Question 1

Is there a minimum as to the drive size. I have a bunch of 400GB drives that I want to use?

Accepted Answer

To my knowledge there isn't a minimum drive size (maybe 4gb?). I have used a 256gb 970 Evo SSD in this NAS for cache acceleration and it works flawlessly. Although I'd recommend going with maybe a freeNAS setup with an old Mobo, CPU, and some ram for a media center/ storage solution as this is really meant for larger sized drives since its cost is generally higher for an all in one device.

Question 2

Trying to confirm this with the user manual but cannot find...is it ok to use less than 4 drives. And if yes, when adding other drives up to 4, will the unit be able to add new disks to the RAID group?

Accepted Answer

I just set this NAS up for my dad not too long ago. I put two drives in and left two bays empty for future expansion for him; works a treat. I did setup a RAID group for the two drives also. Although I have not added another disk to the group, RAID has the ability to add disks to the group later on. This varies in terms of difficulty (the web interface doesn't make it that difficult)  and the time it takes the RAID group to properly "sync up" depending on the RAID type you chose at the start.

Question 3

how many terabytes each bay can support?

Accepted Answer

I use 4T each.   You might be able to use 10T.

Realistically, compatibility is defined by the 3.5" form factor and what future capacities will be available.   The numbers are truly "large".

Go to the web site - for QNAP - and check the current specs.   Check the forums for problems, if any.   Stick with core, name brand drives.

SSDs are not really effective - since they are so very fast and GigE is slow.

Question 4

Forgive my ignorance: can I install 4 different hard drives and still access the drives per each named hard drive. I do not want to use this as a RAID back up. I want to alleviate the use of 4 usb hard drive enclosures which connect to usb ports. Theses drives enclosures be they single HDD or connecting two into one usb port work slowly. I have multiple very large graphic projects on separate hard drives which tend to be 1 to 2 TB bytes. Will this NAS device help? Thanks.

Accepted Answer

The simple answer is: Yes - you can access all 4 drives independently.  Also I've found the QNAP to be an awesome device that does way way more than I would ever need, i.e., you can run applications on it and it support every protocol I can think of and they routinely update the software because they have a wide variety of devices and this seems like the baby model of the line but their software capability is engineered for all their products.  You can also do other fancy things like create virtual disks and mount using iSCSI which I do on from my linux box so shows up as local drive mounted over network - which is super fast.  The file search function built into the interface I've found a tad lacking but since its built on some variant of linux, I've been able to ssh directly into device and use commands to augment when necessary - which (for me) makes easier to use.  I'm really happy with this device.

Question 5

Looking to have two 4TB and two 2TB, both in separate RAID 1. Is this possible with just one 4-bay enclosure?

Accepted Answer

Sorry don’t know. But since cost of these HDDs is so low i wd buy four big ones. Future proof.

Question 6

This is advertised as a disk-less system, but it appears to use some type of storage (i.e. NAS is network attached storage).  How much storage capacity does it provide?

Accepted Answer

Diskless just means it doesn't come with any storage capacity.  You must buy SATA hard drives to install in it.

Question 7

Is the included 1G of RAM enough to run all/most of the apps listed on the QNAP site?

Accepted Answer

I have the TS-431P with 3-4GB drives and 1 512 SSD for caching.  I run Plex as well as backup without issue to kids laptops/phones and tcp/ip connected tvs.  I'm sure that there are apps that you cannot use (I believe you cannot use filer/dedupe) but "enough" depends on what you are actually going to be doing.

Question 8

Will this run Plex?

Accepted Answer

The app can be installed on it, but I could never get mine to register/link to my account as a server.  Also, with an ARM processor, you'd be lucky if you could reliably stream at 480p.

Question 9

I don't see any mention of RAID configurations. JBOD, 0, 1? Or am I missing something?

Accepted Answer

Reference TS-431P specs from QNAP website | Volume types: RAID 0/1/5/6/10, + hot spare, single, JBOD

Question 10

Can I add/upgrade RAM to this unit?

Accepted Answer

No, it is not upgradable.

Brand	QNAP
Model	TS-431P-US
Type	Desktop NAS

Port RJ-45	2 x 10/100/1000M
Port USB	3 x USB3.0
HDD Interface	4 x SATA (4 x Bay)

Form Factor	Tower
Processor	Annapurna Labs, an Amazon company Alpine AL-212, 2-core, 1.7 GHz
Installed Memory	1GB DDR3
Max Memory Capacity	1GB

Temperature	0°C - 40 °C
Humidity	5-95% R.H

Dimensions	6.34" x 6.30" x 8.62"
Weight	6.61 lbs.

Qnap TS-431P-US 4-Bay Personal Cloud NAS, ARM Cortex A15 1.7 GHz Dual Core, 1GB RAM

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Item#: N82E16822107533