Tom's Hardware > All Reviews > Solutions > Servers > Qnap's TS-101 Aims High, But Falls Short

Qnap's TS-101 Aims High, But Falls Short

05:35 - Saturday 12 August 2006 by Jim Buzbee

1. Introduction
2. Setting Up
3. Features
4. Features, Continued

5. Features - BitTorrent, Multimedia, PHP Webserver
6. Under The Covers
7. Performance
8. Performance, Continued

At a Glance
Product	Qnap Turbo Station 9-in-1 NAS server
Summary	BYOD single drive SATA NAS with Gigabit Ethernet and many serving options, and decent Gigabit performance
Pros	Web server with PHP support Gigabit Ethernet with Jumbo Frame support RAID 1 support using external drive Windows and MacOS support
Cons	Backup application provided only for Windows BitTorrent feature is Windows only Limited U.S. availability

Earlier this year I reviewed a full-featured Network Attached Storage (NAS) box from Synology that packed a lot of capabilities into a small footprint. Along with the normal features you'd find in a consumer-level NAS device, it also supported Gigabit Ethernet, external USB and SATA disks, had an impressive software feature set and clocked in with top-of-the-line performance.

In this review, I'll take a look at a similar NAS box from Qnap that aims at the same power-user and small office market. The company's TS-101 is billed as a 9-in-1 server that also supports Gigabit Ethernet and SATA drives, and comes loaded with an extensive software baseline.

As I unpacked the box, I noticed that the styling of the TS-101 was a bit different from that of most boxes I've worked with in the past. The device had a more rounded look, it was slightly larger, and it was constructed of a heavy-duty aluminium, which gave it some nice heft. Along with a power cord and an Ethernet cable, two solid aluminium stands were included for support. The front panel sported a row of LEDs along with a power button, a "copy" button, and a single USB port. The back panel (see Figure 1) included two USB 2.0 ports, a 10/100/1000 Ethernet port, an ESATA port, a locking slot and a power connector.

Figure 1: TS-101 Back Panel

I noticed one thing missing: a fan vent. This box was designed to run without a fan, instead using the aluminium case for heat dissipation. The TS-101 is a bring-your-own-disk box, so setting it up involves installing a SATA drive. Qnap was kind enough to send me a unit with the drive already installed, but the included drive-installation instructions were complete and well written. Note that Qnap has a compatibility list of supported SATA drives; check it before purchasing a drive.