QNAP steals a march on its competitors

QNAP added something new and exciting recently to the TS-x77 series and to it's AMD portfolio. The TS-677, TS-877, TS-1277 performance levels will burst through ceilings with the new AMD Ryzen 4, 6 and 8 core processors. Paired together, they are maximizing the DDR4 memory at 64GB. The design allows for 8 x 3.5” SATA disk drives and 4 x 2.5” SSD or small format drives.

The NAS range announced at Computex 2017 this month that it will appeal to a wide audience of users that crave performance for processing data quickly and having the reliability for longevity.

Features 

The TS-x77 series are installed with the latest QTS 4.3 operating system, which also includes a variety of applications from the built-in App Center: “IFTTT Agent” and “Qfiling” automate daily tasks and workflows to improve efficiency and productivity; “Qsync” and “Hybrid Backup Sync” simplify file sharing and cross-device file synchronization.

“QmailAgent” and “Qcontactz” allow centralized management and backup of multiple email accounts and contact information; “Qsirch” provides full-text search for users to quickly locate files; “Surveillance Station” offers 8 free IP camera channels (up to 80 channels by purchasing additional licenses); “QVR Pro (Beta)” provides user-defined recording storage space, cross-platform client tools, camera controls, and intelligent storage management functions.

The TS-x77 series comprises of 6, 8 and 12-bay models with AMD Ryzen 7 1700 or Ryzen 5 1600 or 1400 processors with options for 8,16,32 or 64GB DDR4 RAM options.

Just as the TVS-x73 and the TS-1635 and TS-1685 have been solid choices on the part of QNAP the TS-x77 it seems may turn out to be a “golden” choice (no pun intended).  The TS-677 1400 and TS-877 1400 both come with 4-core AMD Ryzen 5 processors, whilst the TS-877 1600 has the 6-core processor.

12-bay Features 

The 12-bay is a beast and clearly packed with horsepower that will please the performance enthusiast amongst us and business users that need to sift through data quickly and efficiently without any lags. The 12-bay is offered as the TS-1277 1600-16GB 6-core and Ryzen 5, TS-1277 1700-32G and TS-1277 1700-64G both sporting the AMD Ryzen 7 processors and 32G and 64G DDR4 memory respectively. The memory upgrade seems to top out at 64GB.

The TS-x77 all support RAID 0/1/5/6/10/50/60, +Global Spare, JBOD and single protection options. Boosting performance further is encouraged with all models supporting the M.2 2242/2260/2280/22110 SATA 6Gb/s SSD slots for caching or hot storage and options for a mixture of 2.5” drive bays allowing SSD and HDD drive installation for Qtiering.

As for connectivity, all models contain three PCIe 3.0 expansion slots, with one 8x and two 4x slots which can be used for PCIe SSD, 10GbE or 40GbE NIC’s, the four 1GbE ports are standard and with two USB 3.1 ports, one Type C and Type A as well as five USB 3.0 ports. 

At this price point we would have expected at least the 10GbE as standard and 40GbE as optional. In this instance, they are supported via add-in-cards. That is somewhat meager on QNAP’s part and should have been included. Pricing is reasonable and clearly it’s a model we need to short-list when looking for our next NAS.

The top-of-the range model with a AMD Ryzen based 12-bay TS-1277 NAS with the 8-core Ryzen 7 1700 and 64 GB DDR4 memory will retail for $3099, same processor and with 32 GB of DDR4 retails for $2599, the most affordable model is powered by AMD’s 6-core Ryzen 5 1600 will retail for $2299.

Pricing by QNAP (MSRP) 

TS-x77 Series Models:

TS-677 1400-8G AMD Ryzen 5 1400 4 Core with 8GB DDR4 Memory - $1649 

TS-877 1400-16G AMD Ryzen 5 1400 4 Core with 16GB DDR4 Memory - $1899 

TS-877 1600-16G AMD Ryzen 5 1400 6 Core with 16GB DDR4 Memory - $2099 

TS-1277 1600-16G AMD Ryzen 5 1400 6 Core with 16GB DDR4 Memory - $2299 

TS-1277 1700-32G AMD Ryzen 7 1700 8 Core with 32GB DDR4 Memory - $2599 

TS-1277 1700-64G AMD Ryzen 7 1700 8 Core with 64GB DDR4 Memory - $3099

All Memory installed are DDR4 UDIMM’s.

Deployment Notes:

• If using Plex or Virtualization then plum for the NAS with 32 or 64GB DDR4 memory, especially if you have many users.
• QTS (QNAP OS) is a Linux-based server OS along the same lines as DSM (Synology’s OS) and ThecusOS7 (Thecus’s OS) they all have most of the functionalities of Windows Server: Domain Controller, MySQL, DNS, SHCP, RAS, VPN, VM, Backup, Cloud Sync and even POP/IMAP.
• The newer model NAS appliances can effectively replace entry level business servers as Microsoft had predicted when they changed their focus to the cloud. The multiple functionality of Nas and Server makes these appliances a double take when wishing to deploy entry level servers.
• Populating the PCIe slots may require the PSU to be greater than 250W, depending on how many PCIe upgrades it may be prudent move about 250W