6 month review of the QNAP TVS-472XT Thunderbolt NAS: high-performance storage! Check prices at B&H: bhpho.to/2KnKKfT Buy Gordon a coffee: www.paypal.me/cameralabs Gordon's In Camera book at Amazon: amzn.to/2n61PfI / Amazon uk: amzn.to/2mBqRVZ Like Cameralabs? Get the T-Shirt: redbubble.com/people/cameralabs/shop Filmed with Sony A6400 and e 24mm: bhpho.to/2CqYrEs
Wow this is a fully comprehensive review and breakdown. Much appreciated Gordon. Gets a sub from me. I've been looking at Lacie big6 for storage but also need to be able to share files and that didn't. Didn't want to go fully NAS because of lack of speed but this is the best of both worlds. Greatest of all is this video to show it's capability. The qnap website is just poor so this is a big big help.
I still use and love this NAS but I should mention the thunderbolt connection stopped working with a recent MacOS update, so if this is important to you, beware! Hopefully it'll be resolved soon, but keep an eye on the forums or updates for info.
I heard so many issues with qnap I considering the qnap but I’M hearing so many bad things disconnected alot hardware and software issuess I dont know which direction synology with there locked hardrives? so I'm not what diection to go with
I highly recommend them. Keep everything in one place but it's continuously backing up. I recommend connecting it directly to your computer (ethernet, 10gbe, thunderbolt depending on the model). It can autobackup to Amazon Prime Photos (since I'm noncommercial it's unlimited) or Glacier and it's relatively seamless with direct connections (wifi or powerline can be slowish). Qnap is probably the cheapest way to get 10gbe and ssd cache. Get two so you can do off site backups easily.
Great video, thanks Gordon! Taking the plunge into NAS soon. Curious if you went with a static volume, thick or thin? Still wrapping my head around the advantages and disadvantages of the different types. Thanks!
Thanks! I generally go with one volume, but as a former PC magazine editor, I can't help but tweak with different configs, file systems, raid levels and more to try and get the best performance!.
Fantastic review, thank you! I would be more interested in setting this up as a RAID 0 for ultimate performance, with redundant backups set up via external drives.
Hey Gordon, does this drive have to be treated as a network drive, or can you just plug in the thunderbolt cables and be done with it. I ask, because my office setup is not near my router, and I was planning on using via thunderbolt and not 10gig, for simple ease of use, but will I need it wired to ethernet to even set it up? Does the computer see it at a local drive or a network drive if it is connected via 10gig and also via thunderbolt. I ask because services like backblaze won't backup a networked drive but they will backup a local drive. Did Qnap send you the test unit or did you buy this?
QNAP NAS I have to really recommend, because of a bigger power than other brand and better prices of course. Specifically I use TVS-1282T3 and have average speed (write and read as well) around 1,35 GB/s! Bestial solution ;-)
Great review! I have the TBS453-bt3 and this model seems very similar to it. Am I right in assuming that the main difference is the processor and the added pci slot? Have you added a gpu to it?
Thank you for the overview. Do you have a large Lightroom classic catalog? If you want to edit on a laptop, off-site, from a portable SSD is it a realistic possibility? I seem to remember that Lightroom classic used to take a long time to import a new small catalog into a very large one. But I never used RAID and possibly Lightroom has improved. I am considering a RAID DAS solution. My 15 year archive is on 4 5TB drives and I am looking for a more centralized solution. But still want to be able to edit at times offsite
@@cameralabs Yeah I'm ready to get a them dirty. I might keep using one of the Drobos as a backup of the QNAP for now though. At the moment I have one primary Drobo mirrored to the the backup one every night. It's probably ok to just upgrade my primary to the QNAP for now while I get used to it. Whilst Drobos have been reliable for me, their speed is all over the place. Sometimes fast, sometimes glacially slow. I was so stoked when I saw you reviewing and recommending the product I was already homing in on. Thanks again! Stay safe over there.
I’ve been using drobos for the last 10 years 5N2, 5D, 5D3 and the new 5d3 I got last year died on me last week! And my latest work wasn’t backed up couldn’t find a replacement except an 8d on eBay whcih I had to get to get my data off it. BUT I’m now considering one of these snaps @gordonlaing as my main machine as much more options and hoping better customer service.
@@jennifermedia6288 yes, the thunderbolt option is only useful if the NAS is within, say, 2m of your computer. As luck would have it, my NAS is in a small storeroom that's right behind my work area, so I made a hole in the wall and pass the thunderbolt cable through it! But again you're very limited on cable length for thunderbolt, so unless you can do this, or don't mind it on or near your work area, then forget the thunderbolt part. The good news is if you're only using it for network access like a traditional NAS, you can buy a cheaper version without thunderbolt. I'd still recommend models by QNAP or Synology over DROBO. Just make sure you have 4 or 5 bays for flexibility. PS - if you're ordering online, please consider using my links here or at cameralabs.com thanks!
Very good review Gordon, much appreciated. I'm investigating the use of NAS or DAS for Lightroom use - from my MBP 2017 and then moving towards video editing. However, a couple of things struck me regarding data transfer / access if using the NAS as a DAS through the TB port. The first, I agree that adding an NVME or 2 ( as a cache) would speed things up but how about faster drives such as 7200s instead of 5400s? Speed v additional costs for these faster drives. My second question relates to read / write speed for encrypted drives. From a protection perspective such as burglary I wouldn't want some 'toe-rag' being able to read my disks if he stole my NAS: therefore, my preference is to encrypt data saved to the drives. Did you ever test the read/write speeds of encrypted disks v non-encrypted disk to get to a speed comparison? This would then relate directly with my first question.
What is the Cloud trickle backup you mentioned, Gordon? Something like Amazon Glacier? What do you backup to the cloud? Do you backup the video files themselves, or just project files etc.?
Yes, you can use Amazon Glacier or any of them really. I say trickle as my internet is slow, so it takes a while to send updates or new files, but it works away behind the scenes and does the trick. As to what files, I backup all my photos and most important work. Not everything but all the important stuff. It really depends on how much cloud storage you're willing to pay for - it's pretty cheap. For my videos, I'm happy just keeping the final rendered file, rather than the individual clips. I sometimes keep a separate video clip of each camera as a basic hero product shot to use in other videos, but I render at decent quality so can use those files.
@@cameralabs you did, but I was in assumption that we can only use SSD’s as DAS storage and not the actual mechanical drives. So we can use this unit as DAS without network and access all the storage right? I want to use this as DAS mostly and as NAS when I am away from home.
@@PreethamRameshNaik I only use mechanical hard disks in my NAS units. They're not as fast as SSDs obviously, but they work fine as a NAS or DAS. So yes, until a MacOS update stopped this functionality for my own setup, I mostly used this unit as a DAS over Thunderbolt.
Great Review Gordon i just picked one of these up, i popped in 4 WD Reds, 2nVME drives, 32gb Ram and i also tried a GPU, issue with GPU is the cards stated work with it are all either single PCI but needing dual slot access, or the Coolers are that big they you have to take out the TB card, either way it was one or the other, i ran one for a while hoping to get more grunt out of PLEX, but after 2 days i decided i wanted the TB card so sent the GPUs back. Overall its done everything ive asked it for, 4k ATMOS videos run like a dream, file copying is amazing and Time Machine flys, compared to my older Synology 718+, i do wish we could enable DAS using the USBs, this may still be possible, but ive yet to get anything to detect them when its in via USB, maybe im missing something, USB works for keyboards mice etc so i know they work. anyway less messing with NAS, time to buy that new Hasselblad :)
Thanks, and glad you got yours configured nicely! What sort of enhancements were you hoping for from the GPU, and do you feel you even need it now? Do you also feel you're getting much benefit from the extra RAM? PS - if you end up ordering the Hassie - or anything! - online, please consider going through my links here! Cheers!
I am not sure if my question can still reach you after 3 years since you posted it. But just in case, I am wondering if you can connect two computers to the two thunderbolt 3 ports on the back and the two computers can edit video at the same time?
Great question, but I'm not sure. I imagine it could support 2x tb connections otherwise why have 2 ports? It's academic for me though as I can't get tb to work on macos anymore. Something changed.
BUYERS BEWARE.. you cannot move the TB3 card out of the default PCIe slot. IT WILL NOT WORK IN THE #2 SLOT. Your article should mention this!! If you want true expansion you must remove TB3 card altogether (to utilize all x16 lanes) or just use TB3 with a different card in the other slot (PCIe x4). Also, if you choose to use the MoBo m.2 slots they will get VERY hot and heatsinks will be a wonky install. QNAP does offer a PCIe adapter with heatsink and fan as an expansion card for M.2 SSDs (pretty much a necessity if you want to be using super fast cache) but can only use the x4 lane PCIe slot. AND the fan doesn't fit upon installing in the #2 slot. I had to reroute the power harness within the box. A LOT of wasted time for me to figure out silly non compatible hardware from the manufacturer. Include an edit to your article because the NAS unit is a good one but buyers/users should know about some of these details before wasting a week of their lives trying to figure out an issue that could be simply stated somewhere online. Thanks for the review!
11:17 What kind of Belkin cable are you running there? Is it some special extra long cable? been looking for one of these for a while. Super interested in even a hint at your setup with that, thanks so much this video was super informative!
@@cameralabs It so happens I have three, 4TB WD Red drives laying about doing nothing at the moment. That makes it an easier thought to push the boat out for this unit, though there are things about the Synology DS-1019+ that appeal to me. Synology have their Moments application, similar to QuMagie in using AI to tag people, objects, and locations, but QuMagie has tricks Moments doesn't and also doesn't force you to put all your photos into a single subdirectory: I assume Synology believe tags are adequate for directory organization and, given modern computing power, they may be right.
Thank you for sharing the video. Just a quick question, if you keep your NAS in a separated room, how do you connect it to your computer with thunderbolt cable? i think the longest TB 3 cable are 3m only. thank you.
Come on! I was waiting for the 10gbe speed test, You did not show us yet it was mentioned a few times? Also why or how would we need a switch to share the nas over thunderbolt?
if you only have a small number of clients, you can connect them directly to the NAS without a switch. You only need a switch if you're connecting a lot of devices to it, and it only needs to be a 10GBe switch if you need that speed for all devices. I think most, like me, will have a couple of fast wired connections directly to it, then connect a normal 1GBe switch for everything else. My TB tests were effectively 10GBe. i don't have a 10GBe card for my PC.
What good is a second PCI express slot, presumably for a graphics card, if it's not x16 and also doesn't this mean that the m2 nvme will be bottle-necked or are they using the PCI express lane shared with the cpu?
I recently purchased the TVS-472XT and plan to back up to a large external hard drive but would like to have a cloud backup as well. I currently have 3TB of data. What do you recommend for cloud backup? The standard ($6/month) Backblaze subscription doesn't allow NAS backup.
I'm actually going to try out more of the cloud options very soon, but it's hard to do it at a significantly lower cost. Amazon Glacier could be an option if you don't need very quick access to it. Basically the slower the retrieval, the cheaper the service becomes. if you want instant access to backups, it costs more. For me, I can get instant access from external drives swapped between locations, so my cloud backups really are for extra redundancy I'll hopefully never need. Let me know what you end up using...
Hi Gordon, I know this is an older video but I am wondering if your QNAP was a victim ( like mine ) of the recent Qlocker malware attack? I have lost TB's of data and QNAP is not doing anything to help resolve the issue. I am reaching out to anyone that might have been affected to find any help I can get and hear how others have solved this problem. Do you know anything or were you affected? Cheers
@@cameralabs It appears it was a worldwide attack on QNAP NAS's and they found a weakness in the QNAP system that enabled them to get in. Users didn't do anything, this was completely a QNAP failure. Mine was infected with a ransom ware that locked many of my files and to unlock them will cost about $550 U.S. - Not too much but I refuse to pay! Luckily I have back ups of most everything but it is a huge pain to fix. If you have any folders in your libraries that contain a !!!READ_ME.txt file then you have been hit by it. It locks your files and they will have a .7z at the end if they are infected.
@@JohnScaneArt I looked it up after you mentioned it, and it sounds awful! I think I'm ok - hope so anyway - but mine is limited to my local network, not external access, and I keep all the apps, firmware etc updated. The malware scanner also reckons I'm ok, but of course it too could be compromised. Good job you have a backup.
@@cameralabs That’s good to hear! Glad you weren’t affected, it’s such a pain even with back ups. Have a good weekend, it’s back to dragging and dropping for me 😉
very helpful! Thank you Gordon!👍 was wondering between raid 10 and 5, finally decided😍 I just don't get it how come raid 5 is faster than raid 10, as everywhere it says raid 10 should be faster.... Second time see raid 5 vs raid 10 test with same test results raid 5 faster!💪
Hi Gordon, That's a great review of the QNAP NAS. I think I understand the principles but actually using one for photography and video work baffles me. Is there a resource that would take me through the apps and services as well as common usage set ups etc? Thanks in advance.
Mike, don't be alarmed, once you set it up, it's just like having a big drive connected. The apps are pretty straightforward too for setting up things like automated backup. You could have a look at the QNAP site and see their guides on their operating system.
The easiest way would be setting up two network drives via shared folders. One called video. The other photos. Treat them like permanently connected external drives. Cloud backups and syncs I recommend what Gordon said and check those resources.
I've not tested that Synology model, but I think the main difference is the Synology has 2x 10Gbe ports vs 1x 10Gbe and 2x Thunderbolt on the QNAP. So it depends if you have 10Gbe adapters in the machines you want to connect. For me, I have Thunderbolt built into my Mac laptop, so it's cheaper and easier for me to use that vs 10Gbe.
@@jeremyluisotti yes, that should be possible, although you will need to view the NAS operating system somewhere. If you don't want to log in to it using a computer, phone or tablet, you can connect the HDMI output direct to a TV (I believe).
I have a QNAP storage device and have to disagree that it is an appropriate way to backup photos and video. With today's 18TB drives and simple locally attached USB drive enclosures there is no need for RAID drives. Photos and video data don't change over time except for new projects. Putting your photos in a RAID device and encrypting them are a guarantee that you won't be able to restore them when you have a disaster. When it comes to photo backups stick with the KISS principle. BTW I found this article because the QNAP app did not accurately copy my locally attached drive to my QNAP NAS and now I am looking for a way to compare the two directory structures. KISS.
Interesting, but what I am not quite getting my head around is how this works In Windows system with something like Plex. Maybe I am doing something wrong but at my first attempt at NAS, I connected a Samsung T5 drive to my Asus AC86U Router using the 3.1 gen 2 USB C connector. I have already installed Plex on my LG TV. So my thoughts were as follows , connect the USB drive to the router, with all the movies on, then I can sit back and play them on my TV using Plex. Well this seems not to be the case, it looks like I still have to have my desktop pc running on the network just ot be able to run the Plex media server, that my TV needs to see the movies. So his to me is pointless added on junk that does nothing, I may as well stick a 10GB drive in my pc! Tell me I am missing something here, I expected that NAS via a stand alone drive bay or an attached USB drive would be able to feed a movie to the TV without the need for the PC to still be powered to run the Plex server. There has to be a better way, where the NAS is operating with the TV without the need for a pc to run the Plex server? Anyone?
Some routers will present USB attached storage as a network drive, effectively making the combination a NAS, but you'll probably need to change a setting on the router to do that. You may also need to have a media server running on the router for it to present your videos as something playable over a network. A proper NAS unit, like the one I reviewed will do all of that.
My opinion is based on my couple of years experience on QNAP. Don't buy it. Buy something more stable. QNAP software is crap and will give you outages and outages over and over again. For example recent firmware update done by system and after firmware update, can't login. Means can't access anything because of encrypted storage. QNAP responded after 2 days and their instructions didn't fix the issue still. No response for last 24 hours and I'm still waiting after 4 days of complete outage. Hoping that eventually at least it gets fixed without any data loss. It has been a disaster situation so far. Time I have spent on QNAP issues working with them again and again every now and then is really just too much too handle when I have already too much work going on.
sorry to hear about those issue. I've not personally experienced any with mine unit reviewed here, which I'm still using daily. They do update that Q Finder app a lot though...
@@cameralabs \Thanks for a note. Their forums are full of issues and disasters. You got lucky so far and hope it stays that way. Highly recommend you keep backup of your NAS data off the NAS somewhere safe with realtime sync. If you haven't done so then may be stay away from storage encryption, any storage tiering, any virtualization, any web/virtual servers, QuWAN config etc... kind of stuff to have NAS running at basic and clean level. Probably that basic level is all they must be focusing on during their coding and testing. Leaving everything else vulnerable and buggy. Do you recommend any other NAS other than QNAP ?
@@cameralabs Unfortunately Synology is no good with hardware and Qcrap is no good with software and support both. One week of total NAS downtime and still counting. No luck yet. They asked to replace RAM to original ADATA which I told them will never cause issue of such symptoms, I still replaced for their peace of mind and progress on case, but that didn't make any diffierence with ADATA RAM. Nothing changed. Issue persisted. Crap software and support both. Qcrap is right name.
@@GH-bz2nw sorry you've had that experience. I've been running my Synology now for ten years and my QNAP since this review with no problems, but I'm just using them as standard storage volumes in RAID 5. Hope you get your issue resolved.
6 month review of the QNAP TVS-472XT Thunderbolt NAS: high-performance storage!
Check prices at B&H: bhpho.to/2KnKKfT
Buy Gordon a coffee: www.paypal.me/cameralabs
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Filmed with Sony A6400 and e 24mm: bhpho.to/2CqYrEs
I've been deep in research on NAS for days now and this is the single best video I've seen on reviewing a NAS unit. Thanks!!
Excellent video Gordon as always
Thanks!
Awesome and we'll done review. I've been looking for a nas lately, this was a tremendous help with that
You're welcome!
Wow this is a fully comprehensive review and breakdown. Much appreciated Gordon. Gets a sub from me. I've been looking at Lacie big6 for storage but also need to be able to share files and that didn't. Didn't want to go fully NAS because of lack of speed but this is the best of both worlds. Greatest of all is this video to show it's capability. The qnap website is just poor so this is a big big help.
I still use and love this NAS but I should mention the thunderbolt connection stopped working with a recent MacOS update, so if this is important to you, beware! Hopefully it'll be resolved soon, but keep an eye on the forums or updates for info.
I heard so many issues with qnap I considering the qnap but I’M hearing so many bad things disconnected alot hardware and software issuess I dont know which direction synology with there locked hardrives? so I'm not what diection to go with
Great review. I've never used a NAS before, and don't really need one, but now I want this one.
thanks! what do you currently use for backup?
I highly recommend them. Keep everything in one place but it's continuously backing up.
I recommend connecting it directly to your computer (ethernet, 10gbe, thunderbolt depending on the model). It can autobackup to Amazon Prime Photos (since I'm noncommercial it's unlimited) or Glacier and it's relatively seamless with direct connections (wifi or powerline can be slowish). Qnap is probably the cheapest way to get 10gbe and ssd cache.
Get two so you can do off site backups easily.
Great video, thanks Gordon! Taking the plunge into NAS soon. Curious if you went with a static volume, thick or thin? Still wrapping my head around the advantages and disadvantages of the different types. Thanks!
Thanks! I generally go with one volume, but as a former PC magazine editor, I can't help but tweak with different configs, file systems, raid levels and more to try and get the best performance!.
Fantastic review, thank you! I would be more interested in setting this up as a RAID 0 for ultimate performance, with redundant backups set up via external drives.
Hey Gordon, does this drive have to be treated as a network drive, or can you just plug in the thunderbolt cables and be done with it. I ask, because my office setup is not near my router, and I was planning on using via thunderbolt and not 10gig, for simple ease of use, but will I need it wired to ethernet to even set it up? Does the computer see it at a local drive or a network drive if it is connected via 10gig and also via thunderbolt. I ask because services like backblaze won't backup a networked drive but they will backup a local drive. Did Qnap send you the test unit or did you buy this?
You can use it as a TB drive only if desired, although this functionality has stopped working on my Mac for some reason.
QNAP NAS I have to really recommend, because of a bigger power than other brand and better prices of course.
Specifically I use TVS-1282T3 and have average speed (write and read as well) around 1,35 GB/s! Bestial solution ;-)
Great review! I have the TBS453-bt3 and this model seems very similar to it. Am I right in assuming that the main difference is the processor and the added pci slot? Have you added a gpu to it?
I've not done anything extra to it, and it's still working very well! Even using it today to edit a big video from it. But i am the only user.
Can you run 2x4k movies at the sametime
Thank you for the overview. Do you have a large Lightroom classic catalog? If you want to edit on a laptop, off-site, from a portable SSD is it a realistic possibility? I seem to remember that Lightroom classic used to take a long time to import a new small catalog into a very large one.
But I never used RAID and possibly Lightroom has improved.
I am considering a RAID DAS solution. My 15 year archive is on 4 5TB drives and I am looking for a more centralized solution.
But still want to be able to edit at times offsite
I hear ya, but I can't comment as I don't use Lightroom at all. I don't process or catalogue my images.
Thanks for this one Gordon. Been thinking of getting this myself to replace my Drobos. Looks good!
Way better than Drobos, so long as you don't mind getting your hands a bit dirty.
@@cameralabs Yeah I'm ready to get a them dirty. I might keep using one of the Drobos as a backup of the QNAP for now though. At the moment I have one primary Drobo mirrored to the the backup one every night. It's probably ok to just upgrade my primary to the QNAP for now while I get used to it. Whilst Drobos have been reliable for me, their speed is all over the place. Sometimes fast, sometimes glacially slow. I was so stoked when I saw you reviewing and recommending the product I was already homing in on. Thanks again! Stay safe over there.
I’ve been using drobos for the last 10 years 5N2, 5D, 5D3 and the new 5d3 I got last year died on me last week! And my latest work wasn’t backed up couldn’t find a replacement except an 8d on eBay whcih I had to get to get my data off it. BUT I’m now considering one of these snaps @gordonlaing as my main machine as much more options and hoping better customer service.
If you hide it like I would, no point in the thunderpbolt. I would want to hide the nas just in case the house got broken in to.
@@jennifermedia6288 yes, the thunderbolt option is only useful if the NAS is within, say, 2m of your computer. As luck would have it, my NAS is in a small storeroom that's right behind my work area, so I made a hole in the wall and pass the thunderbolt cable through it! But again you're very limited on cable length for thunderbolt, so unless you can do this, or don't mind it on or near your work area, then forget the thunderbolt part. The good news is if you're only using it for network access like a traditional NAS, you can buy a cheaper version without thunderbolt. I'd still recommend models by QNAP or Synology over DROBO. Just make sure you have 4 or 5 bays for flexibility. PS - if you're ordering online, please consider using my links here or at cameralabs.com thanks!
Very good review Gordon, much appreciated. I'm investigating the use of NAS or DAS for Lightroom use - from my MBP 2017 and then moving towards video editing.
However, a couple of things struck me regarding data transfer / access if using the NAS as a DAS through the TB port. The first, I agree that adding an NVME or 2 ( as a cache) would speed things up but how about faster drives such as 7200s instead of 5400s? Speed v additional costs for these faster drives.
My second question relates to read / write speed for encrypted drives. From a protection perspective such as burglary I wouldn't want some 'toe-rag' being able to read my disks if he stole my NAS: therefore, my preference is to encrypt data saved to the drives. Did you ever test the read/write speeds of encrypted disks v non-encrypted disk to get to a speed comparison? This would then relate directly with my first question.
What is the Cloud trickle backup you mentioned, Gordon? Something like Amazon Glacier? What do you backup to the cloud? Do you backup the video files themselves, or just project files etc.?
Yes, you can use Amazon Glacier or any of them really. I say trickle as my internet is slow, so it takes a while to send updates or new files, but it works away behind the scenes and does the trick. As to what files, I backup all my photos and most important work. Not everything but all the important stuff. It really depends on how much cloud storage you're willing to pay for - it's pretty cheap. For my videos, I'm happy just keeping the final rendered file, rather than the individual clips. I sometimes keep a separate video clip of each camera as a basic hero product shot to use in other videos, but I render at decent quality so can use those files.
@@cameralabs Thanks, Gordon.
CAn we write directly from PC to hard drives via thunderbolt without network attached?
If you have a thunderbolt port on your PC, yes. Didn't I talk about this in the video?
@@cameralabs you did, but I was in assumption that we can only use SSD’s as DAS storage and not the actual mechanical drives. So we can use this unit as DAS without network and access all the storage right? I want to use this as DAS mostly and as NAS when I am away from home.
@@PreethamRameshNaik I only use mechanical hard disks in my NAS units. They're not as fast as SSDs obviously, but they work fine as a NAS or DAS. So yes, until a MacOS update stopped this functionality for my own setup, I mostly used this unit as a DAS over Thunderbolt.
Great Review Gordon i just picked one of these up, i popped in 4 WD Reds, 2nVME drives, 32gb Ram and i also tried a GPU, issue with GPU is the cards stated work with it are all either single PCI but needing dual slot access, or the Coolers are that big they you have to take out the TB card, either way it was one or the other, i ran one for a while hoping to get more grunt out of PLEX, but after 2 days i decided i wanted the TB card so sent the GPUs back. Overall its done everything ive asked it for, 4k ATMOS videos run like a dream, file copying is amazing and Time Machine flys, compared to my older Synology 718+, i do wish we could enable DAS using the USBs, this may still be possible, but ive yet to get anything to detect them when its in via USB, maybe im missing something, USB works for keyboards mice etc so i know they work. anyway less messing with NAS, time to buy that new Hasselblad :)
Thanks, and glad you got yours configured nicely! What sort of enhancements were you hoping for from the GPU, and do you feel you even need it now? Do you also feel you're getting much benefit from the extra RAM? PS - if you end up ordering the Hassie - or anything! - online, please consider going through my links here! Cheers!
I am not sure if my question can still reach you after 3 years since you posted it. But just in case, I am wondering if you can connect two computers to the two thunderbolt 3 ports on the back and the two computers can edit video at the same time?
Great question, but I'm not sure. I imagine it could support 2x tb connections otherwise why have 2 ports? It's academic for me though as I can't get tb to work on macos anymore. Something changed.
Great video, did not understand a word of it. I'm going back to Black and white film. :-) Si.
Try it again, I bet you'll understand all of it!
But what lenses will it accept?.... oh... :-) Joking aside, another good review.
Thanks!
BUYERS BEWARE.. you cannot move the TB3 card out of the default PCIe slot. IT WILL NOT WORK IN THE #2 SLOT. Your article should mention this!! If you want true expansion you must remove TB3 card altogether (to utilize all x16 lanes) or just use TB3 with a different card in the other slot (PCIe x4). Also, if you choose to use the MoBo m.2 slots they will get VERY hot and heatsinks will be a wonky install. QNAP does offer a PCIe adapter with heatsink and fan as an expansion card for M.2 SSDs (pretty much a necessity if you want to be using super fast cache) but can only use the x4 lane PCIe slot. AND the fan doesn't fit upon installing in the #2 slot. I had to reroute the power harness within the box. A LOT of wasted time for me to figure out silly non compatible hardware from the manufacturer. Include an edit to your article because the NAS unit is a good one but buyers/users should know about some of these details before wasting a week of their lives trying to figure out an issue that could be simply stated somewhere online. Thanks for the review!
This is a superb review. Thank you very much.
11:17 What kind of Belkin cable are you running there? Is it some special extra long cable? been looking for one of these for a while. Super interested in even a hint at your setup with that, thanks so much this video was super informative!
Thanks! This is what I bought: amzn.to/2RDu4lK
Great review, Gordon! Have you tried the QuMagie software for managing photos? If so, what did you think of it?
Thanks. No, not tried that
@@cameralabs It so happens I have three, 4TB WD Red drives laying about doing nothing at the moment. That makes it an easier thought to push the boat out for this unit, though there are things about the Synology DS-1019+ that appeal to me. Synology have their Moments application, similar to QuMagie in using AI to tag people, objects, and locations, but QuMagie has tricks Moments doesn't and also doesn't force you to put all your photos into a single subdirectory: I assume Synology believe tags are adequate for directory organization and, given modern computing power, they may be right.
that thing looks mighty impressive
it certainly is!
Thank you for sharing the video. Just a quick question, if you keep your NAS in a separated room, how do you connect it to your computer with thunderbolt cable? i think the longest TB 3 cable are 3m only. thank you.
I have the unit on one side of a wall in a utility room, and pass the cable through a hole to a desk on the other side!
Come on! I was waiting for the 10gbe speed test, You did not show us yet it was mentioned a few times? Also why or how would we need a switch to share the nas over thunderbolt?
if you only have a small number of clients, you can connect them directly to the NAS without a switch. You only need a switch if you're connecting a lot of devices to it, and it only needs to be a 10GBe switch if you need that speed for all devices. I think most, like me, will have a couple of fast wired connections directly to it, then connect a normal 1GBe switch for everything else. My TB tests were effectively 10GBe. i don't have a 10GBe card for my PC.
What good is a second PCI express slot, presumably for a graphics card, if it's not x16 and also doesn't this mean that the m2 nvme will be bottle-necked or are they using the PCI express lane shared with the cpu?
You'd have to check QNAP's specs for the full story, I can't remember. I never populated the slot myself.
I recently purchased the TVS-472XT and plan to back up to a large external hard drive but would like to have a cloud backup as well. I currently have 3TB of data. What do you recommend for cloud backup? The standard ($6/month) Backblaze subscription doesn't allow NAS backup.
I'm actually going to try out more of the cloud options very soon, but it's hard to do it at a significantly lower cost. Amazon Glacier could be an option if you don't need very quick access to it. Basically the slower the retrieval, the cheaper the service becomes. if you want instant access to backups, it costs more. For me, I can get instant access from external drives swapped between locations, so my cloud backups really are for extra redundancy I'll hopefully never need. Let me know what you end up using...
Hi Gordon, I know this is an older video but I am wondering if your QNAP was a victim ( like mine ) of the recent Qlocker malware attack? I have lost TB's of data and QNAP is not doing anything to help resolve the issue. I am reaching out to anyone that might have been affected to find any help I can get and hear how others have solved this problem. Do you know anything or were you affected? Cheers
That doesn't sound good at all. No, not as far as I'm aware. What triggered it?
@@cameralabs It appears it was a worldwide attack on QNAP NAS's and they found a weakness in the QNAP system that enabled them to get in. Users didn't do anything, this was completely a QNAP failure. Mine was infected with a ransom ware that locked many of my files and to unlock them will cost about $550 U.S. - Not too much but I refuse to pay! Luckily I have back ups of most everything but it is a huge pain to fix. If you have any folders in your libraries that contain a !!!READ_ME.txt file then you have been hit by it. It locks your files and they will have a .7z at the end if they are infected.
@@JohnScaneArt I looked it up after you mentioned it, and it sounds awful! I think I'm ok - hope so anyway - but mine is limited to my local network, not external access, and I keep all the apps, firmware etc updated. The malware scanner also reckons I'm ok, but of course it too could be compromised. Good job you have a backup.
@@cameralabs That’s good to hear! Glad you weren’t affected, it’s such a pain even with back ups. Have a good weekend, it’s back to dragging and dropping for me 😉
very helpful! Thank you Gordon!👍 was wondering between raid 10 and 5, finally decided😍 I just don't get it how come raid 5 is faster than raid 10, as everywhere it says raid 10 should be faster.... Second time see raid 5 vs raid 10 test with same test results raid 5 faster!💪
Hi Gordon, That's a great review of the QNAP NAS. I think I understand the principles but actually using one for photography and video work baffles me. Is there a resource that would take me through the apps and services as well as common usage set ups etc? Thanks in advance.
Mike, don't be alarmed, once you set it up, it's just like having a big drive connected. The apps are pretty straightforward too for setting up things like automated backup. You could have a look at the QNAP site and see their guides on their operating system.
@@cameralabs Thanks I'll have a look around.
The easiest way would be setting up two network drives via shared folders. One called video. The other photos. Treat them like permanently connected external drives.
Cloud backups and syncs I recommend what Gordon said and check those resources.
Great review - thanks a lot for sharing
I would strongly suggest you not to mix scotch and soda specially ones with sugar, that makes your hard shake. Very good information though. Thanks
I don't drink alcohol.
How is this compared with a synology 918+.. ? Is this even comparable ?
You sound like Harry Potter mate, love it!
cheers from 🇺🇸
Superb review.
Thanks! Note there may be a fault with some of these units which I'm investigating right now for a future video.
How does it compare to Synology 1817+?
I've not tested that Synology model, but I think the main difference is the Synology has 2x 10Gbe ports vs 1x 10Gbe and 2x Thunderbolt on the QNAP. So it depends if you have 10Gbe adapters in the machines you want to connect. For me, I have Thunderbolt built into my Mac laptop, so it's cheaper and easier for me to use that vs 10Gbe.
I just want to put my Movies in it and add Plex do I need a computer with this?
How will you get the movies into it?
I have three portable hard drives with all my movies on them can’t I Just plug-in and download into it?
@@jeremyluisotti yes, that should be possible, although you will need to view the NAS operating system somewhere. If you don't want to log in to it using a computer, phone or tablet, you can connect the HDMI output direct to a TV (I believe).
Thank you Gordon for the fast responses😉
Great review
Thanks!
Gordon Laing handy to have if in an area where cloud storage maybe intermittent or slower download speeds
@@NikCan66 definitely. You can effectively make it your own local cloud.
Gordon Laing will get an 8 or if possible a 10 bay
I have a QNAP storage device and have to disagree that it is an appropriate way to backup photos and video. With today's 18TB drives and simple locally attached USB drive enclosures there is no need for RAID drives. Photos and video data don't change over time except for new projects. Putting your photos in a RAID device and encrypting them are a guarantee that you won't be able to restore them when you have a disaster. When it comes to photo backups stick with the KISS principle. BTW I found this article because the QNAP app did not accurately copy my locally attached drive to my QNAP NAS and now I am looking for a way to compare the two directory structures. KISS.
Interesting, but what I am not quite getting my head around is how this works In Windows system with something like Plex.
Maybe I am doing something wrong but at my first attempt at NAS, I connected a Samsung T5 drive to my Asus AC86U Router using the 3.1 gen 2 USB C connector. I have already installed Plex on my LG TV. So my thoughts were as follows , connect the USB drive to the router, with all the movies on, then I can sit back and play them on my TV using Plex.
Well this seems not to be the case, it looks like I still have to have my desktop pc running on the network just ot be able to run the Plex media server, that my TV needs to see the movies.
So his to me is pointless added on junk that does nothing, I may as well stick a 10GB drive in my pc!
Tell me I am missing something here, I expected that NAS via a stand alone drive bay or an attached USB drive would be able to feed a movie to the TV without the need for the PC to still be powered to run the Plex server.
There has to be a better way, where the NAS is operating with the TV without the need for a pc to run the Plex server? Anyone?
Some routers will present USB attached storage as a network drive, effectively making the combination a NAS, but you'll probably need to change a setting on the router to do that. You may also need to have a media server running on the router for it to present your videos as something playable over a network. A proper NAS unit, like the one I reviewed will do all of that.
More of this !
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it! Do you use a NAS?
No, just an Adaptec 8805 with a Raid 5 in the PC.
@@MK-bg9bj that's cool, I've been down that route too.
It's very cool that you can use the QNAP as a NAS and a DAS simultaneously !
@@MK-bg9bj exactly!
Nice & Thanks :)
You're welcome!
My opinion is based on my couple of years experience on QNAP. Don't buy it. Buy something more stable. QNAP software is crap and will give you outages and outages over and over again. For example recent firmware update done by system and after firmware update, can't login. Means can't access anything because of encrypted storage. QNAP responded after 2 days and their instructions didn't fix the issue still. No response for last 24 hours and I'm still waiting after 4 days of complete outage. Hoping that eventually at least it gets fixed without any data loss. It has been a disaster situation so far. Time I have spent on QNAP issues working with them again and again every now and then is really just too much too handle when I have already too much work going on.
sorry to hear about those issue. I've not personally experienced any with mine unit reviewed here, which I'm still using daily. They do update that Q Finder app a lot though...
@@cameralabs \Thanks for a note. Their forums are full of issues and disasters. You got lucky so far and hope it stays that way. Highly recommend you keep backup of your NAS data off the NAS somewhere safe with realtime sync. If you haven't done so then may be stay away from storage encryption, any storage tiering, any virtualization, any web/virtual servers, QuWAN config etc... kind of stuff to have NAS running at basic and clean level. Probably that basic level is all they must be focusing on during their coding and testing. Leaving everything else vulnerable and buggy. Do you recommend any other NAS other than QNAP ?
@@GH-bz2nw I'd go for Synology or QNAP.
@@cameralabs Unfortunately Synology is no good with hardware and Qcrap is no good with software and support both.
One week of total NAS downtime and still counting. No luck yet. They asked to replace RAM to original ADATA which I told them will never cause issue of such symptoms, I still replaced for their peace of mind and progress on case, but that didn't make any diffierence with ADATA RAM. Nothing changed. Issue persisted. Crap software and support both. Qcrap is right name.
@@GH-bz2nw sorry you've had that experience. I've been running my Synology now for ten years and my QNAP since this review with no problems, but I'm just using them as standard storage volumes in RAID 5. Hope you get your issue resolved.