QNAP TS-EC1279U-RP review

QNAP’s NAS appliance boasts Intel's quad-core Xeon E3 processor, upgraded firmware and excellent remote management, making it a dream for SMBs.

With a share mapped to the Dell server we saw Iometer report a fast raw read speed of 778MB/sec. We ran Iometer on a second share mapped to the Broadberry server and saw a very high cumulative read speed of 1472MB/sec.

Real world speeds are as impressive with copies of a 2.52GB video clip returning read and write speeds of 291MB/sec and 282MB/sec. Meanwhile, FTP speeds using FileZilla stepped up to 368MB/sec and 305MB/sec.

Backup operations will be good with our 22.4GB collection of 10,600 files were copied to the appliance at a rate of 118MB/sec.

Improved business backup features

QNAP has made even more improvements to backup features as you can now apply bandwidth restrictions to its Rysnc and RTRR remote replication services. Backup jobs can also be created on the appliance that will run real-time or scheduled replications of selected folders to external USB or eSATA storage devices.

Even QNAP's trusty NetBak Replicator software gets a facelift as v4.0 adds snapshots, real-time replication and support for the MyCloudNAS service. It's easy to use and provides options to run instant backups of workstation drives or folders and regularly scheduled jobs.

QNAP

Workstation backup features have been improved and QNAP's NetBak Replicator looks even more useful

Overall

QNAP is a clear winner when stacked up against the likes of Netgear ReadyNAS appliances, which look positively archaic compared to the range of storage feature offered here. The lack of physical expansion is a drawback but the TS-EC1279U-RP more than makes up for this with a high local capacity, superb performance over 10GbE and plenty of hardware redundancy.

ITPRO Recommended award

Verdict

The storage features in QNAP’s NAS appliances just keep on getting better and its cloud services are currently the best available. The lack of physical expansion is an issue but we can’t fault the TS-EC1279U-RP for its myriad network services, backup facilities, IP SAN features and stunning performance.

Chassis: 2U rack CPU: 3.1GHz Intel Xeon E3-1225 quad-core Memory: 4GB 1333MHz DDR3 upgradeable to 8GB Storage: 12 x hot-swap 3.5in/2.5in SATA II/III drive bays Array support: RAID0, 1, 5, 6, 5 + hotspare Network: 2 x embedded Gigabit, dual-port Gigabit PCI-e card Other ports: 2 x USB 3.0, 4 x USB 2.0, 2 x eSATA Expansion: PCI-e slot Power: 2 x 600W hot-plug supplies Management: Web browser Software: Qnap Finder, NetBak Replicator 4 and Qget software

Dave Mitchell

Dave is an IT consultant and freelance journalist specialising in hands-on reviews of computer networking products covering all market sectors from small businesses to enterprises. Founder of Binary Testing Ltd – the UK’s premier independent network testing laboratory - Dave has over 45 years of experience in the IT industry.

Dave has produced many thousands of in-depth business networking product reviews from his lab which have been reproduced globally. Writing for ITPro and its sister title, PC Pro, he covers all areas of business IT infrastructure, including servers, storage, network security, data protection, cloud, infrastructure and services.