A Look Inside

It's now time to strip the NAS down to discover what components it hides inside its casing.


Upgrading the RAM of the TS-569 Pro is a fairly easy process, since you only have to remove the top held in place by three screws. A full disassembly of the NAS is a wholly different story. You must, besides removing an additional two dozen screws, be very careful, following a specific procedure, to remove the mainboard. We are, thankfully, pretty familiar with QNAP NAS servers, which made the whole process a pretty straightforward one.


The mainboard of the NAS is really small, housing all the necessary components to support its functions. Two heatsinks cool down the Atom CPU and chipset. We removed the CPU heatsink to take a good look at it.



A closer look at the dual-core Atom CPU (D2700) and the heatsink that cools down the chipset—probably an Intel NM10 Express. The low TDP is low makes active cooling redundant, which keeps noise levels down.


There is a preinstalled ADATA DDR3 1333 memory module (1 GB) on the mainboard.


The empty RAM slot is located on the solder side of the mainboard for ease of access.


The two NICs are controlled by two Intel WG82574L Gigabit Ethernet controllers.


The USB 3.0 Host Controller is an Etron EJ188.


The buzzer of the mainboard.


The 512MB flash memory on the NAS is provided by Apacer.


The monitoring IC is an ITE ΙΤ8721F (on the right). Next to it resides the EEPROM IC; it is an Altera EPM3054A.


The CPU is powered by a two-phase VRM (Voltage Regulation Module)—easy to figure out given there are two SMD chokes.


An Asmedia ASM1442 controls the HDMI port that is fully exploited by HD Station.


The single PCIe slot and the battery of the mainboard. We also found a CY28400ZXI-2 IC here; it is the differential buffer for PCIe and SATA ports next to the battery.


The PCIe expansion card that holds all SATA ports is directly powered by the PSU through a 20-pin connector. Three Marvell 88SE9125 controllers are also installed on this card. The aforementioned are compatible with the SATA 6 GB/s protocol. We spotted two SANYO (OS-CON) polymer caps on the rear side of this card.


The functions of the LCD screen are handled by a Microchip PIC16F73 8-bit microcontroller.


The 120 mm cooling fan is provided by Y.S. Tech. Its model number is FD121225LB (120 mm, 12 V, 0.18 A, 1800 RPM, 73 CFM, 34 dBA, and 80000 MTBF). It uses ball-bearings and will, as such, last fairly long; definitely much longer than one with sleeve bearings.


The SFF PSU that powers the NAS is manufactured by the famous PSU OEM Delta Electronics, one of the best in this area, with highly reliable and extremely well-performing products. Its model number is DPS-250AB, and it can deliver up to 250W of power (17 A max at +12V), which is more than enough for the needs of this NAS. According to the 80 PLUS organization, this PSU meets the 80 PLUS requirements. Finally, the small 40 mm fan it uses is very quiet; its output noise is totally overpowered by the noise of the 120 mm fan that cools down the NAS.