| QNAP TS-659 Pro II NAS Network Server |  |
| Reviews - Featured Reviews: Network | |
| Written by Bruce Normann | |
| Wednesday, 08 June 2011 | |
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Page 1 of 13
QNAP TS-659 Pro II NAS Server Review
Manufacturer: QNAP Systems, Inc. Full disclosure: The product used in this review was supplied by QNAAP Systems Network storage is a concept that many people use without a second thought in corporate environments, but what about at home? In addition, a larger number of people are beginning to utilize cloud services, and most of those services include some storage capability. What if you could implement both, easily and with one device? All that and much more is readily available in a Network Attached Storage server from industry stalwart, QNAP. The TS-659 Pro II uses a powerful and energy-efficient 1.8 GHz Intel Atom D525 processor with 1GB of DDR3 system memory to eliminate any potential bottlenecks in the device itself. Dual Gigabit Ethernet network interfaces allow failover safety and teaming, while six SATA 6Gb/s drive bays offer single disk, JBOD, and RAID 0/1/5/6/10 configurations. Benchmark Reviews recently examined the QNAP TS-659 Pro II Turbo NAS in detail and compared its performance against other network attached storage servers. The TS-659 Pro II NAS server is a larger unit than many other NAS devices, but it's not the biggest. It fits into the middle ground where most small businesses operate. If you need both capacity and redundancy, you need to implement RAID 5 at a minimum, and that means at least three disks. If you want to go to RAID 6 or RAID 10, you need a minimum of four disks. With two spindles completely occupied by providing multiple levels of redundancy for your data, you're left with only two drive bays worth of storage capacity if you go with the minimum size of four drives. The TS-659 Pro II may look like it has a lot of "extra" space, but it's actually in the sweet spot for a high availability NAS appliance. 
Three features dominate the discussion of network storage hardware: data capacity, data security, and data transfer speed. In the last couple of years there has been a growing emphasis on the software side, and the current crop of NAS devices offer a dizzying array of applications to help manage and distribute the data, and provide several new ways of accessing that data. In the past, this level of control and communication has been limited to the corporate world, because you needed an MSCSE to figure them out. QNAP has always aimed for the high end of the NAS server market with performance and features such as dual Gigabit Ethernet with failover, a full range of RAID functionality, and a diverse, feature-rich user interface. Now, they've upgraded the software suite with some outstanding new features, and we'll look at both its capabilities and ease of use. Benchmark Reviews has tested a number of QNAP products: the QNAP TS-119 NAS single-disk offering made for home users, and the Goliath QNAP TS-809 Pro 8-Bay NAS for the storage needs of large businesses. Most recently we tested a 4-bay QNAP TS-459 Pro Turbo-NAS. Let's see how this six-bay device compares to its big brothers and little sisters.
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Comments
I must agree that it has cost me, but you show me a NAS with this performance,capacity and posibilities that costs less. I can not find them out there. Software and support is also good.
Home users and businesses definitely have a different POV when it comes to technology costs. The IT director at my company (~400 people) bought one of the 5-bay units a year ago, and remarked how inexpensive it was, for all the things it could do. I don't think a home user is ever going to feel the same way, but a unit like this can serve reliably for a LONG time as the strong foundation of a home network. So, over time the higher initial cost amortizes out.
But, I hear you... I'm a self-declared cheapskate - my relatives call my home "The house that does without". This is an unfair description, but I do have a tendency to buy things once, by choosing things that have lasting value. The rest of my family is always buying the newer, cheaper version of things, and replacing them every 18 months. Me, I'd rather not have to redo everything that often.
I agree the cost is a bit high for most home environments, but it really does satisfy my needs for a compact, environmentally-friedly, and robust "work at home" infrastructure.
Thanks,
Jim
Good choice on the Hitachis, they're one of the recommendations on the QNAP forum. Spinpoint 3 drives from Samsung are another good choice, apparently. I wanted to test out the SATA 6Gb/s capability, and there aren't a whole lot of good choices ATM. You also did the right thing by stress testing the system BEFORE you loaded it up with data.
Jim
FYI
Memory info found while sifting threw the other reviews and the QNAP forum pages.
TS-659 PRO II/TS-x59 PRO II
memory 24.99 at newegg + $0.99 Shipping
Kingston 2GB 204-Pin DDR3 SO-DIMM Unbuffered DDR3 1333 System Specific Memory Model KVR1333D3S8S9/2G
Can confirm it works.
Many thanks for doing the detective work!
I know this isn't true, but it's funny to think that there's a cousin of the ASUS Eeee hiding inside my QNAP. LOL
I spent a few days Googleing for the solution.
NOTE: I found posts that the other Kingston module does -NOT!- work. Any module that's specs match the module above should in theory work.
I couldn't see paying QNAP 600% more for what looked like just a generic little stick of laptop ram.
On the Bios note. Have you or anyone tried connecting a monitor to the VGA port on the back with a USB k/b and mouse and booting up? I was wondering about seeing the bios my self but other things have been occupying my time.
I haven't had it for long but so far I am pleased with that little box.
This unit is a more costly little NAS but has far more capabilities and potential than the other offerings out there.
The resource monitor shows me that it rearly uses more than 400 Mb, even when I am tranfering files at max speed.
The resource monitor shows me that it rearly uses more than 400 MB, even when I am tranfering files at max speed.
BTW, my 459 has been working beautifully for over 6 months now and the hitachi disks are still going strong. I couldn't be happier.
Anything worth doing is worth over doing, With in reason. Reason only being limited by ones Bank account/credit limit.
True, file transfers don't even come close to using the base system memory but start running a few other things and it can start to add up. streaming content to more than one media center running a personal web server etc. and it starts to eat up system resources. So adding 2gb of extra ram to future proof it for less than $30.00 is a no brainier when you have already invested around 2K$ for the box and the drives to populate it.
I wish my linux/programming Kung-Fu was stronger. I would love some one to port mythtv to it. Add a mythtv ipgk/qpkg a silicondust HD Homerun dual the soon to be releases cable card version network tuners. That would make this thing really rock. I have the dual and am impatiently waiting for the cable card version to be released later this month they work with linux mac and ms-win ware the centon offering is an internal card only works with ms-win. I found a post on the silicondust forum that someone was porting mythtv to a synology box. I hope someone takes up the challenge for QNAP. I really like my TS-659 PRO II. I still need to more drives read "a few more pay checks" to complete the box.
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