Brand New QNAP Realtek TS-230 NAS in 2020
New releases in the world of network-attached storage (NAS) has been a little thin in the closing stages of 2019 compared with previous years. Whether it is the manufacturers switching focus from the hardware to the software, relying more and more on existing models to support their NAS operating system and GUI, or because 2019 has been a rather complicated year to track consumer trends and existing units in the field. Whatever the reason, news on new releases from the big NAS brands has been a lot later this year and with many users sitting on their money, waiting for something new and shiny to buy, it is only now in the 11th hour that we are seeing some new kit start to emerge. Step forward to new affordable 2-Bay NAS solution from QNAP, the TS-230 NAS Drive. Featuring a brand new chassis, popular efficient yet capable CPU and a few hardware factors that are very ‘QNAP, the newly announced TS-230 sounds like it will be the perfect budget NAS for those making their first steps into a home or small business server.
What are the Hardware Specifications of the QNAP TS-230 NAS?
The new TS-230 from QNAP looks set to serve as a follow up to the now almost 2 years old TS-228A. As NAS drives are similar in core architecture of regular PCs (CPU, Memory, Motherboard, ports, etc), it is easy to understand if the hardware specifications of the QNAP TS-230 below seem a little underwhelming. However, you need to look at them in terms of efficiency. A NAS Drive is designed to be on 24hours a day, 7 days a week, for months or years at a time. The result is that the hardware needed to be designed to go the distance. The CPU featured below is also no slouch, as it is part of the newer generation of Realtek 64bit architecture processors, originally applied into NAS devices only last year. The full specifications we know so far are:
- White Chassis, plastic in design, with a blue front stripe
- Realtek RTD1295 quad-core 1.4GHz processor, 64-bit ARM
- 2 GB DDR4 RAM, not expandable
- Top-Down Drive placement
- 5 Front Mounted LEDs, denoting System Access, Network Activity, Drive Activity and USB Access
- 2x SATA Bays, supporting upto 16TB Hard Drives and 4TB Commercial SSDs
- Front Mounted USB 3.0 (USB 3.1 Gen 1) 1-Touch Copy Button & Port
- Reported 18 db(A) Noise Level whilst in operation
- No Hot Swapping, as chassis is a closed casing
- New rear fan design bay
- 1x 1Gbe RJ45 LAN Port
- 1x USB 3.0 and 1x USB 2.0 Port
That Realtek RTD1296 is certainly a popular chip in the more affordable NAS ranges, supporting 4K transcoding, snapshots, container applications, multiple tiers of backup operations with full Hybrid Backup 3 support and can even support Plex Media Server in 2019 and 2020 (though transcoding will not be possible).
What are the Software Specifications of the QNAP TS-230 NAS?
First Party QNAP Applications for the TS-230
- QSync for Backing up multiple Devices to the NAS on a schedule/as needed
- Hyper Backup Sync 3
- QuMagie for photo collections and AI-enabled face/thing recognition
- Multimedia Console for managing media sharing, streaming, transcoding and indexing
- File Station for File Management, sharing and permission allocation
- Download Station for managing HTTP/FTP/NZB/BT downloads, as well as RSS feeds for podcasts and updates
- QFiling and QSirch to better organize files and remove duplicates/waste
- Cloud Drive for Migrating and Synchronizing between Google Drive, Dropbox, Amazon S3, etc
- Photo Station to organize and catalogue photo collections
- Music Station to organize, playback and stream music media to network/internet devices
- Video Station to playback media over the network/internet and transcode as needed upto 4K
- Container Station for management micro/compact virtual environments
- Surveillance Station for Surveillance/CCTV/NVR use with IP Cameras
- MANY more QNAP Apps
Third-Party Applications for the TS-230
- Plex Media Server(no transcoding natively)
- Emby
- iTunes Server
- Acronis True Image Backup
- Malware Remover
- SugarCRM
- TVMosaic
Desktop Client Applications from QNAP
- QSync for Mac and Windows
- Surveillance Station Client for PC/Mac
- QFinder Pro for Mac/PC
Mobile Applications for iOS and Android
- Qfile – File manager
- QPhoto – Photo Manager
- QVideo – Video Manager
- QMusic – Music Manager
- QRemote – Remote Control App over the Network
- QNotes – Central note-taking app, for collaboration between users
How much will the QNAP TS-230 NAS Cost?
Despite it’s remarkable similarity to the QNAP TS-228A, I think this newer TS-230 will arrive at a higher price point – due in no small part to that improved 4K and improved snapshots enabled processor, twice the memory and the new chassis. However, this is still going to be a NAS aimed at the Home and small business owner, so a price around the £180-200 price point (without your local TAX) is fairly likely.
When will the QNAP TS-230 NAS be Released?
Details on the QNAP TS-230 NAS are still so thin that as an estimation of a release date is just too thin on the ground. However, I think we will see this available for release at the start of Q1 (Jan-March) along with the start of a newer generation of QNAP NAS, featuring 2.5Gbe, 5Gbe, as well as more appearances of that popular Intel J4000 series CPU. Stay tuned here to NASCompares to learn about every new release from QNAP in 2020.
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