Which NAS Should You Buy? | Best QNAP Systems Compared

[@iron2k6]

This is insanely good video

[@moizrashid6373]

Thanks a lot for the explanation. Was on the fence between qnap ts-453be and synology 918+

[@headsoftech]

Best of luck mate, let me know how you get on

[@moizrashid6373]

@@headsoftech Settled for the TS-453BE as it offers a tiny bit more. Difficult choice!

[@TumescentPuma]

Leaning towards Raid 10 to avoid parity rebuild failure issues and down time.

[@drnora]

This is such a superbly comprehensive and informative video. Thanks a million. I started watching as a complete novice and by the end I feel like a pro now 👌

[@headsoftech]

You're the Dr Pro

[@Robert-ug5hx]

I am replacing a WD pr4100 its an OK nas , qnap hardware looks pretty good the synology software seem to be better ,the 72n qnap will probably be the choice ,side note synology does not have displays on any of their boxes

[@chrismosquad1056]

Excellent video! I’ve built a few personal PC’s in the past. What QNAP would you recommend for a basic 2x drive media server on Plex? Trying to keep price down, but want decent performance.

[@carlossiguenza331]

I work in IT and get equipment all the time. Recently I picked up a qnap ts421 with an issue that it wont activate the volume. Im sure it could be fixed with some shell commands so Ill be fixing that soon. What Im looking to get is an old server with hot-swap and installing FreeNas with 10gbe. As for noise... Ill probably walk around my house with ear muffs

[@headsoftech]

Nice one, never tried that model NAS - I usually stick with Intel or AMD chipsets, but let me know how you get on with it, sounds like a fun project.

[@Alperic27]

Thank you for the clarity

[@rodneydangerfield7153]

Great video and information!...The best NAS video seen so far!...Please comment on Synology NAS's and working with MacOS.

[@headsoftech]

Thanks mate, I have a previous video specifically comparing QNAP with Synology. Well my experiences with them at least, but in short, Synology have great marketing, but due to their underpowered processors, their performance is very lacking.

[@rodneydangerfield7153]

@@headsoftech Thanks for the response!...Keep those video's coming!

[@FabioVisentin7]

Great review as usual Mate... I don't like too much Nas in the past they were too unreliable. I have server dedicated with zfs and freenas. But if I would need I will check qnap some of my friend and you refer they are good. Thanks

[@headsoftech]

You are 👑

[@TheLDunn1]

I’ve been researching NAS to replace an aging Synology 2 bay unit I started in the world of NAS with. I’m UK based, and there is currently £250/~AU$500 difference between the big 8 bay TVS-872N shown in this video vs the 8 bay version of the 4 bay model shown on the right in this video (4 bay on the right being TVS-472XT, and it’s big 8 bay brother not shown in the video, the TVS-872XT). I don’t need Thunderbolt, so I was looking at the TVS-872N to save some money, but I’d want to upgrade to 10gbe, so that would add at least £100 to the price, so I’d only now be saving £150 (the TVS-872XT has 10gbe built in). But there are other differences between these two models, it’s not just missing Thunderbolt & 10gbe: The TVS-872N comes with 8gb of ram, the TVS-872XT comes with 16gb ram. The TVS-872N comes with i3-8100T CPU, the TVS-872XT comes with an i5 8400T....the cpu benchmarks for these two are 5397 vs 7802, so the TVS-872XT is significantly more powerful, whether you need that power or not in a NAS is another matter. doubling the ram, significantly improving the cpu & getting a couple of Thunderbolt connectors thrown in (that may or may not come in handy), is probably well worth paying £150 for by going for the TVS-872XT to start with. The other model not specifically mentioned that is of interest, to me at least, is the TVS-873e. The 8gb version comes in at £1270 currently in the UK, vs £2100 for the TVS-872XT. Now that’s a significant saving. The TVS-873e uses an AMD RX-421BD cpu, the ‘BD’ is the one with built in GPU, there is an ‘ND’ model, used on the TS-873 which does not have the built in GPU - be careful on this, for any multi media use, you probably want the GPU version. The RX-421BD (the GPU version) benchmarks at 3048, so seemingly not as powerful as the CPU in the other 8 bay models mentioned according CPUBenchmark.net, but you still get 2xPCIe slots & 2xM.2 (Sata) slots. Note on M.2 slots, some of these NAS’s have the M.2 via SATA which will a potential bottle neck on speed, vs the M.2 slots via PCIe bus. I think the TVS-872N & the TVS-872XT’s have M.2 via PCIe, while the TVS-873e is via a Sata. It might not matter much now, but it might if trying to future proof your NAS purchase. I had my last NAS for ~12 years, so future proofing this purchase is important to me, because I hope this new NAS will survive an equally long time & tech will develop and become cheaper over its lifetime and my own needs will evolve.

[@headsoftech]

Let me know which one you end up with, I haven't tried an AMD based NAS before, would be interesting to see how it performs. I currently still use my 872N, however for the price you're seeing the XT looks like the better deal.

[@TheLDunn1]

Heads of Technology - Vtudio. It’s not an easy choice at all! To be honest, I’ve been going around in circles for the past two weeks. Having had an old Synology DS207+ that has only now just packed up (fan went & I can’t find an official fan to replace it with, and the cheap same sized fans I’ve tried from eBay spinnup, but the software must not like what it sees and the DS207+ shuts down within a few minutes. Hence the need for a new NAS, and, realistically, I would like a much more capable NAS now, both it terms of capacity, connections & power, so I don’t mind having to replace it now. However, being rather impressed with how the relatively cheap DS207+ has lasted the test of time, considering it’s been on 24/7 for around a dozen years, I was naturally looking at getting another Synology & was also attracted by their SHR/SHR2 ‘raid’ options. Unfortunately, the hardware is pretty lacklustre in the (reasonably flexible) price range I was looking at. I’m a home user though so I’m not prepared to go to the £3k, 4K, 5k & 6k NAS’s, and anyway, once you get to the reasonable hardware area, they become ‘xs’ models that don’t support SHR anyway...so that started me looking elsewhere - at QNAP. The Synology model probably closest to my want was the DS1819+, but the Atom C3538 it uses only benchmarks at 2455, and I’m not sure it’s enough. Also, it only has one PCIe slot, so I’d have to use that up for a 10gbe connection (it only has 4x1gbe as standard) and it doesn’t have M.2 slots, so if the PCIe card is occupied by the 10gbe card then the only other way to get caching would be to use up 1 or 2 bays with SSD’s, which may hamper future growth. Synology have announced a PCIe card with M.2 slots AND a 10gb port, but that was a year ago and there is still no sight of it. Likewise, last year they announced a DS1620xs model that ticked a lot of boxes for me, but there is still no sign of it, and latest I’ve heard is that they are renaming it DS1621xs, so we probably won’t see it until year end if at all, and I can’t wait that long....and being an XS model, it won’t offer SHR anyway. So, I revisited all my wants and I’ve had to drop SHR, which opened up QNAP, and they seem to offer a better combo or cpu power and ports for me. I’m favouring Raid 6, because with Raid 1 or 5, when a disk does go sick, it is worrying, so I like the idea of having two disk redundancy. I must say though, that I need to also improve upon my other forms of back up, I’ve got lazy and have mostly relied upon the NAS, which is not good practice. So, if I sorted out a second, regular offsite form of back up, then I might feel more comfy about Raid 5. I do need to sort out offsite back up I know. It may only be personal photos and videos I’m storing on the NAS, but they are precious to me for sentimental reasons, kids growing up & that sort of thing. Our memories captured. I would want to lose those, and without a secondary offsite back up, I’ve realised that’s exactly what I’m risking, so it’s going to get fixed. Because I plan to buy new drives for this NAS, it also significantly adds to the initial outlay, so it is making me look at saving some on the NAS box. It is close at the moment between the TVS-873e & TVS-872XT for me, the price difference is significant even after I got for the 8gb version & add a 10gbe card to one of the two PCIe slots, but I just don’t know if I will regret the drop in cpu, ram and other features in the long run. Assuming the box lasts for 10 years the cost difference between the two models on a per year basis is negligible....~£70 per year.....it’s just stumping up the money upfront now plus all the HDDs I need to buy now too.....which is another subject to be going round and around on!

[@headsoftech]

For me, I really love my QNAP NAS - paying extra was well worth it, and working with Synology was such a battle. But saying that, I'm more demanding of a user than most. So one thing you can consider is where you buy your unit from. Back in the day when I bought my first Synology DS418play, Amazon let me return it after finding it to be too slow. Perhaps if they still do a good returns policy you can always try out the DS1819+ and if it's good enough you can save yourself the hassle. One thing I'd suggest about Synology though, is to avoid SHR if you can. I did a test comparing SHR vs RAID, and found SHR to be a lot slower, though note this was on an older unit DS1815+, so things may have changed since with the DS1819+.

[@TheLDunn1]

Heads of Technology - Vtudio thanks for heads up on SHR speed, I’d read/seen that it’s slow on things like Raid building / rebuilds, but as a single home user I’m not so worried about speed during these processes, I’d set them off over night where I can anyway, and hopefully they will not be regular occurrences. But general file read writes being significantly slower is a concern. My old DS207+ was so slow that I could not edit my photos directly from it. I’d down load photos from camera onto desktop SSD, edit them all, the move the folder to the NAS (which I had as a mapped network drive). I’d like to be able to edit photos directly from NAS, which I think should easily be achievable with current hardware. What’s maybe more challenging it editing video directly from NAS on the desktop. This is why I want to go 10gbe directly between NAS to Desktop. I appreciate that the HDD array will then be the bottle neck though. I’ve looked at SSD’s & M.2’s but the cost per TB is still too prohibitive for me. Maybe in a few years this will drop significantly and capacities per drive will increase, and then I’ll buy. This is why I am looking at 8 bays now, to give me greater flexibility in years to come. For example, I might have just a 4 HDD array now, leaving 4 free bays (plus 2x M.2 slots via PCIe) & in a few years when the costs drop & capacities increase, I might add 4xSSD’s into the free bays as a separate raid, and then move just the video folder across to the SSD array, freeing up space on the HDD array for music, docs & photos. I could even go for M.2 which should be plenty fast enough via PCIe bus that I don’t need to use Raid for speed, only protection, so Raid 1, and use this to store the video file. Curently the capacities are not really there with M.2, well, not at anything like a sensible price, but maybe in a few years, it might be the better route to SSD’s that are 4-6 times slower per drive, and why you still need multiple SSD’s in a Raid array on speed grounds (as well as data protection). But for now, I don’t have much video, and it’s only 1080p, (despite having a camera capable of 4K, I’ve never shot 4K). 1080p has a quarter of the data/speed requirements of 4K. I think 1080p requires around 400mbps, and the HDD’s I’m looking at deliver around 200-260, so a 4 disk Raid 6 array should roughly deliver double that for reads, which should just about be sufficient I think (hopefully!), but would be woefully short for 4K. I’d need 10gbe to avoid the network becoming a bottle neck even with 1080p output. At least, this is what my research over the past few weeks has taught me.

[@CarcanStudios]

Quiet as a Cucumber! lol, OK, I LIKE IT, PICASSO!

[@kristina_explores]

I bought the QNAP 472XT, have 4x 8TB Ironwolf Drives In RAID 5, thick volumes and was getting around 550MB/s up and down, then i decided to install 2x 500gb evo 970 plus SSD's wet up in RAID 1 for cache acceleration (Read/Write) and am now getting transfer speeds via thunderbolt 3 of 1.3-1.6 GB/s... problem is keeping the SSD's cool, only takes a minute or so at that speed before they throttle down.. I didn't install the heat syncs onto the SSD's that QNAP provide as i read the thermal tape on the SSD's is enough, and removing the thermal tape to install the heat sync could void the warranty? Either way super happy with the NAS...

[@headsoftech]

So happy for you mate. Yeah the SSD situation is ridiculous warranty vs heatsink. I put mine on top of the tape but it doesn't make much of a difference.

[@kristina_explores]

Vtudio that’s interesting, maybe I’ll do that, I suppose it can’t hurt, even if it’s only a tiny improvement. I didn’t think the overheating was going to be much of a problem as it has been, overall it’s exceeded my expectation. NAS has come such a long way

[@Ethicalh0cker]

Hi there i found QNAP TVS-951X about 350£ (450$) used with 30 days free return + 6TB WD RED drives should i buy it ?? Thank you

[@raymondedwards5313]

Thanks Heads of Tech. I want to create a home setup to edit 4K, 6K amongst other 1080p footage from various cameras (BlackMagic Pocket, Canon series). I do Indi film, commercials and corporate shoots. I'm thinking of getting the QNAP TVS-672XT 6-Bay NAS Enclosure and getting just four drives (Seagate IronWolf Pro 12TB NAS Internal Hard Drive) to start with?

[@headsoftech]

Sounds good to me, just remember that if you want safety you need to use at least RAID5. So you will only get the the space of 3 drives. In future you can either consider using RAID6 and having 2 drives as backup (safety) so you don't lose all your data when it's lost. Or think about getting a second NAS to backup your current NAS and keep it on the faster RAID5 setting. A lot of people end up going the backup route as you really need a backup solution anyway, and it's slightly faster than RAID6.

[@alesko5]

I'm not sure why you kept saying TB3 throughput is 10 Gb/s when it's actually 40 Gb/s. This is different than USB 3.2 Gen 2 which shares the same USB C connector as TB3, but only offers speeds up to 10 Gb/s.

[@AndyHTu]

Sir you have such a nice pleasant voice. Thank you for the review. I learned alot what NAS are. I keep running out of space from video editing and photo editing and I've been editing on my back up drive and its so slow.... what do you suggest? for best performance

[@LivingWithTheGuzmans]

Thanks for the info

[@headsoftech]

Glad to help

[@cdphotography2]

I have the TS-453Be with 16GB of RAM and I have 4 WDC 8TB in RAID 6. No real issues but I have one volume created and have that volume mapped to my Win10 system. When I save images from online it takes 20-40 seconds for that image to be saved. I know it's the NAS because I can save to my desktop and it saves within a matter of seconds. I've tried updating firmware(rebooting of course) and un-mapping and re-mapping no change. Anyone have any idea ?

[@bluesdealer]

You mention a 2 meter limit with Thunderbolt 3. I have seen much longer Thunderbolt cables which use optical (although they seem to be quite pricey). Here's an example of what I'm talking about: www.amazon.com/dp/B00KTIY5Y0/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_X8vVEbES7GEMQ

[@headsoftech]

Those guys are TB2, but yeah I've heard that optical versions of TB3 cables are in the works, but haven't personally seen them on sale anywhere, let me know if you find any.

[@Aastan]

10Gbe requires two pcie 10Gbe (one for NAS and one for PC) as well as a 10Gbe switch to realize the speed. 1Gbe card or switch will be the bottleneck.

[@mannyteixeira2773]

I owner one and every week I have to update the firmware. I cannot longer work because I spend my time updating WIndows 10 and QNAP. That is why I swithing to Synology.

[@headsoftech]

Nice one, how's it going with the Syno?

[@mannyteixeira2773]

I used and was in love with QNAP for a long time but recently I'm now more comfortable with Synology because I don't have to reboot as much.

[@claude3990]

great Video and very informative...I just purchased the TVS-872XT...not so happy with it right now, Noisy, problem with TB3 connection performance...im trying to setup an iTunes server...Can an iTunes server be setup on a Qnap NAS? Searched the web, I found a couple of related articles about an app called firefly for qnap , cannot be found anywhere...Thanx In Advance

[@headsoftech]

Hey mate, I haven't used it as an iTunes server but according to the box it's just a checkbox you need to tick[1][2]. Regarding noise levels, I keep mine in a closet and use a 10GBe cable to reduce it, but another thing to check is the hard drives, is if the noise coming from the actual fans of the NAS or the hard drives inside? In which case a SSD cache may help you there to get rid of the frequently accessed files grumble. I've got a guide about SSD cache on this channel. [1] docs.qnap.com/nas/4.1/Home/en/index.html?itunes_server.htm [2] www.qnap.com/en/how-to/knowledge-base/article/how-to-fix-itunes-server-problem/

[@claude3990]

@@headsoftech I just received a reply from Qnap tech support. My NAS is populated with SSD's only, I stopped using Magnetic drives 3yrs. ago.According to Qnap tech support now that they got back to me, I should get it exchanged through Amazon They Also got back to me regarding iTunes Server setup and or Support. ."At the moment we don't, I can help submit a feature request for you.".

[@headsoftech]

Thanks for sharing mate, let me know how you get on with the replacement.

[@claude3990]

@@headsoftech cancelled the replacement and got my refund and back to my 9yrs old Synology. Will stay with Synology and hoping for new models this year or next. Thanx for the Replies, take care and stay safe

[@headsoftech]

Nice one, let me know which model you do end up upgrading to in the end and best of luck.

[@s0lohans]

What are your thoughts about building your own NAS by putting together a PC running raid maybe and running Linux OS

[@headsoftech]

Would love to do it, just haven't had the time to try it out myself.

[@docdaven]

Use only Intel NICs (server grade - they're expensive, but they can handle long backups and near continuous heavy traffic - the NICs in these all-in-one NAS units are pretty bad - not heatsinked properly or at all - really). Get a reliable RAID back plane for hot swapping, or a PCIE card - (on board drive controller chips on most consumer mobos are junk & cannot handle constant throughput and most use too many CPU cycles - (software RAID is a joke)- offloading this work to a card is best). You can get away with a cheap mobo, just add your own NIC and drive controller cards (hardware RAID - always best, on board memory & dedicated processor on card - also best) to it. You can spend a grand, sure, but at least you'll know it's reliable!

[@leedaymond2145]

What would you advise for a team of 4 (currently and likely to grow) sharing a NAS?

[@headsoftech]

I think the 872XT is great, you can plug up to 5 computers out of the box - 2 fast TB3 connection, 1 fast 10GBe connection and 2x slower 1GBe connections. You can also install a 10GBe expansion card for another 2x 10GBe connections, or get a 10GBe router and share the faster connection to more users that way.

[@Patrick-jj5nh]

11:10 why would you lose your data? wouldn't you sign up to a cloud service to do regular updates of data to cloud?

[@headsoftech]

Backups are great, however in flight data is still prone to data loss.

[@alpha_tango]

awaesme video, I learnt SO MUCH. Also, "quiet as a cucumber" made me laugh so hard =D

[@TallyHoTech]

I like the one with the hardest disks

[@headsoftech]

💾

[@fredygump5578]

So...what if a person has a DAS that never gets used...because wires...and wants it to become a NAS instead? It is a sad story...years ago I bought a LaCie raid unit (DAS), with Thunderbolt 2.0...I was clever and knew better than to buy the USB 3.0 version! Now it is basically obsolete due to the thunderbolt, but in like new condition! I would like to redeem myself by making it part of a NAS, but haven't found a good way to do it. So I've been procrastinating for a couple of years now.

[@headsoftech]

If I was you I'd take some good photos of it and sell it on eBay. I do that with all my old hardware, once you get into the habit of it, it changes your thought process on value. Eg. I recently sold my 13" MacBook Pro last week for $2k on eBay and bought a 16" MacBook Pro for $4k, and I'll probably sell that one in a couple of years for $2-3k, so it makes you more gun ho about upgrading to the latest tech. I've got a video about selling stuff on eBay here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/e3OWiYCjmZKVebM

[@fredygump5578]

@@headsoftech BTW, you're the guy who pretty much convinced me that I DON'T need to upgrade to the 16"...and now you say upgrade? :) I used to trade Cameras all the time...I've had a long list of Canon DSLRs, most everything from XT to 1Ds mark IV...and sold them on Ebay. But the excitement wore off, I guess.

[@headsoftech]

It's all about your needs mate, if you're not using your DAS, then it's worth selling on and upgrading for something you need. But if you're happy with your current system like I am with my 15", then there's no need to upgrade.

[@christianschmeer]

Have you tested any WD RED / RED Pro drives? I need to buy a couple of 14TB drives. Not sure whether to switch to IronWolf / Pro from the WD RED ones I have.

[@headsoftech]

I've only tried standard WD Red's (non-Pro) - I wouldn't recommend them as they go at only 5400RPM.

[@christianschmeer]

@@headsoftech The IronWolf (non Pro) are also only 5400RPM, are they not?

[@headsoftech]

They're 7200RPM, I have a review on this channel comparing the Ironwolf Pro vs non-Pro for an in-depth comparison.

[@juliendufour4513]

Is there any way to back up such large storage unit on the cloud? If yes, which provider would you use? thank you.

[@headsoftech]

G Suite's Business Plan offers unlimited storage: vtudio.com/a/?google=gsuite

[@human47134]

@@headsoftech I only see Enterprise offering unlimited and it requires you to request a quote from them. That means $$$$.

[@headsoftech]

That's a shame, they just recently switched over to a new system called Google Workspace "to better serve the diverse purchasing needs of our large and expanding customer base". Old G Suite plans are still grandfathered for now though - if you happen to have one.

[@Robert-ug5hx]

Why raid 6 instead of 1+0 6 is much slower

[@headsoftech]

I thought about it at the time, but figured if you lose 2 drives on the same batch it's game over. But probably in the future I'll drop down two RAID 5 with a second NAS acting as backup.

[@Robert-ug5hx]

@@headsoftech I can see your point but it very unlikely that 2 would fail in the same set, and if everything is backed up properly and several copies it would a simple job to restore the data.

[@TheKeule33]

FreeNAS.

[@s0lohans]

Damn where did you get three different NAS to show LOL

[@headsoftech]

Once you've lost data, you learn about the need for multiple backups.

[@aurelian8383]

just so you know, Thunderbolt 3 is also 40 GB / sec

[@dewhoop]

its 40Gb/s not GB/s, which means bit not byte. that 8 times difference