Qnap HS-251

[testman78]

Introduction

Having one myself, QNAP's HS-210 is a great little NAS that's dead silent. QNAP has introduced a new version using this chassis that's even more suited for home multimedia called the HS-251.The new HS-251 has the same 2-bay design, has every port the HS-210 has, and takes it up a notch.The two bay QNAP HS-251 Silent NAS is built around an Intel platform, reportedly powered by a 2.4 GHz Intel Celeron (Bay Trail) processor and and 1 GB RAM in support.That's a step up from the Marvell 1.6GHz processor currently supporting the HS-210.This will allow for much better transcoding of video.Also notable is the addition of a HDMI-out port, supporting 7.1 surround sound and QNAP's own remote control. Combined with the popular XBMC media player, that allows the HS-251 Silent NAS to play media directly to a TV or other display.The HS-251 also features a second gigabit ethernet port.



In addition to its multimedia functions,the HS-251 now is capable of all the capabilities.




Packaging & Contents

With my hands on one of QNAP's latest NAS,i can see that the company has continued to use very clean, simplistic, and straightforward designs for their product packaging, and the HS-251 is no exception.On the frontal side of the packaging we can spot a photo of the NAs in operation along with a list of product highlights.



On the back side of the box we will be able to observe some of the software functions of the operating system.



The product components are further explained on the side, along with the recommendation of using WD RED or Seagate NAS-specific HDDs in 3.5" format, which were tested extensively by the manufacturer.



Some of the software features are listed on the opposite side in many languages.



After opening up the box, we will be able to see that the unit is fully protected with foam material and nearby we will get to see the accessories box.The NAS chassis is further wrapped inside a transparent plastic bag to avoid scratches during transport.



Speaking of the accessories box, inside it we will be able to find the necessary mounting screws for both 2.5" and 3.5" drives,two LAN cables, the power brick and also one power lead.



Like most two-bay NAS devices, the HS-251 features an external power supply that is largely responsible for the lightweight design.The power brick outputs 60 watts-more than enough for two hard drives.



Two small leaflets shows us the installation procedure.




The Nas

The QNAP HS-251's external design is very clean and simple, which fits into most environments nicely, especially in a living room area.



The HS-251 NAS has quite a modern look and the top side of the unit is made of a solid piece of aluminum.



The rest is composed of plastic,which also serves as a fingerprint magnet.Lying flat, the HS-251 measures just 41.3mm tall and 302mm wide/220mm deep.



The NAS sides are made from the same plastic shiny material, with no additional ventilation holes.



Two LED lights are features to show the status and LAN.



All of the I/O connectors are kept neatly around back, where you'll also find a jack for the bundled power supply,one HDMI port,two USB 2.0 ports,two Gigabit Ethernet connections, two USB 3.0 ports and a dedicated power button.



The bottom features nothing special, other than the fact that it is made of plastic.



On the underside of the NAS four soft rubber feet assist in giving the HS-251 it's "SilentNAS" labelling by reducing the resonant noise of any spinning platters that may be in the drive bays.




Installation

Its removable front panel has been constructed from plastic and has received a glossy black paint job.The panel is fixed into place using a central magnet that makes removing and reattaching it very quick and easy.



Looking closer between the drives we can get a better view of the two push latches that hold the drive trays in place.



Sliding each drive out of the chassis,it would first appear that QNAP have installed the trays upside down, however as we will see further down, there is a reason for this upside-down approach for the drives.



Here are some several views of the internal trays.The trays are made out of aluminum.We can clearly see holes designated for both 2.5" and 3.5" drives.



Attach the corresponding screws, and slide it back into place until it clicks.That is it.




Hardware

What's interesting is that pulling away the lid reveals no active internal cooling.There's no fan to be found, which is something you rarely say for a storage server tasked with maintaining the security of your data.The top side of the unit acts like a heatsink, to dissipate the heat from the drives but also from the internal processor.



Lifting off the cover, which is actually on the bottom of this setup, we can see two metal plates which assist in keeping the drive trays in place as they are inserted into the system.



Turning the open system upside down and having a look inside we can see where each of the drives slides into place with the motherboard positioned at the rear and running in between the bays.The top side is even more interesting, which shows the hardware placed on a "T"-shaped PCB.



Looking a little closer at the motherboard we find that all of the I/O is mounted on to the underside of the board.



The dual-core Celeron J1800 processor is also one of the few Bay Trail parts to come with the Intel Quick Sync transcoder engine as well as VT-x capabilities.QNAP takes advantage of both in their firmware to provide hardware transcoding capabilities (both offline and real-time) as well as support for virtual machines (i.e, their OS, QTS, can act as a host OS).This SoC carries a clock speed of 2.4GHz, with a turbo frequency of 2.58GHz.This is a dual-core processor that doesn?t support Hyper-Threading, so just two threads are available.The processor also only features a 1MB L2 cache, but is equipped with an Intel HD Graphics engine capable of running at 792MHz.The Celeron J1800 is designed to work with DDR3L (Low-Voltage) memory and will support speeds of 1333MHz in a dual-channel configuration.The J1800 is an FC-BGA 1170 processor which means it is soldered directly to the PCB and is therefore not interchangeable.



QNAP has gone with a 100% solid capacitor design, which is said to improve the TS-251's durability.While i don't doubt that's true to some extent, it's always difficult to quantify such claims.



1 GB DDR3L memory from Micron(D9PTK).



The system's buzzer.



The motherboard also comes with a battery for keeping the settings saved.



The hardware monitor IC is a Fintek F71869AD.



The flash memory.



An Asmedia ASM1442 controls the HDMI port HD Station fully exploits.



Additional USB 3.0 ports on the HS-251 are provided by an ASMedia HUB controller,the ASM1074.




Software-Part 1

After accessing http://start.qnap.com as instructed, we will be guided through a set of instructions on how to setup the NAS:



The last page will redirect us to install Qfinder, a Windows tool for locating and configuring the NAS on the network:



We will be prompted to set a server name on the network, along with the initial admin password:



Next, we can specify an automatic network configuration, or we can do this manually:



The new NAS series come with the QTS 4.1 firmware. After connecting to the NAS, we will be asked to enter up and username and password. Initially we only have the admin account available and we have to enter the password that i have defined earlier:



The GUI has been redesigned compared to the latest version and now it looks much better. The applications we have currently installed have their icons posted on the desktop and they look similar to apps installed on a mobile phone or tablet:



By clicking the dial on the lower left corner, we will access the on-screen dashboard, which will show us information regarding the System Health, the HDD health, the Resource Monitor, but also the current HDD temperatures, logged in users, scheduled tasks, storage space and news:



The Control Panel is more organized this time and looks better. QTS offers again a ton of configurable options.The user gets multiple sub-sections grouped into four main menus: System Settings, Privilege Settings, Network Services and Applications:



The General Settings menu will allow us to modify settings regarding System Administration, Time, DST, Codepage, Password and will also let us customize the login screen:



The Storage Manager holds options for configuring the Volumes, RAID Management, viewing HDD Smart, configuring iSCSI or Virtual Disk:



The Network section comes with options to further configure the interface:



From the Security menu, we can adjust the current level, enable Network Access Protection or upload new certificates:



The Hardware menu allows us to enable the configuration reset switch, adjust the HDD standby mode, enable light signal alert when we are running out of space or enable write cache. Here we can also configure buzzer and Smart Fan options:



The Power menu comes with relevant options like EuP Mode, WOL, Power Recovery or Power Schedule:



From the Notification menu, we can specify SMTP servers, SMSC Servers or customize Alert Notifications:



The Backup/Restore menu comes with options to perform these actions or to Reset to the factory defaults:



When we have connected external devices, USB printers or UPS systems to the NAS, they will be listed in the External Devices menu:



System Status menu will open up in a new window, with the respective tabs:




Software-Part 2

Qsync is a new feature that allows you to sync all your devices on the go! It can be synced literally anywhere- on the web, at your home, in the office and on the go:



QTS 4.1 comes with a lot of applications that are pre-installed or are ready to be installed.



Photo Station allows us to organize our photo collections, set up slideshows and more:



Music Station is our personal music center in the cloud and with it we can enjoy our music collection anywhere:



I can say about the same regarding Video Station, but this time for video content:



QNAP also has put to our disposal Download Station, for downloading different content from different protocols loke HTTP, FTP, BT:



Lastly, we also have available Backup Station, myQNAPcloud and App Center for downloading many other applications from QNAP or 3rd party:




Software Part III

QNAP HD Station integrates the powerful XBMC v12 media player and web browser. With HDMI 1.4a connectivity, you can connect the TS-251 to a HDTV to enjoy your rich multimedia content on the big screen. The splendid user interface and support for 7.1 channel surround sound audio passthrough bring smooth playback of Full HD videos providing a quality home theater experience. You can also turn your mobile devices into remote controls by installing the Qremote app or use QNAP RM-IR002 remote control and MCE remote controls via the built-in IR receiver of the TS-251 for convenient & easy control of the HD Station. Moreover, the HD Station supports YouTube Pairing, allowing you to select a YouTube video on your smartphone, tablet or computer and play it on HDTV via the TS-251.



The TS-251 delivers superior real-time Full HD video transcoding to convert your videos to formats that can be smoothly played on PCs, mobile devices and Smart TVs. It allows for up to 5 devices to simultaneously view different videos stored on the TS-251 with on-the-fly hardware accelerated transcoding. The TS-251 allows you to enjoy instant videos on multiple devices - even those that lack computing power or have limited file format support - without the need for complicated and time-consuming file conversion.With the benefit of offline transcoding, if you can only connect to an Internet connection with limited/restricted bandwidth, you can still enjoy smooth videos by selecting a pre-rendered lower resolution to play the videos via File Station, Video Station, or the Qfile app for iOS & Android without affecting the TS-251?s performance running other applications. This also allows more people to play videos via streaming. The TS-251 also allows you to set a dedicated folder for automatic video transcoding.



You can use DLNA-compatible devices such as HDTVs, Smart TVs, Sony PS3, Microsoft Xbox 360 and Hi-Fi systems to enjoy HD quality videos and high-resolution audio content such as DSD (Direct Stream Digital) audio format stored on the TS-251. You can also use the Qfile app on an iOS device to browse videos and photos stored on the TS-251 and play on the TV via Apple TV. By installing the QAirplay app, available on the QTS App Center, you can stream your media content directly on a TV via Apple TV. The media contents are streaming on Apple TV, bypassing your mobile device, thus saving the energy of your mobile device. The TS-251's support for Plex Media Server organizes all of your media with rich information and transforms the TS-251 into a powerful & easy to use streaming machine with DLNA, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, and Google TV support.



QNAP Notes Station enables you to create digital notebooks on the private cloud provided by the Turbo NAS. You can also easily leverage the rich files, photos, music and video collection stored on the Turbo NAS to enrich your notes. With the Notes Station, your digital memos are safely kept for instant access.A note on the Clipper Chrome extension.In order to use the Clipper, you need to enter your QNAP NAS? IP address.



The Signage Station is a free app for the Turbo NAS. With the designing software iArtist Lite you can easily create content for a wide range of presentation, such as an animated resume to impress the interviewers, or a life memory book that is able to be shared on Facebook. Shop owners can choose from rich designing widgets to create menu boards, advertising posters, or business profiles by themselves, and easily display the eye-catching works on tablet devices to attract more customers!All the designed content can be easily uploaded to the Turbo NAS through the Signage Station, and displayed on the web browsers. Your creativity can now travel around the world!



The Surveillance Station is professional network surveillance Video Management System (VMS). Being one of the Turbo NAS standard applications, the Surveillance Station can be activated on the QTS App Center to turn the Turbo NAS into a professional Network Video Recorder (NVR) system for real-time monitoring, recording, playback, alarm notifications, Intelligent Video Analytics (IVA), and management to safeguard your assets and property when used with supported IP cameras.Surveillance Station includes 2 free camera licenses



Mobile Apps

QNAP has also put to the users disposal some free applications for mobile devices.On Android we have Qfile, which is a regular file browser for our NAS. The contents can be accessed only after we have provided valid login credentials.



Qmanager app is more advanced, since we can see lots of system statistics but also access the App Center, Backup Station, Download Station or other System Tools.



Resource Monitor will open when we click on the CPU/RAM dials to reveal information regarding the internal temperatures, CPU load, RAM and Swap degree of occupation, Disk usage, Bandwidth usage for each LAN port, currently running Processes, but also logged in Users.



App Center allows us to enable/disable the currently installed applications, but also browse more apps.



Backup Station allows accessing different backup functions like NAS to NAS, Rsync, RTTR and so on.



We can also perform downloads directly to our NAS from the mobile phone/tablet, but also search BT files.



From System Tools we can access connected external storage, block-list and more.



Qmusic app will let us browse through our libraries after we log in.



Qget will allow us to schedule the download tasks from Download Station, but also playback and save our favorite videos with the help of HappyGet II.



The free Qmusic app allows you to listen to your terabytes of music collection on the Turbo NAS anytime and anywhere.



VMobile is a mobile surveillance app for remote and wireless monitoring of IP cameras managed by the Turbo NAS with Surveillance Station Pro or the VioStor NVR.



When enjoying the HD Station, rather than hardware remotes, Qremote app is so convenient to make your mobile devices as a handy remote control.




Test System & Methology

I now begin the benchmark portion of this article, but first let me show you my test system and the software I used:

OCZ Vertex 4 512GB SSD
Mainboard X79 MSI GD65 - Intel SATA 6G controller in AHCI mode
Processor Core i7 3960X at default configuration
Graphics Cards GeForce GTX 580
Memory 16 GB (4x 4096 MB) DDR3 1600 MHZ
Power Supply Unit 1200 Watt
Monitor Dell 3007WFP - up to 2560x1600
OS related Software Windows 7 64-bit SP1



Using a single hard drive and two HDD (Seagate Barracuda 3TB XT 7200RPM)for testing the NAS.




Performance NASPT

As you can see it's capable of pumping data around your network at 110MB/s.




Real world tests

When transferring large files I get an pretty good transfer speed with a rate of around 96MB/s.Then I tried to transfer a folder that contained around 80K small files (around 1-100KB each) and I get transfer rates around 28MB/s.




Power Consumption & Temperature

During my 24 hour test period both hard drives were held at 39c (room environment was 24c).



Very low power consumption at the socket, draining only 9 watts when sleep and 17.8 watts under load.




Conclusion

When we look at the number of NAS options on the market that offer up the ideal solution for media playback, it?s only when we dig in a little deeper that we find that a fair number of these lacking in the ability to play media content straight from the system to a TV without the need for a third-party system. To me this kind of defeats the object of having a NAS dubbed as the ideal solution for home entertainment and media playback. After all this would constitute to the most basic media viewing method over say streaming to a mobile device.Thankfully though, the HS-251 does tick all the boxes when it comes to bringing you the whole media and home entertainment package. With the ability to connect a TV or other display directly to the NAS via HDMI and through the use of a media front end such as XMBC,Qnap have hit the nail right on the head here. The media front end is customisable by the user through a choice of media playback applications that are available in the app centre and through the use of a mouse / keyboard combo or the optional IR remote control, watching films if of little fuss.I?ll also point out that if you already have another NAS or other network storage device already setup within your network, then these sources can be linked in to the media front end of XMBC making it even easier to get access to your media content wherever it is stored on the network.Besides HDMI, the NAS stays quite well in the connectivity department by having dual USB 2.0 ports,dual USB 3.0 ports but also two RJ-45 ports.We can use all these ports for connecting additional storage or printers, compatible WiFi adapters and so on.



I really like what QNAP has done with this product, by adopting a fanless design so only the drives inside would most likely make some noise when operating.This is more likely to happen while using 3.5" drives, while with 2.5" i needed to place my ear quite near the unit in order to hear a slight buzz during seek.The new design occupies very little space and uses the top cover as a large heatsink for both drive and also for the internal processor.The glossy black plastic strip that runs right around the system works well with many other A/V products and the brushed aluminium upper contrasts and compliments the plastic well.QNAP hit the medium and even mainstream category hard with the new HS-251, and they thankfully avoided using weak single-core CPUs, equipping this NAS server with the new Intel Celeron SoC instead, a much stronger and more adequate solution for NAS usage.As far as performance is concerned, the dual core Celeron J1800 SoC is no slouch for a 2-bay system. Topping out at 113MB/s on the write side and 110MB/s on the read side of things, for the money, you really can't go far wrong. Pair the speeds and specifications with a very user-friendly GUI and what we find here is an ideal package for the first time NAS user who wants a system that is easy to work with and one that also offers up that little bit extra with its media centre capabilities.The NAS runs on the latest version of QTS 4.1, so we have the software support which is also present on the high-performance models.We've got Surveillance Station with 2 free camera licenses, Music Station, Photo Station,File Station,Signage Station,Notes Station, support for AirPlay, DLNA and many more.Retailing for around 540 US Dollars at press time, this is a sleek 2-bay NAS that does not look anything like your traditional NAS, but does a lot more than your traditional NAS.