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Brimming with VM goodness: Qnap TS-453mini 4-bay NAS

Diminutive do-it-all Celeron storehouse

Review Qnap’s TS-453mini is the latest addition to the company’s TS-x53 Pro mid-range series of NAS units for SMBs.It is available in two basic models, the TS-453mini-2G (2GB DD3L) and the TS-453mini-8G, the flagship model of the range. The one I have to review has the maximum amount of memory the unit supports: 8GB of DDR3L running at 1,333MHz.

Qnap TS-453mini NAS box

Tall boy: Qnap's TS-453mini NAS box

Although it sits in the business stable of products, it’s a bit more stylish than the usual utilitarian looking 4-bay NAS boxes, so it wouldn’t appear out of place in the home environment. Indeed, there are more than enough apps to keep the home user happy.

Finished in a finger print magnet glossy piano black coating, the TS-453mini has been designed as a vertical unit to save on desktop space. For a 4-bay NAS, it’s certainly compact at 151 x 210 x 200mm (WxHxD). As it’s a vertical design, the drives are loaded into the TS-453mini from the top.

Qnap TS-453mini NAS box

Drives slot in from the top to avoid a large footprint on the desktop

The actual lid of the unit is held on by pretty strong magnets which locate on the top lip of the unit with a satisfying clink, even when the lid is around 10mm away. The lip of the unit also holds a large blue LED light display bar which comes on when the unit is powered up, giving the TS-453mini a hint of the Cylon about it.

Powered by an Intel Celeron J1900, a quad-core chip clocked at 2.0GHz with a burst frequency of 2.4GHz and 2MB of L2 cache backed by the 8GB of RAM, the TS-453mini-8G doesn’t lack for the grunt to get the job done producing over 100MB/s Read and Writes in both ATTO and CrystalDiskMark benchmarks for each array that I built it in.

Qnap TS-453mini NAS box

Not so pro that you get a second PSU but you do get two Ethernet ports

The TS-453mini supports drives up to 6TB capacity in RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10 and JBOD arrays and the drive trays support both 3.5 and 2.5in drives including SSDs. The trays are tool-free for 3.5in storage but 2.5in drives need fixing with the bundled screws.

The unit has five USB ports, 3 x USB3.0 and a pair of USB 2.0 ports. All bar one of the USB3.0 ports are to be found on the back panel along with a pair of Gigabit Ethernet ports and a HDMI 1.4a port. The remaining USB3.0 port is to be found on the front bezel, right next to the USB Auto Copy button.

Qnap TS-453mini NAS box

The QTS main has plenty to keep you busy

Setting up the TS-453mini is pretty straightforward and it takes very little time before you get to grips with the user interface. Qnap’s QTS UI is one of the best around, easy to navigate and very feature rich without looking too cluttered.

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