amazon QNAP TVS-882T reviews
As content editors, we have a lot of storage needs. With the latest lineup of cameras in the market offering incredible detail with high resolution sensors, we find ourselves constantly re-evaluating storage requirements. Old computers are becoming too slow to handle all media files and data that need to be processed, while storage solutions that have been used well for the past few years seem impossible. meet the needs anymore. Our customers have become technologically savvy and they are required to be able to view high resolution files to provide a unique experience for the viewer, so we have to find a way to meet the needs. change of market. While building a fast computer for photographic needs is certainly not easy for everyone, these criteria steps are not necessary when assessing storage needs. There are some great and low cost hosting solutions that can do that job as well as providing great connectivity options. I support such solutions rather than running a big computer. One such device that I recently introduced, was the QNAP TVS-882T. In this review, I will provide detailed information about the TVS-882T and compare it with the Synology DS1815 + that I’ve run over the past few years, along with the latest DS1817 + that I will review separately in other articles.
While I am relatively satisfied with the DS1815 + Synology, the biggest problem I encountered was its network throughput. With a Gigabit Ethernet port, the DS1815 + achieves a top speed of 125 MB / sec on each port and is the maximum theoretical speed – the actual throughput is around 100 MB / sec. Even so, it’s enough for the need of image storage and access, but it’s certainly limited when processing wide panoramas and videos. Even with the use of network aggregation (requiring a network switch capable of pooling the network), the 1 GbE limit applies to each customer, so aggregation of networks is only particularly useful in multi-user environments.
For these reasons, I have been waiting for a more robust hosting solution that is capable of providing greater bandwidth. Last year, at Photo Plus, I was introduced to the powerful storage solutions from QNAP and I was told that the TVS-882T with 10 GbE interface and Thunderbolt 2 connection was introduced to the market. As soon as it was marketed, QNAP was generous to send me a sample product, which I have been using for more than six months. This is not a low cost project as all infrastructure upgrades need to come along, but it fits well with my needs, as you will see below.
1) Requires 10 Gigabit Ethernet infrastructure
In the past, anything on 1 Gigabit required fiber optic connections to high-end network switch devices, which made it very expensive to set up such networks, especially for small businesses. Thanks to the latest advances in technology and transmission, we now have the option of connecting over 10 Gigabit Ethernet that can run on standard CAT-5e cables (in shorter distances) and if you want to upgrade Upgrading to CAT-6a or newer cables can even push the bandwidth over 40 Gigabit Ethernet, ensuring the future with the potential of a transfer rate of 5 gigabytes (GB) per second. Although the cost of deploying 10 Gbit Ethernet is still high for most photographers in the world, investment costs are no longer in the thousands, so it’s now a viable option. for enthusiasts and professionals who need higher bandwidth and the ability to connect to fast storage devices. As I explained in the article on 10 Gbit Ethernet for Photographic Needs, one could have a 10 Gbit Ethernet (GbE) network with a total investment of less than $ 650, which was not a big barrier as before. With the widespread adoption of 10GbE networks in the future, costs will continue to fall.
2) QNAP vs. Synology Architecture
While I usually choose a NAS 8 tray drive for my photography and videography needs due to the huge library of photos and video projects I need to address, they are quite expensive once you factor in the cost charge of the hard drive. Initially, I suggested QNAP send me a NAS 8 drive tray to evaluate and compare with an equivalent NAS. However, once I found out that the NAS 6 QNAP drive tray TVS-882T has two additional SSD slots, along with the ability to add two M.2 drives, I decided to choose the smaller NAS. I think I will reduce the power consumption, temperature, damage. In addition, the ability to run SSD and M.2 drives sounds very attractive, especially when I discover that the product supports staged storage.
When it comes to architecture, QNAP TVS-882T is not a direct competitor to Synology NAS for many reasons. Unlike Synology NAS devices designed for use in networked environments, QNAP is NAS and DAS. So, if you do not have the necessary network infrastructure, or might want to connect directly to the NAS, you can do that with QNAP through interfaces like Thunderbolt 2. QNAP is designed as a desktop computer, utilizing Intel Core i5 or i7 processors, RAM, video output, and other options, while Synology NAS devices are simply designed and limiting power consumption. So when comparing QNAP and Synology we need to think of them differently – one is a well designed desktop, and the other is a power saving device designed to be just a device network storage.
3) Specifications and overview of QNAP TVS-882T
As you can see, the parameters are quite high for a networked storage device. Unlike Synology NAS that uses a weaker CPU than the Intel Atom C2538 and a maximum of 16 GB of RAM, QNAP TVS-882T uses Intel’s Core i5 Quad Core and its RAM can be opened up to 64 GB. But what makes it really flexible is its storage and software capabilities – the QNAP TVS-882T can attach up to 6x hard drives, 2x SSDs and 2x M.2 drives, all of which can be configured. Image in a stratified storage environment is “Qtier”.
4) QNAP Qtier Storage Tiering
Although I will not explain stratified storage in detail, you can see the relevant information on this page. In short, it’s a technology that provides the ability to automatically move data between different types of storage, depending on the frequency of data access. For example, if you specify an SSD drive as a “high speed” layer, while a hard drive is a “volume” level and you create a storage pool that includes these levels as a single storage volume. Once the data is written to the archive, there is a background task to evaluate the various data blocks to see how often they are accessed. Frequent access blocks are moved to the “high speed” layer, while rarely used data is stored at a slower “storage” level.
On top of that, you can also specify an SSD or M.2 drive as a temporary cache, which can speed up applications. The cache will serve as the first high-speed layer used for read / write operations, while subclasses are used to store data efficiently. Therefore, stratified storage can be an extremely effective way to balance storage. Personally, I was amazed at how such a great technology was transformed from a business environment into a more popular product. Once I found out that the QNAP TVS-882T can take advantage of hierarchical storage, I’m even more excited and I plan to use it as soon as I receive the product.
5) Hardware quality and settings
QNAP TVS-882T has been packaged shipped similar to retail products, no hard drive included. The product is well packaged and has a protective foil wrap around. There is also a small inner box containing four CAT-6 Ethernet cables, a QNAP infrared remote control, a power cord, two SSD M.2 heatsinks, and a quick installation guide:
The hardware quality of the QNAP TVS-882T is quite high and it also has a nice and eye-catching exterior design. Beside the six hard drive trays and two SSDs along with LEDs, there is an LCD display that displays some useful information from the storage. There is a up / down button on the side of the LCD that can be used to switch between different status screens (such as device name and operating system version) and you can also use the corresponding buttons. Self access menu (There you can configure, reboot or turn off the NAS). At the bottom right you will find a small power button, along with a USB 3.0 port for quick access.
The back of the product is where you will find all important ports and interfaces
As you can see, a Thunderbolt 2 PCIe card, along with a 10 GbE network card has been installed (although it looks like there are two additional slots below, which are buffers and no onboard slots. host circuit for attaching additional PCIe cards). Below you will find the ports and interfaces remaining as audio / line-out port, 4x USB 3.0 port, 4x 1GbE port and 3x HDMI port, along with the power. QNAP TVS-882T comes with two 80mm system cooling fans, along with two 90mm CPU fans to keep the cooler under all operating modes.
The hardware setup for SSDs and HDDs is quite simple – just unlock each slot by moving the blue slider, then pressing the bottom (HDD) / right (SSD) slot. To remove the drive tray to install the drive
For my product, I purchased 6 HSPST NAS drives with 6 TB 7200 RPM, as it was the largest capacity HGST NAS drive at the time (both the 8 TB and 10 TB versions were released later). I have encountered very few HGST drives that are faulty, so I choose to buy them whenever possible instead of WD drives and Seagate drives. For the SSD slot, I use two Samsung 1 TB 850 EVO drives. SSD type Pro or anything higher capacity is too expensive. I have always had a very good experience with Samsung’s SSD drive, so I did not even consider the other options at the time.
I do not have the same luck with the M.2 drives. Without considering the technical details of M.2, I think this device is capable of supporting the latest Samsung NVMe drives, so I bought two 1 TB 960 Pro M.2 drives. I was so excited, dreamed about a super-fast 3500MB / sec read and 2100MB / sec write. After installation, I discovered they are not even supported! The product only allows M.2 slots to support SATA, so my dream quickly disappeared. That would be a costly mistake! Fortunately, B & H was good at getting two M.2 drives, then I decided to skip M.2 – I have no plans to invest in a slow M.2 drive, especially knowing I would not use them after I was done with the QNAP TVS-882T and returned the product. So, remember this when you buy the TVS-882T – if you want to make the most out of your device and add up to 10 drives, you’ll need to buy a M.2 SATA drive.
Installing and accessing the M.2 drives is easy when you open the cover, but I recommend attaching the heat sinks on each M.2 drive to avoid overheating.
If this is your first time installing QNAP, you may want to start by activating your browser and going to https://start.qnap.com. QNAP has created a user-friendly interface, from which you can select your NAS and set it up with detailed instructions
The web site will detail everything you need to do so that NAS QNAP can run, including the installation of the hard drive
6) Set up the software
QNAP engineers have done a great job of creating a QNAP NAS that is easy to install without the need for an IT professional. You do not have to configure complex or enter commands manually – everything is done through a friendly interface. Once you have attached all your drives, wired network and NAS powered power supply, you just have to wait a few minutes to boot up and get an IP address. Then you use the “Qfinder Pro” utility (downloadable from the QNAP website) to find out your QNAP NAS in your network and access its web interface. If you mount your QNAP device through one of the HDMI out interfaces, you can bypass the Qfinder Pro utility and perform a local installation. Since I set up QNAP in a room far away from my desktop area, I had to use Qfinder Pro, which worked very well and was able to find the QNAP TVS-882T immediately.
From there, just click the “Sign In” button, launch the browser and point to the initial setup page
Since I was planning to use the QNAP TVS-882T for my business needs, I chose the “Business Use” option. This minimizes the number of QNAP entertainment applications that will be installed, though you can add entertainment applications at any time.
Then, the installation proceeds to another screen, other important details such as date / time and network interface options.
If you plan to use QNAP as a DAS, you can set a static IP address
When the installation process reaches the disk configuration, I choose “Configure disks later”, because I want to set the storage hierarchy
Then wait for some time to apply the settings and restart the machine. When booting for the first time after initialization, the QNAP speakerphone was “System Boot Completed”.
As soon as the NAS starts and logs on, the operating system has announced that there is a new software version. I choose to automatically upgrade the software. I would recommend doing this step as soon as possible, even before you start creating the drive
After the update is complete, you will have to reboot again to let the system boot with the latest software. During the upgrade process, there will be an audio message “Upgrading firmware now.” After the software update has been completed, the system will play the music and say “Firmware update completed”.
7) Graphical user interface QNAP
The graphical user interface (GUI) is well designed on QNAP QTS, which is synonymous with the DSM of Synology. As soon as you log in, you will see a list of pre-installed and available applications such as “Storage Manager”, “Shared Folders” and “File Station”.
If you are familiar with Synology DSM, these three software are named quite similar and similar tasks. If you are able to use the Synology interface, you will not have trouble implementing QNAP QTS. And if you’ve never used one of those two operating systems, learning how to use it is not too difficult.
In general, the DSM interface of Synology looks more subtle than the QNAP QTS, although QTS certainly has more customization, storage options, and more monitoring options.
8) Set up storage and stratification
The next step is to set up storage and stratify storage. With 6 hard drives and 2 SSDs, my goal is to setup two tiers as follows:
High-speed layer: 2x SSD in RAID 1 configuration (mirror)
Storage Tier: 6x HDD in RAID 6 configuration (double parity)
Both layers will be combined into a single storage pool that can automatically manage data in layers. You may wonder why I chose this configuration. Since I plan to use the QNAP TVS-882T as my primary storage, I want to ensure that it is set up with minimal risk of disk failure. Although I would sacrifice half of the SSD in the RAID 1 configuration (mirror), I’d rather lose all the data in case a drive fails on RAID 0. Act as a single drive, stability is only equivalent to each drive. So if I have a RAID 0 (SSD) and a RAID 6 (HDD) layer, only losing one drive in the RAID 0 layer will damage the whole storage array! That was simply unacceptable for my needs, which is why I decided to use RAID 1 with SSD. For HDD, I decided to use RAID 6 instead of RAID 5. Since these are large 6 TB drives, if one of those disks fails, it will take a long time to recover. And the worst thing that can happen in the recovery process is the failure of another drive. If that happens with a RAID 5 setup, the entire storage array will be useless. With RAID 6, up to two hard drives can fail without the risk of losing data completely. Of course, you will need to add a drive to enable RAID 6’s parity feature, so keep this in mind when calculating and allocating storage space according to your needs.
For my setup as configured above, I will have a total of 25 TB of RAW storage (1 TB of SSD and 24 TB of HDD). After format, total will be over 22 TB, enough with my current data and estimated over the next 3 years.
After deciding on how to store, we can launch Storage Manager, which can be accessed from the main screen or from within the Control Panel. This is Storage Manager under my setup after I initialized it
As you can see, it shows the first two slots M1 / M2 empty, while everything else is gray / empty. No drive is ever created, so that’s the next step. To create a storage area, you must go to the “Storage Space” on the left side of the screen. You will see two buttons: “New Storage Pool” and “New Volume”. Since I want to create a storage pool with storage tiers, that’s what I clicked on
I checked selected “Enable Qtier”, so auto-tiering took place when needed. From there, I chose two SSDs as RAID 1 drives
And skip space for fast backups as I have no intention of using this feature. The last step is to click “Create” to create the first drive in the storage area
I heard two beeps when storage tanks were created. Once the storage has been created, I get a message saying “A new tiered RAID group has been created.” Click “OK” to continue expanding the storage tiered storage pool. I click OK, activate the “Expandable Qtier Tiered Storage Pool” window.
From here, I selected all the hard drives and chose RAID 6 under “RAID Type”. On the next screen, I was shown a summary of the storage tanks that were to be created, along with its two storage layers.
When I click on “Expand”, the “Qtier Auto Tiering Schedule” window will pop up, allowing you to choose the schedule of the auto-classing process. Obviously, the best time to do this is during office hours, so I choose between 1am and 7am
Once the storage pool is created and configured, you can select it from the “Storage Space” window and click “Manage” to view the details of the pool, along with the auto scheduling options. So, if you do not like any settings, you’ll be able to change them there.
Finally, you will need to create a storage drive from the storage pool. While most people will choose to create a single large drive (which is what I did), there may be cases where one might need multiple drives to be accessed in different ways (for example via DAS and via NAS). Think of storage reservoirs as a big pie from which you can cut out the various slices.
The Volume Creation Wizard is launched by going to “Create -> New Volume.” You will see the following screen
There are three options available – Static Single Volume, Thick Multiple Volume and Thin Multiple Volume. For storage tanks, only the last two options are applied, so unless you know what you are doing, you should select “Thick Multiple Volume” and select the storage tank from the dropdown selection box. The next page will let you select storage, along with some other options
I choose the capacity up to the maximum threshold, set the 80% warning threshold and name the drive “Storage.” I saw a message telling me that I was using a large portion of the storage pool, so I clicked Finally, I have a disk with a total capacity of 22, 49 TB. I clicked on “Finish” to create a new drive, starting with “OK” to continue, because I was not interested in creating the drive initialization and optimization
9) Create a shared folder
Once the tanks and drives are created, we should create a shared folder that will be used to assign a network drive. You can access it from the “Shared Folders” icon on the main window, or from the “Privilege -> Shared Folders” section of the Control Panel. Once there, select “Create -> Shared Folder”
Note that shared directory names are very important – that is what you will use to access your network shares folder or assign them directly to your computer as a network drive. I named “Storage” and after going through all the options, click “Create” to create my first shared folder. To create the right access to the directory, I also need to create a user. In the same section in Control Panel, you will find the “Users” menu, from which you can go to “Create -> Create a User”
Make sure to create the same username and password as the username you’re using on your desktop computer. I type in all the relevant information, then select “RW” (read / write) in the “Storage” drive just created and click “Create”. This creates the user and automatically adjusts access to the drive, so newly created users have both read and write permissions.
where can you get a QNAP TVS-882T online
Qnap 8 Bay Thunderbolt 2 Das/NAS/iSCSI Ip-San Solution, Intel Core i5 3.6GHz Quad Core (TVS-882T-i5-16G-US): Buy it now
Qnap Pre-configured 8-bay Intel i5 NAS, Raw 36TB (6x6TB Enterprise Drive) (TVS-882T-i5-16G-66E-US): Buy it now
10) Assign a network drive
Essentially all the tasks have been done after the shared folder is created – all you have to do is to assign the shared folder to your computer and start using the new drive! On a Windows PC, you can right-click the “This PC” or “Network” icon and select “Map Network Drive”, the following window will display
Enter “ IP Address of QNAP Storage Shared Folder Name”, then select “Reconnect at sign-in” and that’s it, as long as the user name and password you are using on your Windows machine is identical to The username / password you created in the previous step. If they are different, make sure to select “Connect using different credentials”, so that you are prompted for a different username and password. Personally, I like having the same username / password combination on my computer and my shared folder, so I never have to re-enter the password when accessing the shared folder.
If all goes well, you will have an extra network drive, automatically connected every time you log in
11) Write performance
Now that I’ve got everything set up, now is the time to test read and write the QNAP TVS-882T. I took a sample 12 GB file from my computer and started copying it to the newly assigned network drive. My excitement is quite high, with expecting crazy numbers. When the file starts to be copied, the data looks disappointing – about 500-550 MB / sec write speed. I quickly realized something was wrong and actually – I copied the files from my SSD. That is the bottleneck! I transfer files to the Samsung 960 Pro M.2 NVMe PCIe drive faster and write speeds above 600 MB / sec and read speed above 1 GB / sec.
I never saw that speed on a network drive!
Now is the time to use a standard tool, avoiding the speed factor of a source drive. I try to use the famous CrystalDiskMark, select the default option and run
The write speed is 682 MB / sec and read speed is 1 GB / second. Based on this speed, it is clear that the QNAP TVS-882T has achieved data read speed at 10 GbE, while recording speed is limited by slower hard drives and RAID 6. If I choose Set up RAID type 0, I am sure I can achieve better results. However, I was happy to see such results, especially when compared to Synology DS1815 + and its 1 GbE interface.
We’re talking about the big difference here – it’s a 10x read speed and a 6x fast write speed for sequential data. Although Synology DS1815 + has greater capabilities, network communication is clearly a bottleneck.
Note: It should be noted that the above numbers are measured and measured at different intervals (once at the beginning and once at the time of writing this review, 65% of capacity). I’m glad to see no significant difference in performance between the two. In addition, the metadata was modified after SMB3 and jumbo 9K MTU packets were enabled. Changing MTUs increases reading performance by 20% and write performance decreases slightly.
12) QNAP TVS-882T vs Synology DS1817 + Performance Comparison
Recently, I received the latest Synology DS1817 + product for testing and while I am still in the process of evaluating the device, I would like to present its performance comparison compared to the QNAP TVS-882T.
Although the Synology DS1817 + has impressive performance, it’s equivalent to the performance of the QNAP TVS-882T, but the difference in recording performance. Slower CPUs, coupled with poorer overall architecture, have a negative effect on overall numbers, especially when it comes to 4K scores. Take a look at the 4K random number IO on the second line – that’s a big difference in 60% read performance and 42% write performance compared to the QNAP TVS-882T. Because random IO requires a lot of CPU, QNAP clearly outperforms Synology. Desktop CPU is obviously an advantage.
Overall, the QNAP TVS-882T achieves better results when compared to Synology DS1817 +.
13) QNAP TVS-882T vs Synology DS1817 + The other side
Please note that with the above performance rating criteria, I do not necessarily recommend that people should skip the Synology DS1817 + and only use the QNAP TVS-882T. As I explained in Part 2, QNAP and Synology have a completely different architecture, with QNAP being built as a desktop and Synology built to be an efficient NAS device and that’s it. Thus, one can expect not only large price differences (QNAP TVS-882T costs $ 2,500, while Synology DS1817 + costs $ 950), as well as power consumption – QNAP TVS- The 882T uses 250 Watts, while the Synology DS1817 + is only 61.5 Watts, reducing it to half when HDDs are in hibernation. That is a big difference with the advantage of Synology.
Remember all this when evaluating both archives, since the long-term cost of owning QNAP is always higher. That’s what you get in exchange for its excellent performance …
14) Application QNAP / AppCenter
Similar to the Synology Package Center of Synology, QNAP also has its own AppCenter, where you can download and install all types of third-party applications and applications.
It’s hard to say that the App Store does have better options, as they both have similar capabilities, whether you’re looking for business applications, gadgets or entertainment / multimedia. Both have proprietary backup and synchronization applications, and have a wealth of content management / development tools available. To test the stability of some applications, I installed some third-party applications such as Video Station, Music Station and Plex Server, and they all worked well for hours without what’s wrong.
15) QNAP Qtier Monitoring and Statistics
Once you have set up storage hierarchies, you should sometimes visit Storage Manager and see how data moves up and down the layers. You can do that by going to “Storage Space”, selecting Storage Pool and clicking on “Manage”. From there, click on the tab “Qtier Auto Tiering”
You can make configuration changes for stratified storage and see how much data is moved up or down each level or you can also click the “Statistics” button to view data that has been accessed and moved how every day
You can click on the drop-down menu at the top to change the layer and access its statistics and if you want to clear the data, you can also click the “Clear Logs” button. It’s awkward when we can know what data is being moved up and down – that’s a sign that the storage layer is functioning as set up.
Now one thing to keep in mind is that in my particular case, storage for two SSDs in RAID 1 configuration may not be beneficial for sequential data writes because of six drives in the RAID 6 configuration will outperform two SSDs in RAID 1. So the ultra-fast-paced layer may not be faster than the storage floor, making the idea of floor storage not worthwhile. However, if I add two M.2 drives, I will make sure to select them with the same capacity so that I can run them in the RAID 5 configuration. In such a scenario, More for both sequential and random IO access. I set up staged storage in my device to check if it was a viable option to use – and it turned out to be okay. Personally, I find many benefits of staging storage on larger NASs like the QNAP TVS-1282T3 with four SSD slots available for use, along with two SATA M.2 slots.
16) Summary
Thanks to its excellent design, numerous applications and configuration options along with enterprise storage capabilities with HDD storage, SSD and M.2, QNAP TVS-882T is definitely one of the most The best storage I have ever tested. Although the $ 2,500 price tag is quite high for a NAS that has no drive compared to other NAS options on the market, it is a server capable of handling A lot of bandwidth, data and applications – the classic NAS thing is not designed to handle. The QNAP TVS-882T is also unique in how it can handle various communications like Thunderbolt 2, 10 GbE and USB 3.0. Unlike most other solutions on the market, this storage device can operate in a variety of configurations – such as DAS, as a NAS and as well as a desktop / server connected to it through a screen HDMI. Plus, it can also serve as a home entertainment system capable of handling music and video libraries. That way, it is an all-in-one system that can do it all.
I’ve been using the QNAP TVS-882T as the primary storage for storing / accessing photos and videos for the past six months, and as you’ve seen in this review, I was very pleased with its performance. In the personal as well as multi-user environment. It is an excellent storage device, worthy of praise for its versatility, performance and ease of use.