Review: Qnap TS-251B

by Parm Mann on 10 January 2019, 14:00

Tags: Qnap

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qad3af

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Conclusion

...one of the more capable dual-bay solutions on the market today, with room to expand further down the line.

There's no shortage of choice when it comes to dual-bay turnkey NAS servers, but in early 2019, the Qnap TS-251B has the makings of a particularly well-rounded solution.

Priced to compete in the £300 segment, this sleek unit presents a dual-core Intel Celeron processor and at least 2GB of memory in a familiar-looking chassis outfitted with multiple USB ports and direct HDMI 1.4b output.

There's nothing out of the ordinary as far as the core components are concerned, but when you add to the mix a feature-packed QTS operating system and a PCIe expansion slot, you get one of the more capable dual-bay solutions on the market today, with room to expand further down the line.

Increasing your budget can open the door to more powerful hardware, including quad-core processors, HDMI 2.0 and USB Type-C, yet at this price point, the Qnap TS-251B offers more than most and is easy to recommend.

The Good
  
The Bad
Feature-packed QTS operating system
PCIe slot and range of expansion cards
Solid all-round performance
Competitive price tag
  
PCIe limited to 2.0 x2 speeds
No IR remote included



Qnap TS-251B

HEXUS.where2buy*

The Qnap TS-251B NAS is available to purchase from Scan Computers.

HEXUS.right2reply

At HEXUS, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any company representatives for the products reviewed choose to respond, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.



*UK-based HEXUS community members are eligible for free delivery and priority customer service through the SCAN.care@HEXUS forum.


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Posted by Irien - Thu 10 Jan 2019 16:09
You were asking for uses for the Wifi… Not sure if unit will do this, but the scenario I can imagine is to provide maximum LAN-based performance to a selection of machines in one corner of a building, and bridging back to a main accesspoint/router elsewhere.

Example - locate NAS near computers/TVs/consoles in living room for high-speed, wired access to photos etc. Bridge wirelessly back to rest of network elsewhere.

Why would this be a useful way of working? Wireless doesn't necessarily give fast access to all areas of the house, so relying on each TV-area device to wirelessly connect back to the router, then to NAS, may not give satisfactory performance. This can be solved by locating the NAS close to the devices and wiring, but you still need to bridge back to the router/access point, which probably isn't in the lounge.

Of course, there are many *other* ways to crack that nut, and they're probably considerably cheaper.

The other use I could imagine, would relate to wireless surveilance cameras, which has always been a big feature for QNAP boxes.