INTRODUCTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   I've always said that NAS units/servers would one day enter our homes in numbers (meaning most of us would own at least one) but it seems that we're getting there a lot faster than i had originally anticipated since not only many of you keep asking for such reviews but sales of low/mid-end NAS units/servers all over the globe increase day by day mostly by end users. Now because of that we will keep our focus on testing all the latest single/dual/quad bay NAS units/servers since such reviews are both what most of you ask and also because most low/mid-end models feature one, two or four HDD bays. So today in our lab we have the latest SMB oriented dual bay NAS unit/server by QNAP the TurboNAS TS-269L.

 

   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.

 

   The latest TurboNAS TS-269L by QNAP is basically a cut down version of the highest end TS-269 Pro and is aimed towards SMB users who are not in real need for the extra power/speed offered by the Pro version. More specifically it sports an 1.86GHz ATOM Dual Core CPU (compared to the 2.13GHz of the TS-269 Pro), 1GB SODIMM DDR3 RAM and 512MB of Flash Memory. However that does in any way not mean that the TS-269L is anything less than a great NAS unit/server since in terms of specifications it stands right between the TS-259 Pro+ and the TS-269 Pro the two best dual bay units ever produced by QNAP (and perhaps the two best dual bay NAS units/servers available in the market). All that's left is for us to see just how good the new TS-269L really is and how it compares against other similar solutions.

 

 

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The TS-269L arrived inside a medium sized box with a large product image at the front along with a small features list and several icons pointing to its specifications.

 

 

At the right side we see a quick list of features written in 23 languages.

 

 

The complete hardware and software specifications of the TS-269L along with two pictures of the units front and rear are placed at the left side.

 

 

Two large images at the rear showcase the correct topology and also explains the several ways one can use the device.

 

 

This time over the usual welcome message by QNAP has been replaced with a Thank You.

 

 

The unit is securely placed between two thick Styrofoam spacers while the rest of the contents are placed inside a separate cardboard box.

 

 

Inside the box you will find the TurboNAS TS-269L, AC power cable, AC power adapter, 2 Gigabit Ethernet cables, 2 sets of HDD mounting screws (one for 3.5” and one for 2.5” drives), free firmware update paper, quick installation guide and the software CD.

 

 

 

 

THE TURBONAS TS-269L

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Exactly like the TS-269 Pro and the TS-259 Pro+ before that the new TurboNAS TS-269L is almost entirely made by aluminum and measures 150mm in Height, 102mm in Width and 216mm in Depth while weighing a total of 1.74Kg.

 

 

As you can see the only difference between the TS-269 Pro and the new TS-269L is the lack of locks for the two drive bays.

 

 

The perforated section on the right side of the enclosure is pretty standard for every NAS server we’ve seen by QNAP.

 

 

At the left of the front fascia we see the usual HDD Status, LAN, USB and eSATA LED activity LEDs.

 

 

The on/off power button along with a one touch backup button and a USB 2.0 port are present at the lower left.

 

 

Once again the company logo is present at the front top of the unit.

 

 

Both drive bays are hot-swap ones so you can add/remove drives at will just like with any QNAP unit. You can use both 3.5" and 2.5" drives (HDD or SSD) which you can setup either in Single configuration meaning each drive is different, JBOD array where both drives act as one, RAID 0 array meaning splitting all data in both drives or in RAID 1 configuration with the second drive backing up the primary one.

 

 

The two Intel Atom and sequence/drive placement stickers are placed at the top of the enclosure.

 

 

As always with high end QNAP units the rear is not black but rather a grey color.

 

 

A single 70mm fan is used to keep the temperature of both drives low.

 

 

Next to the exhaust fan we see an HDMI output and the typical reset button.

 

 

Right beneath we see the 2 Gigabit RJ-45 Ethernet ports, 2 USB 3.0 ports, 2 USB 2.0 ports, an eSATA port. the AC power plug and an Kensington lock.

 

 

The unit sits on 4 round rubber feet which you can easily remove if you want to save almost 2cm in height.

 

 

You can remove the top cover by removing the 3 screws found at the rear (however by doing so you are voiding your warranty).

 

 

The 1GB DDR3 SO-DIMM RAM running at 1333MHz is manufactured by ADATA (just like with the TS-269/469 Pro).

 

 

The UDMII Plus-C Flash Disk Module is manufactured by Apacer (again like the TS-269/469 Pro).

 

 

You can easily install up to an extra 2GB DDR3 SO-DIMM RAM at the empty rear slot (no need for it to be by ADATA).

 

 

 

WEB INTERFACE PART 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before you do anything it’s highly recommended that you head over to the official QNAP support page to download the latest software/firmware version. QNAP has a very high rate of updates so you will most certainly have a much older version on the supplied CD.

 

 

After you follow the setup instructions you will see the login page which has two different views you can switch between according to your preference. Do note that if you can't login with the usual admin/admin username and password you will need to press the reset switch at the rear of the unit.

 

 

After entering your user name and password you now have access to the main page of the web interface. Since the device has more or less 50 different screens filled with settings we will only look at the most important ones.

 

 

In the System Administration folder you can perform firmware updates (automatic/manual) and adjust every basic setting from the name of the server, time, location and network IP to the power and security settings. You can also check the current hardware configuration from the above screen.

 

 

The Disk Management folder gives you the ability to manage the installed drives, choose the preferred RAID mode, add a virtual disk, use the iSCSI mode or use the smart feature of your HDD to check its current state and temperature.

 

 

You can use the Access Rights Management folder to add/remove users, create user groups, share folders and set a specific quota for each user.

 

 

Just about everything related with the network can be found under the Network Services Tab such as the usual Microsoft and Apple Networking up to setting up your own FTP/Web servers.

 

 

From within the Applications Folder you can manage your files and use the unit as a media server, download server, surveillance station and much more. We will come back to check on these on the next page.

 

 

The Backup folder can be used to perform backups of your system drives, create cloud backups, use the Apple time machine feature and set the one touch backup button properties.

 

 

Properties for all the external device settings from USB drives and printers up to your UPS can be accessed from the External Device folder.

 

 

The MyCloud page is something the QNAP units did not originally have and through here you can make the unit accessible from all over the world.

 

 

Via the System Information drop down menu you can check basic information about the unit and also monitor all the running Services and resources used.

 

 

 

WEB INTERFACE PART 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here you will see screenshots of all of the available stations along with the Anti-Virus tab. As usual through the web file manager you can upload and download files onto the TS-269L, granted it's not very flashy but it works well.

 

 

The second version of the Multimedia Station is simple yet very user friendly so your movie files will appear as medium sized icons on the right part of the screen. The 269L (like the 269Pro) can play FullHD files flawlessly and it is 100% dependent on the Atom CPU meaning that it doesn't take resources from your own system (something seen with some Synology NAS units).

 

 

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

 

 

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

 

 

Moving to the download station you can download files either directly (HTTP/HTTPS/FTP) or by using the build in BitTorrent program.

 

 

Unfortunately the latest firmware update allows you the use of just 1 IP camera so if you want to connect others you need to buy a separate license from QNAP. The good thing however is that the entire layout of the Surveillance station has changed completely while you can now choose between a very large number of IP camera models so thumbs up to QNAP for this upgrade.

 

 

Inside the QPKG screen you will find a large number of useful applications which you can download and install in the unit (i strongly recommend installing Pyload if you download files using Netload).

 

 

The QNAP devices also feature a basic Anti-Virus version which at least up until this day it hasn't failed me.

 

 

 

QMANAGER APP

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Qmanager by QNAP is a handy little android/iOS compatible app through which you can check the status of the unit and manage its various services.

 

 

 

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. From this review and forward we will also be testing the noise levels of each NAS unit/server. Noise tests were performed with the exhaust fan(s) at both minim and maximum speeds from just 10cm away. Unfortunately since at this moment we don't have every unit we've reviewed in the past we could only test the ones we had. 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

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FILE TRANSFER TEST

A single 10.9GB file was uploaded and downloaded to and from all the NAS units in this test. Here it's obvious that the TS-269L is not as powerful as the TS-269 Pro but it does come really close.

 

TEMPERATURES

The 70mm exhaust fan managed to keep the drive at 33 degrees (at least in idle since the devices do not update temperatures).

 

POWER CONSUMPTION

With just 1 HDD installed the TS-269L uses up to 27W at full load (when reproducing heavy 1080p movie files).

 

NOISE LEVELS

At full speed the 70mm exhaust fan is quite loud, however not even once did it occur on its own except during startup.

 

 

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   QNAP has an excellent track record (at least from the moment i started using and testing their products) so i didn't expect anything less than a great NAS unit/server when they announced the TurboNAS TS-269L and todays tests verified that beyond doubt. Of course as expected it's not as fast as the higher end TS-269 Pro since it lacks the CPU speed but it did surpass the already excellent TS-259 Pro+. The web interface as usual is very easy to use, looks great and at the same time offers a plethora of selections (more than even we could ever hope to use) and settings/options which should cover even the most demanding of users. Overall we found nothing wrong with the TurboNAS TS-269L and if we didn't have the excellent TS-269 Pro working right next to our test rigs this would certainly be our weapon of choice.

 

   While we write these lines the TurboNAS TS-269L by QNAP retails at around USD500 inside the USA and 470Euros inside the EU so it may not come cheap but it costs roughly USD100/100Euros less than the more powerful TS-269 Pro. The price difference between those two models may not be large (and certainly understandable) but neither is their difference in performance and so unless you need the extra muscle i see no reason as to why you shouldn't save money by choosing the TS-269L. However things like that always come down to personal preference and the fact is that the TS-269 Pro is a better overall solution. Still the TurboNAS TS-269L is an great NAS unit/server with excellent performance (second only to the TS-269 Pro) and a plethora of features which is why it gets our Platinum award.

 

PROS

- Excellent Build Quality
- Top Performance (Second Only To The TS-269 Pro)
- Features
- 1GB DDR3 RAM @ 1333MHz (Expandable to 3GB)
- 2 Gigabit Ethernet Ports
- 5 USB Ports (2xUSB 3.0 / 3xUSB 2.0)
- Single/JBOD/RAID0/1 Support
- SATA III (6Gb/s)
- Web Interface
- New IP Camera Support
- Qmanager Android/iOS App 

 

 

CONS

- Price (For Some)