QNAP TS-101 9-in-1 NAS Server

Pros: Basically everything I tried on the unit worked pretty good. I have been running the unit 24/7 for about a month with no issues. The unit is very warm but its not hot so I can still hold it and move it around.

The network sharing works fine. I can stream SD/HD TV divx encoded video with no issues. I attached a 650GB usb drive to the unit with no issues. FTP server works fine. The web server works fine but its limited. I installed my own blog and photo site.

The bit torrent feature is great.

Cons: Web server is slow and limited. I was able to run phpgraphy and a serendipity blog apps, but they run very slow.

Cannot re - seed a torrent once torrent is done. You can optionally set additional share time for each torrent, but after its done you cannot restart a torrent to share it.

Other Thoughts: If I knew that I would be using 2 750GB drives I would have bought the TS-201 instead of having an external usb drive. I hate the mess of additional wires.

Additionally if you plan to use the web server feature I highly recommend waiting the TS-109 which has a faster CPU & twice the memory.

Pros: With the web server feature I could upload my iWeb and share with my friends. The compatibility of Mac and PC is very good. Don't have to worry how to share files from MAC to PC or PC to MAC now. MAC version Qucik Install Wizard is also so easy to use.

Cons: 1. Filename system could not accept slash ....etc.
2. QGet do not support MAC.

Other Thoughts: They have so many features that I only use a few of it. Share my iWeb blog without space limitation is really brilliant idea.

Pros: 1. Customer support (I got email addresses of 5 people in their company!; they took time to remote access my NAS to see issues) 2. Does many things only a full computer can do (at a much lower power output, 36W). 3. Quiet. 4. Can connect many HDDs (I have connected four 500 GB HDDs). 5. Firmware is Linux-based (3rd parties added MySQL capability for example). 6. Mirroring of internal HDD (they call it QRAID and it's much more stable nowadays).

Cons: 1. Cannot write to NTFS drives (their new TS-109 Pro can! Newegg.com please stock this!), only read. 2. It's microprocessor is slow when doing more than one function (their new TS-109 Pro is faster!) 3. Gets too hot to touch (but their testing shows HDD not too hot [I am a test engineer in RL and I approve of their testing method]). 4. Early, buggy software issues adequately being addressed with regular firmware updates (your mileage may vary). 5. Some network, OS & PC knowledge to use effectively.

Other Thoughts: This device is very complicated so I cannot fit everything in this review. Compared to what is selling now, this unit scores high IMO. I have used this NAS in every iteration except as an iTunes server (Apple, yech!), Disaster Recovery (I have only one TS-101) and as a Print Server. Everything else (including Telnet) just works. As it's in a home it's not often that more than one function at a time is used. Firmware upgrades are regular and so far all have some increased functionality as well (interpret as "something more for what you already paid for"). Looking forward to TS-109 Pro which is faster and can do more functions silmultaneously.

Pros: More than 9 dedicated NAS functions are satisfactory. All thumbs up especially for the download station function. Can download torrents and even ftp without interferring notebook. Excellent customer service with instant skype access. Qnap servie engineer even assist me to set up the NAT in my Asus WL-520g router.

Cons: Download speed for some secular seeds is not comparable with PC..

Pros: multi function (web-server, NAS, iTunes sharing)

Cons: 1) eSata does not work
2) Customer service is most horrible. Will write it up on a tech-blog as I think it has 'Dell-Hell' proportions. Out of Taiwan, 0 english, 0 understanding

Other Thoughts: learned my lesson - Though Shalt Not Buy Anything More Complicated Than A Fork Without Customer Support That Speaks English

Pros: Excellent storage option, great set of features, works awesome and I can't see ever not using it after having it...once I got past the set up.

Cons: Not very easy to set up, kind of clucky, need good understanding of permissions to use it. The interface looks very dated with the graphics and icons. Tech support was poor at best taking over 5 days to respond to an e-mail, then just to say they hoped the issue was resolved. The issue had to do with the print server not working all the time. Still not sure why, but it is not a feature I need so I don't use it.

Other Thoughts: Once again I give top marks to New Egg for service and speed!! I oder stuff from New Egg when Bxxt Bxy is just down the street!

Pros: This is a nice NAS for the dough. TwonkyMedia Server, iTunes Server, FTP Server, HTTP Server (w/ ASPLite), File Server, Torrent/FTP/HTTP Downloader, User/Group Control all present and working. Fanless design keeps it quiet. Easy backup to USB drive. Printer/extra HDD sharing/expansion is nice, but I have not used it. Drive spin-down when not in use, and has a setting for the spin-down time.

Cons: Fanless design keeps it HOT. If you put a 7200 RPM or faster drive in this box, and keep it in a 65 Degree or hotter room, you may need to supply extra cooling or your drives will live a very short life. I took 2 CPU heatsinks and used Thermal Glue to glue them on the hot side. Now it runs very cool. Before this, it was too hot to handle while running!

Other Thoughts: Media servers need work. They are really only that (no filename/tag editing AFAICS. I have set 2 of these up and love them! Updating firmware is a must!

Pros: function as advertised. has practically everything I was looking for in an NAS, (well maybe it would be even better if it had an EMule and/or a NNTP client as well) have not tried ESATA or USB operations, but config for NAS and download station is a no brainer. no noise except the HDD so if noise is your pet peeve, this is the unit for you. It has a heavy gauge aluminum case that helps with heat dissipation that is required for a unit like this.

Cons: 1. the unit gets warm to hot if you use it to download stuff. due to its no fan design, the unit can exceed the operating temp of your HDD. Try to keep it below 5 jobs or the unit will become VERY hot and file access will become very sluggish.

2. OS can use some work to allow file manipulation on the NAS itself. I tried to copy a file from the download section to the media section and it when through the network even tho the copy is a "local" operation within the NAS

3. average download speed seems slow for torrent. it may be because of the files I was downloading have few seeders, but just used to getting better speeds on my PC.

4. not sure what file system this unit uses, but I would feel better if it had some kind of defrag utility to help keep fragmentation down on the drive. there is no way to reassign where the temp files are for the download station so everything is being slashed around in the main drive instead of a "slave" drive I usually set up for temp files.

Other Thoughts: generally, very satisfied with the unit. be sure to visit the manufacture site to download the new firmware and the utility software as soon as you get the unit. it will make your life easier with this unit. it does run very hot if you tried to run more then 5 downloads at a time. the manual recommends 3 to 5 download jobs at a time so keep that in mind. even in normal operations, the case does get warm. I strapped a GIANT heatsink(more then 3x the size of a normal P4 CPU heatsink) to the side of the case where its CPU is to help it dissipate the heat so my harddrive would not meet an early demise but I think that would still be an issue with this unit. but overall, it beats leaving my machine on 24x7. the only noise you hear is the HDD ticking away inside the unit so it's a VERY quite unit. general recommendation is for anyone who use this unit ALOT to invest in a VERY large heatsink that you can strap/glue/tape to the side of the case to help it stay cool.

Pros: Attractive, grey brushed aluminum case - good inicators and controls layout. Fanless design is very quiet but results in warm enclosure. Lots of features (can act as USB host to copy from thumb drive/cards with no PC, print server, audible indication of readiness, capacity can be increased via eSata/USB ports and another drive, RAID, FTP server, UPNP media server etc etc). Up and running quickly although I did not use install wizard software - not much more complex than setting up most wireless routers.

Cons: Embedded OS/firmware needs a lot of work. Changed admin password and was immediately locked out of device - it appears that special characters (in my case a '$' (dollar) sign) are not correctly interpreted and result in a password other than the one you intended. Device has a reset button on the back to set back to default password. This reset ability can be disabled through the admin interface though and I would caution against removing the ability to do a reset. After a few tries I figured out that the '$' character was causing the issue and stuck with letters and numbers. I also found that there were multiple instances within the first few days where I could not delete directories from the drive either through the device's web interface or through Windows Explorer. No error message - everything appeared to succeed but directories remained. This appears related to depth of nested directories so you can get around it by 'pruning' from the bottom up.

Other Thoughts: eSata performance using the interface on the back of the device was VERY slow. With 2 identical WD 500 GB drives, copying 1.2 GB from the QNAP to the attached SATA device took 8 minutes. Didn't test RAID performance but doesn't bode well. Make sure you go to the QNAP site and read the list of pending bugs for the current firmware revision. Gigabit ethernet performance was poor even with jumbo frames enabled - barely 100 mbits /sec. Typical transfers on the same network segment with other gigabit devices average 600-700 megabits/sec.

Pros: Was up and running in no time, using the file server, multimedia server and printer server functionality

Cons: 1) it did not recognize that it is connected so the set-up software did not run. had to go to my firewall and find the assigned ip and then point my browser there directly to set everything up.
2) How to assign specific users is not 100% intuitive. To get it going fast, I set all folders as public and now move to get pecific user permissions.

Other Thoughts: very good price/quality ratio I would say. I also use the Samsung SpinPoint T Series 500gb that is not on the compatibility list with no problem.