SFF.Network QNAP Launches SFF NAS With Four NVME Drives and 2.5Gbe

Qnap has launced the TBS-464 portable NAS or NASbook as they're calling it. The unit includes support for up to four NVE drives, two 2.5Gbe ports that support trunking, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports for data transfer, and two HDMI 2.0 ports for direct connection. To power the TBs-464 is powered by an Intel Celeron N5105 or N5095 quad-core CPU, and 8GB of DDR4 memory. Currently, the unit supports up to 32TB of storage. All of this in a case that measures 30 × 230 × 165 mm.

As of writing, the list price for the TBS-464 is unknown as well as the official launch date, and independent performance testing has not been completed. Qnap claims speeds of the high 200MB range for a single port, and nearly 600MB when using port trunking.

Click on the video below for Qnap's product video.

 

[Phuncz]

To think the combination of 4 PCIe 3.0 NVMe drives could potentially saturate a 100Gbps (~12GB/s) link and it's limited to 5Gbps (600MB/s) with trunking two ports (meaning a switch capable of this feature), makes me want to one-up this concept. They should have atleast considered two 25Gbps SFP28 ports or two 2.5/5/10Gbps RJ45 ports, but they're probably trying to hit a price point.

 

[Revenant]

To think the combination of 4 PCIe 3.0 NVMe drives could potentially saturate a 100Gbps (~12GB/s) link and it's limited to 5Gbps (600MB/s) with trunking two ports (meaning a switch capable of this feature), makes me want to one-up this concept. They should have atleast considered two 25Gbps SFP28 ports or two 2.5/5/10Gbps RJ45 ports, but they're probably trying to hit a price point.

I would have liked to have seen 10Gbps ports on it. We have relatively cheap motherboards coming with those ports, and there is no reason NAS companies haven't integrated them except for product segmentation. Two 10Gbps with trunking would have been more appropriate.

 

[Valantar]

To think the combination of 4 PCIe 3.0 NVMe drives could potentially saturate a 100Gbps (~12GB/s) link and it's limited to 5Gbps (600MB/s) with trunking two ports (meaning a switch capable of this feature), makes me want to one-up this concept. They should have atleast considered two 25Gbps SFP28 ports or two 2.5/5/10Gbps RJ45 ports, but they're probably trying to hit a price point.

Yep, this seems consumer/SMB oriented, and that pretty much excludes features like that. Those SoCs would also likely struggle massively with those types of loads.

Also, not that it matters, but the spec is four PCIe 3.0 x2 connections, not x4, so 12GB/s isn't happening even in benchmarks. I would guess the SoC doesn't have the PCIe lanes for anything else - and there's no reasonable consumer NAS use case where the difference would matter, really.

 

[Revenant]

Yep, this seems consumer/SMB oriented, and that pretty much excludes features like that. Those SoCs would also likely struggle massively with those types of loads.

Also, not that it matters, but the spec is four PCIe 3.0 x2 connections, not x4, so 12GB/s isn't happening even in benchmarks. I would guess the SoC doesn't have the PCIe lanes for anything else - and there's no reasonable consumer NAS use case where the difference would matter, really.

I jammed a 5950X into CCD MI-6 with a Noctua L12S....I'm not a very reasonable person.

 

[Valantar]

I jammed a 5950X into CCD MI-6 with a Noctua L12S....I'm not a very reasonable person.

But then the 5950X also has tons of PCIe for ports and storage and whatnot, unlike this SoC

 

[AlexTSG]

I'd have liked to see this running off USB-C Power Delivery.

With that it would make it easier to run from a suitable power bank. This kind of thing with some RAID 0 drives would be great for backing up photos and videos on site during a shoot.

I've been doing some photo and video work since COVID, and currently I'm backing up to my laptop and a USB C Sandisk SSD before clearing my memory cards, but a RAID 0 (mirroring) setup would give me a bit more peace of mind.

Edit: This is what I get for posting when I'm half asleep. RAID 1 is mirroring, RAID 0 is striping, and useless for my requirements.

 

[Valantar]

I'd have liked to see this running off USB-C Power Delivery.

With that it would make it easier to run from a suitable power bank. This kind of thing with some RAID 0 drives would be great for backing up photos and videos on site during a shoot.

I've been doing some photo and video work since COVID, and currently I'm backing up to my laptop and a USB C Sandisk SSD before clearing my memory cards, but a RAID 0 (mirroring) setup would give me a bit more peace of mind.

It uses a 65W power brick (unspecified voltage, likely 19/20V), so with one of these (of the right diameter/polarity) you can likely use any USB-C power brick with the required wattage.

 

[AlexTSG]

It uses a 65W power brick (unspecified voltage, likely 19/20V), so with one of these (of the right diameter/polarity) you can likely use any USB-C power brick with the required wattage.

I have one of those for a Dell. It worked for the Dell laptop that my girlfriend used to have (provided by her employer), but not for the Dell monitor I actually bought it for, which complained about it not being a genuine Dell Adapter, although it was fine to power up and display that message.

The QNAP is likely less fussy about that, so I might give it a try. I do have an EcoFlow River 600W inverter that I can take on site if I have to, but it's not nearly as compact as my HyperJuice 100W PD Power Bank.