QNAP 251A/451A... the perfect home entertainment NAS without breaking the bank?

Well, the recently released QNAP 251/451A certainly looks like it may be the ideal home entertainment 4k NAS without breaking the budget: https://www.qnap.com/en/product/model.php?II=240&event=2

Review here (nice and detailed): http://www.thestreamingblog.com/qnap-ts-451a-nas-review/

Kodi is my go to hub for media playback and streaming on my Nvidia Shield TV and whilst connected to the TS-451A I found zero issues of latency and I experience no instances of buffering when streaming my content from the NAS to the media player. I used the NAS to stream 720p, 1080p and 4k videos from the NAS and the NAS handles it all without breaking a sweat.

Click to expand...

Hardware is up to scratch (dual core Celeron N3060) for what it needs to do around the house (providing you're not transcoding much), and it has USB direct access which means it plugs into your PC and can be viewed like an external storage drive which is very handy if your network goes down or you want to take it away with you and share things with family etc. The bundled remote is also always nice. QTS seems to have had some really good upgrades over the last generation which makes it seem very slick

I know Synology are also awesome with their software but lets face it they lag behind in hardware, and they currently have nothing that competes with this NAS at this price point.

The only downside is the ghastly colour... I wish they made a black version as it would stick out like a sore thumb to my AVR!

Thoughts?

They do the TS-451+ (2GB) at around the £350 mark. The 8GB is an extra £100.

I've been contemplating a QNAP NAS for a while but just can't make my mind up.

I'm toying with a Gen8 microserver instead too.

I think it's between the following:

TS251A 2GB (£290)
TS251A 4GB (£310)
TS451A (£380 - £440 depending on RAM)
Gen8 MicroServer £180 standard (£60 CashBack, put 16gb RAM in it and the CPU is upgradeable)

I have no idea what I'm going for.

rhysduck said:

They do the TS-451+ (2GB) at around the £350 mark. The 8GB is an extra £100.

I've been contemplating a QNAP NAS for a while but just can't make my mind up.

I'm toying with a Gen8 microserver instead too.

I think it's between the following:

TS251A 2GB (£290)
TS251A 4GB (£310)
TS451A (£380 - £440 depending on RAM)
Gen8 MicroServer £180 standard (£60 CashBack, put 16gb RAM in it and the CPU is upgradeable)

I have no idea what I'm going for.

Click to expand...

Personally speaking I'm not interested in the Gen8 as a microserver is a completely different category of NAS (DIY) and I have no interest in that. The reason I am buying a Qnap or Synology is so I have all of the dedicated software out of the box which a free solution can never hope to replicate in as smooth or streamlined a format, not to mention all the extra apps written for them. Also the upgrade path, as time goes on I can bang the drives in new models and upgrade the drives as I go.

I will probably wait for the Synology 2017 device announcements before making a final decision, especially the Synology 416play replacement, but as usual I think it will be underwhelming in the hardware department. I'm hoping QNAP release a model slightly above the 451A with a quad core and direct USB access.

Richdog said:

The reason I am buying a Qnap or Synology is so I have all of the dedicated software out of the box which a free solution can never hope to replicate in as smooth or streamlined a format, not to mention all the extra apps written for them. Also the upgrade path, as time goes on I can bang the drives in new models and upgrade the drives as I go.

Click to expand...

if you were to go the Gen8 route then it would use the same Synology apps as it would be running DSM or whatever it's called. So no issue there. QNAP i'm not so sure, I think the general consensus is DSM for a MicroServer.

Keep the thread updated with your finding if you can Rich I'm following with interest. Thanks

rhysduck said:

if you were to go the Gen8 route then it would use the same Synology apps as it would be running DSM or whatever it's called. So no issue there. QNAP i'm not so sure, I think the general consensus is DSM for a MicroServer.

Keep the thread updated with your finding if you can Rich I'm following with interest. Thanks

Click to expand...

It is not the latest official DSM, it is Expenology, and they are always a few versions behind. That is exactly the kind of thing I want to avoid!

rhysduck said:

if you were to go the Gen8 route then it would use the same Synology apps as it would be running DSM or whatever it's called. So no issue there. QNAP i'm not so sure, I think the general consensus is DSM for a MicroServer.

Keep the thread updated with your finding if you can Rich I'm following with interest. Thanks

Click to expand...

I've been tinkering with a VM XPenology just to get familiarised with the Synology DSM software (and I'm running 6.2, the current version, so it *is* possible). The problem with XPenology is that new releases of DSM will almost certainly break your NAS, so you are either 1) stuck with a working version for ever, 2) running a few months behind while you wait for support of newer versions, or 3) constantly fiddling around trying to get it to work every time it breaks.

I guess there are all sorts of personalities, but for me, a NAS needs to be reliable. I have lots of other things to tinker with, I'd rather not tinker with my (and my family's) valuable data.

Personally I have several QNAP NASes, a would be happy to consider a Synology NAS when the time comes to purchase another one.

I have done the whole run a server with FreeNAS or the like on and I own a HP Gen8 Microserver (although mine is running ESX) and having a storage platform you don't need to do anything with is something which is preferable to a lot of people, myself included. I don't want to have to fiddle around if there is an update to the NAS software to see if it will work on (for it) a non-standard platform ... I have much better things to spend my time doing and much more interesting things to fiddle around on.

I've spent the last couple of weeks intensively researching Synology. I currently have a Gen8 Microserver running Windows 2012 R2, with 2 x 3TB, 1 x 6TB, and 1xSSD. The problem is I need more space. So I could splash out for 2-3 new drives and keep the Microserver, or buy a NAS and one more drive.

During my research I discovered a few fundamental truths about NASes:

1) The price per drive bay is surprisingly consistent. There are more expensive options/brands, but generally speaking, Synology and QNAP compete quite closely on that (i.e. an 8-bay is twice the price of a 4-bay).
2) It is surprisingly difficult to find the correct combination of number of bays + feature set + price.
3) DIY won't save you any money, and you will end up with a jankier solution, that's probably less power efficient, louder, and won't give you the benefits of Synology/QNAP software.
4) The Microserver is AMAZING value for money compared with everything else out there, but DIY software not as good as Synology/QNAP.

Synology and QNAP use 1) and 2) to their advantage. Here is approximately my progression:

- A 4-bay Synology would be nice
- Oh look, there's a 5-bay model that's only £100 more
- Hmmm if I'm going for the 5-bay, why not go for the 8-bay? It's only "a couple of hundred quid more than the 5-bay".
- Bummer, now I'm looking at close to £800 for an empty NAS (DS1815+)

In the end, I bought a QNAP TS-831X, an 8-bay that uses an Arm quad-core chip, which also happens to have a couple of 10G ethernet ports, plus 2 GbE ports, a PCIe expansion slot, and has 8GB RAM (the DS1815+ has 2GB). I got it from warehouse deals for £580, which is WELL below the typical price per bay, *and* I get the 10GbE for when I buy a small 10GbE switch. Big downside is it's not an Intel chip, but I decided I don't want to saddle my NAS with a bunch of extra software, I just want it to be a pure NAS, so I don't think it will matter that much.

Richdog said:

The only downside is the ghastly colour... I wish they made a black version as it would stick out like a sore thumb to my AVR!

Thoughts?

Click to expand...

Did a quick search and there is a black version available.

Been using a QNAP NAS for years, great product, can't fault it at all.

SC0TTRS said:

Did a quick search and there is a black version available.

Click to expand...

I don't think so, only a couple of incorrect product photos. Otherwise, link please?

rotor said:

In the end, I bought a QNAP TS-831X, an 8-bay that uses an Arm quad-core chip, which also happens to have a couple of 10G ethernet ports, plus 2 GbE ports, a PCIe expansion slot, and has 8GB RAM (the DS1815+ has 2GB). I got it from warehouse deals for £580, which is WELL below the typical price per bay, *and* I get the 10GbE for when I buy a small 10GbE switch. Big downside is it's not an Intel chip, but I decided I don't want to saddle my NAS with a bunch of extra software, I just want it to be a pure NAS, so I don't think it will matter that much.

Click to expand...

Well, after only a couple of hours, the QNAP is going back. The QNAP software is nowhere *near* the Synology software! It's a lot clunkier, the web interface is slower, it's a lot less granular, and lots of stuff I don't want is enabled by default, and some things either can't be turned off, or are interlinked with other things that I *do* want. Synology has clearly put a lot more effort into their software than I initially appreciated, and because I hadn't had a chance to run QNAP in a VM, I wasn't able to compare.

I also had to reboot (when I shouldn't have needed to) -- after I created a volume and then removed it, it wouldn't let me create a new one on the same disk (unknown error), until I rebooted. Not confidence-inspiring.

Sooo disappointed. The hardware itself is lovely, and SUPER quiet.

rotor said:

Well, after only a couple of hours, the QNAP is going back. The QNAP software is nowhere *near* the Synology software! It's a lot clunkier, the web interface is slower, it's a lot less granular, and lots of stuff I don't want is enabled by default, and some things either can't be turned off, or are interlinked with other things that I *do* want. Synology has clearly put a lot more effort into their software than I initially appreciated, and because I hadn't had a chance to run QNAP in a VM, I wasn't able to compare.

I also had to reboot (when I shouldn't have needed to) -- after I created a volume and then removed it, it wouldn't let me create a new one on the same disk (unknown error), until I rebooted. Not confidence-inspiring.

Sooo disappointed. The hardware itself is lovely, and SUPER quiet.

Click to expand...

Hmm that is very disappointing to read, because for me QNAP are a clear winner in terms of hardware, and I haven't read many reports saying their software is so bad?