Specifications

QNAP uses Intel's Braswell N3050 CPU with this NAS. This CPU features a very low TDP of 6 W and supports up to 8 GB of memory. There are also two versions of the TBS-453A, one with 8 GB (2x 4 GB) and another with 4 GB (2x 2 GB) of memory. Our sample has 8 GB of memory.

The TBS-453A supports up to four M.2 SSDs, which restricts its capacity to around 4 TB before its drives are formatted if you use the highest capacity M.2 drives available today. However, you can combine it with a QNAP expansion unit (either the UX-800P or the UX-500P) for more storage capacity with HDDs. All popular RAID configurations are supported, and the NAS has five Gigabit Ethernet ports. The TBS-453A actually has two Ethernet controllers, but also uses an embedded network switch, which increases its number of Gigabit Ethernet ports. The switch works even while the NAS is shut off, which makes the TBS-453A a common switch as well. The I/O consists of a large number of USB ports, of which some are installed at the front, and a couple HDMI 1.4a and two eSATA ports. There are also line-out and MIC-in ports and an SD-card reader. This is the first NAS we have come across to feature a normal speaker. QNAP clearly meant this product to also be used with multimedia applications, which is why it equipped it with all the necessary parts for such a usage scenario.

This is a mobile, compact product, which means users should easily be able to move it from place to place to install it into even a cramped office. An external power supply is used because it is so small. Another major advantage is that it supports a wide voltage input range (10 V - 20 V). QNAP placed a small fan inside to handle the system's cooling needs, and the provided warranty is long enough for a NAS that is supposed to operate around the clock.