QNAP’s $469 TS-253D is the second NAS field sporting twin 2.5GbE ports we’ve examined, butting heads with Asustor’s quick, simple, and surprisingly highly effective $300 AS5202T. Having 2.5GbE makes an enormous distinction in efficiency, dramatically rising the variety of units you’ll be able to concurrently stream to or again up.
You’ll instantly discover that the TS-253D is significantly pricier than its rival, however QNAP’s field encompasses a PCIe slot for including options reminiscent of 10GbE and NVMe SSDs, and it makes much better use of an exterior show connected to its HDMI port.
How so? the QNAP can play motion pictures, run slideshows, allow you to browse the web—heck, it might probably even operate as a light-weight workstation. The Asustor merely exhibits an administrative command line.
This evaluate is a part of TechHive’s protection of the best NAS boxes for media streaming and consumer backup, the place you’ll discover critiques of competing merchandise, plus a purchaser’s information to the options it is best to take into account when procuring.
Design and specs
The QNAP TS-253D-4G that I examined is roughly 6.6 inches deep, 4.1 inches vast, and 8.9 inches tall. It’s a two-bay, tower-orientation NAS field boasting a really enticing industrial design. There’s a latching, slide-away cowl over the drive bays which function quick-change, pressure-fit trays. The trays have tool-less snap-in rails for mounting onerous drives, however you’re again to screws for putting in SSDs like those I used for benchmarking.
There are energy and quick-copy buttons on the entrance of the field, together with a USB port and standing lights for energy in addition to LAN and drive exercise. Dual 2.5GbE ports ports are round again, together with 4 extra USB ports and HDMI for direct output to as much as a 4K show (that’s true 4K, by the way in which: 4096 x 2160 pixels). You’ll additionally discover a recessed reset button and a Kensington lock port right here.
The QNAP TS-253D is outfitted with three USB 2.0 ports and two USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports.It will assist USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) with an non-compulsory growth card.
There’s a quad-core Intel J4125 Celeron processor contained in the TS-253D-4G, together with with 4GB (the 4G within the identify) of DDR4 reminiscence in one among its two SODIMM slots. There’s additionally the aforementioned x4 PCIe slot for growth playing cards that mean you can add 10GbE, or M.2 SSDs (SATA or NVMe). QNAP sells numerous add-in playing cards for this slot, which you’ll be able to peruse at QNAP’s Amazon storefront. Fair warning: None of those parts are what most individuals would name cheap.
OS and apps
QNAP’s {hardware} is usually top-notch, and the corporate pairs it with its glorious QTS working system—one of many first with what’s now a de rigueur windowed-OS-in-a browser HTML interface. It’s spectacular, if not as well-organized as some. You can experience it at this link.
QNAP’s QTS configuration interface, accessed from a browser, is elegant and usually simple to make use of. It’s not the most effective organized we’ve seen, nevertheless it’s enjoyable to make use of.
The app choice is voluminous. For starters, there’s a really competent DLNA server for streaming content material off of the field. Plex, with its broader and fancier media streaming assist, can be accessible. Even TVs with poor or no in-house media gamers function Plex. Roon server is accessible for people who who CD-quality music streamed from the field. QNAP additionally provides numerous its personal proprietary multimedia apps for not solely its NAS bins, but additionally for macOS and Windows computer systems in addition to iOS and Android cellular units.
QNAP’s Hybrid Backup Sync is highly effective and versatile, if not probably the most intuitive backup program within the shopper NAS world. It handles backups to the field from different sources, backups from the field to different locations, and it’ll sync with numerous on-line storage providers. It will do that through SMB, FTP, Rsync, and different protocols, which suggests you’ll be able to again up your consumer computer systems without installing additional software on them. Hybrid Mount is a brand new addition to this function set that allows you to mount on-line sources as native drives. Acronis True picture and a number of other different utilities can be found as effectively.
QNAP has app options for video surveillance, mail internet hosting, and content material administration, too. I used to advocate utilizing the corporate’s WordPress app, nevertheless it’s now up to now behind the improve and safety curve that my final try serving my very own web site from a QNAP field led to a ransomware assault.
You also can use Virtualization Station on the QNAP TS-253D to host digital machines, and there are variations of Libre Office, Spotify, the aforementioned Roon Server, and plenty of different good things accessible. You can delve into your entire ecosystem on the company’s online app center.
Direct video output
As I mentioned up high, the TS253D makes much better use of its HDMI port than the just lately reviewed Asustor AS5202T, which could possibly be extraordinarily helpful should you’re pressed for house, as in a dorm room or micro condominium.
These are among the apps you should use when using the TS-253D’s HDMI output to drive a direct-attached show.
You can play motion pictures, show slideshows, stream music, and browse the online. With a keyboard and mouse plugged in, you’ll be able to even use Libre Office. Some of the accessible direct-attached apps are proven within the above display screen seize.
The TS-253D additionally helps TV tuners and remote-control items, so you should use the field as an advert hoc TV should you’re of a thoughts to.
Performance
Having 2.5Gbps ethernet makes an actual distinction in sustained throughput. Where the utmost from a gigabit field is round 119MBps, the TS-253D clocked almost 300MBps each studying and writing with two SSDs operating in RAID 0, and almost the identical within the mirrored RAID 1 it is best to use to safeguard vital knowledge.
There’s little distinction in sequential throughput between the TS-253D and the Asustor AS5202T when utilizing a single 2.5GbE ethernet port.
Note that the Asustor AS5202T did see an change in efficiency when ports have been aggregated in round-robin mode. Reads jumped about 50Mbps, however writes declined by about the identical quantity. Aggregating ports on the TS-253D made little to no variations within the modes accessible. I had no swap able to the true 802.3ad that QNAP helps, and which may improve efficiency. I’ll say that port-trunking (aggregation) on the TS-253D was painless; it has not all the time been so with QTS previously.
When it got here to random writes, the TS-253D had it all around the Asustor AS5202T. This means it might probably deal with a number of write requests from a number of purchasers extra shortly than the Asustore can.
Note that 2.5GbE is definitely able to an extra 80MBps or so in throughput with bins which have extra bays and subsequently drives to distribute knowledge throughout.
Note: testing was carried out on Windows 10 64-bit operating on a Core i7-5820Ok/Asus X99 Deluxe system with 4 16GB Kingston 2666MHz DDR4 modules, a Zotac (NVidia) GT 710 1GB x2 PCIe graphics card, and an Asmedia ASM2142 USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10Gbs) card. Also on board are a Gigabyte GC-Alpine Thunderbolt 3 card. A QNAP QNA-T310G1S Thunderbolt 3 to 10GbE adapter and a Zyxel XGS1210-12 10GbE/2.5GbE/gigabit swap have been used for testing.
Great should you want all of the options
I actually love this field. I really like its appears to be like, its snappy dealing with, and its glorious 2.5GbE efficiency. It’s sooner, extra refined, and has extra options than the Asustor AS5202T. If you’ve bought the cash, I’m fairly certain you’ll find it irresistible too.
If you don’t want the TS-253D’s PCIe slot, alternatively, or its direct-attached multimedia performance, choosing the Asustor AS5202T would go away you very almost as effectively off—and also you’d retain a little bit of your wealth, too.