Help me understand Qnap's model lineup

[funkahdafi]

Hi,

I've been eying Qnap as a replacement or addition to my dusted Drobo Pro for a about two years now. It wasn't high on my list, that's why it's been taking so long.

Anyways.... Ever since I looked at their products, it confuses the hell out of me. There doesn't seem to be a consitent way of naming their models. They have the numbers all over the place, with the TS-x69 being two years older than the the new TS-x51 (like that makes any sense), adding Pro and L models to the mix. Then there also seems to be a difference between a business oriented and a consumer oriented version of their firmware, but that's also not consistent across the model lineup (e.g. it's not like the "Pro" models would have the business features and the non-Pro models the consumer features).

How can anyone see through their chaos?

If you can, would you mind shedding some light on this for me? I am completely lost. So lost, that I can't even begin to make a decision for which model to choose.

Thanks.

 

[mervincm]

Start with defining your requirements, must have and like to have. It's easy to get caught up in the fancy features that you may never use.
The x51's and x53's have tons of features, but if you have been making do with Drobo for a couple years, I am betting they are overkill for what you need.

 

[funkahdafi]

Thanks, but I am not looking for model recommendations. I want to understand their lineup And I want to be able to still understand it in six months, after they released probably 12 more new models.

My Drobo Pros, by the way, are plain iSCSI DAS, not to be confused with a traditional NAS, and they are going to stay - the Qnap will become it's "head station". I am going to connect the Drobos to the Qnap through iSCSI and share the Drobo's content through the Qnap.

 

[thiggins]

Don't try to figure out any vendor's numbering or naming scheme.
The key to understanding NAS lines is processor used.

Same processor, no matter what a product is named or "family" it is positioned in, is how you tell them apart.

 

[mervincm]

Thanks, but I am not looking for model recommendations. I want to understand their lineup And I want to be able to still understand it in six months, after they released probably 12 more new models.

My Drobo Pros, by the way, are plain iSCSI DAS, not to be confused with a traditional NAS, and they are going to stay - the Qnap will become it's "head station". I am going to connect the Drobos to the Qnap through iSCSI and share the Drobo's content through the Qnap.

iSCSI is a SAN protocol, not DAS or NAS. In any case, I think you are fighting an up hill battle trying to understand how QNAP's marketing dept. differentiate their products. It's all fluff designed to attract their targeted customer and pull a few extra $$ per $ they spend on the hardware. Expecting it to remain useful looking forward is even more difficult to achieve.

Are you sure the QNAP can act as an iSCSI initiator and treat the SAN disk as a local volume for re-share? I sold my QNAP a few months ago, but I don't recall seeing that anywhere. I only recall seeing it as the iSCSI target.

 

[funkahdafi]

Don't try to figure out any vendor's numbering or naming scheme.
The key to understanding NAS lines is processor used.

Same processor, no matter what a product is named or "family" it is positioned in, is how you tell them apart.

Not so easy with Qnap, apparently and unfortunately.

For example, there is a document that describes the feature sets for the business lineup and the consumer lineup, and they list models with the same processor under both. It's a complete mess.

This is the document I am talking about:

http://www.qnap.com/i/en/support/con_show.php?cid=11

Left column is the "home" (consumer) and right is the "SMB" (business) feature set.

And with any other NAS vendor, their naming always makes sense. You can easily differentiate.

 

[funkahdafi]

Are you sure the QNAP can act as an iSCSI initiator and treat the SAN disk as a local volume for re-share? I sold my QNAP a few months ago, but I don't recall seeing that anywhere. I only recall seeing it as the iSCSI target.

Jupp, pretty sure about that. They call it "Virtual Disk" feature. Go figure. Even more marketing dullheads at work.

Unfortunately, Qnap seem to be the only one doing this in the SOHO/Prosumer market. I wish Synology did.

Thanks.

 

[matt6789]

I quit trying to figure out the model name system when I was shopping. I followed the advice of thiggins and stevech: focus on features and processor. Also, I looked at release dates to make sure I was not interested in an older model that might be discontinued soon or not support updates.

Looking at the manuals, the software is the same except for two apps: NTP Service and Virtualization are not listed in the manual version for 'Consumer' models according to your link.

 

[funkahdafi]

Thanks.

So I am not alone

I am eying the 870 Pro right now.

Thanks guys.