QNAP TS-109 Pro

Posted 11/12/07 at 07:54:32PM | by

David Murphy

We’ll get the bad news out of the way first. QNAP’s TS-109 Pro NAS device is more an enclosure than a NAS box–the storage part of the equation is BYO. Thankfully, NAS devices’ speeds are primarily determined by the connection and the interface of the device itself–purchase a decent hard drive, you’ll be sticking it into one of the fastest NAS boxes we’ve tested.

That said, we’re impressed with the features packed in this enclosure. And boy, what a list! A veritable cornucopia of network-attached storage, the TS-109 functions as a file server, a backup server, a web server, a media server, and a download server. Throughout our testing, we found that each element was as easy to use and helpful as the others. In fact, some were downright awesome: The file downloading application is a great alternative to keeping a loud, energy-sucking computer on overnight. But that’s just a single example. There’s no poison apple in the TS-109’s bucket of features.

We did have a bit of trouble getting the included installation CD to work. But once the “find my NAS device” application installs, accessing the TS-109 isn’t too taxing a process. Again, we had trouble browsing to the device in our network, but after typing in the TS-109’s name in the address bar (\\test, in this case), it appeared without fuss.

It’s a minor deficit in an otherwise useful device. No, not just useful–extraordinary. We have yet to find a NAS box that’s as speedy and feature-packed as this one, so much so that it makes the lack of an accompanying hard drive quite forgivable.

The lights on the front of the TS-109 show you exactly what's connected - and what's screwing up.

T-1000

Great selection of easy-to-use features; also includes eSATA support.

T-Bird

The lack of a hard drive makes us frown slightly, but it also drops the device's price. So really, this is a plus disguised as a minus.

BENCHMARKS
QNAP TS-109 Pro	Read test
Small	0:36
Large	2:27
	Write test
Small	0:39
Large	2:44
We used the CD contents of Maximum PC’s November 2007 CD for the “small” file testing, and a single 3GB file for the “large” testing. All scores were averages of three transfer trials. Scores for the QNAP TS-109 enclosure were obtained using a provided 750GB Seagate 7200.10 Barracuda drive.

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Comments

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TS-109 or TS-109 Pro?

Submitted by Networx on Sat, 2007-11-17 14:36.

I checked out the QNAP site and there is a TS-109 and a TS-109 Pro case available. Which one did you review? Your articles seems to make reference to both. If it's the Pro model I have found a Canadian vendor at http://search.ncix.com/displayproductdetail.php?sku=24901&vpn=TS-109%20Pro&manufacture=QNAP%20Systems%20Inc.

I add this because it's often difficult to find the items reviewed by MaximumPC in Canada so I wanted to share this with other Canadian readers. While our dollar is kicking major ass right now it's just easier to shop from a Canadian supplier when possible. But I'm rambling now.

Great review on a product that I really need. Glad I found it.

When one thinks of a NAS,

Submitted by big_montana on Mon, 2007-11-19 13:08.

When one thinks of a NAS, you think of a device that can hold multiple hard drives. From the picture, and the description on qnap's site, it looks like this can only hold one drive. So, it is a very fast external hard drive enclosure, not a NAS. That in itself should have brought the score down. As my need for more storage increases, I should not have to purchase another device, I should just be able to add another drive into the unit (and it should be hot swappable). This unit only supports up to 1TB of storage, so that tells you there is only support for a single hard drive. Were you so blinded by the "features" that you overlooked the biggest flaw of it's design? The lack of expansion. How many MaxPC users out there would be able to fill up 1TB with the media collection alone? I know I could.

re: big montana

Submitted by TheMurph on Tue, 2007-11-20 11:59.

In our NAS Box roundup, only one box came with multiple bays for additional hard drives. The other three came with single drives, or in the case of the TS-109 Pro, no drive at all.

The beauty of the 109 is that you can use it as both an enclosure (in the typical sense) and a NAS device -- you'll get eSATA and USB for the former, alongside fast speeds and sweet features for the latter.

Slight but important differences between Pro and non-Pro

Submitted by concernedITpro on Tue, 2007-11-20 12:51.

From QNAP's own website comparison tool, the only differences apparent between the versions of the TS-109 are that the Pro supports NFS (Linux client) and Microsoft Active Directory.

The pricing difference at the time of this comment from Newegg's retail site was that the Pro was an additional $45.00 US.

As far as everything else goes, features, speeds and feeds all are the same.

I was considering buying this device, but I am put off by the stated internal storage maximum of 1TB; I can't ascertain whether the statement is the true maximum drive size usable by the product or whether it was merely a case of the largest size currently available at the time they published their specs. One of the only reasons why I would pay so much for a NAS device sans the actual storage would be so that as drive capacities increase, I could simply upgrade the drive I chose to install within the enclosure. If there really is a ceiling on the internal drive storage size usable, then this relegates the device to something disposable, in which case it would be far too expensive.

NAS

Submitted by ggerke on Tue, 2007-11-27 18:20.

:quote:
When one thinks of a NAS, you think of a device that can hold multiple hard drives. From the picture, and the description on qnap's site, it looks like this can only hold one drive. So, it is a very fast external hard drive enclosure, not a NAS.
:unquote:

I'd have to agree, this is more of a Network Attached Disk rather than Network Attached Storage. If you want redundancy then you'd want two of them. Therefore, you'd need a pair of NADs in order to accomplish a typical NAS setup.

About Qnap's TS series NAS

Submitted by Earendil on Sun, 2008-01-20 10:31.

I have a TS-101 and it works similarly to all the TS NAS boxes. First I want to say it's awesome!

As for concernedTPro's questions have no fear. The largest HDD it can handle is 1 TB in each application. For example I currently have four 500 GB HDDs connected to my TS-101 and have had more. One is internal to the TS-101, one is connected to eSATA and is merely backup storage, one is connected to a USB 2.0 port and is mirroring the internal HDD through it's QRAID function and another is connected through the other USB port and USB hub for more storage capacity.

Qnap actively supports their products and the firmware releases prove this. Their support team actually answers questions but you'd have to take my word for this. I suspect the 1 TB limit is due to today's drive sizes and HDD formatting limitations.

As for the NAS/NAD debate, this is much closer to the NAS end of the spectrum. The amount of work it does and the ability of this product as seen in it's user manual is huge. Even I am not using it all, YET! Out of the 9 things it does I use 6 of them.

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