INTRODUCTION

   Sometimes i feel that things are moving so fast in the electronics and PC hardware industry that i simply can't afford to look the other way not even for a minute. Take for example NAS devices/servers. It hasn't been more than a month since i last checked all the available models by the 4 leading manufacturers (QNAP, Thecus, ASUSTOR and Synology) and right now there are at least 10 more available ones in their product lines (some already available in retail and some just announced). So that alone means that things must be going even better for all those manufacturers than the last time i checked several sales charts almost half a year ago and with so many people using NAS servers at home for various things such as for file sharing, downloads, video recording and media playback that doesn't really come as a surprise. Today with us we have one of the latest high-end NAS servers to hit the market by QNAP the TurboNAS TS-470 Pro.

   QNAP Systems, Inc., as its brand promise "Quality Network Appliance Provider", aims to deliver comprehensive offerings of cutting edge network attached storage (NAS) and network video recorder (NVR) solutions featured with ease-of-use, robust operation, large storage capacity, and trustworthy reliability. QNAP integrates technologies and designs to bring forth quality products that effectively improve business efficiency on file sharing, virtualization applications, storage management and surveillance in the business environments, as well as enrich entertainment life for home users with the offering of a fun multimedia center experience. Headquartered in Taipei, QNAP delivers its solutions to the global market with nonstop innovation and passion.

   We've been waiting for the TS-470 Pro ever since it was announced for one single reason, the Intel Core i3-3220 3.3GHz dual-core CPU it wears which is one of the most advanced models currently used in NAS servers so it's really obvious that we just had to see how it does against all the models we've tested in the past. Of course the 2GB DDR3 RAM along with the 512MB DOM flash featured here are also very important for the performance of a NAS server but the downside with the TS-470 Pro is that the RAM is not expandable so if you get the regular version you are pretty much stuck with it. Luckily for some of you out there QNAP became aware of this issue shortly after launch and their solution was as obvious as it was simple so as we speak they've also made available the TS-470 Pro-16G model which comes ready with 16GB of DDR3 RAM (!!!). The TS-470 Pro also comes ready with two Intel WG82574L GbE Ethernet ports, 2 eSATA ports, two USB 3.0 ports (Etron EJ188H controller), two USB 2.0 ports, 4 SATA III ports (via the Marvell 88SE9235 PCIex card) and exactly like with the TS-470 you can also purchase and install the extra 10GbE PCIex card by QNAP if you happen to have compatible equipment. So let's see just how better the much promising TS-470 Pro is not only compared to the TS-470 but also with every single NAS server in our charts.