QNAP TS-453 Mini review

Apps

Beyond the usual suite of photo, music and video apps, local and cloud file syncing, and automatic backup tools, there are optional apps to turn the NAS into a surveillance station for any networked IP cameras or a PVR once you’ve connected a digital TV tuner. Most of these are also available as mobile apps, letting you access your content when you’re away from home, although frustratingly the Qvideo, Qphoto and Qdownload apps aren’t yet available for iOS.

There are far more business-focused applications and settings here than you’ll find in a Synology DiskStation, including the ability to run digital signage straight from the NAS. You can even run virtual instances of Windows, Linux or Android, turning the NAS into a basic PC while retaining its storage capabilities.

Specs and benchmarks

This is made possible by the 2GHz quad-core Intel Celeron CPU and 2GB of RAM, which makes the TS-453mini one of the most powerful consumer NAS devices we’ve ever seen. You can even upgrade the RAM by lifting the slot on the bottom of the NAS, letting you replace the 2GB SO-DIMM with up to 8GB of DDR3 if you plan on making liberal use of virtual machines. We had no problem installing and running Ubuntu 15.04 on the NAS in a virtual machine, despite this version not being listed in the NAS interface’s virtual machine setup wizard.

The powerful processor also helps when it comes to file transfer speeds. With four 3TB Western Digital Red disks installed in a RAID 5 array, our large files test was written at a rapid 106.4MB/s and read at an outstanding 111.3MB/s. The small files test is always slower, but 20.6MB/s writes and 22.5MB/s reads are still very respectable – as were 113.2MB/s writes and 87.4MB/s reads in our 1GB massive files test. It outpaces all other four-bay NAS devices we’ve seen in the past twelve months.

Conclusion

The TS-453mini is a brilliant four-bay NAS; it’s compact and barely makes a sound, yet is powerful and has one of the most comprehensive NAS operating systems we’ve seen. It might not be as user-friendly as Synology’s DSM OS, but the integrated media player software and HDMI port on the back make it a fantastic addition to your home cinema. It’s perfectly at home in an office environment too, but our big concern is the price. At roughly £470 as an empty enclosure, it could cost between £800 and £1,300 to fill the TS-453mini with four 3TB, 4TB or 6TB disks. With Synology’s excellent DS415Play costing around £100 less, you would need to use the QNAP’s extra features in order to justify the higher price.