Introduction
QNAP is a well-known name among the network storage/hardware market. There’s not always a use-case available to put down a big NAS. With the ‘Silent NAS’ series QNAP has delivered 3 beautiful systems. In this review I’m going in-depth with all the options and possiblities.
Specifications
Let’s kick it off with the specs of the TBS-464, HS-453DX and the HS-264.
TBS-464-8G
CPU: Intel® Celeron® N5105 4-core/4-thread processor, burst up to 2.9 GHz
CPU Architecture: 64-bit x86
Graphic Processors: Intel® UHD Graphics
Encryption Engine: (AES-NI)
Hardware-accelerated Transcoding: Yes
System Memory: 8 GB DDR4, not expandable
Maximum Memory: 8 GB DDR4, not expandable
Flash Memory: 4GB (Dual boot OS protection)
M.2 Slot: 4 x M.2 2280 NVMe Gen3 x2 slots
2.5 Gigabit Ethernet Port (2.5G/1G/100M):2 (2.5G/1G/100M/10M)
HDMI Output: 2, HDMI (up to 2.0 resolution 3840 x 2160 @ 60Hz)
I’ve picked some highlights from the list of specs for the TBS-464-8G. Want to see the whole list? Click here!
TS-453DX-8G
CPU: Intel® Celeron® J4115 4-core/4-thread processor, burst up to 2.5 GHz
CPU-architecture: 64-bit x86
Graphic Processors:Intel® HD Graphics 600
Encryption Engine: (AES-NI)
Hardware-accelerated transcoding: Yes
System memory: 8 GB SO-DIMM DDR4 (2 x 4 GB)
Max memory capacity: 8 GB (2 x 4 GB)
Memoryslot: 2 x SO-DIMM DDR4
M.2 Slot: 2 x M.2 2280 SATA 6 Gb/s-slots
10 Gigabit Ethernet-port: 1 x 10GBASE-T (10G/5G/2.5G/1G/100M)
USB 3.2 Gen 1-poort: 3 (1 x USB-C, 2 x USB-A)
HDMI-port: 2, HDMI 2.0 (Up to a resolution of 3840 x 2160 @ 60 Hz) + HDMI 1.4b (Up to 3840 x 2160 @ 30 Hz)
Another shortened highlight of specs for the TS-453DX-8G. Want the full list? Click here!
HS-264
CPU: Intel® Celeron® N5105 4-core/4-thread processor, burst up to 2.9 GHz
CPU-architecture: 64-bit x86
Graphic Processors: Intel® UHD Graphics
Encryption Engine: (AES-NI)
Hardware-accelerated transcoding: Yes
System memory: 8 GB, not expandable
Max memory capacity: 8 GB, not expandable
Flash-memory: 4GB (Dual boot OS-protection)
Disk Holder: 2 x 3,5-inch SATA 6Gb/s, 3Gb/s
Disk compatibility
3,5-inch bays:
3,5-inch SATA hard drives
2,5-inch SATA hard drives
2,5-inch SATA solid state drives
2.5 Gigabit Ethernet-port: 2 (2.5G/1G/100M/10M)
USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps)-port: 2 x Type A
HDMI-port 2 x HDMI 2.0 (up to resolution 3840 x 2160 @ 60Hz)
Unboxing
In this review I’ve used the following:
– 2x Kingston KC600 1TB SSD’s
– 2x Samsung 970 Evo 500GB SSD’s, for the TBS-464
HS-454DX
Let’s start with the biggest from the pack. The HS-454DX. The 4-core silent NAS with 2 HDMI ports.
QNAP supplies us with a big package for the HS-453DX.
– 2x UTP cables
– 1x power cable/adapter
– Manuals etc.
– Screws for the SSD’s/HDD’s
– Remote control with 2 batteries
– NVMe SSD cooling strips. Put this in between the SSD and heatsink to let the heat flow away. And that’s funny, because the HS-453DX has one massive metal plate on the top that does exactly that.
Just for size comparison of the 453DX I’ve put it next to a 13.3” MacBook Air.
The 453 has two slots for 3.5 inch HDD’s or smaller 2.5 inch HDD’s/SSD’s.
Nothing exciting can be found on the bottom, except the screw holes to open the NAS
The back of the HS-453DX is equipped as follows from left to right:
– Power cable connection
– Resetbutton
– 10GbE and 1GbE network port
– 1 USB 3.2 Gen port (USB-C)
– 2 USB 2.0 ports (USB-A)
– 2 USB 3.2 Gen-1 ports (USB-A)
– 2 HDMI ports- HDMI 2.0 (Up to 3840 x 2160 @ 60 Hz) + HDMI 1.4b (Up to 3840 x 2160 @ 30 Hz)
The sides of the 453DX are clean without any connections.
Like mentioned before, the entire top acts like a heatsink. A metal plate that can get quite warm, not too warm luckily. The wider block is meant for the NVMe SSD’s using the thermal compound pads to stay cool. The higher block is dedicated to the CPU.
This is also an interesting system. Due to the disks being further apart, the SSD’s can be slotted in the middle, promoting a better flow away of heat. They thought that one through. Standard there’s 2 dimms, namely 4GB DDR4 2400Mhz.
Once the SSD’s are slotted in the HS-453DX can be booted up using the button on the front, just under the LED.
Quite interesting, this NAS has a remote. Connecting it to a tv/monitor you can see it working perfectly. Adjust the volume for instance.
On the 453DX you can set up Kodi, making the remote control even more useful. Watch whatever you want on your couch with a silent system.
HS-264
Next in the series is the HS-264.
QNAP Supplies the HS-264 with the following:
– 1x UTP cable,
– 1x power cable/adapter,
– Manuals etc.
– Screws to affix your HDD’s/SSD’s.
This SilentNAS looks ‘calm’. No bells and whistles on the front with the exception of a small LED on the front, if you remove the front cap.
The location of the extra USB ports and cooling fins are excellent.
This SilentNAS only uses the cooling fins on the bottom.
The back looks as follows in order from left to right:
– Adapter connection
– Reset button
– 2 x HDMI 2.0 (up to resolution 3840 x 2160 @ 60Hz)
– Kensington slot
– 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps)-port
– 2x (2.5G/1G/100M/10M)
– On/off button.
Removing the front cap, you’re able to take out both 3.5” bays. This NAS is built for two 3.5” bays (or 2.5 HDD/SSD). No NVMe to be seen here. If you desire that, get the 453DX.
Upside down, the cooling fins are revealed. Quite a compact machine. The Printed Circuit Board is small, but bursting with options. Basically having everything other 2-bay NAS can do. With a similar to faster running CPU. Sadly the memory can’t be expanded upon.
The HDD’s/SSD’s slide right in place putting them back in their brackets.
The 264 is quite a dust collector though, but that gives a great indication on when to put on a maid outfit and clean the house… 😉
Having the SilentNAS turned on, the LED is barely visible.
TBS-464
Let’s take a look at the smallest one in the series, the TBS-464. A 4 NVMe NasBook.
The TBS-464 is an odd one. That’s due to the 464 being equipped with 4 NVMe SSD’s. And for a case this small, that’s quite special.
Especially when you can configure them to RAID0. Which I will speak about later.
It’s being supplied with the following:
– 1x UTP cable
– 1x power cable/adapter
– Manuals etc.
– NVMe SSD cooling strips. To rest on top of the SSD’s and above that the 4 steel heatsinks as shown in the image.
Two USB 3.0 ports on the front. On the left, a copy button that when pressed copies/backs whatever medium you have to a folder of your preference. On the right you can find the on/off button.
The USB port on the right side is a USB 2.0.
NVMe SSD’s can get quite hot. The 464 is a semi-silent NAS. When it’s operational, there’s a big chance of the fan not being on or is blowing faintly. If you use the SSD’s a lot or make it a download server van maken.. well…The fan will blow a bit more. The 453DX and the 264 don’t have a fan. They have the space to let the heat flow away. This small case has a tougher time at that.
Connections from left to right:
– Kensington slot and reset button
– 3x USB 2.0-port (2 on the back, one on the side
– 2x 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet-port (2,5 G/1 G/100 M)
– 2x HDMI 2.0 (up to resolution 3840 x 2160 @ 60Hz)
– Adapter connection
5 USB ports allow loads of expansion through external HDD’s. If you have those already, a Plex/Kodi or something similar can be used to reach them. Same applies for a printer in the same network.
The bottom is equipped with 4 caps that raise it slightly. Let’s screw off the plate to see what’s under the hood.
The 4 NVMe slots look odd. Never have I seen a NAS with 4 NVMe slots, and just 4 slots. No different 2.5 or 3.5” slots.
A personal disappointment is that the NAS only has 2x 2.5GbE connections. Which translates into a max ~550 MB/s transfer speed. And that basically means 1 NVMe SSD. This would be ideal to host local things that need quick access.
Summary of the differences of the 3 NAS’s
Once stacked on top of each other, the difference between the three is very visible. The 453DX is the biggest, the TBS-464 is the smallest.
The great thing about these systems is that they have atleast two 2.5GbE connections. The 453DX even has a 10GbE connection. The latter being amazing if you have a PC that can handle that. In that case, you’ll smash out 1.1GB/s like it’s nothing.
Use of these systems
What can these systems do that a 2-bay NAS can’t? In my experience, 2-bay NAS or even 4 is that they make a lot more noise, have less USB connections, no 10GbE connection or even 2.5GbE.
The processor is fine for these systems. The two HDMI also give the option to run different kinds of OS’s. Because these systems also have the ability to use a Virtualization Station to push an OS directly to the HDMI and USB ports. Which enables you to emulate Windows 11 through the Virtualization Station and see it on your monitor, provided it’s connected through HDMI.
This also can be used for CentOS or PfSense etc. Go wild. If there’s a Docker, or OS.. you should be fine. If you want a full system dedicated to a Pi-Hole, go for it.
And that’s quite neat. A NAS offers a plethora of options.
Of course it’s cool to use the 453DX to install Kodi and use a remote control for it on the couch. Which I can happily tell you, that’s possible!
Software
These systems have the same OS. One thing about the OS and the system is that it has a steep learning curve. But playing around with it for a while, you can get used to everything. The index of the menu isn’t always very intuitive.
Despite these negatives, it’s a fully fledged product. You can configure SO much with these systems.
In this case I’ve used the TBS-464 to install the OS. Childs play.
Whilst installing, you’re prompted to get the newest firmware
Having an administrator account, it would be wise not to call it Admin/Administrator. Confuse the enemy #security. Ensure you’ve got a solid password, and enable 2FA. Which becomes possible after installing and you’re actually able to access the OS.
If you have your own NTP server, you can select that, manually is also possible!
And let’s not forget to configure a static IP-address. Due to not having a monitor on the NasBook, you can’t quickly check what kind of IP-address has been assigned. You need to install Qfinder to search the IP in your network. .
And here, a short summary of what you cooked up.. When you click ‘apply’ you’ll be asked if you want to delete the storage media. The NAS will rattle for a few minutes, and then QTS can be installed.
The login screen of the QTS can be seen in the image. It can be configured to your wishes, with your own created messages if you want that.
QNAP asks if you agree with their data & privacy policy and after that the party can get started.
Let’s kick it off with creating a storage/partition and share. QTS bombards you with info screens in the meantime, I’ll spare you all of those, this review is getting long enough…
Through ‘Disks/VJBOD’s menu two SSD’s can be shown. You can run a performance test from here and it shows multiple statistics, like the estimated lifespan of the SSD’s and it’s temperatures.
Even more info can be found by opening disk health. Through this menu you can issue a standard SSD-trim or a periodical test.
Testing the sequential read the SSD reaches 1.6 GB/sec. Not bad at all.
Time to create a storage pool.
Both PCIe M.2 SSD’s are configured in RAID 1.
The following options are available:
– Single
– JBOD
– RAID 0
– RAID 1
– RAID 5
– RAID 6
– RAID 10
Using the menu you can choose to enable ‘over-provisioning’. This caps out your SSD’s to be utilized for 90% for example. SSD’s never should reach 100%, which also increases its lifespan. QNAP thinks with us.
There’s also a possibility to warrant snapshot space, meaning that 20% for example can be reserved for possible snapshots. Like in the image, 15% is reserved, utilizing (snapshots included) 85% of the SSD’s.
QTS and QuTS Hero have an option to have an alert on all storage pools. You can get a mail/beep/notification on the screen when a certain threshold has been achieved.
Once again, a small summary.
When the storage pool is edited, we need to configure a volume.
After selecting a storage pool different types of volumes can be selected, thick volume, thin volume & static volume.
For the interested reader; thick means that the space you’ve determined beforehand will be allocated in its reserved space. Thin means that the space grows with the amount of data you possess. Thick is predetermined, thin can grow.
Even the bytes per inode can be edited. Standard this is on 32K. Don’t forget to change the volume capacity. If the alert threshold below is lower than the volume you want to assign, the bells and whistles will blow prematurely.
Time to make a shared folder that I can reach through SMB from Windows. And that sentence alone is a statement of how expansive QTS is. The system truly can be configured to your wishes.
QNAP also has an active community meaning there’s a load of applications to install. Furthermore, 3rd party apps can be installed as well.
The standard ‘App Center’ already has a good amount of apps.
QNAP’s boon is the option to install apps on different volumes. Let’s say you have a volume with SSD’s and a volume with HDD’s. You can easily choose to reallocate the app on a different volume. If there’s an app you want on the SSD, you can make it happen in no time at all.
The current apps are displayed in the ‘App Center’ below ‘My Apps’.
And of course you are able to install Ubuntu on the QNAP (Outside of the ‘Container Station’ and Virtualization Station’).
Don’t forget, this is just a list with apps. There’s a whole list of apps that can be used through the HDMI cable like Chrome, Kodi etc.
The ‘Control Panel’ is quite complete making the NAS configurable to your wishes. The only negative about this is that a few tabs open new panels for their respective settings
If you press on Storage and Snapshots for instance, whilst you’re in the control panel, a new panel opens. And that feels a bit clumsy. I’d much prefer a button to ‘click here to open storage and Snapshots’.
All the options in the Control Panel can be found more in-depth in my review of the QNAP TVS-872XT. [url=https://tweakers.net/productreview/238146/qnap-tvs-872xt.html#part_4
]Dit is hier terug te vinden!/url]
Benchmarks
Testing the HS-453DX was quite easy.
The HS-453DX was connected to a 10GbE switch (Ubiquiti UniFi Switch Flex XG), on the receiving end I also used a 10GbE connection, the Asus ProArt Z690 Creator. This motherboard was equipped with a Kingston Renegade PCI 4.0 NVMe SSD. The 453DX had two NVMe SSD’s in RAID1. The big file of 45GB was transferred with 1.1GB/s. And that’s pretty rapid..
The TBS-464 results differed. Running the same SSD’s vanuit de HS-453DX. Two Samsung 970 EVO SSD’s in RAID1. And then.. We’re stuck with a 2.5 port, two of them, but one was used of course.
Resulting in 110 MB/s. And that is odd..
Going to the control panel of the TBS-464 I was surprised that my 2.5GbE was connected to a wrong switch (Ubiquiti Unifi Switch Flex Mini). Connecting it to the 10GbE switch the 2.5GbE is shown correctly in the menu.
From the TBS-464 to the PC speeds were 280 MB/s, using 1 connection. Pretty good. Two cables should result in 5GbE, but that still isn’t the 10GbE that I personally hoped for.
The same file to the NasBook was 275MB/s.
Writing away a whole slew of photos went without a hitch. The average speed was 252 MB/s. Not bad at all…;)
The SSD’s after intensive use remained under 50 degrees Celsius. Definitely helped by the huge cooling ribs. And the quite silent fan that pumps through air.
Conclusion
QNAP has released interesting contenders on the market with the TBS-464, HS-453DX & HS-264. Every system has its own use-case. And each of them are great as well. It’s also great to see that there’s more to offer than the standard 2/3/4/5/6/8 bay etc. You could look at these systems like a thin-client, that have their OS’s locally in the virtualization station.
I understand the age-old argument of either buying it, or building it yourself. The hardcore user will build something. But a pre-build system available to buy that has everything has its charm too. Yes, some software/OS things might be illogical, but besides that, everything is there. And it shows looking at the multitude of options that the OS has to offer. Just don’t open it up for the entire internet…Obvious, but has to be said…
QNAP is making strides with their OS lately. QNAP is a step ahead when it comes to hardware for NAS in my opinion. One of the first that offers 2.5GbE standard out of the box, or even 10GbE. Files are getting bigger, and data usage as well. Which definitely will speak to the consumer that wants more out of their system than just uploading a photo album. And cranking every bit of possibilities from these systems, a whole list of apps are there to use in the app store.
The systems from this review are interesting. A short summary of each system.
The 453DX shines the brightest between all 3 in my opinion. The 10GbE, USB Type-C, NVMe and HDD options make it a fully fledged NAS. As opposed to other systems, this one is very quiet whilst also having a large fan. 5 out of 5 stars without a doubt.
TBS-464 scored a bit lower, with reason. The 4 NVMe slots are great, but the two 2.5GbE connections are full within no-time. SSD’s are getting bigger and cheaper, and I can full imagine people wanting to write their data away on said SSD’s. For example, files for a project that you want to be able to download back quickly. Or savegames as extra – fast storage. This NAS earns 4 out of 5 stars.
Last but not least, the HS-264. With just two HDD connections and a bunch (five) of USB connections it’s an interesting machine. Most comparable to a standard 2-bay NAS. The great thing about it is that it can function as a complete workstation running Windows 11 or Ubuntu/CentOS. You can also use the container station to run a lot of other things, provided you have enough memory. Be warned; Windows 11 recommends 4GB whilst this system boasts 8GB.
This also deserves 5 out of 5 stars.
The systems aren’t cheap, but have a lot to offer, a suitable NAS can definitely be picked from these three. The HS-264 and TBS-464 could benefitted from a VESA mount. Which would be a great SmartTV solution. Luckily, both are compact enough to find space for.
