The case is mostly metallic except for the plastic front face that surrounds the drive bays. While the lower models in the QNAP portfolio come in an unattractive white, the TS-253A is dressed in a striking glossy and matte black combo. Kensington security slot, console port (system maintenance)Įxternal Hard Drive: EXT3, EXT4, NTFS, FAT32, HFS+ System: Power button, USB one-touch-backup button, Reset button Line Out Jack (for amplifier or headphone amplifier) Maximum 2x Hot-swappable 3.5" or 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s, SATA 3Gb/s hard drive or SSDĤ x USB 3.0 port (Front:1, Rear:3), supports USB printer, pen drive, and USB UPS etc.Ģ x HDMI, up to 4K 2160P 30Hz Ultra HD supportĢ x 6.3mm microphone jacks (dynamic microphones only) The RAM is user-upgradeable, so you can start with 4GB like I did and expand to 8GB later on.ġ4 nm Intel® Celeron® N3150/N3160 1.6 GHz quad-core processor This allows the NAS to store 4K video content that it can convert on-demand in real-time to universal formats for playback on PCs, mobile devices and Smart TVs. The TS-253A comes in two flavours of DDR3L-1600 RAM: 4GB or 8GB.
#QNAP SURVEILLANCE STATION 5.1 DOWNLOAD 1080P#
Lower spec NAS can perform only offline transcoding but the on-board graphics of the N3150 processor supports real-time 4K (H.264) and 1080p video transcoding. QNAP claims that the NAS can transfer data at up to 224 MB/s on a drive encrypted in this manner.
The N3150 chip also supports Intel AES-NI hardware-accelerated encryption which prevents transfer speeds slowing down when dealing with AES 256-bit drive encryption. This quad-core chip normally runs at 1.6GHz, but has a burst speed of 2.08 GHz, but needs only a cool 6W of power at 100% load! Just the type of chip you need for a NAS that runs 24/7. The N3150 chip is a 64-bit processor and supports Secure Boot, HD Audio & Intel Virtualization technology. The TS-253A hits the sweet spot with its 14 nm lithography based Intel Celeron N3150 processor. So I decided I wanted an x86 based NAS that had more processing power but was still reasonable when it came to energy needs.
But it did have very low power consumption due to the super-efficient ARM chip. For example it did not have the power to run virtual machines. But it can also work with just 1 hard drive. My previous NAS was powered by a dual-core ARM processor, and so was a bit limited in the range of applications it could run. The most obvious feature is that the TS-253A is a 2-bay NAS. For those of use looking to use the NAS as an NVR also, this coupled with the 2x HDMI ports is a great addition and increases the value of this NAS. Of course we shouldn’t forget one other thing that QNAP has generously provided with this NAS: 4 IP camera licences whereas the standard at this price point is just 2 if you look at the competition. Infrared (IR) Remote Control (Model RM-IR002).Opening up the box reveals the following kit: The TS-253A comes in a fairly unassuming brown retail box with a sticker detailing its features and tech specs. An affiliate link means I may earn advertising or referral fees if you make a purchase through my link, at no extra cost to you. I will also compare it to my previous NAS, the QNAP TS-231+ it replaced.Ī quick note: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. QNAP calls it a QTS-Linux Combo NAS that can help you create a private cloud. So let’s take a detailed look at the 4GB RAM version of the 2-bay QNAP TS-253A NAS that I purchased recently. In fact these little display-less (or headless in computer speak) computers can do a whole lot more, such as: be a CCTV Surveillance NVR, VPN client/servers, DLNA servers, FTP servers, web or mail servers, run virtual machines, take automatic mobile phone and laptop backups, even act as home automation controllers, the possibilities are endless. They can fulfil 24/7 file and media server duties reliably without driving up your electricity bills. A few hours later, you have an offline backup of all your data too! Simply brilliant! Monthly backups become a breeze, as you just need to plug in an external USB (like my WD Studio) and hit the one-touch USB backup button. This is where a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device comes into the picture – thanks to its redundant storage technology, all your data can be automatically backed up onto a second drive and even uploaded to a cloud storage provider if you so desire. Now most people, including me, are quite lazy in our downtime and can’t be bothered to do something so dull as taking backups.
Hard drives are known to fail after all, and flash drives get misplaced, so you are taking a huge risk if you are not regularly backing up your hard drives (read weekly). When was the last time you backed up your data? 66% of us do it just once a year or less! If you are part of this group, this means all your precious data is stored in just one place on this planet.