Qnap TS-328

[testman78]

Introduction

This is a review that I've been looking forward to because the QNAP TS-328 is anything but an ordinary NAS. QNAP likes to take one step further and this is clearly such a case. At the CES 2018, QNAP showed the TS-328 for the first time and now it goes on sale. The TS-328 is QNAP's first 3-bay NAS, allowing you to build a RAID 5 array on your NAS with the fewest disks. QNAP's TS-328 NAS sit under the company's Value Series product line of high performance units designed for data intensive tasks e.g. on the fly encryption. Within the TS-328 beats a quad-core processor with a base clock of 1.4GHz which is coupled with 2GB DDR4 memory. The processor used is the Realtek RTD1296 which is a 64-bit processor. It comes with hardware encryptions engine as well as 10-bit H.265 hardware transcoding engine.



The specifications are taken directly from the manufacturer homepage. They are valid at the time of the review, but they may be subject to changes in future revisions of the product.




Packaging & Contents

QNAP's NAS packaging is quite simple, and I really like that. They don't waste a lot of resources on full-colour boxes that no one looks at once the device has been unpacked. That said, the box has every bit of information that you'll need.



The label on the front has a nice picture of the device along with its name at the top. Below it is a short description of what it is best suited for, or rather, which task it was designed for. The TS-328 is a blend of performance and value. That means that you'll get a great performing device without breaking the budget. The main strength, besides the obvious ones which are the same for all QNAP devices, is its media capabilities with real-time 4K H.265 video transcoding. Other highlights include the processor itself, the capacity possibilities, and dual network connections.



The rear of the box has six icons describing what the NAS can be used for. Just a QNAP logo and "Network Attached Storage Private Cloud Solution" slogan printed in black at the top. You will also find its UPC code, EAN code, serial number, and MAC address stickers at the top, but there is not much beyond that.



One side panel just has an icon list of the standards the drive meets while the other side has some handling icons and a small panel on the bottom describing drive compatibility and data encryption.



After lifting the top box cover, we will get to see a 'Welcome" message along with some hints to several Internet resources.



The accessories and unit are packaged in an cardboard box.



Within the box is the NAS itself, naturally, but also an external power supply with a cable that fits the region you purchased it in. In this case, it is a German/EU power cable, but if you get it in the UK or the US, or somewhere else, you'll get a cable for that region.



You also get one LAN cable, making everything ready for a full single-GbE setup.



Drive tray caddy pins.



The bundle also includes a quick installation guide and a leaflet with info about warranty terms.



You should take a look at the quick installation guide to figure out how to install the SSDs.




A Closer Look-Outside

The TS-328 is measuring 142 x 150 x 260.1mm (HxWxD). The chassis is plastic instead of metal. We are dealing now with a white shiny plastic chassis. The air that comes directly in the front passes over the HDD's and is exhausted out the rear of the unit by the 92mm fan. It still looks like a QNAP product, and white color looks good.



On the front we have the main LED area along with the power and copy buttons. The LEDs are placed for showing the system status, LAN activity, but also USB and Disk1/2/3 read/write operations. The LEDs are not very bright, but pleasant to watch when the unit is during operation.



The power button for the TS-328 resides on the bottom left and glows blue when active,and there's a USB 3.0 port below it for easy data transfers from portable storage devices.



In the upper right corner we can see QNAP's logo. A sticker on top mentions the server's major features.



The right and left sides does not come with any ventilation holes.



The right side does, however, come with a sticker on the side that explains myQNAPcloud and gives you a QR code right on the side to get things setup.



Around the back the TS-328 features a pair of Gigabit LAN ports, a USB 3.0 port, a USB 2.0 port, one maintenance port, 3.5 mm speaker port, power connector,an anti-theft K-Lock Security Slot and network settings reset button. The two USB ports are perfect for USB printers, pen drives, and USB UPS connection. It does not feature an HDMI Port, so all multimedia or surveillance software access is done over the network or the internet as needed. Cooling the TS-328 is a single 92mm fan which seems to work well. Although there isn't any redundancy built into the TS-328's cooling setup, an alarm will sound in the event of a fan failure.



We find a rear-mounted speaker that provide audio notifications or even let you play your music directly from the NAS via the QNAP QTS 4.3.4 interface and music station application.



The bottom of the NAS also houses a locked symbol,and an unlocked symbol.



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



There are only a few small ventilation holes on the bottom of the QNAP TS-328 Turbo NAS chassis.




Installation

With no drive doors, to access the drive bay you have to separate the two halves of the housing. In order to gain access to the inside of TS-328 three screws must be removed from the back of the NAS.



Slide the cover backward to unlock it and lift the cover off the NAS.



After the removal of the plastic cover, we will reveal the internals, which can hold three 3.5" HDDs.



Squeeze the drive tray caddy clips and then pull the caddy out of the drive bay. QNAP's drive trays allow for tool-less installation for 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch drives. This makes the installation of drives very quick and hassle-free.



Here is the 3.5" plastic tray.



Align the holes of the drive and the caddy, and then insert the caddy pins.



The TS-328 comes with 1 drive tray that supports 2.5-inch hard drives or solid state drives. This tray base is pre-installed in drive bay 3. You can assemble additional 2.5-inch hard drive or solid state drive trays using the available drive tray caddies and additional drive tray bases. Also you can purchase drive tray bases from QNAP or ressellers.



And this is how the tray look with 2.5" drive installed in it.



With just three disks you can build a secure RAID 5 array on the TS-328. This provides optimized storage capacity and protection against one disk failing. Instead of RAID 5, which is best made up of 3 identical hard disks, it is possible to install 2 discs in a simple RAID 1 or RAID 0 field and place them in a third SSD to make data available as quickly as possible.



With three internal drives, you can easily install up to 36TB raw capacity within the TS-328.




A Closer Look-Inside

The daughterboard with the SATA Data/Power connectors can be easily seen.



The separate PCB that connects to the motherboard via a PCI-express lane to alleviate any bottlenecks that may occur when passing data through the system itself.



SATA ports are controlled by an ASMedia ASM1062 IC.



To give the TS-328 the processing power it needs, QNAP have turned to Realtek for the solution. Below the black coloured heatsink, a 64-bit quad core arm bases SoC, Realtek RTD1296 processor actually, clocked at 1.4 GHz is present . The 2GB DDR4 stock RAM is glued down so it isn't expandable.



A lithium 3V CR2032 battery can be also spotted on the board, for retaining CMOS settings. The system's buzzer is installed right next to the BIOS battery.



The hardware monitor IC is a Weltrend WT61P803.



A look at the speaker.



The 92 mm cooling fan is provided by Y.S. Tech. Its model number is FD129225LB (12 V, 0.15 A, 1900 RPM, 40.2 CFM, 25 dBA, and 80000 MTBF). It uses ball-bearings and will, as such, last fairly long.




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 4.3.4 software revision.




The QTS Interface 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.




The QTS Interface 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.




The QTS Interface 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.



A headless device such as a NAS needs to be monitored too and you can use Email, SMS, or Push notifications for this.



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-328. 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.



One of the biggest selling features of QNAP's network attached storage systems is the concept of personal cloud. For me, it has become a part of my everyday life in moving data between my office PC and home PC. The implementation of QNAP's myQNAPcloud service is nothing too mysterious, however -- combining a built-in dynamic DNS service, and a wizard that lets you easily get desired services online, it makes it quite a breeze to configure the TS-328 for access anywhere in the world with internet. You can set up a QNAP account to manage all your devices, so you can control what devices are associated to you. When myQNAPcloud first came out, no user account is available, so all associated devices were just made in thin air. It is good to see how much the service has matured over time. For users with UPnP routers, port forwarding setup is no more than a couple of clicks away. New to the system is CloudLink, a remote access service provided by QNAP. You can connect to your device and access all your files using the myQNAPcloud website, all without the need to configure port settings on your router. Furthermore, it allows access from QNAP applications directly to your network attached storage system. For enhanced security, you can purchase an assign an SSL certificate to your NAS.



Snapshots allow your Turbo NAS to record the state of the system at any time. If an unexpected disaster occurs on your system, you can revert it to the previous state that the snapshot has recorded. This application note demonstrates how to create snapshots from volumes and how to revert to them using the snapshot manager. Before taking a snapshot, there must be at least one volume on your Turbo NAS. If you need to build a volume, please go to "Storage" > "Storage Space". From the Snapshot Manager you can see a synopsis of snapshots in the left window, and you can browse through folders and see files on the snapshots on the right.



You can create a snapshot schedule.



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-328 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-328 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 5 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 TS-328 supports 4K H.264/H.265 hardware decoding and real-time transcoding , allowing you to convert videos to universal file formats that can be smoothly played on multiple devices. Therefore, you can easily share movies or travel videos saved on your NAS to your family and friends via shared links and they can enjoy watching the videos smoothly anytime and anywhere. Transcoding between a QNAP TS-328 and your media can be of tremendous benefit for those with limited internet bandwidth, download limits or low powered devices.



QVHelper allows users to stream media files or music playlists from a QNAP NAS to VLC player, providing greater choice for multimedia enjoyment.



Qmedia allows music, photos and videos to be effortlessly streamed to Android TVs or set-top boxes.



The Photo Station 5 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 5 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.



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 5 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.



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.



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.



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.



Hybrid Backup Sync is a multifunctional backup solution where you can easily back up data from a QNAP NAS to several local, remote and the cloud storage. Hybrid Backup Sync can help prevent data loss from system crashes and critical hardware failures.



The Hybrid Backup Sync window has four subsections. These include All Jobs, Storage Space, Backup Server, and External Backup. Here, you can configure stuff like having your QNAP TS-328 to copy data to a remote server of the same NAS series, and backup from remote server to the local server as well. You can also set its port number and allow/disallow remote Rsync server to back up data to the local system. RTRR can be enabled, as its name suggests, for Real Time Remote Replication.




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.



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:



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 three HDD WD Red 1TB 3.5 NAS Internal Hard Drives(WD10EFRX) for testing the NAS. Link Aggregation was tested with three Samsung 850 Evo 500GB in Raid 5 Mode.




Performance

Good throughput in all aspects, if that still isn't enough, you can link the two LAN ports for even better multi-tasking performance. Even with encryption, you get a strong performance. That is, of course, due to the built-in hardware encryption engine. The impact is negligible - if there is any at all.




Link Aggregation

Link aggregation is a method of using two Ethernet ports in parallel to provide trunking and network fault tolerance. Link aggregation with trunking feature enhances connection speed beyond the limits of any one single cable or port. The improved transmission performance is best observed in environments where multiple-client connections are present. The redundancy also creates higher link availability and avoids possible disruption occurrences.



I am very pleased cause 219 MB/s is plenty of speed with room to spare to simultaneously run a web server,access movies and music,and save and access documents and other files.Depending on your setup especially how many files you're accessing from any single drive,whether the drive is an SSD,a RAID 0 array, a RAID 5 array, a RAID 1 array, or JBOD/one disk, and what kind of quality and capability each drive has,one would easily see higher or lower speeds. Also, i wager that a person copying a large file from one link-aggregated connection to another would also be able to see much higher speeds depending on his hard drive capabilities on each machine.


Noise, Power Consumption & Temperature

The 92mm fan maintains good temperatures inside the chassis,and it spins up considerably in the upper part of overall load demand.



The TS-328 will consume 26.9W with three Disks on it under heavy throughput, which is very little. As such, you can have the NAS operate around the clock without having to worry about your electricity bill.



The fan doesn't spin much at lower loads, meaning the Nas is very quiet. At around 900 Rpm, the fan kicks in a little, becoming audible although never that intrusive. At full load, the fan spins much higher, and noise levels hit 42.7dBa.




Final Thoughts

4K video content is becoming more and more common. Qnap TS-328 is also optimised for 10-bit 4K H.265 video transcoding. If your device is not capable of 4K video playback, TS-328 provides online 4K video transcoding to 1080p and below for a smoother experience. With the power of a quad-core 64-bit SoC, the TS-328 has a wide scope to handle more than one critical task without bogging down. A few years ago these speeds would have been a major talking point, but on this hardware we noted that the Realtek RTD1296 1.4 GHz SoC wasn't working hard to flood the network, allowing plenty of CPU cycles and RAM to be utilised by other tasks. The most obvious of these is video transcoding, as the chip is built to handle processing 10-bit H.265 (HEVC), MPEG-4 Part 2, MPEG-2, VC-1 at a maximum resolution of 4096 x 2160 up to 60 frames per second. That?s a single 4K stream, though given less demanding 1080p transcoding duties it can handle multiple jobs simultaneously without dropping frames of desynchronising audio. On paper, the Intel chips that are in some QNAP boxes are more powerful, although they don't compare well with this SoC for video transcoding duties. The TS-328 is QNAP's first 3-bay NAS, allowing you to build a RAID 5 array on your NAS with the fewest disks. With three internal drives, you can easily install up to 36TB raw capacity within the TS-328. Things are also basic but good when it comes to the connection options. The TS-328 features dual Gigabit Ethernet for failover and aggregation as well as two USB 3.0 ports. A lot of SOHO users might think, I don't need dual ethernet, but SMB admins will feel joy over it. While a dual-port setup isn't optimal in every situation, it increases the possibilities. While 2 USB 3.0 ports don't sound like a lot, it will be more than enough for most people. You rarely have more than one portable device connected at once, and as such, two is sufficient. But if you want to have something connected permanently, then there's the second port. One is located on the rear side while the other is on the front for easy access. There's still room for improvement as HDMI is absent while the 2GB of DDR4 isn't expandable. QTS too has changed as we mentioned in the review. It seems a bit more refined with the entire platform being categorized including the control panel which for me gives a cleaner flow. The app store continues to expand and includes must have apps like Hybrid Backup Sync, Snapshots, Qfiling, Qsirch, QVHelper, and Qmedia.



It is always a pleasure to review one of QNAP's NAS devices, and it was no different with the TS-328. The 3-bay NAS comes with everything you need, a little extra, but nothing that you don't need. With that concept, the device manages a great price vs performance ratio. With a quad-core processor and 2GB of DDR4 memory, there's plenty of horsepowers to run a lot of features simultaneously without the TS-328 breaking any sweats. The three drive bays allow for a lot of storage capacity too, considering we have 12TB drives widely available. If you still don't have enough space, you could use the USB 3.0 ports for some more. The tool-less 3.5-inch/2.5-inch hard drive installation allows easier system setup and maintenance, while the front-panel LED's assist in viewing the system status. Good throughput in all aspects, if that still isn't enough, you can link the two LAN ports for even better multi-tasking performance. The NAS can deliver over 218MB/s sequential reads, and 150MB/s writes. Even with encryption, you get a strong performance. That is, of course, due to the built-in hardware encryption engine. The impact is negligible - if there is any at all. QTS is the best, network attached storage operating system in the market today doing everything from basic storage management to wireless access point management with the right hardware installed. The QNAP TS-328 is now available for 225 euros plus VAT, which is around 268 euros. The bottom line is that this is a very quick machine that's ideal for a home or small office where it is highly unlikely it will ever become overwhelmed by the typical tasks of that environment. QNAP's TS-328 is a true NAS in every way. It keeps things simple, yet has all the things you truly need.