QNAP TurboStation TS-264-8G review: A powerful NAS with upgrade potential

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The QNAP Turbostation TS-264-8G network storage is a high-priced NAS enclosure for the home and home office. Nevertheless, the two-bay NAS server enjoys great popularity. We get to the bottom of the reasons in this review.

Features: Plenty on offer ex works

Two components immediately stand out on the QNAP Turbostation TS-264-8G NAS system: The Intel Celeron N5095 processor with four cores and a clock speed of up to 2.9GHz. It comes with the graphics unit — Intel UHD Graphics — and is optimized for multiple, simultaneous tasks. It also comes with 8GB of RAM (DDR4 SODIMM). This ample RAM configuration can be expanded to 16GB with a second 8GB module — that’s quite a statement for a home server.

In addition to classic 3.5-inch HDDs, the two hard drive bays can also accommodate the narrower 2.5-inch versions or SSDs.

The QNAP TS-264-8G also offers flexible upgrade options: Thanks to the two M.2 slots, the network storage can be expanded with NVMe SSDs. They can be configured as caching accelerators, but also as additional storage space.

A PCIe 3.0 slot is also integrated, which can be used to further expand the network storage using the manufacturer’s own expansion cards — for example, to add a 10GbE LAN port or additional NVMe SSDs. You can’t upgrade much more in this NAS class.

Foundry

There is a USB 3.2 Gen2 port on the front of the case, which is equipped with a copy function. At the rear, there is a standard USB-A port, two USB 2.0 ports, and one HDMI port. The HDMI port is intended to simplify virtualization applications by allowing a display to be connected so that the NAS system can then be used like a computer.

Two 2.5GbE LAN ports round off the extensive features. The two Ethernet ports can even be combined via link aggregation.

High output power of the QNAP TS-264-8G

Even without upgrade options, the QNAP Turbostation TS-264-8G NAS server proves to be powerful in the tests. Two NAS HDDs are used — more precisely the 3.5-inch Seagate Ironwolf ST4000NE001 models with 4TB capacity each, which are configured in a Raid 1 network. We only use one of the two 2.5 gigabit LAN ports for this purpose.

Even the benchmark runs with NAS Performance Tester result in data transfer rates that are absolutely impressive: The QNAP model writes the 8,000MB package at a good 247MB/s and reads it at almost 285MB/s. It is even faster with smaller data packets — in the 400MB run, for example, with almost 252MB/s writing and a good 296MB/s reading.

What is not self-evident: The high performance is confirmed in the practical runs. When copying the 4K film Tears of Steel back and forth, the QNAP Turbostation TS-264-8G network storage achieves a good 223MB/s in writing and 261MB/s in reading. In both cases, these are new records in the test field.

A good 42MB/s is also a top result when writing our 2GB backup. The TS-264-8G also ranks near the top with over 103MB/s when backups and films are written simultaneously.

Uncomplicated setup

You don’t need to be a NAS specialist to set up the QNAP Turbostation TS-264-8G NAS server. The 3.5-inch HDDs can be attached to the holders without tools using clips. The network storage can be easily identified in the home network using the free Qfinder Pro tool, which you can download from the manufacturer(www.qnap.com/qfinderpro). In the test, the device is recognised as “Server not yet initialised”.

As soon as you click on the notice, the commissioning process starts with basic steps such as firmware version check, account creation and time zone selection. You can also specify here whether you want to access the NAS system via automatic or static IP. As always with QNAP, you will receive a summary of the settings made before initialisation starts.

Once the firmware has been installed, you will find a guide to the next steps on the right-hand side of the screen. For example, you create the storage pool, specify the raid mode and determine the snapshot storage allocation.

Again, there is a summary before the storage pools are created. This takes time – it is best to give the NAS server time overnight. After that, specify your volume(s).

Foundry

QTS firmware: Clear, with many apps

You make the NAS settings in the QTS firmware. It is graphically organized — as is now the case with most NAS manufacturers. QNAP is known for its extensive app store — here called the App Center. This can be used to add additional features. For example, you can load media servers such as Plex, Minim, or Kazoo onto the NAS, but also protect the device against malware.

The QTS firmware is comprehensive and offers all the important settings. Central areas such as “Storage & Snapshots” are located directly on the interface and can be accessed quickly — similar to the NAS competitor.

Special feature: With this network storage, you can even switch to the QuTS hero operating system, which is particularly suitable for mixed storage consisting of HDDs and SSDs thanks to the ZFS file system. However, switching requires at least QTS version 5.2.1.

Environment and health

As always with 2.5GbE network storage, the power consumption is higher than with comparable 1GbE NAS systems. In the case of the QNAP TS-264-8G, we already notice this in the test when only HDDs are in the system.

During operation, the measuring device shows up to 33.7 watts. And even in idle and sleep mode with 26.5 and 16.8 watts, the higher energy consumption is noticeable. The fact that the device still draws 1.9 watts when switched off is no longer very significant, although this value is also comparatively high.

Even if the temperature in the housing rises under load, the air control works well, as the values remain in the green range throughout the test.

QNAP Turbostation TS-264-8G: Test results and technical data

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