QNAP:QNAP TS-439 and TS-639 Pro Turbo Quick Review

In our digital age we all need increased storage capacity, well I do. Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about typical storage for porn collections, but really fast, secure, and powerful storage systems that only a NAS can provide. (NAS = Network Attached Storage).

You might say NASs are common these days and QNAP is one brand among many, but you'd DEAD WRONG! I own two NASs, one at the office and one at home, both purchased from reputable Japanese companies like I-O DATA and Buffalo. In Japan these two brands provide, or at least I assume so, enterprise level NASs for the rest of us and for SOHO companies (Small Office/Home Office) that can afford a fully loaded NAS systems like CISCO sells.

As I said I'm pretty happy with my NASs from Buffalo and I-O DATA, they're reliable, QUI easy to use and offer a quite nice range of options… But now everything's changed, and it will be hard for me to consider buying one of these NASs in the future after playing with QNAP's latest and deadliest server.

I'm not an IT professional nor a SERVER guru, but I'll give you my honest (average user) opinion concerning these NASs. If you want to learn more, go and check a professional website like "Tom’s Hardware" or go and check QNAP's Website and video below.

First Contact
The first thing that attracted me on these two NASs were their simple yet efficient design, the overall material used is extremely good and the NASs look rock solid. Then I really liked the ability to put whatever HDDs I wanted inside and not being stuck from day one with a particular HDD setting. Side by side with an I-O Data NAS you can see the QNAP HDD bays don't fully cover the drive (compared with the I-O Data). This is seems a little odd and you may get from this an uneasy feeling… The truth is, having a naked HDD provides more efficient cooling to the overall unit and makes for a quieter NAS.

Once the HDD is in place, push the power button and you're good to go. Follow the instruction on the little LCD and you'll be ready to setup a RAID configuration… Just insert an HDD and your QNAP will do the rest.

Tweaking the Beast
Your NAS is now ready and you can access the beast's menu (see gallery), now you'll be amazed at what these babies can do. Not only is everything clearly explained (check these screenshots for an example of RAID settings), but the power of this fully loaded compact PC is awesome… You can run your own Website thanks to its PHP and MySQL database service. You can virtually create an Akihabara News site, with a Forum, Photo Gallery, etc and so one besides your standard NAS fulfills your home or office needs.

In the past I tested an equivalent system, a router with an internal HDD with a basic NAS, DLNA, FTP, and Webservice on top, I won't tell you the name of this product since it never worked well and was SO slow… But thanks to the QNAP ATOM CPU and 1GB of RAM, you'll have a snappy system capable of hosting a Website and providing an intranet solution for your company.

Another great thing about these NASｓ is their dual LAN port that provide two networks capable of accessing your NAS for use as a backup system in SOHO environments. If you understand and use the full powered iSCSI you'll be happy to hear that these NASs are fully capable of supporting this protocol.

Everyday Usage
Side by side with our 2 I-0 DATA NAS, we were astonished to hear how QUIET the QNAP NASs are… thanks to its well developed chassis and large fan, it doesn't require a high RPM fan and is nearly totally silent. Another big surprise was how fast data went in and out, we are running a Gigabit Ethernet system, but thanks to QNAP electronics and OS, data traveled faster than on our Gigabit I-O DATA NAS. Only a little lag when it came to accessing the NAS from idle to On.


QNAP TS-639 Pro Turbo NAS from QNAP on Vimeo.