The HS-251 from QNAP is a 2 bay NAS especially made for the living room. Thanks to a nice looking design with brushed aluminum cover plate it should blend in perfectly. Apart from that there is an Intel Celeron dual core processor in combination with 2 Gigabyte memory offering more than enough performance. Furthermore you get the QNAP webinterface and at this stage we're really curious to find out if this unit is able to convince on the following pages.
When it comes to NAS, QNAP is a very well-known brand offering different products for almost any kind of user. Today we're going to have a look at their HS-251 NAS, which features nice design, therefore making it perfectly suitable for your living room. Regarding the internals, there is a quick dual-core CPU and 2 Gigabyte of memory.
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Preview
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Specifications
| Processor |
Intel Celeron
2.41GHz dual-core (brust up to 2.58GHz) |
| RAM |
2 GB SO-DIMM
DDR3 |
| HDD Capacity |
2.5/3.5" SATA
II/III HDD or SSD x 2 |
| HDD Trays |
2 x hot-swappable and lockable tray |
| LAN Ports |
2 x Gigabit
RJ-45 Ethernet port 10/100/1000 |
| LED Indicators |
Status, LAN |
| USB |
2 x USB 3.0
2 x USB 2.0
Support USB printer, disk, pen drive, USB hub, and USB UPS etc. |
| Buttons |
Power Button
Status Button
Reset Button |
| HDMI |
Yes |
| IR
Recivier |
MCE-compatible |
| Alarm Buzzer |
System warning |
| Dimensions |
220(D) x 320(W) x
41.3(H) mm |
| Weight |
1.54 kg |
| Power Supply |
60W external power adapter |
| Power Consumption |
HDD standby:
8.96 Watt
In Operation: 15.64 Watt (with 2 x HDD installed) |
| Temprature |
0-40°C |
Software and Features
| Operating System |
|
| Supported OS |
- Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, Server 2003, Server 2008, Server 2012
- Mac OS X Onward
- UNIX, Linux
|
| Supported Browsers |
- Internet Explorer 9 Onwards
- FireFox
- Chrome
- Safari
|
| Networking Protocols |
- CIFS/SMB, AFP(v3.3), NFS(v3), FTP, HTTP(S), Telnet, SSH, SMTP,
iSCSI, HTTP, HTTPS, SNMP, TFTP, SMSC
|
| Storage Managment |
- Online Volume Expansion
- Single Disk, JBOD, RAID 0, 1
- Online RAID Capacity Expansion
- Online RAID Level Migration
- Bad block scan and hard drive S.M.A.R.T.
- Bad block recovery
- RAID recovery
- Bitmap support
|
| Network |
- TCP/IP (IPv4 & IPv6)
- Dual Gigabit NICs with jumbo frame(failover, multi-IP settings,
Port trunking/NIC teaming)
- Service binding based on network interfaces
- Proxy Client, Proxy server
- DHCP Client, DHCP server
- UPnP& Bonjour discovery
- USB Wi-Fi adapter support
|
| Backup Solutions |
- Remote replication server (over rsync)
- Real-time remote replication (RTRR) to another QNAPNAS or FTP server
- Works as both RTRR server & client with bandwidth control
- Real-time & scheduled backup
- Encryption, compression, file filter, and transfer rate limitation
- Encrypted replication between QNAPNASservers
- Desktop backup with QNAPNetBakReplicator for Windows
- Apple Time Machine backup support
- Data backup to multiple external storage devices
- Synchronizes with cloud storage: Amazon S3, ElephantDrive, Symform, Dropbox, and GoogleDrive
- Third party backup software support: Veeam backup & replication, AcronisTrue Image, Arcserve backup, emc retrospect, Symantec Backup Exec, etc.
|
| Security |
- Network access protection with auto-blocking: SSH, Telnet, HTTP(S), FTP, CIFS/SMB, AFP
- CIFS host access control for shared folders
- FIPS 140-2 validated AES 256-bit volume-based data encryption*
- AES 256-bit external drive encryption*
- Importable SSL certificate
- Instant alert via E-mail, SMS, and beep
*The data encryption functions may not available in accordance with the legislative restrictions of some countries.
|
| Web Administration |
- Multi-window, multi-tasking based system management
- Personalized desktop
- Smart toolbar and dashboard for neat display on system status
- Login screen with personalized photo-wall style •Smart fan control
- Dynamic DNS (DDNS)
- SNMP (v2 & v3)
- Resource monitor
- Network Recycle Bin for File Deletion via CIFS/SMB, AFP and File Station
- Automatic Cleanup
- File Type Filter
- Comprehensive logs (events & connection)
- Syslog client/server
- System settings backup and restore
- Restore to factory default
- Mobile app: Qmanager for remote system monitoring & management
|
| File
Server |
- File Sharing across Windows, Mac, and Linux/UNIX
- Windows ACL
- Advanced folder permission for CIFS/SMB, AFP, FTP
- Shared folder aggregation (CIFS/SMB)
|
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Delivery
- 1 x HS-251
- 1 x Power adaptor
- 1 x Power cord
- 1 x Quick Installation Guide
- 2 x Ethernet cable
- 8 x Flat Head (for 3.5" HDD)Screws
- 6 x Flat Head (for 2.5" HDD)Screws
Checking the delivery of the HS-251 we find all the bits and pieces necessary to setup this beautiful unit. If you want to load this NAS with hard drives, you’ll first have to remove the front cover and afterwards you can access the HDD trays. The HS-251 is an exceptionally good looking NAS, which is made from high quality materials. The top cover plate is made from brushed aluminum, which blends in perfectly in any living room. In order to keep the front as clean as possible, all buttons and connectors have been moved to the back of the device. There you find two USB3.0 ports, two HDMI out, two Ethernet ports, two USB2.0 ports, reset and power buttons as well as the power connector.
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Setup
To install and setup this unit QNAP packs their so called Qfinder software in the delivery. Once installed it will manage to quickly find your HS-251. Starting from there you can now continue setting up and configuring the NAS. Depending on whether your an experienced user or not you can choose to setup the HS-251 using a guide or you can manually set everything. After the initial setup you can access the web administration panel, where you're going to find a plethora of features.
Webinterface
The interface of this particular unit looks modern and it's very easy to use, but at the same time there are loads of features. Right after login a window pops up, asking to update to the last firmware. The main menu shows shorcuts to various services and avalible
applications, like for instance the Photo Station app. Apart from that is the Music Station as well as the Download Station. There is also a file explorer already installed by default to access all the files on
the NAS. Backup Station supports USB drive as welll as Mac OS X Time Machine and it allows to create backup jobs in not time at all.
There are also some exclusive applications, like for example
myANAPcloud, which allows you to remotely access and manage files saved on your NAS. Qsync allows you to sync data from different devices like PCs or tablets or
mobile phones. There is also an antivirus pre-installed to protect your files. Last but not least there is the App Center where we can download
and install all sorts of applications.
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Test setup
| CPU |
Intel Core i7-4770K |
| Motherboard |
ASUS Maximus VII Hero |
| RAM |
16 GB |
| Graphic card |
Geforce GTX 980 |
| SSD |
SanDisk Extreme 240 Gigabyte |
| Ethernet Controller |
Intel onboard |
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Test Results
Crystal Disk Mark
| ALL 1000MB |
Read MB/s |
Write MB/s |
| Seq |
101.0 |
109.7 |
| 512K |
95.01 |
106.9 |
| 4K |
16.73 |
16.18 |
| 4K QD32 |
99.19 |
75.41 |
ATTO Disk Benchmark - Total Length 256MB
| Transfer Size KB |
Read MB/s |
Write MB/s |
| 0.5 |
5.51 |
5.99 |
| 1.0 |
13.92 |
11.69 |
| 2.0 |
18.80 |
20.81 |
| 4.0 |
34.22 |
40.16 |
| 8.0 |
48.91 |
63.42 |
| 16.0 |
75.98 |
85.87 |
| 32.0 |
113.70 |
106.73 |
| 64.0 |
117.65 |
114.83 |
| 128.0 |
117.68 |
118.43 |
| 256.0 |
117.98 |
118.52 |
| 512.0 |
118.00 |
118.51 |
| 1024.0 |
118.10 |
118.48 |
| 2048.0 |
118.22 |
118.25 |
| 4096.0 |
115.46 |
118.67 |
| 8196.0 |
116.46 |
118.70 |
Anvil's Storage Utilities 1.1.0
| Test Size 1000MB |
Resp. time ms |
MB Read |
IOPS |
MB/s |
| Seq 4MB |
40.78 |
788.0 |
24.52 |
98.08 |
| 4K |
0.246 |
198.7 |
4'068 |
15.89 |
| 4K QD4 |
0.352 |
555.7 |
11'381 |
44.46 |
| 4K QD16 |
0.787 |
992.3 |
20'321 |
79.38 |
| 32K |
0.900 |
520.9 |
1'1100 |
34.71 |
| 128K |
1.574 |
1'191 |
635.24 |
79.40 |
| Test Size 1000MB |
Resp. time ms |
MB Written |
IOPS |
MB/s |
| Seq 4MB |
38.94 |
1'024 |
25.68 |
102.72 |
| 4K |
0.261 |
150.5 |
3'831 |
14.97 |
| 4K QD4 |
0.462 |
338.1 |
8'652 |
33.80 |
| 4K QD16 |
0.940 |
640.0 |
17'024 |
66.50 |
Intel NAS Performance Toolkit 1.7.1 MB/s
| HD Video Playback |
108.9 |
| 2 x HD Video Playback |
116.4 |
| 4 x HD Video Playback |
117.2 |
| HD Video Recording |
135.6 |
| HD Video Playback & Recording |
118.9 |
| Photo Album |
15.40 |
| Content Creation |
14.1 |
| Office Productivity |
51.40 |
| File Copy to NAS |
134.5 |
| File Copy from NAS |
94.50 |
| Directory Copy to NAS |
20.1 |
| Directory Copy from NAS |
19.8 |
Power consumption / Noise level
| Idle |
9.96 Watt |
| Load |
20.21 Watt |
| |
less is better |
| Sleep Mode |
32.4 dBA |
| Idle |
33.0 dBA (HDD) |
| Load |
35.3 dBA (HDD) |
| |
less is better |
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Conclusion
The QNAP HS-251 is a powerful and versatile NAS unit, but unfortunately it comes with a rather steep price tag. QNAP appears to be well aware that can ask something extrea for perfectly neat looking hardware. The setup of this unit is basically as simple as it can possibly be and apart from that the unit also performs very well. Although performance is always an important aspect of a product, what's even more important with NAS is the user interface and this is where the HS-251 from QNAP really shines. Even customers, who use a NAS for the very first time will not struggle to find the features and applications they're looking for in a heartbeat.
The Intel Celeron CPU QNAP used with
2.41GHz core speed and a turbo clock of 2.58GHz is more than capable of powering this unit and the fact, that there is 2GB memory, makes this a rather powerful NAS for the living room. Apart from that there are four 4 USB ports, which offers quite a lot of flexibility also in this direction. This unit ships completely fanless and the only thing you will hear are the hard drives and should you choose to install SSDs, then there will be no noise at all.
If you are looking for an efficient and a compact NAS
for your living room we can
highly recommend the QNAP HS-251. Furthermore we want to underline how easy
to use this unit is.
The QNAP HS-251 is available in Switzerland
for about CHF 360 and on Geizhals we find it listed for 353 Euro.
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