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QNAP TS-509 Pro Turbo NAS Review
Author: Dennis Garcia
Published: Sunday, October 12, 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-509 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 web applications, multimedia content, dynamic database content and even downloading files over BitTorrent.
In terms of hardware the QNAP TS-509 Pro Turbo NAS comes with enough hardware to rival most standard fileservers. The TS-509 Pro comes with a single 1.6Ghz Intel Celeron processor and 1GB of DDR2 memory. Onboard you will find a 128meg flash memory card for storing configuration data and additional applications. The whole device supports over 4TB of disk space across 5 SATA disks. These disks can be arraigned in a variety of different RAID configurations including JBOD, 0, 1, 5, 5+1, and 6.
The RAID arrays are 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 watch 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 is installable over the web. The only downside is none of the included software is upgradeable by the user. For enterprise and small business users looking to get more use out of their network devices a full featured NAS like the TS-509 Pro might be just the ticket.
Now for the ever popular list of Good things and Bad things.
In terms of hardware the QNAP TS-509 Pro Turbo NAS comes with enough hardware to rival most standard fileservers. The TS-509 Pro comes with a single 1.6Ghz Intel Celeron processor and 1GB of DDR2 memory. Onboard you will find a 128meg flash memory card for storing configuration data and additional applications. The whole device supports over 4TB of disk space across 5 SATA disks. These disks can be arraigned in a variety of different RAID configurations including JBOD, 0, 1, 5, 5+1, and 6.
The RAID arrays are 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 watch 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 is installable over the web. The only downside is none of the included software is upgradeable by the user. For enterprise and small business users looking to get more use out of their network devices a full featured NAS like the TS-509 Pro might be just the ticket.
Now for the ever popular list of Good things and Bad things.
Good Things
Finally a NAS appliance with RAID support
Powerful 1.6Ghz Processor
1GB DDR2 RAM
Touch-n-Go PC-less interface configuration
Dual Gigabit Ethernet Ports
5 USB ports
5 Hot-Swap SATA drive Support
Energy Saving Design
Network Event Logging
Device Health Tracking
Quiet Operation
Lockable Hot-Swap Trays
Powerful 1.6Ghz Processor
1GB DDR2 RAM
Touch-n-Go PC-less interface configuration
Dual Gigabit Ethernet Ports
5 USB ports
5 Hot-Swap SATA drive Support
Energy Saving Design
Network Event Logging
Device Health Tracking
Quiet Operation
Lockable Hot-Swap Trays
Bad Things
Cannot upgrade installed software without OS flash.
No "door" to hide the hotswap bays.
No "door" to hide the hotswap bays.
Ninjalane Rating
We would like to thank QNAP for helping to make this review possible.
