Qnap TS-453Bmini

[testman78]

Introduction

It has been about a year and a half since QNAP introduced their awesome TS-453 Mini with its tiny footprint and now the company is back with a successor to that awesome NAS: The TS-453Bmini. The new NAS is powered by the Intel 14nm J3455 quad-core 1.5GHz processor (burst to 2.3GHz) and it features AES-NI encryption as well as 4K UHD output and transcoding.The TS-453Bmini comes in two versions, one with 4GB and one with 8GB DDR3L dual-channel RAM. Users purchasing the small one will also be able to upgrade to 8GB memory, but it will require removal of the pre-installed memory. This sucks for upgrades, but it rocks for those who only need 4GB of RAM. Having two modules pre-installed allows for a dual-channel setup which is highly beneficial when it comes to 4K media handling, among other things. It runs the latest QTS operating system, QTS 4.3, which is a 64-bit OS. That comes with all the great QNAP features that we know and love Container Station with support for various container applications and for QIoT Containers and IoT applications, Virtualization Station which allows users to run multiple Windows, Linux, UNIX, and Android-based virtual machines, and QmailAgent which can centralise multiple email accounts and simplifies daily email management. And a lot more.



Specifications.




Packaging & Contents

The TurboNAS TS-453Bmini from Qnap is shipped inside a large-sized cardboard box with a photo of the NAS in operation.



By turning the packaging, we will see a more detailed description of the server functions.Some more applications of the NAS can be observed at the bottom.



A Qnap logo can be found on this side.



Here is an interesting picture.It describes the TS-453Bmini's front and rear in some detail.



The top of the box sports QNAP's logo and a small photograph of the NAS, along with its model number.



When you flip back the top flap, you are greeted with a thoughtful Thank You.



After opening up the box, we can find the NAS along with its bundle carefully packed inside foam material.To be protected during transport even further, the manufacturer has wrapped the NAS chassis into a transparent plastic bag.



Along with the power cord,we have a box that contains the external PSU,a pair of Ethernet cables,a Infrared (IR) remote control and a bag with screws for mounting the HDDs.



The Installation Guide contains the necessary steps in order to get everything working.The user's manual is only available electronicall, as it is quite large.




The Nas

The elegantly designed for SOHO device features a stylish piano black finish which makes it a fingerprint magnet.The four-bay box measures 210mm (H) x 151mm (W) x 200mm (D) in size and the smaller footprint is enabled by four vertically-mounted 2.5/3.5in drive trays.



The glossy TS-453Bmini features a stylish vertical design that takes up 29% less desktop space, making it suitable for offices or even study rooms at home.On the bottom of the NAS four rubber pads provide the necessary stability on every surface.The left side is clear, without any other interfaces.



The outer shell is thick and well made.The strip on the sides,adding a bit of style.A larg decal provides the cloud key one would use to create one's own personal cloud.



On the front,you'll find the power button, a USB 3.0 port, and a synch button for copying files from an external source.In the centre of this fascia is a strip with power, activity and HDD LED's.The unit also features an IR sensor for the included remote control.



The TS-453Bmini features an aesthetically-designed skyline LED indicator.It will flash a blue light to remind you the system is in S3 sleep mode. Based on the surrounding environment, you can adjust the brightness of all system indicators (from a scale from 0 to 100, in 20-step increments) and also schedule the system to automatically dim the LEDs at certain times when needed.



The new QNAP unit also features all the connection abilities you want from an NAS. You get dual Gigabit Ethernet for failover and link aggregation, one USB 2.0 and three USB 3.0 ports as well as an HDMI out for direct usage.The HDMI out allows you to use the NAS as a direct media hub, but it does more than that. QNAP added their QvPC technology to the unit, which allows you to use it as a full-fledged PC thanks the use of virtual machines.



Users can easily remove the magnetic top cover to add or replace hot-swappable 3.5” hard drives.



The sticker lets us know of the model code name, along with the power input requirements.



Air flow due to these openings.



There is a conveniently accessible cover at the bottom for upgrading the RAM with minimal effort.You don’t need to opt for the model with 8GB RAM right away if you don’t know if you’ll be needing it.The NAS has one of the easiest memory upgrade systems possible with a small hatch on the bottom with direct access to the modules.




Installation

If we remove all trays, we will be able to take a look inside, which reveals the daughter-board entirely.



The trays are made completely from plastic and do not feature secure locking mechanisms.



On their back side we are instructed where to insert screws when 2.5’’ drives are installed.



We also have the option not to use the screwless features and remove the plastic components from the laterals, in order to use screws when mounting 3.5’’ drives.



Installation of the drives in the TS-453Bmini is a quick and easy process. Lift off the lid which is held on by fairly strong magnets, lift out the drive bays which are inserted vertically and snap in a 3.5″ drive. 2.5″ drives can also be installed using the bundled screws.



We then insert the drive bay back in and put the lid on. After that we plug in the PSU, connect up a network cable and hit the power.



You can expand the total raw storage capacity up to 12 drivers with the UX-800P QNAP expansion enclosure.




Hardware

It's now time to strip this NAS down to discover what components it hides inside.By removing 4 screws at the front and 4 screws at the back, we can lift the top cover.The warranty sticker can be also found here.



Made mostly of metal to absorb and dissipate as much heat as possible,the internal structure is heavy.



The HDD cage holds the mainboard.One thick metal plate cover the mainboard, which improves their ability to dissipate heat.



Here we can see how the blower fan is installed.The fan module is basically a box-like unit with four screws holding it to the HDD's cage.With such a little gap, the blower fan would be very effective at sucking away the hot air from the HDD's and the mainboard.



As you can see from the photo below,Qnap chose to source their fan from a reliable brand.Hardware enthusiasts will need no introduction to Y. S. Tech fans.The 120 mm cooling fan is provided by Y.S. Tech. Its model number is BD121232LB (120 mm, 12 V,1700 RPM, 23 CFM, 42.5 dBA, and 80000 MTBF). It uses ball-bearings.



Although there isn’t any redundancy built into the TS-453Bmini’s cooling setup, an alarm will sound in the event of a fan failure.



The mainboard of the NAS is really small, housing all the necessary components to support its functions.QNAP has gone with a 100% solid capacitor design,which is said to improve the TS-453bmini's durability.While i don't doubt that's true to some extent, it's always difficult to quantify such claims.



The hardware used in the latest mini NAS is surprisingly unique. The CPU being used is in it’s first time introduction to NAS. The Intel Celeron J3455 CPU is a 1.5GHz frequency, that can be bursted to 2.3GHz per core. A fairly new chip and onlly recently released in general circulation, the J3455 is a noticeable increase in frequency and ability compared the J1900 CPU found in the older TS-453mini.It features an HD Graphics 500 GPU with 12 EUs.Intel has gifted Apollo Lake with significantly better capabilities than Braswell, including full hardware acceleration for Main Profile (8-bit) and VP9 video decoding. This means Apollo Lake devices can now decode video encoded with the latest generation codecs for very little power, which will be important as more devices and services adopt these codecs.



The dual SO-DIMM slot houses 2x4 GB of DDR3 1600 RAM.Its chips are provided by Adata and their model number is ADDS1600W4G11-BMIZ DDR3L 1600 SO.




Initialization

There are multiple ways to initialize your new QNAP NAS, but my preferred method is through the QNAP Qfinder Pro tool that also can be used for a lot more than just initializing your new NAS. When launched, the Qfinder will scan your network and attempt to find uninitialized devices and if found, prompt you whether you want to set them up now.



If we decide to navigate to the browser interface, we will be welcomed by the introductory welcome screen.



We need to give the NAS a name and set the admin password next.



The network connection most likely already is as you want it, but you can change that too. At least in the basics. You get a lot more network options later on.



We also get to choose what network protocols should be enabled and whether we just pick one of the three or all of them, that is down to personal needs and usage scenarios.



We get the choice whether we want to configure our installed hard disk drives right now or whether we want to do it later on.I need to go through all setup scenarios for my benchmarks anyway, so I might as well create one right away.



The settings which will be modified will be shown in a summary screen.



A new progress bar will appear which will tell us the current setup step the NAS is in.



After the configuration steps have been applied, we will be invited to log in to QTS.QNAP has made further improvements to the QTS GUI starting with the 4.3 software revision.




Setup Part I

We are all familiar now with the QTS desktop interface, which resembles a regular desktop, with multiple pages where installed applications will show up.The QTS GUI is quite easy to use and does not miss any useful features like screen widgets, information icons on the top side, multiple application pages and so on.



The widget section will show us different information regarding the current status of the server and if we click on an item, we will be redirected to the respective menus in order get more details.



Control Panel is the place most admins will go in order to modify most of the available settings.These are categorized in different sections like System Settings, Privilege Settings, Network Services and Applications.



From the General Settings menu, we will be able to adjust various settings like the server name, web administration port, setting a secure connection, defining the system time, DST, Codepage and so on.



Next we have Storage Manager, where we can define new Storage Pools, Volumes, enable Cache Acceleration and more.



It even includes graphical storage utilization information on both volumes and pools.



Each of the installed drives can be watched in detail and perform smart tests.



All your storage pools and volumes are collected in one convenient page – after all, they belong together. Managing and creating new ones is as easy as everything else in QTS and only takes a few clicks.



As mentioned, you can get a full view on the volumes and t hat includes usage statistics, apps using the volume, and shared folders located here.



Cache acceleration is most likely a thing that will be used when expansion units are in play, simply due to the amount of drive bays the SSDs will occupy. However, it is an awesome feature that can give your centralized server a lot more power for those IOPS intensive tasks.



Centralized is a key word here and we also get that when it comes to snapshots. The vault will show them all, if you’ve enabled that feature.



You might be familiar with creating new storage pools or volumes on QNAP’s systems, by it can’t hurt to show the features again. Select drives, mode, and capacity before you hit the create button.



Virtual drives are supported in two ways. You can mount ISO files as shared folders through the control panel and you can also connect to remote iSCSI volumes on other systems. Connect it all for the best experience.




Setup Part II

Up until now we only made our drive setup and got our administrator user, and that is something we need to change. The logical next step would be to create more user, some user groups, and some shared folders for all our file. All three of these settings are found in the Control Panel within the Privilege Settings.By default, we only have our administrator user and that isn’t one that we should be using for normal day-to-day activity. Luckily we can create virtually as many more as we like.



Creating a new user only requires two pieces of information, a username and a password. But we can also assign profile pictures, description, and email addresses as well as set the rights for the user to folders and installed applications.



Creating one user at a time can be a tedious project and luckily QTS also supports creating multiple users at once. You can either upload a text file with all the information or you can use the multiple users creation wizard.



The wizard will create as many users as you specify with a combination of a name prefix and a number. All created users will have the same password.



You can create private network shares for all these users too, should you want to do so.



And that’s it, we now have a lot of users.



There’s also a global quota setting available that counts for all users.



Should you already have an LDAP or Active Directory service setup, then QTS also couples with these with ease.



Just enter your authentification details and you’re good to go.



Micro managing a lot of users can be a time-consuming process and that is where user groups come into play. By assigning users to groups, you can quickly set access rights for all included users at once rather than have to do it all manually for each single user.



Creating a group is much like creating a user. The only required information is a name, but the group in itself won’t do us much good. We also need to add users to the group and set the permissions for the group.



The shared folders are the backbone of your NAS as these are the ones that you can see from other systems. There are some default folders that will be created by installed applications, but you can also create all the ones you want yourself.



Creating a new shared folder is quick. Enter a name and an optional comment. If you got more than one drive volume, you also need to pick the correct one here. Users access rights can also be controller right away for the users that you already created.



There are some advanced functions for each folder where one of them is encryption. Sensitive data should have an extra layer of security and encryption is a great option. You can also choose to hide the share in the network surroundings and enable the recycle bin for the share – and more.



Virtual drives created from ISO files are even easier to create. Just select the file and it’s done.



Within the Shared Folders section, you also find the Advanced Permissions page that allows you to enable advanced folder permissions and Windows ACL support.



Folder Aggregation is another awesome feature, but it only works for Microsoft and Samba networks.



We only got the choice to either enable or disable the various sharing services during the initialization, but there are a lot more available options for them and more available within the Network Services submenu within the control panel.



Whether you’re looking for Apple or Microsoft file protocols, you won’t be disappointed.



NFS is also supported for Linux and Unix users, just keep in mind that you might need to set the NFS access rights separately – as usual.



There are advanced options available for the Samba protocol, so if you didn’t spot what you were looking for before, you will find it here.



QTS also comes with a built-in FTP server. It is basic, but it covers everything that you need from SSL/TLS encrypted connections and custom passive port settings. You can also watch online users directly from this page.



SSH and Telnet are both available in QTS too, but you should only enable Telnet if you really need it. SSH is a lot safer to use, but it’s great to have both available when needed.



The SNMP service is one mostly for enterprises as most home users don’t need a centralized log location.



There are two easy ways to make your NAS visible via your network and the world and QTS has them both. The first is UPnP that can take care of all port forwarding within your router in order to make sure that the NAS and the running functions can be accessed.



The second method is Bonjour that is for your local network discovery. You can pick which services should be broadcasted here.



The network recycle bin is also considered a service here and in a way it is. A global setting makes sense and it can save a lot of headaches from accidentally deleted files. A more basic feature than snapshots.



The last function within the Network services will open up another window with all the Qsync features in one place. You can quickly find apps for your devices and keep track of all connected devices.



One of the strong points of this NAS is definitely the network connectivity and the way it is utilized. Through the virtual switch, you’re able to take full advantage of all the NAS features without having to worry about VMs taking up LAN ports for themselves. The first page here doesn’t show so much, but that comes once you open the Virtual Switch page. You’ll find those screenshots further down.



Let us first finish with the basic network settings such as service bindings. You can limit features to the specific NICs all the way through, another awesome feature considering the possibilities with this NAS.



Proxy and DDNS settings are important for those who need them and both are present.



DDNS is a great way to be able to connect to your NAS from everywhere in the world despite having a dynamic IP address, but I’d recommend you use myQNAPcloud instead. It’s free and simple to set up.



The Network and Virtual Switch is where we can create our network settings and tell our ports what their job is and where. The first page provides an overview of the four ports and also shows which connection has the priority and thereby internet connection.



Within the Interfaces section is where we can trunk our ports as well as change the IPV6 settings should you have made the switch to the next generation here.



Creating a new set of linked LAN connection only requires a few clicks. Select the adapter you want to include and the mode.



The switch mode is for the more advanced users, but the GUI guides you through it all. It allows you to use the NAS as a switch too, bridging different networks.



There are two versions of switching here, the normal switch mode and the private network mode. In both cases, it requires the ports selected to be connected to different networks.



Wireless connections are also supported, but it requires you to have a USB Wireless adapter. Once you have plugged that in, the NAS will allow you to connect to wireless networks too, much in the same way you’re familiar with from your smart device or computer.



A DHCP server becomes really useful here when the switching functions are turned on. Let the NAS assigned the network addresses.



Last but not least, you can select the default gateway manually or let QTS find it automatically. The default is the first one.




Setup Part III

As a file host, which a NAS is, we need to keep an eye on our security as well. This covers both backups of our files as well as intrusion protection and file protection. QTS features a basic access and deny system that can come in very handy, especially if you want to block anyone but yourself for a short time. You could also limit it to only known devices this way and keep strangers away.



Hardware information is one thing, we also need to be able to control parts of it and for that, we go back to the control panel again. We can disable features such as the physical reset switch and define when drives should enter sleep mode.This is also where we can adjust the LED brightness and put it on a schedule so we don’t need to look at it at night, for example.



Power management is important as it affects the total cost of ownership. Both EuP and WoL are supported by the TS-453Bmini.



A headless device such as a NAS needs to be monitored too and you can use Email, SMS, or Push notifications for this. Okay, the TS-453Bmini isn’t really a headless unit as it features not one but two HDMI ports, but we don’t always sit at it while it’s running like a normal system.



The Firmware update can be performed automatically (QTS will automatically search for it), but when an automatic update is not available and on the website there is already a new QTS file available, we will have to go the manual route.



Backup & Restore menu allows the user to save current server settings for later restoration, but also from the same menu we can reset the system to factory defaults.



External devices can be also configured from the next menu.



The hardware information is found within the system status function in QTS and it provides you with both hardware information on installed components as well as status and services.



For more details, QTS has the resource monitor tab that looks very familiar to anything else in that regard. Charts and numbers tell you all the details you need to know such as CPU usage across the cores.



The Privilege Settings group allows you to set domain security, create new accounts or user groups, set access rights, and manage the NAS' shared folders. You can also set the quotas of these shared folders here.



Multimedia Management menu will “instruct” the default multimedia applications where to look for indexing media files.We also have here many tabs regarding transcoding tasks.




Applications

The app center is where you find all the really cool features, not that what we’ve seen so far wasn’t cool. But with the app center you got possibilities to install almost any function onto your TS-453Bmini. You can quickly view all your installed apps and licenses as well as install more.There are hundreds of apps available and for the most part, they can be installed with a single click.



We do have the File Station 5 which permits file and folder manipulation.The web-based File Station enables you to easily upload, download, and manage files on your TS-453Bmini wherever there is an internet connection. Supporting file extraction, folder creation, and smart search for files and folders, the File Station also allows you to easily share files with colleagues and friends via unique URLs, email, and a shared space. What's even better, you can also directly browse and transfer files between the TS-453Bmini and public cloud services like Google Drive, Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive, Box, Yandex Disk and Amazon Cloud Drive through File Station, and view files with Office Online and Google Docs or directly open them with a Google Chrome office extension.



The Video Station is a video management tool used to organize your videos on the Turbo NAS and to share them with your friends and family across the Internet. With the Video Station, you can classify your videos into home videos, movies, TV shows or music videos for your personal collection. Besides, a smart collection can be set to automatically sort out videos that match search criteria and help you neatly manage your videos.



The Photo Station is an online photo album used to organize your multimedia content (photos and videos) on the Turbo NAS and to share them with your friends and family across the Internet. With the Photo Station, users can drag & drop photos in a virtual album, which not only spares users the effort to tediously move and copy physical files around, but also helps users save storage space, as users only need to keep one copy of their photos on the NAS when they try to create an album for a special theme. Besides, a smart album can automatically collect contents that match search criteria and help users neatly manage their photos.



The Music Station helps you create a personal music center on the cloud. This web-based application is designed for users to play music files on the NAS or a media server, listen to thousands of Internet radio stations using a web browser and share your music collections with your friends and families. Your music collection stored on the Turbo NAS is automatically organized into categories for easy access.



QNAP Container Station exclusively integrates LXC and Docker lightweight virtualization technologies, allowing you to operate multiple isolated Linux systems on a QNAP NAS as well as download apps from the built-in Docker Hub Registry.



If you have ever been overwhelmed by the number of search results when looking for a file, try Qsirch – QNAP’s unique, powerful, Google Search-like search tool that helps you find what you need. It's easy & fast!



The Download Station is a web-based download tool enabling you to download files from the Internet through BT, PT, Magnet Link, HTTP/HTTPS, FTP/FTPS, and subscribe to RSS feeds. With the BT Search function, you can easily find BT seeds to download and make your NAS as 24/7 download center.



Help Center does provide us with the QTS usage manual, but from there we can also browse the Online Resource or use the Helpdesk function.



HappyGet is your personal video backup tool, which can back up your videos from cloud platforms to your NAS. In the cloud era, smart phones, tablets, and digital cameras may all be connected by the internet. They can easily be used to upload videos to cloud video platforms, such as YouTube and Picasa. However, end devices may be connected to several video platforms and people in one family may upload videos using different accounts. The NAS provides a personal cloud solution to share videos in one family. With HappyGet, you can easily back up videos from the cloud to the NAS and keep them synchronized all the time.



QNAP Virtualization Station enables virtualized desktop operations on the Turbo NAS for managing multiple virtual machines. With the easy-to-use interface, you can centrally manage all virtual machines created on the Turbo NAS with least efforts.



Gmail backup provides Gmail backup and recovery functionality, allowing users to create individual backup or domain account backup tasks. Gmail can be backed up by schedule and the content previewed through a web management interface. Backed up mail can be restored to the original mail account or other accounts.



Let’s not forget about the availability of Plex too.



One of the available media center streaming applications is TVMobili, which indexes the content in the desired folder and makes it available to other devices such as TVs, tablets, game consoles, smartphones and so on.




The surveillance station only becomes relevant when you got cameras too, but then it’s awesome. Turn your NAS into a full-fledged surveillance station with recording, motion detection, and all the other bells and whistles.



The Note Station is your office tool on the go. Create notes and calendar entries within your own secure storage location.



The Linux station is part of the next page where we take a look at the direct usage. Installing the Linux station from the App center takes a single click after which you can launch it. Then all that’s left to do is click either of the available links to install Ubuntu.



You can even launch it in your browser thanks to QNAPs VM and Container technologies. Have access to your desktop from anywhere is simply awesome.



If you have numerous email accounts, it can take time to visit each email portal and to log in one-by-one to check and send emails. With QNAP’s QmailAgent you can securely centralize multiple email accounts, making managing and backing up emails absolutely easy.



Qcontactz is the perfect way to centrally manage a growing number of contacts. By leveraging the benefits of the private cloud provided by QNAP NAS, Qcontactz presents an always-online database of contact information that can be accessed from any computer or mobile device. With a few simple steps you can centrally manage all of your contacts and greatly simplify your communications processes to build a better base for your networking and interactions.



The addition of an HDMI port and QNAP's new HD Station turns the Turbo NAS into an amazing multimedia player. By installing the free HD Station application and connecting the Turbo NAS to a big-screen TV via HDMI, you can easily enjoy the vast video, music and photo collections stored on the Turbo NAS, surf the web, and even control the entire experience from your mobile phone or tablet. Enjoying 4K and 2K experience is just that easy!



The HD Station supports Google Chrome browser so you can surf the Internet using your TV. In addition to watching movies, listening to music, and enjoying photos on the big screen, you can switch to browse the Internet or visit social networking sites for more entertainment options. Even better, since the HD Station is running on your Turbo NAS, you can download content while you're enjoying it so you'll have it in your library for future use.



You can easily control HD Station with the included QNAP Remote Control.




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 four HDD (Seagate Barracuda 3TB XT 7200RPM)for testing the NAS.




Performance

Performance from the unit is strong.



Atto Raid0:



Atto Raid1:



Anvil:




802.3ad dynamic link aggregation

The product supports 802.3ad dynamic link aggregation which enables multiple connections to be linked in parallel to increase the link speed beyond the limits of any one single cable or port and to increase the redundancy for higher availability.Most implementations now conform to what used to be clause 43 of IEEE 802.3-2005 Ethernet standard, usually still referred to by its working group name of “IEEE 802.3ad”. The definition of link aggregation has since moved to a standalone IEEE 802.1AX standard.For this page i have removed all mechanical drives and are using a Solid State Drive,by ADATA(XPG SX910 256GB) .I copy across several large files to maximise the bandwidth.



Good results from the TS-453Bmini, delivering around 211 MB/s in the read test, and around 199 MB/s in the write test. Not quite at the levels Qnap quote, although this could be down to my specific equipment.


Noise,Power Consumption & Temperature

The fan doesn’t spin much at lower loads, meaning the Nas is very quiet.At full load,the fan spins much higher,but noise levels hit only 33dBa.



The TS-453Bmini draws only 22.6W(4 Disks) when idling.The highest figure I saw was 35W while installing the QTS software.



The fan maintains good temperatures inside the chassis,and it spins up considerably in the upper part of overall load demand.




Conclusion

At the start of this review I mentioned the TS-453Bmini fit a very unique market segment.While most NAS units aim to fit 3.5-inch hard drives and be hidden out of sight, this model is designed to sit right up on your desk and fit in with your other computer equipment. Offering a better design, a smaller footprint, and lower noise output,the TS-453Bmini works in areas most full-size NAS units can't.Qnap made a great move with the TS-453Bmini since they managed to pack the power of their QTS OS, two Ethernet ports, and USB 2.0/USB 3.0 support into a very small, nicely designed unit.The unit may be physically diminutive however Qnap haven’t compromised with the design as it accepts four hard drives, and offers a variety of raid settings.A lot more than you’d expect from such a tiny unit.The NAS looks great, and its small footprint greatly increases its usability.The construction quality of the QNAP TS-453Bmini is a case study in how to maintain performance and taking advantage of modern production methods and practices. The new chassis design uses all the well-proven tricks and techniques for complexity, that are the stock and trade of the mechanical engineering profession.In short, it will be the ideal unit for an overcrowd office environment, or for users who want something elegant, but lack a lot of space.It can also easily be placed anywhere in your living room without being visually intrusive, and take into account its silent operation and you truly have a worthy bundle.I think you would be hard-pressed to find an alternative with as many features in such a compact unit. If there were a performance-to-size ratio chart, this NAS would have been on top.The desire of ownership is boosted by the incredibly low power overhead, demanding a minuscule of watts when inactive for a period of time.Even under Idle(4xHDD's), the consumption only rises to a maximum of 21 watts which is sure to be a selling point to those people who wish to improve their carbon footprint.The performance is also similarly impressive.QNAP's decision to utilize the new Quad core Celeron-class 14nm CPU in a small NAS benefits all users, and it’s a welcome relief from all the Atom-based models.The QNAP TS-453Bmini showed no weaknesses as it was able to deliver first-class performance in each and every test I threw at it. Of course, the hardware is paired with the QTS OS which evolves as time passes and we can always install additional modules for enhancing the functionality of the NAS like Mail Server, Photo Station, Video Station and so on.We must not forget either that behind the scenes, the QTS firmware still gives all the same features that we would see on any other Qnap system, so even though it is small, it is still able to cater for many scenarios.Justifying the initial fee remains an obvious hurdle for powerful NAS solutions, but Qnap is beginning to erode such concerns with an evolving list of capabilities that now includes an array of virtualisation features and, via QvPC, the ability to use the NAS as a PC. The new virtualization features built into the QTS 4.3 operating system and the refinement of the transcoding capabilities go a long way towards focusing on the video content that is such a big part of family life today.Internet of Things (IoT) developers can even install the open-source Ubuntu platform to develop and run IoT applications directly on the TS-453Bmini for enjoying a private cloud system integrated with storage and IoT.You can manage, share, and back up business data with Real-time Remote Replication (RTRR).It supports VMware, Citrix and Microsoft Hyper-V.The addition of an IR receiver on the front panel(Infrared remote control included) makes the multimedia features easier to access, in case you want to hook the TS-453Bmini directly up to a hi-res screen.Besides the usual QNAP applications for browsing multimedia content, we also have the option to install Plex, which is really easy to configure and opens itself in a separate browser window and after specifying the multimedia folders from our drives, it will start indexing and display more information about the content after browsing Internet resources.The large number of apps that are available and the cloud services that extend the reach of NAS storage, all contribute to a versatile system that does more than you could ever imagine a NAS server was intended to do. In addition, the NAS can play a key role in your home or office's surveillance infrastructure through its Surveillance Station application. It only comes with two camera licenses though, so if you need more (it supports up to 24), you have to buy them.



Its price($620-4GB/$780-8GB) surely is on the high side, but you shouldn't forget that the smaller something is in the IT world, the more money it will costs, and this NAS isn't an exception to that rule.I’m not immune to sticker shock and I know there are cheaper devices out there, but QNAP offers some of the best software and support available in this market, and they are not in a race to the bottom.Overall though and all things considered, the Qnap TS-453Bmini is a ‘cute’ looking unit if i was to say so.Is this the start of a trend I may ask, will anyone else follow with their own take on the slim for the SMB market? Will we see a smaller or larger system come to market in the future? These questions I can’t answer, but I can certainly say that I would like to hope so.The TS-453Bmini offers a lot of features in a very small package.If you need something elegant, really nice, small, and fully featured, the TS-453Bmini is the perfect candidate. So if you happen to be in the market for a NAS but either don't have a ton of available space or are power-conscious, the TS-453Bmini is a very nice alternative to what is currently available on the market.Qnap has another winner on their hands.