INTRODUCTION

   I don't think that there's a single person who can deny that network attached storage devices are getting more popular by the day and the reason i say this is not the increased sales manufacturers are seeing nor the number of brand new models they roll out every once a while no. I'm saying this based on the increasing number of people asking us (either live or via email and through social media) for such reviews. Well i can't really say this comes as a surprise to us, i mean what's not to like about NAS servers? They are small, pack quite a punch, use less electricity than a halogen light bulb, produce low noise levels, offer a complete array of applications right out of the box and can even give you enough space for up to 10 drives (SMB models) which as we speak translates to roughly 80-100TB of storage capacity (thanks to the new 8-10TB drives). Today we'll be checking out one of the best models currently available in the marker for SMB (and home) use, the latest 6 bay TurboNAS TS-653 Pro-8G NAS server by QNAP.

   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.

   Currently QNAP offers the most complete lineup of NAS servers in the market and the brand new x53Pro series are amongst the best they've rolled out from their factory to date both in terms of specifications and features. The x53 Pro line consists out of 4 different models, the dual bay TS-253 Pro, the quad bay TS-453 Pro, the six bay TS-653 Pro and the eight bay TS-853 Pro. All models wear the Intel Celeron CJ1900 2.0GHz quad core processor (burst speed up to 2.41GHz) with 2 or 8GB or DDR3 RAM (we have the 8GB version with us) and a flash DOM of 512MB (the OpenGL 3.0 compatible Intel(R) MESA DRI Bay Trail version 10.0 takes care of the graphics part). The TS-653 Pro also features 4 RJ-45 GbE Ethernet ports, 3 USB 3.0 ports, 2 USB 2.0 ports and an HDMI v1.4a video output which enables you to use the device as a media server/player. Well if you wan't to see how it performs read on.