QNAP TurboNAS TS-419P II 4-Bay NAS Review

As we mentioned right back at the start, this is our first NAS box review that we have done and we therefore don’t have any other items to compare this to. We have found that the Intel NASPT software gives us a good all round set of results which give us what we hope the end user wants to see.

From the go we found the QNAP TS-419P II stylish and therefore would fit into a home environment in particular very well. Installing the drives into the bay was a breeze simply by securing each disk to the tray with four screws, then sliding and locking each one into place. Once the device is plugged in and turned on the system boots itself up and then displays its IP address on the screen, though which you can then connect to it via your internet browser for maintenance and configuration. The management system is very clear and simple to use and this for a novice user would break the ice as looking at the whole host of features listed on the box may look daunting for some.

Performance wise we found that in some tests the NAS box was able to push out as much data as the 1000Mbps could handle which is a good sign showing that there are clearly no issues with the NIC’s handling data without any bottlenecks.

When it comes to suggesting what RAID type to use for the end users needs, it all really comes down to particular circumstances. If you’ve got a mission critical set of data that you need the redundancy factor on the RAID 5 or 6 is your option. If you want a complete running backup of the data then RAID 1 or 10 is the choice or if you’ve got a copy of all the data else where and/or speed is what you are looking for then RAID 0 would be the choice to make but as said it all comes down to the particular case of the end user. In general we would always suggest RAID 5 for redundancy, RAID 10 for the mirrored backup and then RAID 0 for the speed factor.

By now you’ll be wondering how much you’ll be putting aside to purchase one of these. The TS-419P II comes in at £444.98 from Overclockers UK who also sell a pre-assembled box with 8TB of Western Digital Caviar Green drives for £939.98. For anyone who is interested, to purchase the TS-419P II with the same four Seagate Barracuda 3TB drives like we use here to maximise the storage potential, expect to be paying around the £1000-£1100 mark. Whilst this is a large chunk of money to be spending on storage space, we do have to consider that one of these uses far less power than a computer or full blown server running 24/7 and also the simplicity and convenience of such a device more than justifies the reason to purchase.

Overall we have been very impressed with the TS-419P II from QNAP, its ease of use, looks and well placed price in the market make it a desirable option and one to seriously consider. For this reason we are proud to give it our Innovation award.