Qnap TS-251A 2-bay Cloud NAS: Review
For years, your home is now inhabited by many different devices: smartphones, computers, camcorders, MP3 players, iPods. And with devices, you’ve also started collecting files on files, including songs, movies, photos and images, documents, entire TV series. So much to ask: where can I store and store them, and then take them back with simplicity?
Of course, in recent times the cloud has become increasingly important, so much so that you will have used it without even realizing it. Although useful the cloud will never keep up with the huge amount of files we deal with daily.
In this case, there are very safe memories, NAS or Network Attached Storage, thanks to which you can safely store the contents of your devices and use it when you want. In particular, in this review I will talk about the proposal of Qnap, with its TS-251A 2-bay Cloud NAS.
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Scroll down to read the review!
Qnap TS-251A 2-bay Cloud NAS – Introduction
QNAP is a company that since its foundation has specialized in products relating to archiving, both for individuals and businesses. No wonder then the care put in the design of the TS-251A 2-bay as well as in the definition of its components and functionality.
Today a network storage (a NAS) must respond simultaneously to different needs: be a fast and secure storage unit, have different solutions on the side of connectivity, also work as a media center. The NAS of the TURBO series of QNAP seems to correspond optimally to these requests. Let’s take a closer look, and meanwhile if you want you can already watch it at this link!
Product Design
The NAS is a product that by its nature maximizes the concept of ” file storage “. And this can be seen in the model produced by QNAP already starting from design. The anterior is divided into two sections. On the right side, you will find the removable slots on which to store the hard disks, on the left side a band that integrates all the buttons with which to operate the NAS. It is expected from a storage that points to multimedia that also had a good design.
The Qnap TS-251A 2-bay Cloud NAS does not shine for elegance and aesthetic taste but, nevertheless, makes its figure at home or in the office. Of course, it will not be the media center to be affixed in plain sight next to the TV in the living room, but it has nothing to do with many of the NAS that you could find in the main stores today.
The front part is divided into two also from the chromatic point of view. The HDD section is blank: the slots are easy to extract and allow easy mounting of the drives. In blue instead is the band that houses the buttons, where you will find the keys for turning on, off and fast backup, the leds and main ports: sd, USB 3.0 and QuickAccess.
On the back side, there is a grill that hides a fan 70 x 70 mm, quiet and reliable. In addition, there are also two USB 3.0 ports at the rear, two Ethernet ports, one HDMI and a couple of jacks for audio connections. In short, the sobriety in design accompanies the versatility of this NAS and the large amount of doors. Connectivity to PC, console, TV and other devices will never be a problem.
Accessories and Main uses
The main accessory is the IR remote control / controller (without bluetooth) which confirms the media-center characteristics of the Qnap TS-251A 2-bay Cloud NAS. Certainly, the remote control does not shine for quality or for touch sensations, but it does its own and does not need the need for other buttons.
The possibility of connecting it to the network makes this NAS a real server, which can be used for various purposes. Backup, synchronization, DLNA streaming, CMS server, web server, cloud become simple tasks thanks to the care taken by QNAP in the operating system that animates this NAS, which I will talk about later.
Technical Features
Given the exterior, now it’s inside this QNAP TURBO. The name ” Turbo ” already almost describes the performance of the NAS produced by the Taiwanese company: the technical features are among the best that a network storage could have.
The Qnap TS-251A 2-bay Cloud NAS is equipped with an Intel Celeron N3060 dual core CPU with a 14 nm architecture. It is a low-power processor that is part of the latest Intel families: it has a 2 Mb L2 cache, a TDP of only 6W and a working frequency of 1.6 GHz per core.
The RAM memory of the Qnap TS-251A 2-bay Cloud NAS, as suggested by the name, is 2 GB. The ram can be updated up to a maximum of 8 GB, and there are models of the TS-251A also equipped with 4 GB. Already two gigas are more than enough for the vast majority of activities.
As with any NAS, and even more so with this model that already features top-of-the-range features, I recommend you to focus on hardware savings and – on the contrary – invest in hard drives to match. Depending on your choice, in fact, you will also be able to transfer and use the files contained in the NAS at speeds up to 90 Mb/s.
Of course, as with all NAS type storage, you will have to apply hard disks in it to make it work. There is an article that will help you choose the best hard drive for your NAS. There is no space limitation supported, depending on the hard drives you buy, the NAS will provide you with space.
In this case, two are hosted, which can be used mainly in two ways:
- Hard disk in RAID – you can have a copy of a hard disk on the other and vice versa, in case one breaks with time, you just have to replace it not to lose data completely.
- Combining the space of the two hard drives – You can tell the NAS to add up the available space of the two hard drives, to get more space. Despite the greater number of Terabytes available, it will be less secure because in a nutshell, when one gets damaged you will lose all data.
An operating system for all seasons.
The Qnap TS-251A 2-bay Cloud NAS produced by QNAP mounts the QTS operating system in version 4.2.2 (but updates will be possible once available). To control the NAS using the operating system, you will need to use a simulated user interface via a page on your browser.
The initial configuration is quite simple and substantially guided. In practice, you will soon be able to format the new disks and set the main parameters.
QTS is an OS derived from Linux with an interface that resembles a desktop system and is very intuitive. The main applications are Photo Station, Video Station, File Station, Music Station and Download Station. All are characterized by completeness and simplicity of use, confirming that this NAS is also very well suited as a media center.
Conclusions
You will have guessed that the TS-251A-2G of QNAP emerges, in the middle of the NAS, with regard to both the hardware compartment and the set of performances.
Quality never has a low cost. This NAS is not the cheapest, but the different configurations granted at the level of ram and hard disk types will allow you to choose what to invest in the amount needed to bring home this little gem. Media center, network storage, server: after all, the right word is just ” investment “.
If you want to know more about network attached storage, read my post about which are the best NAS!
- Intel Celeron Quad-Core 2. 0GHz, 2GB DDR3L RAM (max 8GB), SATA 6Gb/s, 2 Giga LAN,...
- Centralize your file storage, sharing and backup with Excellent performance
- Run multiple windows/Linux/UNIX/Android based virtual machines with the...
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