INTRODUCTION

   If everyone here had to choose one specific type of product where we've seen the biggest changes/advancements over the past 3-4 years or so the most popular answer would definitely be network attached storage devices (NAS) since from very basic single-core SoC CPUs and 256/512MB of RAM in just three years we've moved to Dual and Quad core Intel Celeron and i3 CPUs with up to 8GB of RAM pre-installed. Granted such hardware specifications may sound as a bit over the top to some people and if NAS devices were only aimed for home use I’d tend to agree with them but what many fail to realize is that the largest percentage of NAS sales belongs to small businesses and enterprises so both performance and reliability are of the utmost importance to those users. Now as many of you know the most "popular" NAS models in the market can accommodate both 3.5" and 2.5" drives but for people who want something even smaller manufacturers also make models that can only be outfitted with 2.5" drives and the latest TurboNAS TS-453S Pro by QNAP is one such model.

   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.

   The TurboNAS TS-453S Pro may be the very first NAS model to arrive at our doorstep that only takes 2.5" drives (4 of them actually) but that doesn't mean anything especially since it also has some of the best hardware specifications we've seen to date. So under the hood this time over QNAP has placed a quad-core Intel Celeron CPU (J1900) running at 2GHz which in turn they have paired with 4GB DDR3L-1600 RAM (expandable to 8GB) and a 512MB flash DOM (the OpenGL 3.0 compatible Intel(R) MESA DRI Bay Trail version 10.0 is responsible for the graphics end). Other features include RAID 0/1/5/6/10/5 + hot spare support for the 4 SATA III hot-swap bays, two Gigabit RJ45 LAN ports, three USB 3.0 ports and an HDMI video output (probably v1.4a). The TurboNAS TS-453S Pro really has nothing to be jealous of from its larger brothers but we are interested to see how well it does in terms of read/write speeds especially since 2.5" HDDs are not as fast as 3.5" models (SSDs excluded) so let's move forward with our review and find out.