INTRODUCTION

   NAS (network attached storage) devices/servers have taken the market by storm these past few years, that pretty much is old news what however may come as a surprise to most people is that mid-end solutions aimed for office and SMB use are actually quite higher in sales around the world compared to both high-end Enterprise/SMB and entry-level home/SOHO solutions. The reasons for that are quite simple and so you can have a powerful NAS unit that's extremely easy to setup, has all the applications your heart desires right out of the box (ok almost since you may have to download extra ones) and of course is able to run 24/7/365 and not having to worry about stability issues and power consumption levels since the average one uses slightly over 20W while operating at full capacity. QNAP is trying to bridge the gap between entry level and mid-level NAS devices with their latest TurboNAS TS-X21 line and today we will be taking the TS-221 for a ride.

   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.

   As the name suggests the TurboNAS TS-221 is a dual bay NAS server that belongs in the home/SOHO line by QNAP and is placed right between the TS-219P II and the TS-269L both in terms of specifications and features (the TS-221 is basically an slightly upgraded TS-219P II). Unfortunately unlike the TS-269L the TS-221 doesn't have a dual-core processor and so much like the TS-219P II under the hood we see a Marvell 2.0GHz single core CPU but instead of just 512MB DDR3 RAM it comes fitted with 1GB DDR3 RAM which is pretty much the only difference between those two models. Other specifications include support for HDDs up to 4TB in capacity (i doubt it will have any problem running future models when they get released), 2 USB 3.0 ports, 1 USB 2.0 port, 1 RJ-45 Ethernet port and finally 2 eSATA ports. However QNAP chose the TS-x21 line to debut their latest QTS 4.0 Operating System and we know that this is one of the things QNAP fans have been waiting for quite some time so let's get deeper and see exactly what both the TurboNAS TS-221 and the latest QTS 4.0 are all about.