QNAP TS-230 review. Today we will talk about a Nas from QNAP Systems, which aims at the home multimedia sector, and which succeeds very well.
The taiwanse brand QNAP specializing in the production of IN THE, both for industrial use and dedicated to home entertainment, and with the TS-230 creates a compact and easy to use product.
Featuring a modern design, it can easily become a furnishing product in our homes, forget the old “cold” style of the Nas, here we have a mix of vitality and simplicity. It’s light, quiet, and therefore versatile, just as QNAP itself defines it, and you’re not mistaken. Its applications are so many, but no more chatter let’s get to the heart of the review with QNAP TS-230.
Unboxing and design | Review QNAP TS-230
The package is very nice, on the external front we have various information relating to the product in question and its technical specifications, while internally we find all divided into comfortable compartments.
We obviously have the protagonist of the review, and then we find some essential instruction manuals, and the cables necessary for installation. We have the Ethernet cable, a kit of screws, that is 8 needed to install the 3.5 disks and another 6 for the 2.5 ones, then we have the AC adapter, and the power cord.
AND made entirely of plastic, and returns an excellent feeling to the touch, the design is very simple, and we have no elements that stand out, everything is balanced. On the side panel we find the QNAP logo engraved, while in the upper part we have a pattern that recalls slits. In the front part we have instead the interaction panel, with the LED indicator lights which we will see later, and the keys. In the back instead we have the ejection grille for the fan, and the inputs, accompanied by the Reset key. On the bottom we have instead the disassembly screw, and 2 rubber strips for the stability of the Nas itself, the lower part also has ventilation grilles. Internally, on the other hand, we have an aluminum structure, to give greater strength to the product.
The technical specifications | QNAP TS-230 review
This Nas is intended as mentioned for the home environment, as such it has a necessary and sufficient technical data sheet for its target. We have a processore quad-core Realtek RTD1296 da 1,4GHz, obviously 64-bit ARM but this is taken for granted, combined with a encryption engine and a floating point unit. We also have a hardware accelerated transcoding system. Equipped with 2 GB non expandable, we find the DDR4 for system memory, this is therefore the maximum memory. For the Flash memory we have instead 4 GB, with a dual operating system during the boot phase.
In terms of compatibility we have 3.5 ”, 2.5” SATA hard drives. The single door Gigabit Ethernet, And RJ45 type, and has the functionality Wake on LAN, better known as WOL, also owns the Jumbo Frame. In terms of compatibility, QNAP provides a dedicated site for checks before purchasing.
In terms of supplied ports we have a USB 2.0 port, due USB 3.2 Gen 1 port. Moving instead to the front panel, we have the LED indicator relating to the system status, the one relating to the Lan, the one dedicated to Usb connections, and obviously that of individual HDDs connected. The keys we have instead are the power one, the reset one, and, later on, we have the possibility to carry out the reset.
We have some dimensions (W x L x D) of 188.64 × 90.18 × 156.26 mm, it’s a weight equal to about 2 Kg. The power supply instead it is 65 W, with an average power consumption in sleep mode of circa 4.5 W, sale a 12W instead in a classic scenario of typical daily use, while in terms of silence, we have 15 db(A), the fan placed at the dissipation is 80mm and does not impact the noise, also because it does not run at very high speeds, its operating temperature varies from 0 a 40 Gradi.
We remind you that the Nas was kindly supplied to us with a Drive dedicated to use with Nas, that is the model Seagate IronWolf Pro, 2TB.
Its features and File Station | QNAP TS-230 review
The drive unlocking system is convenient and simple, no special maneuvers are required, not even tools. Just turn the locking screw, even manually you can do it, to then literally remove the upper carriage, which is also a part of the case itself. Once inside, we have the two trolleys, with a locking clip, in which we will store the discs, which will be housed in a stable and compact system.
The ventilation system is then built in such a way as to facilitate entry in the air from below, to then expel the hot air to the rear, the flow will thus favor the dissipation of the drives.
There are several applications in the field that can be created with this device, the pulsed heart is its management software, accessible from the web browser, called File Station.
Possible file management, integration of rich file storage, synchronization, search and archive apps. And easily access files in various devices including USB and smartphone. File synchronization is instant. Among the things that File Station allows to do we have the centralization of files, allows you to easily browse and manage files from different sources, remote connection to another NAS, using CIFS / SMB, FTP or WebDAV, transfer files between NAS and cloud services, with support for Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive, Microsoft OneDrive for Business, Google Drive, Amazon Drive, Yandex Disk, Box, HiDrive and Citrix Share File.
Its applications
Finally, via Qsync, we will always have excellent timing. This is due to the Qfiling system that automates the organization of files, by simply classifying files and setting up a schedule. As mentioned, there is WebDAV support, which will allow us to be exploited as a method of file exchange / collaboration between supported devices and platforms.
We will be able to use the tool QNAP NetBak Replicator, which supports Apple and Windows machines, or cloud backup. But this is still a product dedicated to Home entertainment, for this reason you will also have it available the Plex Media Server app to stream media files from NAS to mobile devices, which will allow you to easily stream music, videos and photos to Android TV, Apple TV (via Qmedia), Amazon Fire TV and set-top box. As for playback, you can also have 4K video transcoding in real time, in the supported H.264 format.
In its use you will discover myQNAPcloud service, to easily access, manage and share NAS files via the Internet, HBS, you will be able to perform the backup or sync of NAS files, all accompanied by the system that works as a secure private cloud, thanks to the Ip block and two-step verification with encryption. H.264 hardware decoding and transcoding in real time, and, the photo management system.
QuMagie will allow us to take advantage of face recognition, object identification and geographic tagging of photos on the NAS. In fact, similar photos will be classified in the AI Albums.
Conclusions and price
At the price of about 180 Euros, the QNAP TS-230 model is a really interesting product, which can be suitable for everyone. It has a 2-year free warranty like the vast majority of products on the market, but can be extended with a 5-year coverage.
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Points in favor
- Value for money
- Design
- Materials