Qnap TVS-AIh1688ATX-U9-48G review: A desktop storage behemoth geared up for AI

Since its launch over nine years ago, Qnap's mighty 16-bay NAS cube still holds the record as the largest desktop storage appliance on the planet. On review, we have the latest TVS-AIh1688ATX, which targets AI apps such as image recognition and analysis, along with a range of enterprise tasks, including data backup and virtualization.

Starting life as the TS-1635, chassis design has generally remained the same but has seen many subsequent hardware upgrades as it's gone from a humble Amazon Alpine to an Intel Xeon W CPU in the TVS-h1688X. The TVS-AIh1688ATX takes performance to the next level as the top-end model we test sports a modern 24-core Intel Core Ultra 9 285 CPU teamed up with 48GB of DDR5 memory.

With eight P (performance) cores, sixteen E (efficient) cores, an embedded Intel Graphics GPU, and Intel AI Boost NPU (neural processor unit) to play with, the appliance boasts a high 36 TOPS (trillion operations per second). Typical AI-based applications Qnap is aiming the appliance at include its QuMagie photo album categorisation, along with the QVR surveillance app's facial recognition and enhanced people counting.

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Qnap TVS-AIh1688ATX-U9-48G review: Hardware changes

Along with a hugely upgraded CPU, the appliance introduces significant updates in the storage department. The twelve main drive bays still support LFF and SFF SATA HDDs and SSDs, but the bank of four SFF bays can now handle U.2 NVMe Gen4 SSDs as well as SATA models.

One feature we're sad to see go is the dual internal M.2 NVMe SSD slots. Qnap recommends running its QuTS hero OS on SSDs for the best performance, and previously we've always used the M.2 slots for these duties as they free up the main storage bays. On a brighter note, Qnap has sensibly provided the 48GB of base DDR5 memory on one stick, so you can upgrade to the maximum 192GB without having to replace it.

Networking sees changes too, as although the 2.5GbE multi-Gig port count has been halved, the dual-port 10GbE adapter card in the TVS-h1688X has been replaced with two embedded ports. This matters as it frees up the inner PCIe x16 expansion slot, which supports 260mm full-length full-height cards – the two outer half-height slots have length restrictions of 150mm due to the positioning of the dual CPU blower fans in front of them.

The TVS-AIh1688ATX is blessed with a wealth of USB ports, as you have two USB-C 4, two USB-C 3.2 Gen2 plus three USB-A 3.2 Gen2, and you can add dual Thunderbolt 5 with Qnap's optional QXP-T52P PCIe card. The HDMI port has also been upgraded from 1.4b to 2.1, allowing it to support 4K video at 60Hz.

Qnap TVS-AIh1688ATX-U9-48G review: Deployment and 10GbE performance

Qnap doesn't enforce the same draconian drive restriction policies as Synology, and we had no problems using two 1TB Western Digital SA500 SATA SSDs for system pool duties, four 22TB Western Digital Red Pro NAS HDDs for general data storage, and a quartet of 3.84TB SanDisk U.2 NVMe SSDs for performance testing. Deployment is as simple as Qnap's QFinder Pro desktop app spotted the NAS on our network and transported us to the browser-based setup routine, which automatically installed the latest QuTS hero h6 OS – more on that later.

Using the Storage Manager app, we set the SATA SSDs up as a RAID1 mirror while the HDDs and NVMe SSDs were configured as RAID5 arrays. With a NAS share on the NVMe array mapped to a Dell PowerEdge Windows Server 2022 host over 10GbE, we watched Iometer report a splendid 9.3Gbits/sec across the board for sequential and random read and write operations.

It was the same story for IP SANs with a 1TB iSCSI target delivering identical speeds across all tests. We ramped up the pressure with a dual 10GbE MPIO link to the target and saw sequential read and write speeds increase to 18.5Gbits/sec and 17.4Gbits/sec while random operations returned an equally impressive 18.5Gbits/sec and 16.7Gbits/sec. We also noted that the Intel CPU never went about 24% utilization during our test, so there's plenty left in the tank for more demanding tasks.

Qnap TVS-AIh1688ATX-U9-48G review: QuTS hero h6 new features

The latest QuTS hero h6 has a sharp focus on security and the TVS-AIh1688ATX is currently the only Qnap NAS that supports the new Secure Boot feature. Implemented at the hardware level, it verifies the appliance's firmware signature and prevents it from loading if it's been compromised.

There's support for FIDO2 passkeys for secure password-free logins and the new KMIP (key management interoperability protocol) app connects with remote KMIP servers for managing, storing and retrieving storage encryption keys. Other security features on the horizon are the Ransomware Guard which is accessed from the Malware Remover app, detects known malware and monitors processes for suspicious activity while the Secure IP Access feature will augment the QuFirewall app with granular IP-based access controls.

The High Availability Manager app allows two identical appliances to be placed in a fault tolerant active/passive cluster and has been updated with support for more Qnap NAS models. The Control Panel, iSCSI & Fibre Channel and Storage Manager apps see substantially redesigned interfaces making them even easier to use. Snapshot management gets its own dedicated app which adds extra ransomware protection with policies for creating immutable snapshots that cannot be tampered with or deleted until the retention period you set has expired.

Previously, Qnap's Qtier app was only available with its QTS OS but this has now been integrated into QuTS hero. This manages up to three storage tiers comprising NVMe SSDs, SATA SSDs and HDDs, monitors storage pool activity and applies custom schedules to control the migration of hot data across the tiers.

Qnap TVS-AIh1688ATX-U9-48G review: Is it worth it?

With Qnap's UK online store listing it for £5,660 including VAT, the TVS-AIh1688ATX-U9-48G represents a considerable investment but does deliver an impressive hardware package for the price. Qnap also offers the lower-end TVS-AIh1688ATX-U7-32G, which comes with a 20-core Intel Core Ultra 7 CPU plus 32GB of DDR5 and costs £4,464.

Its powerful CPU is clearly capable of handling a wide range of surveillance tasks, and we were impressed with Qnap's QVR Face Insight and QVR Human apps as they worked extremely well with fast reactions to activity in our predefined camera detection zones. The QuMagie app also delivered efficient categorisation, face recognition, and thumbnail generation for our big photo collections.

For surveillance operations, the appliance has almost no competition as Synology's current AI-powered NVR alternatives have dwindled to its entry-level 2-bay DVA1622. The high storage bay count and feature-rich QuTS hero h6 OS also make the TVS-AIh1688ATX appliances great all-rounders that look capable of handling a wide range of enterprise data protection, backup, and general storage duties.

Qnap TVS-AIh1688ATX-U9-48G specifications