Hi Rob, really good info. You’ve rated the 872XT as best of 2020 in several categories. I assume the 1288x wasn’t released in time to make the list. So for $100 US more, it seems like a no brainer to get the 1288x. I don’t really plan on using the HDMI (I stream through multiple NVIDIA Shields) and the 10Gbe card using the x8 slot isn’t an issue for me. One thing you didn’t comment on was how does the noise level compare between an equally configured 872XT and the 1288x ( for example 4 and 8 WD Red Pro HD’s in each at different loads). Thanks again!
Great video. I had the 1288x on my Wish List until I noticed that seemingly after Christmas, several of the bigger retailers raised the price of the unit an extra $500. I love the 1288x because it's extremely future proof. While it's incredibly over-kill for me right now, that future proofing will be perfect 2 - 3 years and for the life of the unit which I hope could be 7 years. But with that extra cost, I'd go with the 973ax if I can't find the 1288x for the price I originally saw it for.
I’m following the 1288x at B&H Photo, and just like Ricardo observed, they have raised their price from $1999 to $2499. It happened either on, or shortly after Christmas Day.
Thanks for the vid. I have one of these on order currently. I really like that this model has so much space to grow into and after comparing all of the models the bang for buck seemed to make it one of the best choices from Qnap.
I am on the fence between this and the 1688X. I figure if I am going to pay the price of admission I might as buy the extra room and not have to sink more money in another housing.
@@shomaniac it's out of my price range too. But I have too many external drives and I need to start consolidating and I figure with the 16 bay I can do an initial 6HDD pool. A second pool later on and maybe an NVMe for cacheing
@@HAPrime LOL, it's only money right?! I'm moving up from a 431P so this is a rather large jump for me. When I bought the 431 I had intended for NAS only but after owning it for a year I realized how diverse these products are and I really should have bought something at a server level.
Hi Joel, I received my H1288x mid December. This is my first QNAP, so I’m having to learn the software side. So far, very happy with it. I moved the 2 port 10GBe card out of the 8x PCIe slot and put it into one of the two free x4 slots. This freed up the x8 slot so I could fit a QM2-4P-386 4 slot M.2 card. I have installed 6 x 2TB NVMe sticks in the NAS and set them all to one raid 5 for data storage. Separately, Span installed two 1TB SSD’s in the 2.5” drives which are in Raid 1 for OS/app storage. Currently, I don’t have any of the 3.5” bays filled, but at some point in the future, I will probably need to install some SSD’s when I need to grow storage. I had around 5TB of music, photos & video footage on an old Synology NAS that I had to move across (took an age due to the speed on the old NAS). I’ve installed a QNAP 2 port 10GBe card in my desktop too, so I can go 10GBe direct between NAS & Desktop. This is the only area where I’ve struggled. I’ve been trying to combine the two 10GBe lines and run speed tests on the desktop, but I’m not getting the expected speeds, only around 1000MB/s so far, I was expecting more! I think I’m doing something wrong on the port trunking, but I’ve tried loads of different things, but not really had success yet. Hopefully I’ll get there in the end. I am now able to download images straight from camera to the NAS and then edit the on my Desktop directly from the NAS, it’s easily fast enough for that, which was one of my goals. Video (up to 1080P - I don’t have any 4K yet) also seems to play and stream fine. Not tried any video editing direct yet though, but expect that will be okay too. On the software side, QNAP seems pretty similar to Synology DSM that I’ve been used to. It takes a little adjustment to learn, but so far seems straight forward (except for the port trunking maybe). When I created the 6x2TB Raid 5, it did it really fast.....no long wait for it to be created. I’m at the early stages of trying out different apps, the one that has impressed is QuMagie....specifically the facial recognition. I gave it one photo of my son, it then presented a dozen or so others it had found and I clicked to confirm which were him, I think it might have got one wrong. It then showed maybe a thousand images which contained my son. He’s 15 now, but it was finding images when he was around 3....he changed a fair bit between 3 & 15, so I was surprised the software was that good! There were also shots of him sailing where he’s wearing a helmet, others where he has large glasses and a hat on. How it’s managed to work out it’s him in some of the shots is amazing. Sure you will be equally impressed when you receive yours. Oh, and with my setup, no HDD’s just NVMe & SSD’s, it’s very quiet.
It is a beast and shows how important a good size CPU is. Indeed, the Thunderbolt card (QXP-T32P) can serve a single TB user per port (so, no daisy chaining of users/pc's) or multiple TB-connected QNAP's (daisy chaining, up to 6x max, counting from the host PC) per TB port. BTW, the QXP-T32P is the exact same(!) TB3 card (being the "TBT3 - 40G2P V1.1") as already present in the TVS-1282T3, TVS-472XT, TVS-872XT etc but with some additional brackets to mount in various-height slots (low-profile etc) So I would argue it is not that "optional", it already existed but not available for separate purchase. I wholeheartedly agree with you that the PCI-e slot configuration (2x x4, 1x x8) is a bit of a let-down because if you look at the QNAP's with 10GBe expansion factory-installed (TVS-1282T3, TVS-1282T), they are not always limited to the x8 PCIe slot but use a x16 where available. I also agree the choice that QNAP only offers 4x 2.5GBe on this model is a bad choice, likely due to chip-set limitations or costs. (savings) And it almost looks like the add-on card for the 2x 10GBe is an after-thought because no way will a PCI-e x8 slot go beyond 7880MB/s (theoretical maximum) (you mentioned 2000MB/s but that was for PCIe 1.0, these are PCIe 3.0 slots) In all QNAP tries to position this as an enterprise NAS but on several key areas it is missing that mark. (your Top 5 Not-To could have that also noted as a negate) Probably to make the price more attractive and/or the unit not more expensive than it already is. And with their ZFS implementation (and limitations) I'm still not convinced at this moment in time that is the way to go, as QNAP still has to do a lot of work on that. I was considering the TVS-1288X for replacing our TVS-1282T's & TVS-1282T3's but looking at such things as PCI-e on the latest QNAP's, I'm not that convinced that QNAP is currently at the right track. Maybe their PM(s) need to rethink their strategy a bit more? Because, I'm really sorry, but a 2-port 10GB card in a PCI-e x8 slot is just plain stupid! I think.
The negative about the 10GBe card being on the PCIe x8 slot is a minor irritant that can be easily resolved. I bought a QM2-4P-384 NVMe card, and it made sense to fit that in the x8 slot. So I just moved the 10GBe card across to one of the two x4 slots. Sorted! I think the QM2 card came with a range of backing plates too, so I used one of those on the 10GBe card when I moved it across. It’s not really a negative at all, it’s so easily resolved, I just don’t understand why QNAP would manufacture the machine with the 10GBe card in the x8 slot to start with - that seems daft.
@@BrianGarside .....yes, they have. I missed the best deal, but I did get 64gb version for around £2.5k.....couple of weeks later, I noticed it had gone up again.
@@BrianGarside ....Span offer them in 16, 32, 64 & 128GB. I’m just a home user, so would probably be fine with less, but I also ready that ZFS file system likes ram, so I went for the 64GB version to be on the safe side, I know I dint need to go up to 128gb though.
Is ZFS really that good nowadays for home users? Users who add disks when the necessity arises? Do the disks go reliably into a power saving mode when not in use? RAM for big ZFS + transcoding was also a problem a few years back.
I've been following your channel for a while. I'm looking for a NAS to edit out of. I work mostly with 4k+ Media, including heavy DPX and RAW image sequences. So, I'm torn between this model and the Synology DS1821+ with 10gbe adapter. I know they are 2 completely different classes of products. But I want to buy the most appropriate choice not just the best/most expensive. Any thoughts on the matter, should I be considering other options entirely?
Yeah, I agree about it being available in 4 & 6 bay options. I bought the h1288x for home use, not ‘enterprise’, I don’t need 8xHDD’s plus 4xSSD’s plus two NVMe slots....with the ability to add more via PCIe adapters. I don’t need stupid amounts of storage capacity, but I do like the speed & capability of this processor. At present, I have two 1TB SSD’s for the OS & apps, and six NVMe 2TB sticks installed in a raid 5 for data. At some point I will need to add more storage, but this will probably be more SSD’s in a Raid 5...probably three 4TB, so I will use one of the 3.5” bays to house one of the 2.5” SSD’s. I prefer to avoid using HDD’s if I can I think. So, what I’d like to see, is a similar machine, with maybe just 8 SSD bays total and ditch the 3.5” bays. Maybe make one of the two x4 PCIe slots a x8 (so two x8), so a second NVMe adapter could be added. The four 2.5gbe ports would be better if they were Four 10GBe ports too......or, at least maybe just two 10GBe ports built in with the ability to add more via the PCIe x4 slots. The HDMI output being only 30fps is a pity....wonder if there is a Xeon as powerful but with a 60fps output. I never thought about how power hungry the device might be!
Nice unit and Review! It's unfortunate most of the units have increased in price by around $500 USD, add that to the list to not buy. QNAP needs to step up production etc...
Trying to decide what to buy for Plex streaming I want to stream atleast 2x4k movies at the sametime. local. its between qnas or synology. but I hear many bad things about qnap with discounts software issues. Either QNAP TS-653D-8G or DS1621+ I could always buy m1 mac mini to stream more movies and for transcoding. can someone help me decide?
I have it. It is awesome. Definitely use the tier storage. Use ssd for apps in pool 1 and then media in pool 2 on SSD. Also have cache nvme m.2. And added 128g of ram. Now just trying to decide on GOU. If anyone has GPU suggestions.
Unless you already got a GPU, I can vouch for the MSI GTX 1050 Ti 4GT LP. I have been using it for about 6 months without any issues. Also, very nice on the 128gb. I currently have 64gb and for now it works great. Let me know if this comment helps.
The more I read about/watch videos like this, the less I believe in ready made NAS systems... I can totally put together a KILLER system, with much faster/better hardware + TrueNAS Scale for the same if not CHEAPER prices. I'm becoming more and more a "non-NAS believer"... Anyone can convince me otherwise? Please tell me where I might be wrong. ;-)
Hi Rob, really good info. You’ve rated the 872XT as best of 2020 in several categories. I assume the 1288x wasn’t released in time to make the list. So for $100 US more, it seems like a no brainer to get the 1288x. I don’t really plan on using the HDMI (I stream through multiple NVIDIA Shields) and the 10Gbe card using the x8 slot isn’t an issue for me.
One thing you didn’t comment on was how does the noise level compare between an equally configured 872XT and the 1288x ( for example 4 and 8 WD Red Pro HD’s in each at different loads).
Thanks again!
Great video. I had the 1288x on my Wish List until I noticed that seemingly after Christmas, several of the bigger retailers raised the price of the unit an extra $500. I love the 1288x because it's extremely future proof. While it's incredibly over-kill for me right now, that future proofing will be perfect 2 - 3 years and for the life of the unit which I hope could be 7 years. But with that extra cost, I'd go with the 973ax if I can't find the 1288x for the price I originally saw it for.
What was the price you originally saw? And where? Amazon?
I’m following the 1288x at B&H Photo, and just like Ricardo observed, they have raised their price from $1999 to $2499. It happened either on, or shortly after Christmas Day.
What about noise?
Thanks for the vid. I have one of these on order currently. I really like that this model has so much space to grow into and after comparing all of the models the bang for buck seemed to make it one of the best choices from Qnap.
I am on the fence between this and the 1688X. I figure if I am going to pay the price of admission I might as buy the extra room and not have to sink more money in another housing.
@@HAPrime Solid point. For me the 1288 is already outside my budget. :) I don't think there is a wrong choice though.
@@shomaniac it's out of my price range too. But I have too many external drives and I need to start consolidating and I figure with the 16 bay I can do an initial 6HDD pool. A second pool later on and maybe an NVMe for cacheing
@@HAPrime LOL, it's only money right?! I'm moving up from a 431P so this is a rather large jump for me. When I bought the 431 I had intended for NAS only but after owning it for a year I realized how diverse these products are and I really should have bought something at a server level.
Hi Joel,
I received my H1288x mid December. This is my first QNAP, so I’m having to learn the software side. So far, very happy with it.
I moved the 2 port 10GBe card out of the 8x PCIe slot and put it into one of the two free x4 slots. This freed up the x8 slot so I could fit a QM2-4P-386 4 slot M.2 card. I have installed 6 x 2TB NVMe sticks in the NAS and set them all to one raid 5 for data storage. Separately, Span installed two 1TB SSD’s in the 2.5” drives which are in Raid 1 for OS/app storage. Currently, I don’t have any of the 3.5” bays filled, but at some point in the future, I will probably need to install some SSD’s when I need to grow storage. I had around 5TB of music, photos & video footage on an old Synology NAS that I had to move across (took an age due to the speed on the old NAS).
I’ve installed a QNAP 2 port 10GBe card in my desktop too, so I can go 10GBe direct between NAS & Desktop. This is the only area where I’ve struggled. I’ve been trying to combine the two 10GBe lines and run speed tests on the desktop, but I’m not getting the expected speeds, only around 1000MB/s so far, I was expecting more! I think I’m doing something wrong on the port trunking, but I’ve tried loads of different things, but not really had success yet. Hopefully I’ll get there in the end.
I am now able to download images straight from camera to the NAS and then edit the on my Desktop directly from the NAS, it’s easily fast enough for that, which was one of my goals. Video (up to 1080P - I don’t have any 4K yet) also seems to play and stream fine. Not tried any video editing direct yet though, but expect that will be okay too.
On the software side, QNAP seems pretty similar to Synology DSM that I’ve been used to. It takes a little adjustment to learn, but so far seems straight forward (except for the port trunking maybe). When I created the 6x2TB Raid 5, it did it really fast.....no long wait for it to be created.
I’m at the early stages of trying out different apps, the one that has impressed is QuMagie....specifically the facial recognition. I gave it one photo of my son, it then presented a dozen or so others it had found and I clicked to confirm which were him, I think it might have got one wrong. It then showed maybe a thousand images which contained my son. He’s 15 now, but it was finding images when he was around 3....he changed a fair bit between 3 & 15, so I was surprised the software was that good! There were also shots of him sailing where he’s wearing a helmet, others where he has large glasses and a hat on. How it’s managed to work out it’s him in some of the shots is amazing.
Sure you will be equally impressed when you receive yours.
Oh, and with my setup, no HDD’s just NVMe & SSD’s, it’s very quiet.
How quiet/noisy is it?
Hi Rob, Is this still a good buy and should we all wait for the Hx74 series?
It is a beast and shows how important a good size CPU is.
Indeed, the Thunderbolt card (QXP-T32P) can serve a single TB user per port (so, no daisy chaining of users/pc's) or multiple TB-connected QNAP's (daisy chaining, up to 6x max, counting from the host PC) per TB port.
BTW, the QXP-T32P is the exact same(!) TB3 card (being the "TBT3 - 40G2P V1.1") as already present in the TVS-1282T3, TVS-472XT, TVS-872XT etc but with some additional brackets to mount in various-height slots (low-profile etc)
So I would argue it is not that "optional", it already existed but not available for separate purchase.
I wholeheartedly agree with you that the PCI-e slot configuration (2x x4, 1x x8) is a bit of a let-down because if you look at the QNAP's with 10GBe expansion factory-installed (TVS-1282T3, TVS-1282T), they are not always limited to the x8 PCIe slot but use a x16 where available.
I also agree the choice that QNAP only offers 4x 2.5GBe on this model is a bad choice, likely due to chip-set limitations or costs. (savings)
And it almost looks like the add-on card for the 2x 10GBe is an after-thought because no way will a PCI-e x8 slot go beyond 7880MB/s (theoretical maximum)
(you mentioned 2000MB/s but that was for PCIe 1.0, these are PCIe 3.0 slots)
In all QNAP tries to position this as an enterprise NAS but on several key areas it is missing that mark. (your Top 5 Not-To could have that also noted as a negate)
Probably to make the price more attractive and/or the unit not more expensive than it already is.
And with their ZFS implementation (and limitations) I'm still not convinced at this moment in time that is the way to go, as QNAP still has to do a lot of work on that.
I was considering the TVS-1288X for replacing our TVS-1282T's & TVS-1282T3's but looking at such things as PCI-e on the latest QNAP's, I'm not that convinced that QNAP is currently at the right track. Maybe their PM(s) need to rethink their strategy a bit more?
Because, I'm really sorry, but a 2-port 10GB card in a PCI-e x8 slot is just plain stupid! I think.
So, referring to the title of this video, I think "QNAP TVS-h1288X NAS Review - Speedy but underwhelming hardware-configuration.."
I agree with you on that. 4 or 6 bay will be a more accessible price product...
The negative about the 10GBe card being on the PCIe x8 slot is a minor irritant that can be easily resolved.
I bought a QM2-4P-384 NVMe card, and it made sense to fit that in the x8 slot. So I just moved the 10GBe card across to one of the two x4 slots. Sorted! I think the QM2 card came with a range of backing plates too, so I used one of those on the 10GBe card when I moved it across. It’s not really a negative at all, it’s so easily resolved, I just don’t understand why QNAP would manufacture the machine with the 10GBe card in the x8 slot to start with - that seems daft.
Did you get yours for $2k or $2.5k? They have gone up a lot.
@@BrianGarside .....yes, they have. I missed the best deal, but I did get 64gb version for around £2.5k.....couple of weeks later, I noticed it had gone up again.
@@TheLDunn1 Ok, yeah its seems they are selling fast. Didn't know you could get a 64gb version configured, Nice.
@@BrianGarside ....Span offer them in 16, 32, 64 & 128GB. I’m just a home user, so would probably be fine with less, but I also ready that ZFS file system likes ram, so I went for the 64GB version to be on the safe side, I know I dint need to go up to 128gb though.
@@TheLDunn1 Ah SPAN ok, that makes sense now. Dealers I visited did not you have to have it installed after purchase. Thanks!
Is ZFS really that good nowadays for home users? Users who add disks when the necessity arises? Do the disks go reliably into a power saving mode when not in use? RAM for big ZFS + transcoding was also a problem a few years back.
Nice bit of kit. Do you think ZFS will make it to the 872xt through updates ?
I've been following your channel for a while. I'm looking for a NAS to edit out of. I work mostly with 4k+ Media, including heavy DPX and RAW image sequences. So, I'm torn between this model and the Synology DS1821+ with 10gbe adapter. I know they are 2 completely different classes of products. But I want to buy the most appropriate choice not just the best/most expensive. Any thoughts on the matter, should I be considering other options entirely?
How does this unit compare against the TVS-1282T3 apart from the CPU difference
I'd like to know, why these NAS's have gone up on price by about £500 since launch?
Yeah, I agree about it being available in 4 & 6 bay options.
I bought the h1288x for home use, not ‘enterprise’, I don’t need 8xHDD’s plus 4xSSD’s plus two NVMe slots....with the ability to add more via PCIe adapters. I don’t need stupid amounts of storage capacity, but I do like the speed & capability of this processor. At present, I have two 1TB SSD’s for the OS & apps, and six NVMe 2TB sticks installed in a raid 5 for data. At some point I will need to add more storage, but this will probably be more SSD’s in a Raid 5...probably three 4TB, so I will use one of the 3.5” bays to house one of the 2.5” SSD’s. I prefer to avoid using HDD’s if I can I think.
So, what I’d like to see, is a similar machine, with maybe just 8 SSD bays total and ditch the 3.5” bays. Maybe make one of the two x4 PCIe slots a x8 (so two x8), so a second NVMe adapter could be added.
The four 2.5gbe ports would be better if they were Four 10GBe ports too......or, at least maybe just two 10GBe ports built in with the ability to add more via the PCIe x4 slots.
The HDMI output being only 30fps is a pity....wonder if there is a Xeon as powerful but with a 60fps output.
I never thought about how power hungry the device might be!
there is a machine from qnap already thats is ssd bays only
@@speedbird737 ...there was not when I bought the H1288x I think.
Nice unit and Review! It's unfortunate most of the units have increased in price by around $500 USD, add that to the list to not buy. QNAP needs to step up production etc...
Trying to decide what to buy for Plex streaming I want to stream atleast 2x4k movies at the sametime. local. its between qnas or synology. but I hear many bad things about qnap with discounts software issues. Either QNAP TS-653D-8G or DS1621+
I could always buy m1 mac mini to stream more movies and for transcoding. can someone help me decide?
You can stream 2 4K movies with a Raspberry Pi
I have it. It is awesome. Definitely use the tier storage. Use ssd for apps in pool 1 and then media in pool 2 on SSD. Also have cache nvme m.2. And added 128g of ram. Now just trying to decide on GOU. If anyone has GPU suggestions.
I have just bought the TVS-1688X - isn't it better to use the SSD for cache and m.2 for apps/media? whats a GOU?
@@speedbird737 meant GPU
Unless you already got a GPU, I can vouch for the MSI GTX 1050 Ti 4GT LP. I have been using it for about 6 months without any issues. Also, very nice on the 128gb. I currently have 64gb and for now it works great. Let me know if this comment helps.
@@diagito many thanks I went for the more powerful quadro p2000 5G in the end
@@diagito yes it helped make up my mind. I will order that GPU and let you know. Thanks.
The more I read about/watch videos like this, the less I believe in ready made NAS systems... I can totally put together a KILLER system, with much faster/better hardware + TrueNAS Scale for the same if not CHEAPER prices. I'm becoming more and more a "non-NAS believer"... Anyone can convince me otherwise? Please tell me where I might be wrong. ;-)
Asheville has this and it let him down. Forget this device it’s unreliable
Really nice 👌 😍💋 💝💖❤️