I've been looking for a decent cheap 4-bay NAS. This seems to fit the bill. Next cheapest price is ~$100 more on staticice.
Price is $280.95 + PayPal Fee (3% - total $289.38) or credit card fee (2.5% - total $287.97). Delivery is free.
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It can also run Plex Media Server, although with that ARM 2-core CPU, if you need transcoding I'd look elsewhere.
Doesn't look like it.
Better to get a unit with Intel processor, it gives you more options.
Seems expensive for home use.
How does it compare to FreeNAS or OpenMediaVault on a mini-PC with USB3 external drives?
Anything from a Raspberry Pi to an Intel NUC would do.
If you are serious, even the HP microserver can be only slightly more expensive:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/HP-Microserver-ProLiant-G7-N54L-4…
Installing FreeNAS should be simple.
If price is your only concern, you'd be better off with something like a HP ML10v2.
With a QNAP NAS you're paying extra for the "plug and play" utility and lower power use.
I've done the whole HP microserver thing before and sometimes you just want to plug it in, shove the drives in, turn it on, and be up and running.
I've done the whole HP microserver thing before and sometimes you just want to plug it in, shove the drives in, turn it on, and be up and running.
Which is why you run something like XPEnology on the N54L, 15 mins of setup and you're away with Synology's DSM ;-)
You'd rely on unsupported software written by one (anonymous?) person? I'm a big fan of DSM but porting to an unsupported hardware platform is high risk.
@ispace: Apart from the bootloader, the DSM is exactly the same as what's running on every Synology NAS as it's released under GPL. Have you never used open sourced software before that was written by someone?
I've been running it for years, recently upgraded from 5.0 to 6.0.2, haven't had any issues. If you're smart and either have a backup of what you have, or don't really care if you lose it, then I don't see what the risk is.
Show me a 6 bay Synology NAS you can get for $250-$300, as that's how many drives I have in my N54L right now.
@Porthos: How easy was the migration from 5.0 > 6.0.2?
That said, a 4 bay Synology box at the same price as this QNAP would be tempting given the small size and SHR.
How easy was the migration from 5.0 > 6.0.2?
A lot easier than I thought, I was expecting to lose all my information as I was coming from 5.0, but it all went without a hitch. I used this guide and didn't have an issue.
That said, a 4 bay Synology box at the same price as this QNAP would be tempting given the small size and SHR.
Yeah I use to have a 212j before deciding to upgrade it, and couldn't justify spending $800+ on a 5 bay NAS, but this way I have a 6 bay NAS running with SHR and all the other benefits of the Synology DMS for a fraction of the price. If Synology ever decided to release a paid version of their DSM for other hardware, I'd gladly pay it (I know it'll never happen though).
I use QNAP at work and Synology at home, and there's good and bad points of each of them. Can't really be disappointed with either.
Not enough grunt.
Alternative is go for Synology. They are quite good too.
Difference is Synology has best software, user friendly and uses less power.
Qnap has better hardware and software not that good.
Bought the same model couple of months ago for similar price, pretty happy with it.
QSync (sync up with your files among multiple devices and users ) is very useful for SOHO environment.
Drawback is NO support memory expansion and low perf CPU but I'm not running any VMs, video decoding or any other intensive workload so far all good.
Alternative price is on eBay
All up $285.60 ( - free shipping and no paypal/CC surcharge)
Shoppingsquare with 20% off with Cyber code
Also you qualify for cash rewards or pricepal cash back
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/QNAP-TS-431-4Bay-Personal-Cloud-N…
That isn't the same NAS. You've linked to the "TS-431" not the newer "TS-431+".
fair enough
Bought the TS-431 non + for $292.50 from warehouse1 from the last 10% off sitewide so final cost came to $263.25
Got the delivery and inside the box was the TS-431+
win win for me ;)
how can a NAS be diskless?
It just means they're sold without a hard drive already installed.
Is the RAM upgrade-able on this unit?