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QNAP TS-409 Pro Turbo NAS Review
Author: Dennis Garcia
Published: Tuesday, March 04, 2008
Conclusion
When it comes to a cool feature packed Network Attached Storage device you'll be hard pressed to find anything more versatile than the TS-409 Pro Turbo NAS. It comes with a whole laundry list of features specific to the task of serving up files but also for serving up other things like multimedia content, dynamic database content and even downloading over BitTorrent.
In terms of hardware the QNAP TS-409 Pro Turbo NAS comes with a single 500Mhz embedded processor from Marvell and 256Megs of DDR2 memory. There is an 8meg Flash onboard for storing configuration data and supports a total of 4TB of disk space across 4 SATA disks. These disks can be arraigned in 1 of several different RAID configurations including JBOD, 0, 1, 5, 5+1, and 6.
The RAID array is also flexible; while you cannot change the RAID level dynamically you can change the capacity by adding more disks or upgrading to larger ones. The best part is, while you're upgrading the storage capacity you can still save files or watching movies direct from the NAS.
QNAP has also included the ability to turn this NAS appliance into an application server with the inclusion of PHP4 and MySQL. This means you can run a variety of web applications including Joomla! (which is included) phpBB (a free web forum) or any other custom PHP apps that are installable over the web. The only downside is none of the included software is upgradeable by the user.
Now for the ever popular list of Good things and Bad things.
In terms of hardware the QNAP TS-409 Pro Turbo NAS comes with a single 500Mhz embedded processor from Marvell and 256Megs of DDR2 memory. There is an 8meg Flash onboard for storing configuration data and supports a total of 4TB of disk space across 4 SATA disks. These disks can be arraigned in 1 of several different RAID configurations including JBOD, 0, 1, 5, 5+1, and 6.
The RAID array is also flexible; while you cannot change the RAID level dynamically you can change the capacity by adding more disks or upgrading to larger ones. The best part is, while you're upgrading the storage capacity you can still save files or watching movies direct from the NAS.
QNAP has also included the ability to turn this NAS appliance into an application server with the inclusion of PHP4 and MySQL. This means you can run a variety of web applications including Joomla! (which is included) phpBB (a free web forum) or any other custom PHP apps that are installable over the web. The only downside is none of the included software is upgradeable by the user.
Now for the ever popular list of Good things and Bad things.
Good Things
Finally a NAS appliance with RAID support
Gigabit Ethernet
3 USB ports
Energy Saving Design
Network Event Logging
Device Health Tracking
Quiet Operation
Gigabit Ethernet
3 USB ports
Energy Saving Design
Network Event Logging
Device Health Tracking
Quiet Operation
Bad Things
Drive Trays are held in place by screws, expected tool less locks
Cannot upgrade installed software without OS flash.
Has SSH access but with limited command line options.
Doesn't like spaces in domain or workgroup names.
Cannot upgrade installed software without OS flash.
Has SSH access but with limited command line options.
Doesn't like spaces in domain or workgroup names.
Ninjalane Rating
We would like to thank QNAP for helping to make this review possible, please check out their website for a complete list of features this product has to offer.
