Qnap TVS-863+ Golden Cloud Turbo vNAS review

Does Qnap’s new Golden Cloud NAS have the Midas touch?

IT Pro Verdict

Qnap’s first AMD-based NAS appliance is packed with features and delivers in the value stakes. Combine its dual HDMI ports with the AMD SoC and Qnap’s QvPC and you have a classy multimedia platform as well.

Reasons to buy
  • +

    Good value; 10GbE as standard; Masses of backup apps; Virtualisation Station; QvPC technology

Reasons to avoid
  • -

    Modest 10GbE NAS write speeds

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The next Station is

A feature we've always been impressed with is Qnap's Virtualization Station which allowed us to use the appliance to host virtual machines (VMs) running other OSes. It's very easy to use as we had a new VM created from a Windows Server 2012 R2 ISO file up and running in less than 20 minutes.

Qnap's HybridDesk Station portal and its QvPC technology adds another dimension as we could connect an HDMI monitor, mouse and keyboard directly to the appliance and relax with a video, radio or TV feed (4K playback is not supported). Other local apps including Google Chrome, Spotify and YouTube add to the multimedia experience and we could also access the main QTS web console.

You'll need this to use the appliance as a PC as you load the Virtualization Station from the local QTS console, select a VM and control its OS directly. After loaded the extra Surveillance Station (Local Display) app we could also access our IP cameras and view multiple feeds on the local monitor.

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Conclusion

For an 8-bay appliance with 8GB of RAM and 10GbE adapter as standard, the TVS-863+ is good value. It posted a reasonable NAS performance over 10GbE as well although AMD's embedded Radeon graphics, the dual HDMI ports and QvPC technology makes this storage system best suited to home and business users that want its extensive multimedia capabilities.

Verdict

Qnap’s first AMD-based NAS appliance is packed with features and delivers in the value stakes. Combine its dual HDMI ports with the AMD SoC and Qnap’s QvPC and you have a classy multimedia platform as well.

Chassis: Desktop

CPU: 2.4GHz AMD G-Series SoC

Memory: 8GB DDR3L (max 16GB)

Storage: 8 x 2.5/3.5in SATA hot-swap drive bays

Array support: RAID0, 1, 5, 6, 10, hot-spare, JBODs

Network: 2 x Gigabit, 10GBase-T PCI-e card

Other ports: 5 x USB3; 2 x HDMI

Management: Web browser

Warranty: 3-year limited

Dave Mitchell
Dave Mitchell

Dave is an IT consultant and freelance journalist specialising in hands-on reviews of computer networking products covering all market sectors from small businesses to enterprises. Founder of Binary Testing Ltd – the UK’s premier independent network testing laboratory - Dave has over 45 years of experience in the IT industry.

Dave has produced many thousands of in-depth business networking product reviews from his lab which have been reproduced globally. Writing for ITPro and its sister title, PC Pro, he covers all areas of business IT infrastructure, including servers, storage, network security, data protection, cloud, infrastructure and services.

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