ASUSTOR, Terramaster, and QNAP Introduce New NAS Systems

The network-attached storage (NAS) market had a break-out years in the 2010s, with a a great deal of suppliers attempting to get a piece of the pie. Brand names such as EMC/ Lenovo and Thecus have actually fallen by the wayside, and even developed storage suppliers like Seagate chose to leave of the marketplace. QNAP and Synology have actually held company in the industrial off-the-shelf (COTS) NAS market implied for home users, prosumers, SOHO, and SMB setups. ASUSTOR (backed by ASUS) has actually likewise been routinely launching NAS systems given that their very first item appeared in late 2012. TerraMaster launched their very first NAS around the exact same time, however decided to focus more on the direct-attached storage section throughout the 2010s. The brand name has actually revealed restored interest in the NAS market over the last couple of years. Regardless of the cut-throat competitors in the COTS NAS market, some Asian suppliers are trying to get a toe-hold after developing themselves in allied markets. UGREEN, a customer electronic devices brand name understood for its power banks, battery chargers, USB adapters, and docks has actually likewise revealed its entry into the NAS market, however we will cover that in a different short article.

Asustor, Buffalo, QNAP, Synology, TerraMaster, and Western Digital are presently the primary alternatives readily available for users seeking to buy a COTS NAS for SOHO/ SMB usage. Out of these, Buffalo and WD upgrade their hardware alternatives just when every 3 or 4 years. The others have a more routine cadence to their portfolio additions while continuing to keep software application assistance for the tradition systems – in some cases even NAS systems launched as far as ten years earlier.

CES has actually generally been a great platform for NAS suppliers, enabling them to reveal their newest and biggest in both software and hardware, and sometimes reveal brand-new designs. Nevertheless, the appeal has actually been lost over the last few years. It began with Synology and QNAP beginning their own conference intended towards partners/ resellers and designers. Ultimately, CES ended up being reasonably peaceful for this market section. Other organization conferences concentrated on virtualization, security etc. are ending up being much better occasions for these NAS suppliers. In general, CES is no longer an essential program for the NAS market. Having stated that, the rest of this piece catches a few of the statements made in the NAS area around the 2024 CES time-frame.

At the 2024 CES, UGREEN made a huge splash with the hardware alternatives for their approaching NASync series. Synology’s cubicle reworked systems that have actually been around for a huge part of 2023. A chuckle-worthy DS224+ (utilizing an ancient Intel Celeron J4125) was likewise on display screen. ASUSTOR had a small existence in ASUS’s suite, and the other NAS suppliers provided the program a miss out on.

ASUSTOR Drivestor Lite and Drivestor 2/4 Pro Gen2: Arm NAS with btrfs Assistance

ASUSTOR has actually upgraded their lineup of Arm-based NAS systems for home/ individual usage, and the systems are currently readily available for purchase. The brand-new Drivestor 2 Lite, 2 Pro Gen2, and 4 Pro Gen2 utilize a brand-new Realtek processor – the RTD1619B. This is a quad-core Cortex-A55 SoC with the CPU performing at 1.7 GHz. The Arm Mali-G51 MP3 in the SoC is clocked at 650 MHz. This lineup takes control of the Drivestor 2, 4, 2 Pro, and 4 Pro systems which had the Realtek RTD1296 (quad-core Cortex-A53 at 1.4 GHz). The increased processing power in the brand-new processor, paired with a brand-new SDK from Realtek, has actually now permitted ASUSTOR to bring btrfs assistance in this lineup.

Regardless of utilizing the exact same SoC, the Lite design distinguishes itself from the Pro design by going with half the RAM, and limiting itself to a 1 GbE LAN port (compared to the 2.5 GbE in the Pro ones). 2 USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports in the Pro designs are positioned by a USB 2.0 port in the Lite design. There are 2 drive bays, however the drives themselves are not hot-swappable. ASUSTOR is promoting the transcoding efficiency of the brand-new efficiency and depicting the Drivestor 2 Lite as a capable NAS for Plex and their own ‘LooksGood’ application.

.(* )The Pro Gen2 designs have hot-swappable bays. In addition to the hardware setup updates, ASUSTOR is promoting a various set of applications such as Portainer (Docker) compared to the Lite design. The distinctions in the specs are highlighted in the table listed below.

. .(* )ASUSTOR 2024 Drivestor Lineup .

Design

AS3304T v2

SoC Platform

Realtek RTD1619B

1 GB DDR4( Soldered)

8GB eMMC

2x 3.5″ SATA

1x USB 3.2 Gen 1

.
1x USB 2.0

3x USB 3.2 Gen 1

.(* )1x RJ-45( 1 GbE )

1x RJ-45( 2.5 GbE )

Power Adapter

65W( External )

90W( External )

Measurements and Weight

165mm x 102mm x 218mm/ 1.14 kg

170mm x 114mm x 230mm/ 1.6 kg (* ) .

$ 269

TerraMaster 424 and 424 Pro: High-Performance 2.5 GbE NAS Systems with Alder Lake-N

upgraded

their entry-level x86 NAS lineup for SOHO/ SMB setups. This section was served in 2015 by the 423 series based upon Jasper Lake( Celeron N5095). The 424 series makes use of Alder Lake-N. With Intel promoting an octa-core setup as a Core i3 in this series,
TerraMaster is likewise introducing a 424 Pro using the Core i3-N300.

The specs of the 3 systems are summed up in the table listed below.

.
Drivestor 2 Lite	Drivestor 2 Pro Gen2	Drivestor 4 Pro Gen2	.
AS1102TL	AS3302T v2(* ) .	.	.
. ( 4x Cortex-A55 @ 1.7 GHz/ Arm Mali-G51 MP3)	.(* ) . RAM
2 GB DDR4( Soldered)	.	OS Storage
.	Internal Storage/ Bays
4x 3.5″ SATA	.		I/O Ports
.	. .	Network Ports
.	.	.
.	.		.
170mm x 174mm x 230mm/ 2.2 kg	.	Rate	$ 175
$ 339	.	ASUSTOR has actually transferred to the exact same platform embraced by Synology for the DS223 and other 23-series individual/ home NAS designs, equaling the processing power provided by the competitors. The intro of btrfs support in this lineup now brings simple pictures (and a little ransomware security )to ASUSTOR’s consumers at an inexpensive cost point.	TerraMaster just recently

.

.
TerraMaster 424 NAS Series ( Alder Lake-N) .

. Design .

F4-424(* ) .

F4-424 Pro

SoC Platform

Intel N95(* ) .( 4x Gracemont @
as much as 3.4 GHz/ Intel UHD Graphics)

Intel Core i3-N300

.( 8x Gracemont @ as much as 3.8 GHz/ Intel UHD Graphics)

1x 8 GB DDR5-4800 SODIMM (Expandable to 1x 32 GB)

. 2x M. 2 2280 Gen3 x4 NVMe

4x 3.5″ SATA

.
2x M. 2 2280
Gen3 x4 NVMe

. 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2( Type-C)

Network Ports

.(* ) .

40W( External)

Measurements and Weight

. (* )222mm x 179mm x 154mm/ 3.4 kg

. (* )Rate

$ 380

$500(* ) .

The TNAS os( TOS) is presently at 5.1, with the release of TOS 6.0 in the future. Being a relatively brand-new entrant to the NAS world, the OS and mobile applications do not have the polish of the offerings from developed suppliers, however fortunately is that things can just enhance from here. The hardware itself is rather capable, and the brand-new 424 series is the very first Alder Lake-N-based COTS NAS that we have actually seen for purchase. Terramaster had actually previously try out a 10 GbE NAS utilizing Apollo Lake, though it was not able to fill that user interface. The business appears to have actually selected a more economical platform with Alder Lake-N in the 424 series.

QNAP stays hectic throughout the year, routinely revealing hardware with the most recent and biggest from Intel/ AMD/ ARM-based SoC suppliers. The business likewise takes pride in upgrading various ‘plugins’/ first-party applications for their QTS/ QuTS Here running systems to increase their effectiveness. Comparable to Synology, the focus is gradually moving more towards organization users as a bulk of their current statements have actually been associated with their ZFS-enabled QuTS Hero-running NAS systems.

At the 2023 CES, the business had

teased

extensive video

Our company believe that the M. 2 form-factor in the NAS is much better fit for caching and/or non-hot-swappable storage, while U. 2/ U. 3 makes more sense for hot-swappable systems. QNAP originated the all-flash customer NAS with the

and ASUSTOR’s

made extra alternatives readily available. The TBS-h574TX brings hot-swap into the image, however a few of the disadvantages of the styles still stay. For instance, none of the SSD slots get the complete four-lane ability, despite the fact that they physically accept x4 SSDs. QNAP competes that this suffices to fill the 10GbE link, however that appears like a compromise finest prevented when it is possible to utilize the network port together with Thunderbolt (acting in IP mode with just 10 Gb ability per port) to have a 30 GbE up/ 30 GbE down setup. Single-slot tenancy can’t provide complete efficiency because setup. In any case, QNAP thinks their video production home consumers will still discover this system providing much better efficiency than other alternatives presently readily available in this form-factor, and they might be best on the useful front.

$ 1200

F2-424
.	.	.	.
.	RAM .		. 1x 32 GB DDR5-4800 SODIMM
Internal Storage/ Bays	2x 3.5″ SATA		.
.	I/O Ports .(* )1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (Type-A)	. .
2x RJ-45( 2x 2.5 GbE )	. Power Adapter
90W( External)	.
222mm x 119mm x 154mm/ 2.2 kg	.(* ) .	.
$ 700	.(* ) .	QNAP Ryzen 7000 Rackmounts, Larger TBS-h574TX NASBook Schedule and Application Updates
their very first consumer-focused hot-swappable all-flash NAS with M. 2/ E1.S SSD assistance. The TBS-h574TX reached retail in late 2023, and QNAP submitted a	detailing the use and functions of the system last month. After taking part in the launch webinar prior to that, my expectations were tempered a bit. In the year given that its teaser, the E1.S form-factor has actually not taken off as anticipated. Rather, we saw suppliers like Solidigm and Micron concentrate on the standard 2.5″ form-factor with U. 2 and U. 3 SSDs. E1.L is making more sense for rackmount makers needing really high storage density, however the basic market pattern appears to be more towards U. 2/ U. 3 for both customer and SMB/ SME on-premise use. 2023 likewise saw the launch of 64TB-class U. 2/ U. 3 SSDs, and this form-factor appears extensively readily available for purchase.	TBS-464	Flashstor series

, this Raptor Lake-based system is not especially inexpensive. Regardless of utilizing an ingrained part (Core i3-1340PE) which features in-band ECC assistance from Intel, QNAP does not have that allowed in the system (ideally it is something that can be resolved in a future upgrade). In general, this item appears like a missed out on chance for QNAP in the all-flash customer NAS market.

Proceeding to the most recent hardware intros, QNAP is focusing more on ZFS-enabled NAS systems now. The business just recently presented 2 rackmount systems based upon the Ryzen 7000 series, and their specs are summed up in the table listed below.

. . QNAP TS-h77AXU-RP Series( Ryzen 7000 Series) .
.

. Design . TS-h1277AXU-RP-R5-16G .

TS-h1277AXU-RP-R7-32G .
TS-h1677AXU-RP-R7-32G

. . Platform(* ) .

.( 6C/12T Zen 4 @ as much as 5.1 GHz/ AMD Radeon Graphics)

AMD Ryzen 7 7700

1x 16 GB DDR5-5200 UDIMM( Expandable to 4x 32 GB)

1x 32 GB DDR5-5200 UDIMM( Expandable to 4x 32 GB)

Internal Storage/
Bays

. 2x M. 2 2280 Gen5 x2 NVMe

I/O Ports

2x USB 3.2 Gen 2( Type-A)

Network Ports

4x RJ-45(

PCIe Growth Slots

( Slot 1 + Slot 2) :( Gen4 x4 + Gen4 x4) or( N/A + Gen4 x8)

Power Supply

( 3U) 131.32 mm x 482.09 mm x 550.93 mm/ 15.64 kg

$ 3299

.(* )$ 3999

All designs use 5GB of flash storage with dual-boot OS security. ZFS assistance generates deduplication and other functions essential for business implementations. These are a few of the very first NAS systems to support Gen5 M. 2 SSDs (albeit, with x2 links), and QNAP recommends usage of their own heat-sink on them for usage in these rackmounts. The redundant power supply setup is likewise essential in the use-case circumstances for these systems, and the readily available growth slots enables end users/ IT administrators to include 25GbE network cards or SAS/ SATA storage growth cards as needed. GPU pass-through is likewise supported, which can assist particular virtualization setups where the VM and associated storage setup work on the exact same server block.

In software application news from QNAP, the business is likewise promoting its

machine-learning based drive failure forecast tool

third-party engine

QSAL

AMD Ryzen 5 7600
.( 8C/16T Zen 4 @ as much as 5.3 GHz/ AMD Radeon Graphics)	.	RAM( ECC UDIMMs Supported)(* ) .	.
.	. 12x 3.5″ SATA	. 16x 3.5″ SATA
.	.	.
.	+ )		. .
. Slot 3: Gen4 x4	.
550W x2	.(* ) .[2x 2.5 GbE] Measurements and Weight[2x 10GBASE-T] .(* )( 2U) 88.65 mm x 432.05 mm x 511.3 mm/ 13 kg
.	Rate .
$ 4699	.(* ) .
that utilizes a cloud-based engine beyond the standard wise readouts. It utilizes a	and needs a license purchase for usage on more than one disk per NAS. QNAP is likewise promoting its SSD anti-wear leveling functions (		) as a distinguishing element of its QuTS ZFS running system. These kinds of value-additions might assist QuTS go head-to-head versus alternatives like TrueNAS.