14 DAY TRIAL // Most network-attached storage devices use 3.5-inch SATA hard disk drives, but there are some exceptions, like the IS-400 pro that QNAP has just unveiled.
The NAS device has four bays compatible with 2.5-inch drives instead of 3.5-inch ones. That means that you might want to consider equipping it with SSDs (solid-state drives) instead of HDDs (hard disk drives).
After all, drives in RAID are faster and more secure than if left alone, and with the already great speed of SSDs, you can be sure that a Gigabit network would be put to full use (there are two Gigabit Ethernet connectors available, rather than one).
Speaking of performance, the QNAP IS-400 NAS device has an Intel Celeron quad-core central processing unit handling everything, with a clock of 1.1 GHz. It is backed by 2 GB DDR3 RAM. NAS devices are, in a sense, highly specialized computers.
Furthermore, QNAP has included four USB ports, though only two of them comply with the 5 Gbps USB 3.0 standard. The others are normal USB 2.0 connectors (480 Mbps).
The QNAP IS-400 Pro NAS device should handle operating temperatures of -25°C and 50°C (-13°F to 120°F) thanks to its aluminum case. The top performance is of 221MB/s read and 214MB/s write. Sadly, the price has not been disclosed.