QNAP TS-470 Pro Turbo NAS Reviewed

[L&LD]

Tim,

Thank you for your latest review with the QNAP TS-470 PRO. I was looking forward to that and you didn't disappoint (nor did the unit reviewed, either).


Just a correction: SMB 3.0 is available (and lower versions as well) if you go to:

Control Panel
Network Services
Win/Mac/NFS
Advanced Options

and select

Enable Asynchronous I/O and then select the highest level of SMB support there (all the way to 3.0 currently).

The nice part is that this option is also available for my TS-469L that I've had for a couple of years now.


Also; there is an update to QTS 4.1 dated June 12, 2014, fyi (if you're keeping the NAS).

 

[icerabbit]

Thank you for the detailed review.

Having been waiting for a SYno DS413 and now 414, this the model that interest me the most from a performance aspect.

I just can't quite find justification for the price point of this empty i3 system vs some other i3 i5 i7 full fledged computer hardware on the market. It has the capabilities, but 1 critical issue is price. It seems really high. Same thing has been going on with synology with low cpu, low ram, no ram slot, high prices. It seems just more of the same time and again and far less good value, compared to 5 - 10 years ago. They're not keeping up with the times ... which is what is leading me to look at QNAP.

Could there be a jump later this year to intel Core M cpus?
Which may satisfy the whichever power and thermal criteria?

 

[thiggins]

Thanks L&LD. I will update the review. Do you see higher throughput with SMB 3.0 enabled?

 

[htgamer+]

Uber TS-470

Several enthusiasts have upgraded their QNAP TS-x70 units to 16gb of RAM and an i7-3770T cpu. These upgrades create the opportunity for hardware encryption, improved virtualization performance and enhanced transcoding. With the improved virtualization a small business can literally run their entire business out of the NAS with a much lower power requirement from a 24/7 device than running multiple computers. Such upgrades push the price of the already expensive NAS even higher and invalidate the warranty.

 

[L&LD]

Thanks L&LD. I will update the review. Do you see higher throughput with SMB 3.0 enabled?

To tell the truth; I didn't test that!


I will test how the system is running with SMB 3.0 enabled and then see if there is a difference with SMB 2.0 (or do you want me to test another SMB version?).

I should be able to do this in the next couple of days.

 

[thiggins]

I suspect from what Dennis Wood found in his series, that you would need 10GbE to see the difference. And a Win 8.1 test client.

Large file copies pretty much max out a 1GbE connection.

 

[L&LD]

Yes, that is probably why I didn't test it, specifically. I don't have 10GbE but I do have Win 8.1 test clients.

 

[Dennis Wood]

Smb2 vs smb3 definitely plays in at 10gbe speeds..however in my tests these numbers were all well beyond 1gbe speeds.

Keep in mind that SMB3 in the Linux (samba) world does not have the full feature set of Microsoft SMB3 where multichannel takes 10gbe performance up another notch again.

For a 1gbe network though the smb3 efficiencies would likely come into play during multi workstation loading and multi link aggregation.

 

[jalyst]

Thanks for finally reviewing this, Tim, personally much more interested in some of their RU's (already have a dedicated HTPC/PVR build I want to keep), hopefully you'll review some of them this yr.

 

[thiggins]

Thanks for finally reviewing this, Tim, personally much more interested in some of their RU's, hopefully you'll review some of them this yr.

You're welcome. But unlikely to review rackmounts. The reviews just don't get as much interest at desktops.

 

[jalyst]

You're welcome. But unlikely to review rackmounts. The reviews just don't get as much interest at desktops.

Fair enough, but I hope that'll hold true for ALL makes/models, i.e. no "exceptions" for Synology as one e.g.

 

[thiggins]

Fair enough, but I hope that'll hold true for ALL makes/models, i.e. no "exceptions" for Synology as one e.g.

It generally does. The most recent exception was the Seagate rackmount because of some unique features.

 

[jalyst]

It generally does. The most recent exception was the Seagate rackmount because of some unique features.

What "unique features" will you make exceptions for when it comes to RU's?

 

[stevech]

What "unique features" will you make exceptions for when it comes to RU's?

The Seagate rack mount has the special feature that the bottom-of-the-line 4 bay is $1,000 drive-less.

 

[jalyst]

Thanks, hopefully raw_VFM/cheapness isn't the only consideration WRT "unique features" in the future.

 

[ADMAN]

Thanks for the review. Your benchmarks helped. I debated several models before clicking the button and pulling the trigger on the QNAP TS-470 Pro. I know it's expensive. But, I'm sure I would regret not having the 10GB interfaces later on. I ordered (4) 4TB WD-Red SDD for it's belly - as I currently have about 4TB of data scattered all over the place and have lost the ability to keep redundant copies of everything I have.

I'll be sure to pop back here after it arrives to give you my "hands on" review. I'm really interested in how the new QTS 4.1 is for home use. Should be fun...

 

[jalyst]

I'll be sure to pop back here after it arrives to give you my "hands on" review. I'm really interested in how the new QTS 4.1 is for home use. Should be fun...

There's a big community around the TS-470, folks are buying it, hacking it into a 470 Pro (or better), & saving themselves LOTS of $. There's an art to doing it without breaking warranty, tis certainly not "easy". Anyway, we look forward to reading your experiences!

 

[andyzieg]

TS-670 and TS 559 II PRo

both of my units do not have that option of SMB 3. the TS-559 has that advanced stuff all greyed out. QTS 4.1 2014/06/12.
in fact I do not see that unit listed on qnap web site, but then again their web site is a tad strange. my TS-670 is brand new and it can do SMB 2.1 but that seems to slow it down. Though I think the unit is defective, but that is off topic.

 

[ADMAN]

There's a big community around the TS-470, folks are buying it, hacking it into a 470 Pro (or better), & saving themselves LOTS of $. There's an art to doing it without breaking warranty, tis certainly not "easy". Anyway, we look forward to reading your experiences!

Well, I'm back. This time with my very own QNAP TS-470 Pro and 16TB (4x4TB-WD RED)
So far, I love it. It does everything it says it is supposed to...and more.
With a RAID-5 Configuration, it gives me roughly 11TB of usable space.

CON: First thing out of the box I get the following error:

No big deal. I read something online about this and had already planned on updating the firmware before I did anything else. I did the Live Update and the box just hung there saying Updating Firmware... I gave it about 30 minutes and then decided to reboot it. I figured if it was hosed, I could just return it to Amazon and get a new one. Well, it rebooted with the same firmware. So, I tried it again. No luck...

I went online to grab the file and decided to also hit the CHAT window on the QNAP Support Page as well. I was totally surprised when I got an immediate reply from a QNAPTECH. And, I do mean IMMEDIATE. They were able to jump on the box and update the firmware remotely - which cleared the "ZERO RPM" fan error. I know, simple fix for a simple problem. But, I was just impressed by their customer service. You don't get that IMMEDIATE response from many companies - like Synology, for instance.

PRO: Speed. I haven't even began to configure everything. And, this thing is right on mark with the benchtests. I am averaging about 110 MB/sec on most network transfers over a single 1GB interface. I have yet to team the nics or do any kind of port-channeling on the switch. And, I still need to test the front panel USB Copy feature and USB 3.0 data transfer speeds. Should be blazingly fast...

CON: This unit does not come with (4) 1GB interfaces, like I saw them bundling on the NASWAREHOUSE site. It does have two, though. And, you can bind certain applications and service to a specific interface. You can even bind users as well, if I am not mistaken. They make a 2x1GB interface card for the expansion slot. And of course, the 2x10GB as well.


CON: I'm sure the speed of raw file copies would be faster if the box wasn't doing so much during the transfer process. The PhotoStation and MediaStation apps are busy indexing, creating thumbnails, dates, groups, etc. I found this to be a little annoying when opening a large folder for the first time inside QTS 4.1.0

CON: I have also had a problem with certain file transfers. For instance, I was trying to backup a MEDIA drive....roughly 3TB containing 215,000+ files. Midway through, I hit several URL link pages I have built for clients. So, I am getting the following dialog box while copying them over:

[Are you sure you want to copy this file without it's properties?]

If no response, the window will close and the file transfer will stop. So, I was not pleased to see only 300GB of my 3TB copied last night. I have had to go back and check some of my other folders to make sure X = X on both sets.

LASTLY: I have A LOT more configuration to do to setup the MEDIA side of this box to my liking. But initially, here is my first impressions...

No different than the beta-testing I was doing for the JRiver Media Center application back in 2011. We had many problems getting certain files to play via the Sony BRAVIA Smart TV and Sony WiFi BD Devices. Sony is VERY BIG on HDCP. If it doesn't have SOME SORT of copy protection scheme, then they figure it is pirated content and therefore simply won't play it. They have this "better safe than sorry" mentality there. Trust me, we went 'round and 'round with the Sony Engineers on this one...

"You mean to tell me that an MPG file from a SONY camera being played back on a SONY laptop being sent to a SONY BD hooked up to a SONY TV will not play because something in between is not DLNA compatible?"

So, I took my same JRiver media test files and tried to send them through the box via MediaCenter, Twonky, DLNA and Transcoding. Same thing. Some played. Some did not. Some had video, but no audio - and vice versa.

CON: Transcoding was VERY slow. I thought this would be on-the-fly. It took the box 15 minutes to transcode a 2.1GB movie clip. Granted, I was not trying to watch it at the same time. So, the bitrate may have stayed ahead of the transfer. I will have to test this more later via the built-in HDMI port.

ALT: I plan to purchase a ROKU Streaming Stick to eliminate the Sony HDCP crap. Not needed. Just wanted.


Well, I'll be back again after I've had a chance to play around with the software side of things a little more. Like I said, so far I am very impressed - mainly with the speed of everything. And, QTS 4.1.0 shares many of the same development apps with Synology. So, I think they would be easy for someone to use "cross-vendor" wise.


Happy Computing...

 

[jalyst]

Cheers buddy,

I'm more interested in QNAP RU's* whose config is similar (but more expandable/flexible) to the TS-x70 range.
I already have a dedicated HEPC/PVR build, don't care heaps about media aspects personally.
I am however, very interested in any bare-metal_hypervisor/VMM aspects & capabilities...

*not towers