Manufacturer QNAP has released a new NAS server that is specifically geared towards basic digital home use. The new model is the QNAP TS-233, and it will allow us to share files, make backup copies of our computers and even play multimedia content easily and quickly through the local network. Next, we are going to explain all its technical characteristics and what you can do with this new NAS that is really cheap.
Main features
This new NAS server is aimed at basic use of this type of device in the home, therefore, we do not have hardware as powerful as other models that we currently have in the QNAP brand.
This new computer has a main processor with 64-bit ARM architecture, it is a Quad-Core at 2GHz speed, it has a floating point unit and it also has a hardware encryption engine. This feature is very important if you use an encrypted volume, an encrypted folder and even if you use secure transfer protocols such as FTPES or SFTP, as it will give us a speed similar to what we get without this data encryption with AES. Regarding the RAM of this model, it has a total of 2GB capacity and allows us to expand. As for Flash memory, it is 4GB and has dual-boot operating system protection.
This NAS server has a total of two bays to accommodate SATA3 drives inside, we can install both 2.5” and 3.5” hard drives as well as 2.5” SSD drives to greatly accelerate reading speed and random writing. These disks are hot-swappable, although we will have to disassemble the NAS case to access them as they do not have removable bays as is usual in mid-high-end NAS.
This NAS server has a Gigabit Ethernet port for LAN, the operating system supports WoL (Wake On LAN) to wake up the NAS server, it also has support for 9K Jumbo Frames to maximize read and write speed and even support for VLANs . In case you want faster network connectivity, you will have to buy a USB to Multigigabit Ethernet adapter such as the QNA-UC5G1T model, and connect it to the only USB 3.0 port that we have available on this device. This NAS server also has two USB 2.0 ports and one high-performance USB 3.0 port, this USB 3.0 port is ideal for connecting an external hard drive and making backup copies to the NAS server or making a copy of what we have on the NAS on disk.
Regarding the dimensions and weight of this server, it has a height of 18.8cm, width of 9cm and a depth of 15.6cm, in addition, it has a weight of 1.1Kg. As you can see, this NAS server has a very small size, so we can place it in any location.
What uses can we give to this NAS?
If we take into account the hardware of this NAS server, logically we will not be able to use it for complete virtualization of operating systems or use Docker, however, we can carry out most “normal” uses without problems. The operating system of this NAS is QTS 5.0, therefore, we are going to enjoy the latest improvements in performance and security incorporated by the manufacturer.
If you are going to use this NAS server as a VPN server where we install QVPN and connect to the local network securely via OpenVPN or WireGuard VPN, we will be able to do it without problems and we will obtain very good performance thanks to encryption acceleration by hardware it incorporates. We will also be able to use HBS3 to carry out local (on another NAS) or remote (in the public or private cloud) backup copies, in addition, we will have the possibility of synchronizing files and folders from our NAS to another, and recovering all the information in case of disaster. This NAS has all the usual options related to storage, such as the possibility of configuring RAID, specifically RAID 0 or RAID 1 since we only have two bays to house disks, of course, we also have Snapshots, to deal with possible ransomware attacks. Regarding security, we will be able to install QuFirewall and limit access to our NAS to only Spanish IPs, we also have Malware Remover that will protect us against malware that directly affects our NAS server.
As for the multimedia functions, we can use QuMagic, Qsirch, manage all our files and folders with Qfile, configure a video surveillance system for IP cameras with QVR Elite, the possibility of using Plex Media Server (it will be officially launched soon), Qmix to perform automations, configure Qsync to mount a Dropbox but store the data on the NAS, and many more applications.
