QNAP TS-451 Bay Trail NAS Performance Review
by Ganesh T S on July 28, 2014 9:00 AM ESTEncryption Support Evaluation
Consumers looking for encryption capabilities can opt to encrypt a iSCSI share with TrueCrypt or some in-built encryption mechanism in the client OS. However, if requirements dictate that the data must be shared across multiple users / computers, relying on encryption in the NAS is the best way to move forward. Most NAS vendors use the industry-standard 256-bit AES encryption algorithm. One approach is to encrypt only a particular shared folder while the other approach is to encrypt the full volume. QNAP supports only volume-level encryption for now in QTS.
On the hardware side, encryption support can be in the form of specialized hardware blocks in the SoC (common in ARM / PowerPC based NAS units). In x86-based systems, accelerated encryption support is dependent on whether the AES-NI instruction is available on the host CPU. The Celeron J1800 doesn't have AES-NI capabilities, but the CPU does have some more grunt compared to the previous generation Atoms. The following graphs show its effectiveness.
The encryption-enabled performance numbers of the TS-451 simply blow it past the other contenders. If the absence of AES-NI can still result in this good a performance with a RAID-5 volume, we are left wondering what QNAP could do with AES-NI acceleration in Avoton / Rangeley.
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BMNify - Monday, July 28, 2014 - link
just to add "the hardware you're suggesting looks like DIY enterprise architecture" its also possible to actually buy NICE looking and cheap Free Standing Rack Cabinets for the home too now such as the Orion Free Standing Rack Cabinets with glass front for onehttp://www.rackcabinets.co.uk/cabinets/data-racks/...
a 9U glass fronted cabinet for £240.00 (inc VAT) to sit next to your desk in the SOHO room or a cupboard if your not into showing off your home made rack... :)
Trickie - Tuesday, July 29, 2014 - link
Came across this when researching the x51 series last week. A x53 model is in the pipeline with a j1900 chip. Guessing they will be targeting small business with this model and be charging an even bigger premium as a result even though the chip cost $10 more.The extra grunt will suit my use case much better (vm's). What I need to make the jump to a NAS from a desktop is hardware transcoding support within plex. See http://forum.qnap.com/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=953...
azazel1024 - Monday, July 28, 2014 - link
That is interesting that the J1800 doesn't support AES-NI instructions. I was going to post a self righteous comment about "well of course it does!", and then I checked Intel ARK and saw they list it as not supporting it. My humble little z3740 in my tablet DOES support AES-NI though.I always find it odd what Intel choose to enable and disable on their various SKUs *shakes head slowly*
takeshi7 - Monday, July 28, 2014 - link
You should review the Seagate NAS Pro 4-bay next. I'm curious how the Intel based Seagate compares to this QNAP.halfflat - Monday, July 28, 2014 - link
Still no ECC RAM? Can't really take it seriously.ganeshts - Monday, July 28, 2014 - link
Look at the target market : Home media enthusiasts / power users - who want to stream their huge media collections / backup their smartphone photos / need a backup for small amounts of data that they generate on their laptops (say, tax returns or documents or similar things). Why go in for ECC RAM overkill (and associated increased platform cost?)ECC RAM is necessary only for mission-critical applications. If you feel ECC RAM is necessary for a non-ZFS mdadm-based software RAID system like the TS-451, I would love to hear the arguments in its favor.
darkfalz - Monday, July 28, 2014 - link
Would prefer a 6 bay. At 25% space penalty, RAID-5 with 4 drives is a bit painful. With 6 bays you're down to at more acceptable 17% space penalty. Give me 6x6TB in RAID-5 NAS and I'll be happy (currenting running 5x4TB in a HTPC but feeling cramped already!)wintermute000 - Tuesday, July 29, 2014 - link
there is a 6 bay model, its just not the one reviewed lolbasroil - Monday, July 28, 2014 - link
Those are some really nice numbers for iSCSI (which you need for Lightroom to work), far better than other qnap devices...Really got to say Anandtech rocks, the really do listen to feedback and test for cases that readers are interested in! (hell, I like the service so much I disabled all adblock like scripts for the site, something I never do)
roman.md - Tuesday, July 29, 2014 - link
759$ - overpriced