Page 2 - A Closer Look - Hardware
The QNAP TS-419P II's external design carries forward the family look presented in products like the TS-559 Pro II and TS=219P II we have reviewed last year. Interestingly, being a product in the company's consumer lineup, the TS-419P II actually inherits characteristics from both the former and the latter -- more in this in just a moment. This quad-bay NAS measures in at 18.0cm wide, 23.5cm deep, and 17.7cm tall according to specifications. Like the TS-219P II, the TS-419P II features an external power supply brick rather than an internal power supply. The advantage of this is that a heat source is placed outside the system for improved thermal efficiency.
The current QNAP NAS design is focused on a more industrial/datacenter look than old models such as the QNAP TS-409 -- with four prominent and easily accessible vertically mounted disk trays, and a small, dual-line LCD display placed near the top for the user's convenience (The TS-219P II does not have a built-in display). However, unlike QNAP's professional grade devices, the TS-419P II does not have lockable drive trays, but this should not be a problem for home users. Drive number order is reiterated by a diagram sticker placed at the top of the unit. The ventilated disk trays provide excellent airflow over the hard drives driven by the rear mounted cooling fan inside the QNAP TS-419P II. QNAP's embossed logo is finished in brushed silver-colored metal, and placed near the top left corner; whereas a black, textured hard plastic surface occupies the rest of the front face. Meanwhile, two cleanly finished buttons are placed at the bottom left corner -- where one is a power button, and under it is another button labeled "Copy". This is to be used with the USB 2.0 port placed neatly in the middle of the Copy button for quick backup processes. I think it will make more sense if this port was a USB 3.0 port instead, since our version of the TS-419P II use USB 3.0 equipped anyway. Either way, having the USB port in the middle of the button looks pretty cool, but you'll sacrifice some usability. Both of the buttons protrudes slightly, so there's a slight chance that someone may accidentally knock the power button. Fortunately, the system will prompt you on the LCD screen to initiate the shutdown procedure after depressing the power button, so it is not really an issue with regards to accidentally powering off the machine.
The QNAP TS-419P II's LCD display is navigated by two simple buttons adjacent to it: The Enter key, and the Select key. There's more than sufficient room for more, especially something like a D-pad may greatly enhance navigation. Fortunately, this screen isn't necessarily used all the time. When on, its LCD screen features a blue backlight; and displays large, clear text in white to contrast with its background. The LCD display allows the user to monitor quick information as well as easily perform some configuration and maintenance tasks. An array of LEDs can be seen under it to indicate system status, LAN status, USB status, as well as eSATA status, respectively. The system status LED will turn off when the hard disks are on standby. Each independent hard drive has its own status LED as well, which are cleverly placed on the system itself, on the black strip near the top of each hard drive tray. This can be seen if you look carefully at the photo above. The drive status LEDs flashes when there is disk activity, and remains on when it is idling. It turns red if the system determines the corresponding hard drive is in trouble.
Over time, I have really grown to appreciate the sleek industrial look of QNAP's current line of network attached storage systems, even in a home environment. The easy to access drive bays in conjunction with convenience added by the simple LCD screen really added to the overall usage experience of these excellent network appliances. By retaining its excellent design, there is absolutely no learning curve for users who are familiar with using QNAP NAS systems -- it is just plug and play. Why fix something that is not broken?
While the QNAP TS-419P II is constructed on a steel frame, its shell that covers three sides of the system is composed of brushed aluminum in gunmetal with a black overtone. This not only improves heat dissipation due to thermal properties of aluminum, but also makes it look incredibly attractive in my opinion. Sure, for most users, the NAS will be placed in a room where no one will bother spending time admiring your equipment, but that does not mean network appliances have to be ugly!
What we have at the back of the system are all the ports you could use from a NAS. Unlike business grade systems, you won't get a VGA diagnostic port output, but again, it is probably not a big deal for home users. Starting from the top, you are provided with ports for two eSATA devices. Two Gigabit LAN ports are up next, which you can configure for network redundancy, load balancing, and even two independent networks. Our particular unit of the TS-419P II is a newer model equipped with two USB 3.0 ports, as you can see in our photo above. A lone USB 2.0 is placed underneath. You can use them for storage or printers, but as I have said earlier, it makes more sense if we have one front USB 3.0 and two rear USB 2.0 ports, and not the other way around, like what we have right now. A Kensington lock can be attached near one of the corners of the fan for some physical theft deterrent.
A single 92mm exhaust fan pulls heat out of your NAS server, with its exhaust vents cut into the steel panel. A proper fan grille would be better for airflow in my opinion. The socket at the bottom right corner accepts the 12V DC input from the external 96W power brick.
Removing its shell is pretty simple -- simply remove three screws, and slide it out. Unfortunately, unlike the business grade NAS boxes, you are not granted limited access to the interior of the system without voiding your warranty. QNAP probably don't want home users to mess around with the electronics inside, and this makes sense. The only problem is if your fan ever gets dirty, you will have a much harder time cleaning it up; you won't be able to add additional RAM either.
There is nothing particularly exciting at the bottom of the QNAP TS-419P II's chassis; what you'll see here are four large legs affixed on top of its steel frame panel. As always, they're installed to reduce vibration noise, increase grip, and prevent surface scratching. The left side of the network attached storage system features a neat array of small openings on its brushed aluminum shell. It is placed right next to where the motherboard is inside, to make sure hot air doesn't get congested within.
Removing its vertically mounted 3.5" SATA disk trays reveals the connector backpanel. The SATA backplane ports are powered by an external controller, connected to the motherboard on the PCIe bus. Since this is a SATA system, all hard drives are hot swappable. Removing the hard drive tray is very simple -- just pull on a lever at the top, and it is out. Each hard disk tray is labeled "Disk 1" to "Disk 4" consecutively, so you won't mix up which one is which when you have a bunch of them disconnected, as seen in the photo above. Each tray can accommodate a 2.5" or 3.5" drive, along with a maximum amount of ventilation openings at the bottom for improved heat dissipation. The latest trays are inner lined with a clear plastic layer to prevent short circuiting. The QNAP TS-419P II supports single disk, RAID 0 (Disk Striping), RAID 1 (Disk Mirroring), RAID 5, RAID 5 plus spare, RAID 6, RAID 10, and JBOD (Linear Disk Volume). If you want to encrypt your data, you have the option to enable its FIPS 140-2 validated AES 256-bit volume-based encryption.
There is not a whole lot of wasted room inside the QNAP TS-419P II. With an identical chassis design compared to other NAS boxes we have seen from QNAP, there is definitely space at the top for an internal power supply, but they chose to use a brick instead. Taking a quick look around, we can see the LCD controller module at the front, and its four 3.5" drive bays occupying majority of the area. A few centimeters of clearance room can be seen between the rear 92mm Y.S. Tech FD129225LS fan and the four hard drive bays. Again, this allows some space between components to reduce heat congestion. Its well placed rear exhaust fan can then easily take out the warm air, and allow cooler air to flow over the mounted hard drives with minimal turbulence noise. The motherboard is mounted with its components facing inwards to take advantage of the airflow generated by the sole rear fan. Overall, very thing is neatly placed and cabled to maximize cooling efficiency, with some room to spare around.
The external power supply brick is manufactured by FSP, with model number FSP096-DMAD1. Sustained power output is set at 96W, and is rated at "V" efficiency level. This follows the International Efficiency Marking Protocol for External Power Supplies under the ENERGY STAR Version 2.0 External Power Supply specification. To achieve this rating, the PSU must be at least 87% efficient under normal conditions.
QNAP's TS-419P II Turbo NAS features a Marvell 88F6282 2.0GHz ARM CPU, along with 512MB of DDR3 memory featuring four Hynix H5TQ1G83TFR ICs embedded onto the motherboard. This is one of the fastest ARM chips available in the market today. QNAP's embedded Linux based operating system is partially installed on a 16MB flash memory chip (More on this later). Two small heatsinks provide passive cooling to certain components on the motherboard, such as the CPU.
The USB 2.0 ports are powered by Genesys Logic's GL850G chip, while an NEC D720200AF1 controller supplies the two USB 3.0 ports in the system. The two rear eSATA ports comes from the processor directly, leaving an external Marvell 88SX7042 3Gb/s controller to feed its four main drive bays, as aforementioned. Marvell's 88E1318 Gigabit LAN controller powers its two Gigabit Ethernet ports at the back. All of these mentioned ports are soldered directly to the motherboard. Generally speaking, while it is not as decked out as the business-grade Intel powered QNAP servers, the TS-419P II is still extremely powerful under the hood for a consumer device.
Page Index
1. Introduction and Specifications
2. A Closer Look - Hardware
3. Configuration and User Interface, Part I
4. Configuration and User Interface, Part II
5. Configuration and User Interface, Part III
6. Performance and Power Consumption
7. Final Thoughts and Conclusion
