Product Comparison: QNAP TS-251A vs QNAP TS-253A

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QNAP TS-251A 2-bay personal cloud NAS/DAS with USB direct access, HDMI local display

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QNAP TS-253A 4G 2-Bay Network Attached Storage

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General Specifications

Brand

QNAP

Model

TS-251A

TS-253A

Origin

Taiwan

China

About the Product

The TS-251A provides the innovative USB QuickAccess port that allows you to quickly complete the first-time NAS installation and to then directly access files and data stored on the NAS. It also supports two additional transmission modes: Ethernet NAS mode and iSCSI SAN block-based mode. Combining USB QuickAccess, NAS and iSCSI-SAN into one box, the TS-251A is a powerful but easy-to-use storage solution ideal for backup, synchronization, remote access, and entertainment. It greatly helps to boost productivity and can meet the demands of photographers and audiovisual enthusiasts for direct, quick access to files. The TS-251A is powered by a high-performance 14nm Intel® Celeron® N3060 dual-core 1.6GHz processor, and supports 4K video playback and transcoding.

The TS-253A NAS server is designed to grow alongside with small and medium businesses, allowing its users to use the NAS as a storage device, but also a multitasking and multifunctional light-weight server.

Key Specs

Hard Drive Capacity

24 TB

6 TB

Number Of Slots

2 -bay

Storage Drive Type

3.5”, 2.5”, SSD, SATA 6Gb/s, SATA 3Gb/s

Hard Drive Capacity
Number Of Slots

What customers say about "Key Specs"

QNAP TS-251A 2-bay personal cloud NAS/DAS with USB direct access, HDMI local display

It was easy to set-up, and it does what it’s supposed to do very well. I use it exclusively to back up my media library and serve it up via Plex to Roku, Apple TV, and phones.
I do bulk transcoding off-line using Handbrake on 24 cores and only apply the Plex Optimize function occasionally, so the dual core Celeron meets my needs.
Could barely handle 1080 video. The processor is too slow. No way it would've handled 4K.
Just the facts. Even with upgrade to 8 Gb of ram, poor performance with Plex DVR.
Those experienced with Plex should be familiar with how hard it can churn while transcoding on demand. This box is optimized for low power and thus uses a dual-core Celeron and doesn’t transcode quickly

QNAP TS-253A 4G 2-Bay Network Attached Storage

I mainly wanted to use it as a Plex/Media Server in RAID 0 with Crashplan providing backup functionality.
FWIW, 4k direct play content plays perfectly through my Samsung Smart TV Plex client as being served by the Plex Media Server installed on the NAS.
I am extremely impress on how well this NAS function with my iMac.
I just love this system. I purchased the least expensive 253a system available (4GB, no HDDs) and bought 8GB of RAM and 2x4TB HDDs separately which saved me several hundred dollars.
I do have a 4k TV and I have played back h.264 4k files using the NAS's built-in HDMI outs via the included kodi app (XBMC derivative) and they seem to play back just fine.

Size & Weight

Color

White

Black

Height

6.65 in.

5.91 in.

Width

4.02 in.

Depth

8.62 in.

8.05 in.

Weight

2.82 lbs.

3.84 lbs.

Features

CPU

14nm Intel® Celeron® N3060 dual-core 1.6GHz (up to 2.48GHz)

Intel Celeron N3150

RAM

2 GB

4 GB

RAID Support

RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, JBOD

Extras

14nm Intel® Celeron® N3060 dual-core CPU and hardware-accelerated encryption engine, Direct access to files with the USB QuickAccess port, USB QuickAccess/NAS/iSCSI SAN triple solution, Superior 4K video transcoding, Enjoy media freely with multi-zone multimedia controls, Enjoy an exclusive karaoke experience with OceanKTV, QTS – Simple and powerful, File synchronization across devices and clouds, Cross-platform file sharing, centralized data storage, Centralize backup, restoration and synchronization with Hybrid Backup Sync, Restore files with Snapshot for Volume & LUN, Qsirch - a smarter, faster way to search, QmailAgent: a mailroom center for your private cloud, QTS-Linux dual systems for IoT applications, Storage for hosting virtual machines and containerized applications, Comprehensive surveillance solution providing 24/7 security

QTS - Simple and efficient, QTS-Linux dual systems, geared for the IoT era, Superior real-time and offline 4K video transcoding, QTS 4.2 – Simple, convenient and efficient, Disaster recovery solutions brings peace of mind, Restore files with Snapshot

Included Software

QTS (Linux for Build-in System), Transmission, Joomla!, phpMyAdmin, WordPress, AjaXplorer, vtigerCRM, Magento, eyeOS, QUSBCam, Tomcat, GLPI, Mono, XDove, OpenLDAP, Optware IPKG, Python, Java, iStat

QTS (Linux for Build-in System), Transmission, Joomla!, phpMyAdmin, WordPress, AjaXplorer, vtigerCRM, eyeOS, Magento, GLPI, QUSBCam, Tomcat, Mono, XDove, OpenLDAP, Optware IPKG, Python, Java, iStat, LinkNavigator, NASNavigator2, TurboPC EX, NovaBACKUP®, WebManual, Adobe® Reader®

What customers say about "Features"

QNAP TS-251A 2-bay personal cloud NAS/DAS with USB direct access, HDMI local display

Qmusic allows iPhone Music to interrupt in between songs while connected to a bluetooth device....other music apps do not e.g. Amazon Music. Also, Qmusic needs to have specific settings for Random & Continuous play
Qvideo needs the ability to browse the network like Qphoto does. Also, Qvideo needs the ability to share e.g. Facebook as does Qphoto as well as the ability to download to your phone as does Qphoto.
If you select "random song" from the menu, random songs will continue to play; however, if you select a song from a file list it will only play that song once and stop. Yes, I am picky, but still stand by five stars.
The real kicker: it kept crashing! Would just shut down and only come back on by unplugging. This was not a sleep mode issue. Even Qnap tech support confirmed it.
This product just crashed in the middle of the night after less than 2 months of use. It will no longer power on.

QNAP TS-253A 4G 2-Bay Network Attached Storage

With this device, there is a ton to investigate and tweak regarding management, diagnostics, etc., especially as a relative NAS-noob (a tech-saavy NAS-noob mind you).
But long story short, I couldn't be happier at this point and will update this review in the coming months as I figure more things out.
Installation of RAM/HDDs was pretty quick and there are videos on Youtube if you can't figure it out. This system does everything I wanted it to do - Plex media server, basic NAS, running VMs
There's so much you can do with this system it's hard to give any reason NOT to go for it if you're in the market for a full-featured NAS.
QNAP has removed KODI app from store. One of the main reasons for me buying this unit.

Interfaces

LAN Speed

1000 Mbps

Number of LAN

Number of USB

eSATA

HDMI

Yes

What customers say about "Interfaces"

QNAP TS-251A 2-bay personal cloud NAS/DAS with USB direct access, HDMI local display

this a nice NAS with an awesome webUI. Tons of forum support and the tech support is helpful and knowledgeable.
I have it set up as a raid 1 with 2- 8tb's and perfect so far. It has become a key piece in my info-tainement system.
It will be a challenge if you are not computer savvy. But yeah, I should give it 5 out of 5. The only point away is because if you don't know much about computers, you may need a little help setting this up
I have opened a ticket with QNAP support, but they have yet to provide any updates after 2 business days.
If your going to use this as a Plex media server, make sure you turn off the systems media player ( or keep it off ). 16gb of memory won't be enough to run both.

QNAP TS-253A 4G 2-Bay Network Attached Storage

I highly recommend the Qnap TS-253A as a good storage device and to backup your critical files that needs to be protected.
Qnap manufacturer has written in their specs the maximum memory for the TS-253A is 8GB and I can tell you that this is not true. I am currently using 2 x 8GB modules and it functions extremely well.
Data transfer is so fast...I'm always surprised. And the system is very quiet...the fan is working but it's whisper quiet.
The size makes it portable - I've used it in my RV for weekend trips plugging it in via HDMI for direct playback via the desktop interface.
I was hoping to like this a lot more than I have. I am not a computer science major, but I am not entirely computer illiterate either. It wasn't too bad to set up for back-up service, but the other apps are finicky and not as robust as I would hope for the money.

Warranty / Certifications

Manufacturer Warranty

2 year(s)

Certifications

EAC, FCC, CE, NOM

FCC, CE

Other Information

Manufacturer

Link

Manual

Download