QNAP Announces First Ryzen-Powered NAS Series

[Julio Urquidi]

The QNAP TS-x77 series of business-ready NAS products will use AMD’s Ryzen processor to power its line-up of 6-, 8- and 12-bay models. Powered by either the 6-core Ryzen 5 or 8-core Ryzen 7, the new NAS series will also support up to 64 GB of DDR4 RAM.

Each NAS includes three PCIe expansion slots used to add NICS, PCIe SSDs, graphics cards (AMD Radeon and NVIDIA supported), or additional USB 3.1 cards. Two SATA slots accommodate M.2 SSDs, providing either cache acceleration or storage pools, boosting performance for better file sharing and virtualization.

Announced at this year’s Computex, the QNAP TS-x77 (link to data sheet) series will be available in Q3 2017.

 

[Threska49]

You know the most interesting omission with NAS in general, and this specifically? No UPS. Even a small one could be built-in.

 

[RMerlin]

You know the most interesting omission with NAS in general, and this specifically? No UPS. Even a small one could be built-in.

I disagree. External UPS is ideal, as not everyone's needs will be the same (is your NAS filled with power-savvy SSDs or 7200 RPMs 10TB monsters?), and it's also one less piece of hardware that can fail. Would suck having to throw away a working NAS just because the built-in UPS is toast, and having it repaired would cost hundreds of dollars.

Also, your NAS will quite often sit next to more hardware (such as a network switch, or a USB disk) that might also require access to a UPS.

 

[sfx2000]

Boxes like this are interesting, but when pricing out, one can get a 2U Dell or Lenovo server for less...

 

[Threska49]

I disagree. External UPS is ideal, as not everyone's needs will be the same (is your NAS filled with power-savvy SSDs or 7200 RPMs 10TB monsters?), and it's also one less piece of hardware that can fail. Would suck having to throw away a working NAS just because the built-in UPS is toast, and having it repaired would cost hundreds of dollars.

Also, your NAS will quite often sit next to more hardware (such as a network switch, or a USB disk) that might also require access to a UPS.

Understood, although when I mention a UPS, it's not for running the NAS the longest, but long enough to effect an orderly shut-down. For that one doesn't need a big UPS. In fact it could be sized as big as a drive bay, and removable. The problem is that without a UPS power blips risk corrupting the filesystem, even where the OS is, not to mention the precious data.

 

[RMerlin]

Understood, although when I mention a UPS, it's not for running the NAS the longest, but long enough to effect an orderly shut-down. For that one doesn't need a big UPS. In fact it could be sized as big as a drive bay, and removable. The problem is that without a UPS power blips risk corrupting the filesystem, even where the OS is, not to mention the precious data.

Before that, I'd rather see NAS manufacturers start implementing battery-backed caches for their controller, like you get in a serious production server. Just that alone would greatly help in preventing major data corruption, at a fairly reasonable price. Unfortunately, a lot of these NAS are purely software-based RAID solutions.

 

[Moogle Stiltzkin]

Before that, I'd rather see NAS manufacturers start implementing battery-backed caches for their controller, like you get in a serious production server. Just that alone would greatly help in preventing major data corruption, at a fairly reasonable price. Unfortunately, a lot of these NAS are purely software-based RAID solutions.

what about ecc ram, is that recommended?

also any thoughts about ryzen 7 1700 transcoding capability? from what i seen it's a better multi tasker vs an i7-7700 like say

http://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Intel-Core-i7-7700-vs-AMD-Ryzen-7-1700/3887vs3917

 

[Antonios]

Understood, although when I mention a UPS, it's not for running the NAS the longest, but long enough to effect an orderly shut-down. For that one doesn't need a big UPS. In fact it could be sized as big as a drive bay, and removable. The problem is that without a UPS power blips risk corrupting the filesystem, even where the OS is, not to mention the precious data.

The part of any laptop, containing battery, charging circuit and battery powered PSU, one could in reality hack that part of a working laptop and stick it in some modular bay, at a very low cost too. Could have two of them for hot swap redunduncy, buy one get another for free.

I bet such a part would run the system for quite a few minutes to shut down gracefully and being on line constantly, just like any laptop does it would absorb any mains voltage fluctuations too.

I mean the part is already there produced very cheaply and has proven reliability much much higher than any external UPS I have ever used.

Just my 2c.

 

[RMerlin]

what about ecc ram, is that recommended?

ECC RAM is generally a good thing. Whether it's worth the increase in price is up for debate however.

also any thoughts about ryzen 7 1700 transcoding capability? from what i seen it's a better multi tasker vs an i7-7700 like say

Intel CPUs have a built-in GPU while the Ryzen does not. Therefore I'd expect better transcoding performance out of the Intel (provided you take advantage of its GPU).

 

[Moogle Stiltzkin]

ECC RAM is generally a good thing. Whether it's worth the increase in price is up for debate however.



Intel CPUs have a built-in GPU while the Ryzen does not. Therefore I'd expect better transcoding performance out of the Intel (provided you take advantage of its GPU).

hi merlin,

thx for your thoughts. Yeh intel has igpu so can straight use that. also doesn't it have quicksync? but with ryzen processing power, isn't software x264 better quality and cpu can handle anyway?

but yes on ryzen will require an additional purchase if you need gpu :X with the qnap ryzen model you can install just that, then using virtualization station 3 to set that up.

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/request-virtualization-station-3-review.40023/#post-334417

 

[sfx2000]

The Ryzen NAS does not include a GPU, so one is going to be SW only for any kind of transcoding.

A GPU can be added, but it's likely going to be one of those intended for single slot, short form factor, and power can be an issue depending on what else is inside the box.

If one wants to tinker about with VM's and Video work, a Mini-ITX build might be a more cost effective approach.

While pricing hasn't been released, I can easily see this being a very spendy box - a fully kitted box* could easily approach $3K... perhaps even higher depending on number of bays...

(10GBe card, a GPU, drives, max'ed RAM, the PSU upgrade)

 

[sfx2000]

Intel CPUs have a built-in GPU while the Ryzen does not. Therefore I'd expect better transcoding performance out of the Intel (provided you take advantage of its GPU).

Intel's QSV is best used for real-time transcoding - for batch processing, better to use SW, and there, Ryzen and Core are going to be similar - some are faster on Ryzen, some on Core...

http://www.anandtech.com/show/11170...review-a-deep-dive-on-1800x-1700x-and-1700/20

Bang for the buck - AMD looks attractive for a DIY build...

 

[RMerlin]

but with ryzen processing power, isn't software x264 better quality and cpu can handle anyway?

In general software transcoding will be better quality than hardware one. Hardware-based tends to take shortcuts for performance, and its engine is generally not as flexible, for performance reasons.