QNAP TS-451+ SOHO NAS Review
by Ganesh T S on October 29, 2015 8:00 AM ESTMiscellaneous Aspects and Final Words
In order to keep testing consistent across all 4-bay units, we performed all our expansion / rebuild testing as well as power consumption evaluation with the unit configured in RAID-5. The disks used for benchmarking (Western Digital WD4000FYYZ) were also used in this section. The table below presents the average power consumption of the unit as well as time taken for various RAID-related activities. In the genera state with the hard disk powered on, but not actively reading or writing data, the power consumption was around 50 W, though it dropped to around 16 W with the disks in sleep mode.
| QNAP TS-451+ RAID Expansion and Rebuild / Power Consumption | ||
| Activity | Duration (HH:MM:SS) | Avg. Power (W) |
| Single Disk Init | - | 20.47 W |
| JBOD to RAID-1 Migration | 08:21:12 | 33.33 W |
| RAID-1 (2D) to RAID-5 (3D) Migration | 20:52:59 | 44.11 W |
| RAID-5 (3D) to RAID-5 (4D) Expansion | 22:35:18 | 53.09 W |
| RAID-5 (4D) Rebuild | 08:35:53 | 56.16 W |
The graphs below show the power consumption and rebuild duration when repairing a RAID-5 volume for the various 4-bay NAS units that have been evaluated before.
The TS-451+ takes very little time to rebuild the NAS volume. However, the power consumption is on the higher end of the spectrum. Overall, the efficiency (energy consumerd in the process) should definitely be in QNAP's favor.
Concluding Remarks
The TS-x51+ series is the latest addition to QNAP's lineup targeting the home users / SOHO market. There is a distinct multimedia focus with the bundled IR remote. Braswell would have further strengthened the multimedia credentials, but QNAP has opted to strangely continue with Bay Trail for this product line. Other than that, the performance of the unit is just slightly better than that of the TS-451 that we evaluated last year.
QNAP's firmware, though, has been improving by leaps and bounds with every release. QTS 4.2 has brought in a host of new features. The NAS is pretty flexible and provides a large number of add-ons as well as third party apps. The TS-451+ is also capable of supporting multiple virtual machines, though, with just two network ports, it is unlikely that consumers will want to run more than one. Earlier this year, QNAP launched Container Station, which adds Docker functionality to QTS. Obviously, QNAP's transcoding functionality that takes advantage of Intel's Quick Sync engine is present in the TS-451+ also. Along with the Hybrid Desk app (Chrome / Kodi etc.) and QvPC technology, the NAS can be used just like a PC for most purposes.
The above advantages aside, there are certain areas where QNAP could improve. One of the main points is the quality of the drive bays in the TS-451+. At the target price point, we need metal drive trays. On a more generic note, QNAP needs to move to Braswell soon while also delivering support for the btrfs file system (in addition to the currently supported EXT4).
The TS-x51+ series has four members - the TS-451+-8G-US coming in at $649, the TS-451+-2G-US coming in at $529, the TS-251+-8G-US coming in at $499 and the TS-251+-2G-US at $399. The price point is definitely an issue, as the TS-453 Pro with 8 GB of memory is currently available in Amazon for $645. For a similar amount, users can get two extra LAN port as well as an extra USB 3.0 port, and there is no power brick to deal with. The only downside is that there is no bundled IR remote in the TS-453 Pro. For users who don't need the IR remote control capabilities (i.e, those who are not going to hook up the NAS to a display and run XBMC / Kodi directly on the NAS), the TS-453 Pro is a much better choice in all respects.
In terms of firmware capabilities and performance for this market segment, there is nothing to complain about in the QNAP TS-451+. The NAS with the included IR remote is attractive for multimedia enthusiasts who want to use the unit also as a media player. At the currently available price points, we would recommend the TS-453 Pro over the TS-451+. For the TS-451+ to become a compelling choice, the pricing aspect needs to be addressed.
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ant6n - Thursday, October 29, 2015 - link
I know this is a common kind of complaint under these reviews; but I often poke at NAS reviews as something that would be a nice-to-have, and then can't get myself to read past the price tag. I know these aren't really home devices. But aren't there multi-bay (4+) NAS systems with, say, an arm, for less than 300$?DanNeely - Thursday, October 29, 2015 - link
A quick search on Amazon and Google shows that there are a number of entry level 4 bay NASes for $250-300. Filtering solely by brand name, the $282 QNAP TS-431 would be my initial recommendation. Synology, the other nas maker (along with QNAP) with what's generally regarded as top flight software wants over a hundred more for the DS414j; which appears to be their cheapest 4x3.5" drive model.Savardm - Thursday, October 29, 2015 - link
I own a T-431 and so I'm always interested in these reviews because I find there isn't that many NAS reviews around. This particular review seems way more advanced then what I actually do with mine. I use mine to download/seed torrents and hold my Library of content which I access from several devices. I also really like the personal cloud features. I was worried when I bought my unit that the RAM and processor would be a major issue but it never lags. I'm not sure how it could get any better really. I think this must be because I am not using it as a typical NAS user? Anyway, all this to say, the TS-431 is the best gadget purchase I have ever made, I really do love it.ivyanev - Friday, October 30, 2015 - link
You could build a dedicated NAS for less than 300$ with the capability of 4+ drives. It is easy, and you may already have the parts. The question is do you NEED 4 drives? Why don't you get basic 1 drive unit and test if you need one. If you love it but still want redundancy you can later upgrade.random2 - Wednesday, November 4, 2015 - link
"Why don't you get basic 1 drive unit and test if you need one."Oh, you mean an external drive? I think you might be missing the whole point of redundant storage.
Moishe - Wednesday, November 4, 2015 - link
The cost is certainly high for a diskless system. Crazy.manly - Monday, November 23, 2015 - link
With all the consolidation in the hard disk industry, I think the price curve is still somewhat dominated by the cost of 4 hard drives with TLER support. 3 TB NAS drives are somewhat affordable, but 4 TB is still a bit pricey in my opinion even for consumer NAS drives. "Enterprise" SATA drives are flat out pricey at higher capacities, because the last few manufacturers can absolutely get away with it.The QNAP TS-451 (apparently now an older model) was on sale numerous times over the past 12 months for $350 + tax. I think that's a pretty attractive price point considering the performance. IIRC, Synology's somewhat comparable units were at least $100 higher although until recently DSM had always been favored by reviewers.
The sale price may have been in anticipation of the release of the TS-451+ but since it happened somewhat frequently over the course of an entire year-long period, it was a commonly available deal here in the U.S. Not sure how aggressive QNAP will be for the year ahead though.
Dunkurs1987 - Tuesday, January 5, 2016 - link
This is the price you can expect from 8GB version. There is 2GB option available too. Should be ok with limited tasks.http://www.span.com/product/Qnap-Desktop-NAS-TS-45...
Der2 - Thursday, October 29, 2015 - link
Very nice NAS review.Reflex - Thursday, October 29, 2015 - link
One feature that I really want to see is Sync to OneDrive and other cloud providers. These days a lot of these services offer unlimited or incredibly large backups for free, and being able to sync to them frees a SOHO environment from having to find an offsite backup solution.