INTRODUCTION

     One of the many things friends tend to notice when they come over to our lab is one of our enterprise-grade NAS servers which have been running non-stop since we first started NikKTech roughly 6 years ago (we've used two such models since then). To be completely honest with all of you the main reason people tend to notice them is because these models are quite loud so they are hard to miss. In any case the end result is that people who know not about NAS servers start asking us questions about what they can be used for and what their advantages over regular desktop PCs and notebooks are and over the years many have actually gone out and bought their very own. Of course i can't say i know of anyone who has gotten an enterprise-grade model like the ones we use (not that they have to) but surprisingly enough many have invested good amounts of money on top of the line small business models. One such model is the brand new TS-431X2-8G Cost-effective Business NAS with Integrated 10GbE SFP+ Port by QNAP which we've been using and testing since late January.

   QNAP Systems, Inc., headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan, provides a comprehensive range of cutting-edge Network-attached Storage (NAS) and video surveillance solutions based on the principles of usability, high security, and flexible scalability. QNAP offers quality NAS products for home and business users, providing solutions for storage, backup/snapshot, virtualization, teamwork, multimedia, and more. QNAP envisions NAS as being more than "simple storage", and has created many NAS-based innovations to encourage users to host and develop Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and machine learning solutions on their QNAP NAS.

   Inside the enclosure of the brand new TS-431X2-8G QNAP has placed the AL-314 quad-core ARM Cortex-A15 CPU (clocked at 1.7GHz) by Annapurna Labs together with 8GB DDR3L RAM (SODIMM clocked at 1600MHz and manufactured by Transcend) and 512MB of NAND flash. As clearly stated by its product name the TS-431X2-8G also has room for up to four 3.5/2.5" SATA III drives and features a single 10G SFP+ LAN port, 2 Gigabit RJ45 LAN ports and 3 USB 3.0 ports. The TS-431X2-8G is not the first but the third NAS to arrive in our lab that uses an ARM CPU made by Annapurna Labs and although they may not be as powerful as some we've seen to date by Intel (nor do they feature the same playback capabilities) they offer a great bang for your buck. Also as expected since the TS-431X2-8G is a model aimed at small business users the 10G SFP+ LAN port is its strongest selling point so once again we'll also be using our Netgear ProSafe XS712T 10G Smart Switch along with an Intel XT540-AT2 10GbE PCIe card for our tests.