QNAP Releases Atom-powered four-bay NAS

[llucas]

This is the first NAS i've seen where security and usability seem to have a good balance, with 4 bays you can utilize RAID 5 with internals, then hook up an external or two for a parity. Definitely quality, in the past i only looked at Thecus or Buffalo for NAS devices, but QNAP i will definitely have to keep an eye on after seeing this look at them and checking out the full specs on the main site.

[claykin]

Also watch for the Netgear Readynas NVX coming soon to a theater near you.

http://www.readynas.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=25161

[beq]

I wonder what USD pricing and CPU the ReadyNAS NVX will have (compared to the QNAP TS-439's $799 MSRP with 1.6GHz Atom). Anyways, I guess 4 bays will be the smallest capacity offered with a high-speed Intel CPU, from any company? That's too bad, I was also looking to get a sub-$500 solution for someone...

P.S. Wouldn't it be nice if QNAP's powerful new hardware models get to use Synology's DSM (currently at v2.1) firmware with the Web 2.0 interface?

[QNAPIvan]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjXUfovhamI

ATOM is a powerful yet power-saving platform for NAS applications and QNAP will keep develop/ upgrade on it.

The NEW GUI project, TS-109/209/409's FW 3.0.0 beta now is held in QNAP forum. For the x86 series we exepect to move the new GUI to the plaftom and kick off the beta on early of March.

cheers!

[beq]

Ivan, thanks for this info. The new GUI 3.0 looks very good overall (and the "cover flow" main menu is interesting). Can't wait for the x86 release.

I'm leaning towards getting the TS-809 after it comes out, and after you finish qualifying 2TB drives:

http://forum.qnap.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=11550

I'd prefer to get something faster than the WD Green series for 2TB drives, but I'm not sure when other HDD models will arrive (I know the Seagate Constellation ES enterprise 2TB is coming Q3 of this year).

How big improvements are we looking at in terms of RAID rebuilds / transfer rates by using a 1.6GHz vs. 500 MHz processor (as in QNAP409) ?