CONCLUSION

   It wouldn't be an understatement if i was to say that the TS-653 Pro-8G is the amongst the three best NAS Servers we've ever tested not only because you can use up to 6 drives with it and thus have huge amounts of available storage space (i think 60TB qualifies for huge, at least for most people) but also because it offers excellent performance and a wealth of features including the offline transcoding of up to 4k media files, QvPC technology through which you can use the NAS as a standard PC and of course the long awaited virtualization station which allows you to run multiple operating systems on the NAS (and yes it actually works now). I'm not really trying to "reduce" the importance of performance since if you happen to be reading this review and you're interested in such a NAS server model then you're obviously after serious firepower but at least for us performance is only part of what makes a NAS server good and in this case the TS-653 Pro-8G is not just good but great.

   With a total of 6 2.5/3.5" drive bays and high-end specifications and it doesn't take a nuclear scientist to figure out that the TurboNAS TS-653 Pro-8G is not going to be cheap. So currently the QNAP TS-653 Pro-8G model retails for USD1044.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 1048.68Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de) while the regular TS-653 Pro (2GB version) goes for USD900.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and 904.99Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de). It also goes without saying that if 6 drive bays is too much for you there's always the quad and dual models of the x53 Pro series available which can be found for quite less. Overall the TurboNAS TS-653 Pro-8G by QNAP is a performance beast with a vast array of features and connectivity most NAS servers in the market would be jealous of and although it doesn't support 10GbE like the TS-470/Pro models still it should cover even the most demanding users which is why it grabs our Platinum Award.

PROS

- Excellent Build Quality
- Intel Celeron Quad Core CPU (2.41GHz)
- Excellent Performance
- Features
- 8GB DDR3L RAM (Our Sample)
- 4 Gigabit Ethernet Ports
- 5 USB Ports (3xUSB 3.0 / 2xUSB 2.0)
- HDMI Output
- RAID 0/1/5/6/10 - 5/6/10+Hot Spare Support
- SATA III (6Gb/s)
- QTS 4.x.x OS 

CONS

- Price (For Some)