There are three tower models with up to four bays

Oct 3, 2014 11:56 GMT  ·  By

In the past, most network-attached storage devices have mostly been colored black or some variation of grey, but QNAP decided to do something different for one. It led to the TS-X31 line of NAS devices being colored white.

Although that's not the only thing setting them apart from all other NAS devices in the world. The main central processor is unusual as well.

In case you're unfamiliar with this sort of products, they are basically a sort of PC knock-off which focus solely on storing data and making it accessible on the network.

Because of that, they make do with the barest computing and memory capabilities, random access memory that is, but they have more storage than most PCs can boast. In the case of three-bay and 4-bay models anyway, and larger.

The QNAP TS-x31 line, however, doesn't use a normal CPU, like an Intel Atom or some other x86 processor.

The specifications of the QNAP TS-x31 NAS devices

The chip running all three NAS units is the Freescale ARM Cortex-A9 dual-core, which runs at 1.2 GHz and should work on very little power. The chip is backed by 512 MB of DDR3 RAM.

There can be two, three or four HDDs installed in the newcomers, depending on model, and the transfer speed can be of up to 110 MB/s when reading data from them, or 80 MB/s when writing it.

The 2-bay and 4-bay models, TS-231 and TS-431, even have dual IP support, plus the ability to set up link aggregation (for better data speed) or fault tolerance.

You can even transcode video in offline mode, which is pretty useful when your Internet connection is painfully slow.

Other perks include DLNA and AirPlay support, Photo Station, Music Station, and Video Station apps, and Qphoto, Qmusic, Qfile, and Qmanager mobile apps which let you move and edit files from your phone or tablet.

Availability and pricing

The TS-131, TS-231 and TS-431 Qnap Turbo NAS devices, with 1, 2 and 4 bays, respectively, should go up for sale soon, with three USB 3.0 ports each and two Gigabit LAN ports (only one on the TS-131). You can install both HDDs and SSDs, with or without setting them up in one of multiple RAID modes.

It ultimately depends on whether you value capacity and speed more than security. Make sure to read the manual carefully if you're not up to date with everything. Also, make sure you dust these things periodically, since dust will look strange on white, even more than on black products.

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QNAP TS0-x31 (3 Images)

QNAP TS-431
QNAP TS-131QNAP TS-231
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