QNAP TVS-863+ NAS Review

QNAP has shed their Intel only t-shirts and has partnered with AMD to introduce their new TVS-X63+ Golden Cloud Turbo vNAS lineup. These NAS are powered by AMD 64-bit G-Series Quad-Core CPUs, tons of RAM, they are outfitted with 10GbE, powered by AMD Radeon graphics, and feature a brand new Gold exterior. The question is, is this NAS enough to be considered when looking to purchase a storage platform, or will it be marketing propaganda overload?

Right off the bat you can see that this NAS is different. To date, there have only been slight variations in the QNAP lineup. For the most part, all their products have been black, that is until they released the TS-X51 lineup. Well, the X63 series is garnished in an absolutely gorgeous gold finish. I can’t regularly say that the color or styling of a NAS has made any impact on me, but this one surely has. The pictures truly do it no justice… seeing it in person is an absolute must.

Note: In case you were wondering like I was… what the difference are with QNAP’s naming convention TS- vs TVS, the V stands for virtualization (even though some non V NAS support virtulazation)

The NAS ships in 4 flavors:

• TVS-863+: 8-bay tower model, 8GB RAM, one pre-installed 1-port 10GbE PCI-E NIC
• TVS-863: 8-bay tower model, 4GB RAM, PCI-E expansion slot
• TVS-663: 6-bay tower model, 4GB RAM, PCI-E expansion slot
• TVS-463: 4-bay tower model, 4GB RAM, PCI-E expansion slot

This NAS is a risky departure for QNAP. Gone are the days of ARM and Intel for their NAS lineup. Now we are Intel and AMD, and it is Intel vs AMD all over again. Except this time, the battle isn’t for who can hit 1GHz first (AMD did in June of 2000), instead it is who can deliver the most performance at the lowest price while keeping the power usage down. Although I will not go into who I think has a better processor, I can tell you that this AMD 2.4GHz quad-core processor is no slouch. The marriage between the TVS-X63+ and AMD brings a hardware encryption engine, support for up to 16GB of RAM, as well as GPU and I/O controller on the same die. Additionally, the G-Series SoC with integrated Radeon HD GPU brings support for two simultaneous displays.

To get some of the basics out of the way, the TVS-863+ (TVS-863+-16G) is powered by the G-Series AMD Quad-Core Processor, our unit is outfitted with 16GB of RAM, has 8 x removable drive trays, 2 x Gigabit Ethernet Ports, 1 x 10GbE, 5 x USB 3.0, 2 x HDMI 1.4a (supports 4K video playback), measures 185.2(H) x 298.2(W) x 235.4(D) mm, has dual 120MM cooling fans, and weighs in at right around 17.26lbs.

• 10GbE-ready, highly-efficient storage solution for HD video editing and sharing
• Enhanced data security with a high-performance hardware-accelerated encryption engine with AES 256-bit full NAS volume encryption and anti-virus
• Use the TVS-863+ as a PC with exclusive QvPC Technology and 4K display support
• Run multiple Windows/Linux/Android-based virtual machines with the Virtualization Station
• Manage, share, and back up business data with Real-time Remote Replication (RTRR)
• NAS and iSCSI-SAN unified storage solution for server virtualization
• Supports VMware®, Citrix®, and Microsoft® Hyper-V and advanced virtualization features
• Transcode Full HD videos on-the-fly or offline with QNAP’s unique transcoding technology and hardware transcoding engine
• Expand the total raw storage capacity up to 192TB with the economical UX-800P QNAP expansion enclosures

Like many others in the QNAP portfolio, the NAS can support up to two expansion enclosures.

Turbo NAS Model	QNAP Expansion Enclosure	No. of RAID Expansion Enclosure	Total HDD No. (NAS + Enclosure)	Max. Raw Capacity (TB)*
TVS-863+	UX-800P	2	24	192
		1	16	128
	UX-500P	2	18	144
		1	13	104

As with other NAS from QNAP, this NAS benefits from the same QNAP firmware, QTS 4. QTS 4 is jam-packed with features and is extremely easy to navigate. Right out of the box you get: FTP Server, File Server, Backup Center, Web Server, Radius Server, Syslog Server, Printer Server, Surveillance Station, VPN Server, LDAP Server, Proxy Server, Music Station, Photo Station, Video Station, DJ Station, Cloud Access via MyCloudNAS, Mobile Applications, and Much More. Enhancing the already functional NAS is easy with QNAP QPKGs.