NAS TS-219P II from QNAP Review

The choice of NAS for home use is frequently accompanied by the dilemma: the necessity to acquire a high-end device with multifunctional facilities at reasonable price. As usual, quality and good performance cost pretty penny, especially when it comes about innovative technologies; however, there are some NAS designers which provide their products at moderate cost but do not save on quality. Thus, QNAP company has released its new NAS solution TS-219P II designated as for home so for small business use. This model isn’t notable for outstanding design or ergonomics but offers efficient solution of any dedicated home assignments due to wide functional capabilities and good performance.

Integration

1. External design. QNAP TS-219P II goes in standard design with typical casing peculiarities. All internal components are fixed on a solid metallic framework, while the external casing is made of dull plastic. The faceplate is equipped with a plastic wafer which contains five standard LED-indicators signalizing about the working mode, power control button, and USB 2.0 port with a button for data copying activation. The main part of the faceplate is allotted for the access to the hard drives bay which allows the hot swapping procedure. The rear plate accommodates network interface, NAS restart button, a couple of eSATA interfaces and USB 2.0 ports, as well as a socket for power adapter activation and safety lock slot of Kensington type.

TS-219P II cooling system consists of a small fan which proves to show good ventilation performance. This model is distinguished by the possibility to select the rotation fan speed: the speed can be changed as in automatic mode so in manual mode. This permits the user to lower the noise to minimal level.

2. Internal composition. It should be mentioned that NAS casing doesn’t have much space, however it is sufficient for the effective ventilation activity. Component soldering and overall internal composition have a well-considered, qualitative and accurate integration. Hard drives carriers are made entirely of plastic and have dedicated sockets for 3.5-inch and 2.5-inch drives installation.

Delivery Set

NAS TS-219P II is delivered in a compact cardboard box. The nominal delivery set includes a range of components: user manual, Ethernet network cable, power adapter with a detachable drive cable, disk with software and detailed instruction on usage, and a kit of fixing screws for HDD installation.

Technical Peculiarities
NAS TS-219P II is based on Marvell Kirkwood 88F6282 processor with the clock frequency of 2.0 GHz. This is an outstanding performance as compared to other NAS devices of this manufacturer which clock frequency does not exceed 1.6 GHz. RAM volume equals to 512 Mb; memory modules are sealed into the motherboard and aren’t interchangeable. NAS developers have used four chips DDR3-133 each with 128 Mb in volume capacity.

Integrated in SoC-processor controller is called to support the hard drives operation; additional controller JMB362 ensures the functionality of two external eSATA interfaces. Moreover, motherboard is equipped with a gigabit network controller Marvell 88E1318. The only drawback is the absence of USB 3.0 sockets. The other specification can be listed as follows:
— dimensions: 169x102x225;
— power consumption: 16 W in operational mode and 8 W in standby mode;
— cooling system: 70 mm fan with rotation speed control;
— network interfaces: Ethernet RJ-45;
— clients: Windows XP, Vista, 7, Unix, Apple Mac OS X Linux.

In Use

Applet QNAP Finder will be a useful means for the nominal NAS detection and setup. This applet is installed due to a dedicated disk with software available in the delivery set. TS-219P II capabilities provide for the creation of a private virtual network. This became possible thanks to the implementation of VPN-server technology the activation of which is realized via the web-interface. VPN-server is able to support PPTP and OpenVPN protocols. This model will gladden owners of small business, since it can function as LDAP-server (access to LDAP catalogues and aggregation of users) based on OpenLDAP technology.

New NAS enables the installation of supplementary applications on QPKG platform beneficial for the solution of various business assignments. File backup facility on ElephantDrive and Amazon S3 is replenished by the support of Symform cloud service.

To continue, home-based users will find a new integrated photo-server a great advantage. All photos can be distributed by albums and made available via the Internet. The server ensures the photo transfer via e-mail services, social networks or direct references.