

 

CPU : Intel I5 4690K Retail

CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D14

Motherboard : BIOSTAR GAMING Z97X

RAM : GeIL EVO CORSA 16GB 2400MHz C11

(2GB Exceleram DDR1333 for NASPT compatibility)

Video : HIS 280X

Power Supply : Cooler Master 850W

SSD : OCZ Vertex 4 256GB

Case: Cooler Master ATCS840

 

To test the NAS performances, the TS-531P NAS 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:

 

ATTO Disk Benchmark

 

 

Anvil

We have performed the same benchmarks but this time with an encrypted folder:

 

Total Commander Copy Performance

 

 

Total Commander Read Performance

 

 

Intel NAS Performance Toolkit

 

ATTO Disk Benchmark

 

Anvil Utilities

 

Despite the fact that we are dealing with a NAS server designed for low-power consumption, it is able to deliver good performances in both regular and encrypted volume scenarios, comes with memory upgrade possibilities up to 16GB, 10GbE expansion slot, can scale up to 21 drives with QNAP UX-800P enclosures and more. The Quad-LAN support helps when having a LAG configuration, for failsafe or for connecting the server to different networks and the SSD acceleration function can boost the product when using IOPS-demanding applications.

 

TS-531P is operating with the latest QTS version, which can offer us a smooth experience during NAS configuration but also during regular use. The App Center is there for us for installing all necessary application modules and apps are available from both QNAP and 3rd parties.

 

Since this NAS model is mostly oriented at business applications, a HDMI port in the back is not available, but we haven’t seen any issues while trying to play back high-quality video files via the Video Station or Plex from QTS.

 

The QNAP TS-531P-2G NAS server is priced fair at online shops for what we have offered: 478 Euros.

 

QNAP TS-531P Quad-core Business-class NAS is Recommended For:

 

 

We would like to thank again to QNAP for making this review possible!