INTRODUCTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Although NAS (Network Attached Storage) servers/devices were never actually ment to become a mainstream product for home use and were initially targeted towards office users, small/large businesses and enterprises today more and more people trust them not only to store and remotely share their data but also as media/web/download servers. Of course there's a great number of available NAS devices in the market from entry-levels ones that can be used for all the above mentioned functions up to high-end ones not only featuring very good hardware specifications but also a wealth of available functions (that's why i call them servers). Today we will be taking a thorough look into the high-end TurboNAS TS-259 Pro+ Dual Bay NAS by QNAP with small and medium businesses as its target group.

 

   QNAP Systems, Inc. is a privately held company founded in 2004 and is dedicated to bringing world class NAS storage, professional NVR video surveillance, and network video players to consumer, small/medium business, and entry level enterprise market segments. QNAP leverages not only hardware design but also a growing core competency in software engineering that is precisely focused on bringing to market products that offer the highest available performance coupled with outstanding reliability, scalability, and ease of installation and use. QNAP is a multi-national company with headquarters in Taipei, Taiwan, and subsidiary offices in China and the United States.

 

   Some people argue that the cost for a good NAS server is quite high and for people who already own a computer such a purchase is not the best use for their money. This may be somewhat accurate (although cheap NAS devices with basic functions do exist) however one must always take into consideration that the average computer uses around 200W just by sitting idly on desktop while a NAS server/device will never pass 30-35W even at load. That difference in electrical consumption is many KW (kilowatts) per month so for people who use their computer (example) for download purposes during several hours per day would most definitely benefit from a NAS device. Moving back to the TS-259 Pro+ by QNAP specs-wise it comes with a 1.8GHz dual-core Intel Atom processor, 1GB DDR3 RAM and 512MB of onboard flash memory so this particular mid/high-end model is not what I’d recommend to home users (for home use the TS-219P II is more suitable/cheaper) since this particular model also comes with several SMB specific features such as support for VMware and Citrix virtualization platforms, Windows Server 2008R2 Hyper-V & Failover clustering, iSCSI and 256-bit AES volume-based encryption. On paper the TurboNAS TS-259 Pro+ by QNAP seems like the ideal NAS server/device for small and medium businesses but it's time to find out just how good is it compared to the competition.

 

 

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The package is almost identical with all the packages we've seen from QNAP during the past years and so at the front we see a large product image and its main features.

 

 

At the left side you will find two product images used to showcase all the buttons, LEDs and connections of the unit right beneath a list with the functions of the TS-259 Pro+ written in 18 languages.

 

 

Both the software and hardware specifications of the TS-259 Pro+ are listed at the right side.

 

 

Several images including a connectivity layout are present at the rear of the box to help explain the several usages of the unit.

 

 

This welcome message from the people over at QNAP may not be much but it's good to see.

 

 

 

The TS-259 Pro+ is placed between two thick Styrofoam spacers while the rest of the bundle is placed inside a cardboard box right next to it (aside the AC power cable which is next to the cardboard box).

 

 

Inside the box you will find the AC power cable, two RJ45 Ethernet cables, a software disc, two keys (for the bays), installation manual, free firmware update notice paper and two small plastic bags with all the necessary screws needed to mount two 2.5" or 3.5" disk drives.

 

 

THE TS-259 PRO+

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The TurboNAS TS-259 Pro+ features the same bronze/black color combination we've seen before with other NAS devices from QNAP and it really stands out from other devices from other brands in the market.

 

 

Both sides have a large perforated section at the far front for improved interior airflow.

 

 

The front fascia is just about the only part of the device made from hard plastic.

 

 

As always QNAP has placed their logo at the top of the front fascia.

 

 

At the left side of the fascia we find the activity LEDs, the on/off button, one-touch copy button and a USB 2.0 port.

 

 

Both drive bays are perforated at the front and feature locks to ensure that noone gains access to your sensitive data.

 

 

At the top we find two stickers, the usual supplied by Intel for their CPUs and the HD sequence one which indicates the primary and secondary drive spots.

 

 

I was glad to see that the rear has almost the same bronze color as the rest of the unit.

 

 

A single 70mm exhaust fan is used to keep the temperatures of the interior at a minimum.

 

 

At the rear we also find an VGA output (for maintenance purposes only), reset button, two Gigabit RJ-45 Ethernet ports, four USB 2.0 ports, two eSATA 2 ports, the AC power port and a Kensington lock.

 

 

Four 1cm tall rubber feet are placed at the bottom of the TS-259 Pro+.

 

 

Moving back at the front we see that both drive trays are not only removable as expected but also made out of metal something which unfortunately does not apply with most NAS servers/devices.

 

 

The drive trays feature holes for mounting of both 3.5" and 2.5" disk drives.

 

 

Removing the top panel is not hard but since it's quite hard to remove the entire metal structure and leave the mainboard with its components exposed i skipped on that part.

 

 

However i did notice that the board comes with two 4pin fan headers so once your warranty is up you can swap the stock fan for something better if you want total silence in the room.

 

 

INSTALLATION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first thing you will see once you access the IP of the TS-259 Pro+ is the quick configuration wizard which will guide you through 6 very easy steps.

 

 

The entire procedure may take some time but once it's done there's else you need to do in order to start working with the unit.

 

 

Since QNAP updates their software/firmware quite often the first thing you should do once you finish setting up the unit is to head to the Firmware Update selection found inside the System Administration menu and perform a firmware update. This can also be done automatically since the software checks for new updates but i strongly recommend downloading the firmware file and then manually performing the update. For this review we used the latest 3.6.1 update.

 

 

 

SOFTWARE PART 1 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can either access several main features of the unit directly from the initial screen or head right into the main web interface. Aside very easy to use the explorer-like web interface is very familiar since QNAP has been using it like forever. Here you will find 9 different categories from where you can adjust and use every available feature of the TS-259 Pro+.

 

 

Under the System Administration tab you can adjust things related directly with the unit itself from the date/time, TCP/IP configuration and security options to the power options and firmware update.

 

 

Quite forthcoming the Disk Management tab allows you to manage your drives, setup new RAID 0/1 arrays, check your drives using SMART, encrypt the drive contents, use iSCSI and setup virtual drives.

 

 

The Access Management menu allows you to create users, share specific folders and apply quota limitations.

 

 

Inside the Network Services tab you can create a Telnet connection and a Web Server which turn allows you to host a website on the unit. The unit is also compatible with a number of network services including Microsoft Networking (Windows), Apple Networking (MacOS X) and NFS (Linux).

 

 

Just like all of the TurboNAS devices i have reviewed in the past the TS-259 Pro+ can host a large number of servers and application (like the quite handy AV) the most important of which we will cover in Part 2.

 

 

The TS-259 Pro+ supports several backup ways including remote replication to another server, cloud backup, Apple Time Machine and copy to an external drive.

 

 

 

You can configure external storage devices, setup printer sharing and adjust the UPS settings from the External Devices tab.

 

 

From the MyCloudNAS Service you can setup the TS-259 Pro+ for remote internet access either automatically or manually.

 

 

As the name points out under the System Status tab you can find details about the unit’s internal hardware and running services along with the resources used by the system at any given time.

 

 

 

SOFTWARE PART 2 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Web File Manager is perhaps the one application you will use more than anything else since this is just about the only way you can upload files onto the NAS.

 

 

The second version of the Multimedia Station is nothing fancy so your movie files will appear as medium sized icons on the right part of the screen. Double clicking on any file starts the playback and aside the fact that it can play FullHD files flawlessly it is also 100% dependent on the Atom CPU and doesn't take resources from your own system (something seen with Synology NAS devices).

 

 

What really changed from the last time i tested an QNAP NAS is the layout of the PhotoStation which looks a LOT better than the old donut one and also features Google maps (if your picture is geo tagged).

 

 

The Music Station may not be fancy (like the Multimedia Station) but it gets the job done and is extremely easy to use.

 

 

Same goes with the Download Station (used for HTTP/FTP/Rapidshare/Bit Torrent downloads) since it's also very easy to use but offers just a basic layout and support only for Rapidshare (would be nice to see netload support as well).

 

 

The Camera Server is a very complete application that gives you control in just about everything related with your surveillance cameras but unfortunately QNAP still lacks official support for many models. I will continue asking them to improve on that as I have in the past but the end result is really not up to me.

 

 

TEST BED

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TESTING METHODOLOGY
 

 

   Since some of the NAS servers/devices we have tested in the past are no longer in our possession (naturally) we will keep performing the exact same testing methodology we did in the past for as long as possible in order to provide accurate comparison results. So as always we used a single Seagate Constellation ES.2 3TB SATA III hard disk drive with the QNAP TurboNAS TS-259 Pro+ (just like with all of the NAS units) and performed upload/download tests with a single 10.9GB file. Tests were repeated a total of 4 times after which we recorded the average numbers (from the 4 peak ones) into our charts. Finally the network device used is the same Netgear DGN3500 Gigabit ADSL2+ Modem/Router we always use when performing tests on NAS servers.

 

 

TEST RESULTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   The TurboNAS TS-259 Pro+ by QNAP is simply put not only the fastest NAS server/device i have ever thoroughly tested but also the most feature-rich one which means that most home users have no reason to look this way since they will probably never use everything this device has to offer. On the other hand however thanks to its speed and features (including support for VMware and Citrix) the TS-259 Pro+ by QNAP is the ideal choice for small and medium businesses (providing of course that the 2 available drive bays are enough). Thanks to its layout, icon design and colors the web interface is still my favorite but naturally for things that have to do with taste i don't expect everyone to agree with me on that. Still although the TS-259 Pro+ is an excellent NAS server it does have a single flaw and that's the lack of support for countless IP camera models in the market something that applies with every QNAP unit i have tested to date. I did hope that with the latest 3.6.1 firmware/software update that would be resolved but that's not the case so i hope that QNAP pays a little more attention on that side of their product.

 

     Just like any other mid/high-end product targeted for small and medium businesses the TurboNAS TS-259 Pro+ NAS server by QNAP does not come cheap and so it currently retails at USD499.99 inside the USA (Newegg, Amazon, TigerDirect) and at around 420Euros inside the EU. That's the main reason why like i mentioned earlier the quite cheaper TS-219P II seems to be a much better mid-end solution for home users and people who don't really need the extra features and performance of the TS-259 Pro+. However regardless of target group the TurboNAS TS-259 Pro+ is a real gem in the NAS world and that's why it gets our Platinum award.

 

 

PROS

- Build Quality (Chassis/Metal Trays)
- Excellent Performance (Speed/Temperatures/Power Consumption)
- Features List
- Web Interface
- Support For VMware/Citrix/Windows Server 2008R2 Hyper-V & Failover clustering
- 2 Gigabit Ethernet Ports
- 2 eSATA Ports
- 5 USB Ports
- HDD Tray Locks
- AES 256bit Volume Based Encryption

 

 

CONS

- Still Quite Limited Support For IP Cameras
- Price (For some)