DanTheBanjoman
11-26-2007, 11:45 AM
[page=Introduction]
Introduction
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/qnaplogo.gif
I'd like to thank QNAP for supplying this sample.
The QNAP TS-209 Pro Turbostation aims at small businesses by offering relatively low cost, easy to set up data redundancy. However home users who enjoy some data redundancy would love it as well. Think of storing family pictures or your self-produced music. In fact, half of the features would be more suitable for home users. The TS-209 Pro is very similar to its little brother the TS-109 Pro. The main difference can be found in the added RAID functionality and the looks. (they don't look alike at all)
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/ts209.jpg
Features
Create your own File Server in the easiest way
FTP Server simplifies the data sharing
Backup Server with the most professional auto-backup software
Enhanced data protection by optional RAID-1 mirroring
Remote Replication
Establish your interactive Web Server
MySQL Server
Share your printer resource by Printer Server
UPnP Media Server (with built-in TwonkyMedia Server)
Multimedia Station for photo sharing
Enjoy continuous download independent of PC
Share your music by iTunes Server
<table border="1" class="resulttable" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3">
<tr>
<th>Application</th>
<td>2x3.5" SATA HD, up to 3 USB devices</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Weight</th>
<td>2.4 kg (without disk) </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Dimensions</th>
<td>214 x 175 x 115 mm </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Material</th>
<td>Aluminum</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Interface</th>
<td>Gigabit LAN</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Power supply</th>
<td>Standard 12V/3A adapter </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Power usage</th>
<td>5.1W in sleep mode<br>22.8W in operation</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Supported file systems</th>
<td>FAT, FAT32, EXT3, NTFS (read only) </td>
</tr>
</table>
[page=Packaging]
Packaging
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/box1.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/box1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/box2.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/box2.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/box3.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/box3.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/box4.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/box4.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/box5.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/box5.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/box6.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/box6.jpg)
The package comes in a relatively small box with information written on it everywhere in various languages. Many things you'd like to know about the TS-209 can be found out just by reading it.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/boxopen.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/boxopen.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/boxcontents.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/boxcontents.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/boxcontents2.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/boxcontents2.jpg)
When you open the box you find everything you require, it doesn't look like much but it basically means anyone could set it up.
1 power cable, 1 installation CD, a quick installation guide, a UTP cable, some screws, the front of the unit and of course the unit itself.
The unit
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/front1.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/front1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/front2.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/front2.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/front3.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/front3.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/back.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/back.jpg)
The TS-209 has a simple design on the outside but still looks good that way. It's basically a cube with a shiny front. The simplicity gives it a professional look, no pointless fancy things. Suitable for business use.
The front contains a copy button (copies whatever USB device is attached to the internal drives), an on/off button, a USB port and several flashy lights. On the back there are two more USB ports, an RJ45 port, a connector for the adapter and a little hole to connect a K-lock to.
[page=Installation]
Installation
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/disk1.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/disk1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/disk2.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/disk2.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/disk3.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/disk3.jpg)
You screw a metal caddy to the harddisks before you slide them into the TS-209 Pro.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/screwdisk.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/screwdisk.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/inside.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/inside.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/disks.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/disks.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/front.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/front.jpg)
Changes to the installed drives can be done while the unit is turned on since the slots are fully hotswappable. This also prevents downtime from a failing disk when using RAID1.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/manual.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/manual.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/installback.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/installback.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/installfront.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/installfront.jpg)
To assist you with installation the manual unfolds into a huge sheet covering basic installation.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/qnapsetup.jpg
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/qnapfinder.jpg
Installation is done via the QNAP finder, just like most QNAP products. The finder will locate the QNAP NAS device on the network and then allows you to do a basic setup. It will let you change the device's name, set up the harddisk(s) - basically makes the device work.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/qnapraid.jpg
The setup asks for standard settings like time and network settings. After that the drive(s) have to be initialized. You can choose between RAID 0, 1 and JBOD. Additionally you can choose not to use RAID. For our tests I mainly used RAID 1. Everything will look the same and during benchmarks there won't be a difference due to network limitations.
After drive initialization a firmware image is asked, select the one you want and never look back at these settings again, unless of course you require some firmware update.
Services
Most of the services featured are identical to the earlier reviewed TS-109 pro, therefor I skipped most. The list is very long and suits the needs of about any home or small business user.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/qnapmainsetup.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/qnapmainsetup.jpg)
As you can see everything can be setup from the web interface. It pretty much explains itself. You can enable/disable services and each page contains a few handy options for the service.
For a list of services check out the TS-109 review (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/QNAPTS109).
The only real difference are the RAID options, which allow you to redefine the array. The complete list of services is quite impressive yet still easy to overlook.
[page=Performance]
Test setup
The TS-209 was tested with the shipped firmware. There are newer firmwares available here (http://www.qnap.com/download_detail.asp?pl=1&p_mn=TS-209%20Pro&ct_name=Firmware), however, due to some stupid things I did myself I couldn't rerun the tests with these.
The test system is connected directly via the UTP cable that came with the TS-209. The NIC used is an Intel GilGal (Server Ethernet Controller). Storage comes from a SCSI RAID 5 array. Software wise nothing much is set up, the only real change made to the network settings are 9K Jumbo packets.
Performance
Performance is tested via FTP file transfer(up/down), Samba (Windows file sharing, up/down) and HTTP (down).
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/performance.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/ts209atto.jpg
Performance is about twice that of a 100 MBit line. Even though this is a noticeable difference I can't help thinking higher speeds must be attainable via 1 Gbit. On the PC's side there wasn't any bottleneck and the two SATA drives can do a lot more even on their own. Single drive, RAID 0 or RAID 1 made little to no difference on performance.
The most common way to access the NAS on a LAN is via SMB which is compatible to Windows File Sharing protocol.
[page=Value & Conclusion]
Value & Conclusion
<table width="100%" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" id="result">
<tr><th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/dollar.gif</th>
<td>
The QNAP TS-209 Pro is yours for roughly $350.
</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbup.gif</th>
<td>
Gigabit Ethernet
Very complete set of features
Easy to use
Ability to expand via USB or changing the OS
Data redundancy (RAID 1)
Hotswappable
High performance compared to the competition
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbdown.gif</th>
<td>
Not the cheapest on the market
Doesn't come with a hard drive
</td></tr>
<tr><th>9.0</th>
<td>For a small company that doesn't use huge files or a demanding home user with a low budget the TS-209 offers a lot of value. The rich features and ability to expand make it a long term investment. Even though you could probably build a faster server yourself for less money you won't be able to do it in such a small box, that is quiet and energy efficient.<br/>
Due to the sheer amount of features and the great performance compared to other NAS devices I conclude that the TS-209 is a solid product that won't disappoint anyone.</td></tr>
</table>
Introduction
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/qnaplogo.gif
I'd like to thank QNAP for supplying this sample.
The QNAP TS-209 Pro Turbostation aims at small businesses by offering relatively low cost, easy to set up data redundancy. However home users who enjoy some data redundancy would love it as well. Think of storing family pictures or your self-produced music. In fact, half of the features would be more suitable for home users. The TS-209 Pro is very similar to its little brother the TS-109 Pro. The main difference can be found in the added RAID functionality and the looks. (they don't look alike at all)
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/ts209.jpg
Features
Create your own File Server in the easiest way
FTP Server simplifies the data sharing
Backup Server with the most professional auto-backup software
Enhanced data protection by optional RAID-1 mirroring
Remote Replication
Establish your interactive Web Server
MySQL Server
Share your printer resource by Printer Server
UPnP Media Server (with built-in TwonkyMedia Server)
Multimedia Station for photo sharing
Enjoy continuous download independent of PC
Share your music by iTunes Server
<table border="1" class="resulttable" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="3">
<tr>
<th>Application</th>
<td>2x3.5" SATA HD, up to 3 USB devices</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Weight</th>
<td>2.4 kg (without disk) </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Dimensions</th>
<td>214 x 175 x 115 mm </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Material</th>
<td>Aluminum</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Interface</th>
<td>Gigabit LAN</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Power supply</th>
<td>Standard 12V/3A adapter </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Power usage</th>
<td>5.1W in sleep mode<br>22.8W in operation</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>Supported file systems</th>
<td>FAT, FAT32, EXT3, NTFS (read only) </td>
</tr>
</table>
[page=Packaging]
Packaging
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/box1.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/box1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/box2.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/box2.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/box3.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/box3.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/box4.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/box4.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/box5.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/box5.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/box6.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/box6.jpg)
The package comes in a relatively small box with information written on it everywhere in various languages. Many things you'd like to know about the TS-209 can be found out just by reading it.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/boxopen.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/boxopen.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/boxcontents.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/boxcontents.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/boxcontents2.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/boxcontents2.jpg)
When you open the box you find everything you require, it doesn't look like much but it basically means anyone could set it up.
1 power cable, 1 installation CD, a quick installation guide, a UTP cable, some screws, the front of the unit and of course the unit itself.
The unit
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/front1.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/front1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/front2.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/front2.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/front3.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/front3.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/back.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/back.jpg)
The TS-209 has a simple design on the outside but still looks good that way. It's basically a cube with a shiny front. The simplicity gives it a professional look, no pointless fancy things. Suitable for business use.
The front contains a copy button (copies whatever USB device is attached to the internal drives), an on/off button, a USB port and several flashy lights. On the back there are two more USB ports, an RJ45 port, a connector for the adapter and a little hole to connect a K-lock to.
[page=Installation]
Installation
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/disk1.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/disk1.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/disk2.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/disk2.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/disk3.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/disk3.jpg)
You screw a metal caddy to the harddisks before you slide them into the TS-209 Pro.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/screwdisk.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/screwdisk.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/inside.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/inside.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/disks.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/disks.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/front.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/front.jpg)
Changes to the installed drives can be done while the unit is turned on since the slots are fully hotswappable. This also prevents downtime from a failing disk when using RAID1.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/manual.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/manual.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/installback.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/installback.jpg) http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/installfront.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/installfront.jpg)
To assist you with installation the manual unfolds into a huge sheet covering basic installation.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/qnapsetup.jpg
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/qnapfinder.jpg
Installation is done via the QNAP finder, just like most QNAP products. The finder will locate the QNAP NAS device on the network and then allows you to do a basic setup. It will let you change the device's name, set up the harddisk(s) - basically makes the device work.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/qnapraid.jpg
The setup asks for standard settings like time and network settings. After that the drive(s) have to be initialized. You can choose between RAID 0, 1 and JBOD. Additionally you can choose not to use RAID. For our tests I mainly used RAID 1. Everything will look the same and during benchmarks there won't be a difference due to network limitations.
After drive initialization a firmware image is asked, select the one you want and never look back at these settings again, unless of course you require some firmware update.
Services
Most of the services featured are identical to the earlier reviewed TS-109 pro, therefor I skipped most. The list is very long and suits the needs of about any home or small business user.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/thumbs/qnapmainsetup.jpg (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/full/qnapmainsetup.jpg)
As you can see everything can be setup from the web interface. It pretty much explains itself. You can enable/disable services and each page contains a few handy options for the service.
For a list of services check out the TS-109 review (http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/QNAPTS109).
The only real difference are the RAID options, which allow you to redefine the array. The complete list of services is quite impressive yet still easy to overlook.
[page=Performance]
Test setup
The TS-209 was tested with the shipped firmware. There are newer firmwares available here (http://www.qnap.com/download_detail.asp?pl=1&p_mn=TS-209%20Pro&ct_name=Firmware), however, due to some stupid things I did myself I couldn't rerun the tests with these.
The test system is connected directly via the UTP cable that came with the TS-209. The NIC used is an Intel GilGal (Server Ethernet Controller). Storage comes from a SCSI RAID 5 array. Software wise nothing much is set up, the only real change made to the network settings are 9K Jumbo packets.
Performance
Performance is tested via FTP file transfer(up/down), Samba (Windows file sharing, up/down) and HTTP (down).
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/performance.gif
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/QNAP/TS209/images/ts209atto.jpg
Performance is about twice that of a 100 MBit line. Even though this is a noticeable difference I can't help thinking higher speeds must be attainable via 1 Gbit. On the PC's side there wasn't any bottleneck and the two SATA drives can do a lot more even on their own. Single drive, RAID 0 or RAID 1 made little to no difference on performance.
The most common way to access the NAS on a LAN is via SMB which is compatible to Windows File Sharing protocol.
[page=Value & Conclusion]
Value & Conclusion
<table width="100%" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" id="result">
<tr><th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/dollar.gif</th>
<td>
The QNAP TS-209 Pro is yours for roughly $350.
</td>
</tr><tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbup.gif</th>
<td>
Gigabit Ethernet
Very complete set of features
Easy to use
Ability to expand via USB or changing the OS
Data redundancy (RAID 1)
Hotswappable
High performance compared to the competition
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<th>http://www.techpowerup.com/images/thumbdown.gif</th>
<td>
Not the cheapest on the market
Doesn't come with a hard drive
</td></tr>
<tr><th>9.0</th>
<td>For a small company that doesn't use huge files or a demanding home user with a low budget the TS-209 offers a lot of value. The rich features and ability to expand make it a long term investment. Even though you could probably build a faster server yourself for less money you won't be able to do it in such a small box, that is quiet and energy efficient.<br/>
Due to the sheer amount of features and the great performance compared to other NAS devices I conclude that the TS-209 is a solid product that won't disappoint anyone.</td></tr>
</table>