Performance

We won't be spending a lot of time on performance, as there is simply no way to really illustrate what the TS-859 Pro is capable off without having a real networking environment with multiple clients. Featuring two Gigabit NIC, you can use the unit within two separate networks or combine the two for redundancy. A single user on the network will not be able to push the unit to its limit, but we want to illustrate what to expect at most when using it. For that task, the TS-859 Pro was connected straight to the workstation PC and Jumbo Frames were enabled on both sides, so the NAS as well. You can set the unit to JBOD, RAID 0, 1, 5, 6. We used RAID 5 one of the most commonly used ones for the benchmark below.


As you can see, in the image above, a single user manages to achieve 90 MB/s write and over 105 MB/s read performance. Considering the overhead of Gigabit networks, this is pretty much all the bandwidth available to you. If more users were to access the NAS, this number should not really drop much at all. Considering the fact that the TS-859 Pro is running RAID 5 with eight drives, the internal performance should be much higher. My educated guess is that you will not see much of a drop with 3-4 users accessing the device at the same time.

RAID Rebuild

The second little performance we have tried out was how it would function if the RAID array were ripped apart and then rebuild. To achieve this, drive number four was pulled for a few minutes. As soon as I did that, the NAS emitted a loud beeping noise - trying to get your attention. The LCD screen and software interface also let you know which drive is missing or acting up. After replacing the hard drive, the TS-859 Pro starts to rebuild the RAID right away. This took 5 hours and 50 minutes for an array of 6.407 TB. During the time, I was still able to use every functionality present without any noticeable decrease in performance.


Another run of ATTO did yield slightly lower numbers during teh rebuild process, than with a healthy array. But from a users perspective, these numbers do not mean a different subjective experience.

Power Consumption

At the time of this review, QNAP is advertising a 59 W power draw when the device is in use. This contradicts the fact that the TS-859 Pro has a 350 W power supply within its shell. The real power draw looks a bit different. While the stand by and sleep power requirements are spot on with what QNAP advertises, the unit draws considerably more during idle and load when turned on. I measured 84.4 W when nothing is happening but the NAS is on, and 91.6 W when rebuilding the RAID array and accessing it from a workstation PC. Also a noteworthy but very short peak of almost 200W when booting up is probably the reason you are seeing a 350 W power supply instead of something less powerful. Granted, the unit only requires this amount for around 3-4 seconds just after being turned on.