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INTRODUCTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

qnap ts 1635a

   For the largest part of the consumer base 3.5" desktop drives represent the best value since they are currently available with capacities all the way up to 8TB (single drive models) and in most cases are even cheaper compared to their 3.5" internal counterparts. There are however many people out there (primarily professionals) who want more and for them there are three choices to go about currently. They can either use a external tower enclosure which can house up to 12 drives, use an rackmount enclosure with room for up to 48 drives or use a NAS with room for as many as 24 drives (and if that's not enough there are always expansion models available). Now if you're willing to spend close to USD800 or more for a standalone multi-drive enclosure chances are you'll take the NAS route instead since it features a plethora of usages and can even be used without the need for a PC or MAC. For such demanding consumers QNAP recently released their rather "affordable" TurboNAS TS-1635 16 bay NAS server and today we're taking it for a spin.


   QNAP Systems, Inc., as its brand promise "Quality Network Appliance Provider", aims to deliver comprehensive offerings of cutting edge network attached storage (NAS) and network video recorder (NVR) solutions featured with ease-of-use, robust operation, large storage capacity, and trustworthy reliability. QNAP integrates technologies and designs to bring forth quality products that effectively improve business efficiency on file sharing, virtualization applications, storage management and surveillance in the business environments, as well as enrich entertainment life for home users with the offering of a fun multimedia center experience. Headquartered in Taipei, QNAP delivers its solutions to the global market with nonstop innovation and passion.


   The TurboNAS TS-1635 is a very large NAS server which under the hood features the Annapurna AL-514 quad-core Cortex-A15 CPU clocked at 1.7GHz along with 4/8GB DDR3L RAM (upgradable to 16GB), 512MB of DOM flash memory, PCIe Gen2 (x2) slot (for an extra NIC), 16 SATA 6Gb/s drive bays (12x2.5/3.5" & 4x2.5"), two 10GbE SFP+ LAN ports, 2 Gigabit RJ45 LAN ports, 3 USB 3.0 ports, built-in speaker and a line out port. You can of course configure all 16 bays of the TurboNAS TS-1635 in single, JBOD and RAID 0/1/5/6/10 + hot spare modes with AES 256-bit data encryption. Just like with other models by QNAP if by any chance the 16 SATA 6Gb/s bays are not enough to cover your needs in the long run you can expand the storage capacity of the unit with one of the available expansion models (UX-500P/UX-800P). Unfortunately the TurboNAS TS-1635 doesn't feature an HDMI output so you can't use it as a high-end media server (KODI) nor can you use one of the several applications available through it but aside that it has pretty much everything we're used in seeing with the top of the line models by QNAP.

 



 

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The TS-1635 gets shipped inside a plain cardboard box with a large sticker at the top with the model name, product picture and specifications printed on it.

 

 

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Some of the main features of the unit are listed on both sides as small boxes.

 

 

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Once again perfect packing by QNAP since the unit is wrapped inside a plastic bag and placed between two thick foam spacers (the rest of the bundle is placed in another cardboard box).

 

 

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Contained inside the box are two RJ45 LAN cables, power cord, two bags with mounting screws for the drives (2.5/3.5") and the quick installation guide (yes the TS-1635 is also inside).

 



 

THE TURBONAS TS-1635-8G EXTERIOR

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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With a width of 369.89mm, depth of 319.8mm and height of 303.84mm the 12.32Kg heavy TS-1635 is one of the largest models to ever get here.

 

 

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To showcase just how large the 16 bay TS-1635 really is we placed it right next to the 5 bay TS-531P which we reviewed a while back.

 

 

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The sides of the enclosure as you can see are not perforated.

 

 

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With a total of twelve 3.5" bays and four 2.5" bays it's no surprise that the front is almost entirely taken by them.

 

 

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All 16 bays feature push to release mechanisms with small locks at the bottom (up to lock, down to release).

 

 

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A small LCD screen with two buttons is placed right next to the 2.5" bays.

 

 

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The on/off power button is located on the lower left right over a USB 3.0 port and next to a LED strip.

 

 

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All of the drive trays are made out of hard plastic and are quite sturdy (i still prefer the aluminum ones however).

 

 

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At the rear of the enclosure the three 92mm exhaust fans obviously steal the show.

 

 

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Here we also see 4 PCI shields/covers (only 1 is actually usable) and right beneath them we also have a microphone port, two 10GbE SFP+ LAN ports, two Gigabit RJ45 LAN ports, two USB 3.0 ports, line out port, reset button and a Kensington port.

 

 

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The power supply unit on/off switch and its power cord port are placed on the lower right of the rear right next to the built-in speaker.

 



 

THE TURBONAS TS-1635 INTERIOR

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

qnap turbonas ts 1635 17t                                           Gaining access inside the enclosure is easy, just remove the 9 screws holding it in place from the rear and that's it.

 

 

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The perforated section at the rear of the enclosure is actually placed when the mainboard is.

 

 

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Here we see the two SODIMM slots (one is taken by a 8GB DDR3L module) and a large heatsink placed over the Annapurna AL-514 quad-core Cortex-A15 CPU.

 

 

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Moving further at the back we see the three 92mm exhaust fans and the 250W power supply by FSP.

 

 

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A second heatsink is placed on the opposite side of the board from where the large heatsink is.

 

 

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As QNAP clearly states only one PCIe slot is available and here it is.

 

 

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On the mainboard tray we also see the Etron Tech EJ188H USB 3.0 Host Controller and the 512MB NAND flash memory by Micron.

 



 

LCD SCREEN

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Although you can’t adjust anything via the external LCD screen and the two buttons next to it you can see the server name and installed QTS version, port used and its IP address, model name and current status (shutting down for example as seen above).

 



 

SETUP

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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There are several ways you can detect and setup a NAS but QNAPs Qfinder Pro is the fastest and this is what we've been using for years.

 

 

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If a newer firmware version is available online the system automatically downloads and updates the one stored inside.

 

 

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Since this NAS doesn't feature an HDMI output you can't configure it either for Home or Office use (office is standard).

 

 

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After you make the choice you only have to enter a new name for the NAS and a new password (if you want to change the default ones), setup the network settings, select the applications you want to be available and choose the desired configuration for the drives.

 



 

QTS V4.3.2 PART 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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QNAP recently updated their QTS OS to version 4.3.2 but as you can see at least the login screen remains the same with that of the 4.2.2.

 

 

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The main screen has also received some design changes that make it easier on the eyes (or it could be the opposite depending on how you look at things).

 

 

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As usual here we have all the installed applications, the very detailed resource monitor at the lower left corner (yes it again considers one of our drives as defective but again after a full test it found no problems) and the drop down start-like menu from the top left corner.

 

 

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The main screen of the control panel has been designed from scratch and as usual here we have 4 sub-categories System, Privilege, Network File & Services and Applications.

 

 

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Leaving out the new design everything else remains pretty much the same as before so through the System Settings menu you can set the name for the server, adjust time, set a password, change the codepage, adjust the login screen, specify your location, adjust the network IP, check the status of the Ethernet ports, access the network and virtual switch feature (if installed), play around with power options, set email/sms/push service notifications, check the state of the installed drives, create RAID and Virtual drives, enable SSD cache acceleration (we did as you can see in the above pictures), enable the Virtual Drive feature (allows you to add and use storage space from remote NAS servers), enable/disable security settings, configure the speed of the three rear fans, adjust the volume of audio alerts, enable/disable the LED light and its brightness level, backup and restore NAS data, configure and check the status of external devices, check hardware information, setup backup options, access external devices and their settings, check the logs, perform firmware updates (beta ones included) and open the full resource monitor tab.

 



 

QTS V4.3.2 PART 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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From the Privilege Settings tab you can create new users, assign those users to groups, setup shared folders, set specific quotas for each user and configure domain security.

 

 

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From within the Network Services menu you will find everything network-related including FTP settings, Telnet service settings, service discovery settings and the network recycle bin.

 

 

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In order to use some of the installed stations you will need to enable them from within the Applications tab.

 

 

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Some NAS servers can actually host pages without breaking a sweat and you can do that from the web server tab.

 



 

QTS APPS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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QNAP offers a complete range of applications right out of the box for both consumers and professionals and this is without doubt one of the strongest selling points of their NAS models.

 

 

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Transferring files to and from the NAS is very easy by using the File Station but personally I always prefer mapping the NAS as a drive in Windows and performing everything via the regular explorer.

 

 

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Via QNAP’s myQNAPCloud app you can access the NAS and all its features from another computer or your mobile devices from all over the world (setting up port forwarding for your model/router however may take a few more steps than the app states since not all routers have UPNP turned on by default).

 

 

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Instead of calling QNAP support for help you can check the knowledgebase via the help app (if that doesn’t help you can also contact their support from here).

 

 

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From within the Qsync Central app you can sync all your devices with the NAS including the cloud.

 

 

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The Video Station can be used to stream media to local and remote devices.

 

 

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You can use the Download Station for torrents or direct HTTP/FTP download (also consider using rtorrent since it’s a more “complete” solution).

 

 

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The QVPN (Virtual Private Network with Quality of Service Guarantees) service allows you to setup your very own virtual private network with ease.

 

 

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The Container Station Is a one of the latest apps which allows the end user to quickly install Linux releases like Ubuntu and several other programs like Minecraft onto the NAS just by clicking on them (download is automatic). Just out of curiosity (not much of an Ubuntu user myself) we did try Ubuntu v16.04 without any issues.

 

 

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If you happen to have an Azure Storage cloud account or a WebDAV account you can back up all your data to either as an extra layer of protection.

 

 

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The media streaming add-on is required for sharing media content to DLNA, Chromecast, AirPlay and HDMI compatible devices (although here we don’t have HDMI).

 

 

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One of the new and handy apps is the Diagnostic Tool from where you can run several diagnostics to check the current state of the NAS.

 

 

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Thanks to the brand new QmailAgent app by QNAP you can now send, receive and backup all your emails from a large number of email clients by using a single program. The QmailAgent app is not only extremely easy to use and obviously very convenient but it also supports email encryption.

 

 

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If you want to share your photo collection with local or even remote connected devices the new photo station v5 is the way to do it.

 

 

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QNAP also gives you the ability to share your entire audio collection to both local and remote devices via the Music Station v5 which features a different design compared to what we saw with the v4.2.2 of QTS.

 

 

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You can use the Proxy Server to manage the network bandwidth and bypass geographically-restricted websites.

 

 

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Qsirch is one of the latest apps to hit QTS and basically allows the end user to search for specific files inside the NAS at incredible speeds. Although it may not come in handy much for home use but for office use it could prove to be a valuable addition.

 

 

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The notes app may not come in handy to everyone out there but it can be really useful for people who need to keep track of many things.

 

 

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SERVIIO is a new DLNA media streaming server which basically enables streaming of video, audio and images to your wired and wireless DLNA certified devices.

 

 

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As usual if you decide to use the Surveillance Station to record feed from your IP cameras I suggest switching from UDP/UPnP to ONViF detection (if your cameras support it) since that’s the only setting that allows 4 out of 4 of our cameras to be detected without problem. The TS-1635 is one of a handful of models that come with an 8 IP camera license.

 



 

ANDROID / IOS APPS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

android1tandroid2tandroid3tandroid4tandroid5tandroid6tandroid7tandroid8tandroid9tQNAP has a small selection of Android/iOS applications from where you can check the state of the NAS, enable/disable installed stations, share pictures, stream audio/video, start/pause torrent/HTTP/FTP downloads and access the surveillance station.

 



 

TESTING METHODOLOGY – PERFORMANCE RESULTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Originally we had decided that since some of the NAS servers/devices we've tested in the past are no longer in our possession (naturally) we would keep performing the exact same testing methodology we did in the past for as long as possible in order to provide accurate comparison results. However since our real-life tests are not enough for some people we also decided to throw in ATTO and Crystal Disk Mark to cover the more demanding users. However as always we will be using up to six Seagate Constellation ES.3 4TB SATA III hard disk drive(s) with 3.5” compatible units and up to two (for now) Enterprise Capacity 2.5 HDD V3 2TB SATA III HDDs with 2.5” compatible units to perform several upload/download tests with 10.9GB (Single) and 40,8GB (RAID) files. Tests are repeated a total of 4 times after which we record the average numbers (from the 4 peak ones) into our charts. The network device used for 1GbE tests is the same Netgear D7800 Gigabit VDSL Modem/Router we’ve been using lately when performing tests on NAS servers. Since the 25th of June 2015 for 10GbE tests we’ll be using a Netgear ProSafe XS712T 10G Smart Switch and an Intel XT540-AT2 10GbE PCIe card (10GbE compatible NAS cards will be provided from each company and stated in each review).

SINGLE DISK TESTS

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RAID TESTS

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TEST RESULTS – 10GBE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SINGLE DISK TESTS

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RAID TESTS

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TEST RESULTS – TEMPERATURES / CONSUMPTION / NOISE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TEMPERATURES

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POWER CONSUMPTION

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NOISE LEVELS

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CONCLUSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

qnap ts 1635b 

   The brand new TurboNAS TS-1635 may not be among the most powerful NAS models to ever reach our lab but since it has no HDMI output and thus can’t be used as a media server (at least not the same way as other models) the Annapurna AL-514 quad-core Cortex-A15 CPU is more than enough (you can see that from out tests) for what it was designed to do. Also thanks to its 16 drive bays I reckon it will be a while before anyone requires more storage space and I say that because I know quite a few professionals in the video/movie industry that wouldn’t even be able to fill it with drives, at least not at home or at the office. Of course if that need ever arises you can get up to 8 extra drive bays by adding the UX-800P expansion model available by QNAP. Now things get somewhat tricky when it comes to its 10GbE connectivity since if you want the best possible performance the built-in SFP+ ports supported by the Annapurna CPU are simply put not quite as fast as the LAN-10G2T-U PCIe card which we’ve used with other models (it may be the CPU’s fault but I somehow doubt it). Unfortunately although the TurboNAS TS-1635 does have a PCIe x2 slot it’s not compatible with the LAN-10GT2T-U model so you may have to wait a bit until QNAP dishes out something better and compatible. Noise levels may also not be the lowest we’ve ever recorded nor is its power consumption but let’s not forget that this is a 16 bay model so obviously it’s not ment for home use, at least not primarily. As for the new QTS version 4.3.2 well it looks better and seems more focused in providing extra options to users but as expected really it offers little more compared to the previous one. Finally regarding the SSD cache feature which we've been using quite a lot lately once again it seems it doesn’t add much (or at all) in terms of read and write performance but it does make the OS run smoother.


   When you’re testing a 16 bay NAS server aimed primarily towards professionals you know it’s not going to be cheap and it’s really not since the TurboNAS TS-1635-8G currently retails for USD1249 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 1361.86Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de). On the bright side thanks to the Annapurna Labs CPU and the lack of an HDMI port cost is nowhere near what you’d have to pay even for the 6 bay TVS-682-8G and ontop of that you’re also getting two 10GbE ports so at the end of the day noone here believes that the TS-1635 is priced badly which is why it gets our Golden Award.

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PROS


- Build Quality
- Annapurna Labs AL-514 Quad Core CPU
- Very Good Performance
- 16 SATA III Bays (6Gb/s)
- Built In 10GbE SFP+ Ports
- 8GB DDR3L RAM (Expandable To 16GB)
- Power Consumption
- PCIe Gen2x2 Slot
- 2 Gigabit Ethernet Ports (Support Link Aggregation)
- 3 USB 3.0 Ports
- SSD Cache
- Built In Speaker (Audible Warnings)
- RAID 0/1/5/6/10 + hot spare
- QTS 4.3.2 OS

 

CONS


- No HDMI Output
- PCIe Slot x2 (Compatibility with 10GbE cards)
- Annapurna Labs CPU (Compared To Intel and AMD Models)
- Noise Levels