Looking back on the whole of 2020, the epidemic has delineated people within a family-based space, and family-centered product upgrades have gradually become my focus. The addition of two products has actually increased my family happiness. One is Projection, the other is NAS.
In 2021, as the epidemic is gradually brought under control, almost retaliatory travel and long-distance travel have gradually become the norm in life, and work has gradually become dependent on data security backup and remote data interaction, and the practical functions of NAS have been further highlighted.
It can be said that NAS has become a data center for my work and entertainment. The high-frequency interaction based on this makes me feel more and more that it was really a worthwhile attempt to step into the embrace of NAS from a novice.
And today I also recommend a flagship dual-bay NAS of QNAP for everyone. Its practicability and playability have been further improved, and it is a NAS suitable for everyone to get started with.
1. Unpacking and Appearance
▼Express delivery has additional packaging boxes. The packaging of the product itself adopts the usual plain-colored corrugated boxes of QNAP. The overall shape is slender and elongated, and the appearance of the host is similar.
has TS-253D pictures, models and function description stickers on the front. Its main feature is the use of a new low-power processor J4125, which has a significant performance improvement; with high-definition HDMI interface is more friendly for creating home audio and video; double 2 .
G network port, it is more efficient to break through gigabit; what is even more commendable is that the TS-253D is still equipped with an PCIe expansion slot in the compact body!
▼Take a look at the whole process of unboxing through the animation.
has a corrugated box for accessories, a separate power cable, and a host sandwiched in the middle, which achieves all-round protection. The packaging is simple and everyone should not throw it away. It is also useful for moving and moving in the future. Instructions/warranty card, power adapter, screws for fixing hard disk , and two Category 6 network cables.
▼The main unit is tightly wrapped in plastic bags to prevent accidents such as scratches and dust entering during transportation, and the hard disk cover of TS-253D is made of translucent glossy plastic. Easily scratched.
There is a service sticker on the side of the fuselage, from which you can enter the service/description interface of the product. The Cloud Key and S/N code bound to the host are also posted here for easy viewing.
▼The following is all the internal things, namely TS-253D host, power adapter, power connection cable, Category 6 network cable*2, manual/warranty card, hard disk screws.
▼Look at the TS-253D host again.
The 253D with dual-bay design is very compact, the body size is only 168*105*226mm (height*width*depth), even if it is placed on the desktop, it does not take up space. For users who want to build a home audio and video data center, it is a good choice to put it under the TV cabinet and coffee table.
▼The functional division of the whole machine can be clearly seen through the parting line at the top.
The bright translucent side-slip protective cover area is the hard disk access area, the dark green area next to it is the display and control area of the whole machine, and a large part of the rear area is the hard disk box , control board, fan, PCIe slot, etc. area.The sticker on the top of
indicates that the TS-253D is a model of the TS-x53D series, using Intel J4125 2.0GHz (up to 2.7 GHz) processor, with two 2.5G LAN ports and a PCIe expansion interface .
As for the bottom, there are standard 4 large non-slip silicone pads, you can rest assured on the desktop or high place.
▼The overall color scheme of the host is mainly black, and the front control and display area are embellished with dark green. The overall low-key and harmonious, the body is round without edges and corners, which is more integrated with the home environment, and also prevents children and pets at home from bumping.
display control area from top to bottom are the power button, indicator (including machine status indicator, network indicator, hard disk indicator), USB 3.2 Gen1 interface and quick copy button.
▼Different from the QNAP NAS I used before, this time the TS-253D has also undergone a new upgrade in the way of hard disk installation.
In general, the previously leaked hard disk structure is wrapped inside the fuselage. In addition to the improvement in aesthetics, the ability to prevent bear children from dismantling is also MAX.
First of all, you can see that the whole front of the fuselage is more integrated, there is no exposed hard disk structure, and there is a locking button on the side similar to the disassembly structure of the notebook power supply, which can be toggled down to lock, and toggled in the opposite direction to open; the outer side is translucent There is also a raised structure on the cover, which is non-slip and easy to slide sideways to remove the hard disk protective cover.
can also see relatively dense heat dissipation holes on the side, and there is no abrupt feeling.
▼After removing the protective cover of the hard disk, you can see the double-disc hard disk box arranged in parallel inside. The hard disk box itself has a layer of locking structure, and the extraction and installation method is also more ergonomic, and the thumb presses the upper part of the pressure. , and four fingers can be pulled out.
Whether it is inside or outside the fuselage, all parts that are made of smooth and bright plastic are wrapped with plastic film for protection. It also shows from the side that these protected parts need to be extra careful to wear and tear to prevent them from turning into ugly faces.
▼TS-253D has a very rich interface.
The top of
is a PCIe expansion card slot. By removing the screw on the top, you can install 10 Gigabit network card , NVME SSD, Wi-Fi 6 network card, etc., which greatly improves the expandability and playability of TS-253. In terms of performance It can be said to be done once and for all; the HDMI interface in the middle of
supports 4K@60Hz high-definition output, directly connected to projection, TV, and used with internal players or Plex, Emby, etc., directly speaking TS-253D becomes a powerful player and The video data center is very easy to use, even the player and decoder are omitted; below
are the USB 3.2 Gen1 interface and three USB2.0 interfaces, of which USB3.2 Gen1 can be connected to an external hard disk pack to further expand its storage capacity; Two 2.5G network ports allow data transmission to break through gigabit, and the security keyhole locks the NAS to ensure its security.
2. Quick Start
Quick Start does not mean simply experiencing the basic settings of the NAS, but because QNAP's NAS, including this TS-253D NAS, want to get started is very simple and fast, and it is very easy for Xiaobai User is also very friendly. This chapter of
mainly focuses on the following aspects: hard disk selection and installation, boot settings.
Hard Disk Selection and Installation
▼ Let's take a look at the hard disk selection first.
NAS as a 24-hour boot device, data stability is its most important and most basic function. In addition to the protection provided by the machine itself to data, the choice of hard disk is also very important for data security.
What I choose here is the Red Disk Plus of Western Digital , which is the hard drive preferred by many NAS users.
In addition to the fact that this is a special disk for NAS (NASWare 3.0), the more important thing is that the Western Digital Red Disk Plus is not a shingled type, but the entire system adopts the CMR architecture, that is, vertical auxiliary magnetic recording, Read and write performance is better, and RAID rebuilds are faster.
▼The so-called NASWare 3.0 is a technology specially developed by Western Digital for NAS, which can reduce the failure rate of hard disks by 35%.
Its main function is not only to ensure the stable operation of the hard disk 24 hours a day in a high temperature environment, but also to optimize the power consumption of the hard disk, so that the TS-253 hard disk equipped with the J4125 low-power processor can run at lower power consumption and lower temperature.
In addition, the entire hard disk adopts an all-metal casing, and the appearance quality is also very reassuring.
▼For this type of 3.5-inch hard drive, it is very convenient to install it on the QNAP TS-253, directly take out the clips on both sides of the hard disk rack, and place the hard disk in the card slot of the hard disk rack (the front side with the sticker faces up ), and then re-fasten the clips on both sides to quickly install screws-free.
If you install a 2.5-inch solid state, you can fix the hard drive from the back with the included screws.
▼The hard disk is installed, and then install it into the hard disk compartment of the host.
Push the hard disk into the NAS with the push-type buckle facing upwards. You can feel the buckle and the host lock together. Then, slide the side-sliding hard disk protective cover to cover the hard disk compartment. Finally, don’t forget to lock the cover. . The installation of
hard disk is completed, which is very convenient.
▼TS-253D comes with 4G memory, but another memory stick can be installed on the right side of the hard disk compartment. Although the official says it supports 8G, it seems that it can support up to 32G.
has a very good internal workmanship and is quite compact, which is also one of the advantages of the finished NAS.
Power-on settings Before starting
, first connect the power supply and network.
Plug one end of the provided network cable into one of the 2.5G LAN ports of the TS-253D, and plug the other end into a router or switch, and it will start up normally.
boot settings are mainly divided into the following steps:
, download Qfinder NAS official software Qfinder Pro
Click to download
Its main function is to search, install, and access the NAS in the local area network.
, Initialize system
After Qfinder Pro is installed, the software will automatically search for the QNAP TS-253D connected to the local area network, and prompt you to initialize the NAS.
This process is an intelligent installation wizard. Follow the wizard step by step. The main steps are: set NAS name/password, select date/time (GTM+008:00), select cross-platform service (usually select win+mac), Initialize the hard disk. After
is initialized, enter the login interface of the NAS and log in with the previously set name and password.
3. Create storage pool
There are two important concepts in QNAP NAS, one is storage pool and the other is disk area, we will talk about them one by one. The
storage pool can be simply understood as formatting the inserted hard disk and setting it as the space available on the NAS.After the hard disk is inserted, it cannot be used yet. The hard disk needs to be formatted to create a storage pool available to the NAS, which can be simply understood as the total available space of the NAS after the hard disk is formatted.
▼After logging in, you can see that there is a "Storage and Snapshot Manager" on the home page, click to enter.
▼Click "Storage/Snapshot", then click to create a new storage pool on the right, and the following interface will pop up. Just select the default "thick volume", no matter what it means, create a new storage pool at the bottom to go to the next step.
▼After that, select disk , check all the two installed hard disks, and select RAID1 in the RAID type below. After that, you don't need to worry about anything else, and continue to the next step until the storage pool is created.
Introduction of various RAID modes:
JBOD: Connect all hard disks in series, and the final storage pool space is the sum of all hard disk spaces. The space is large but the reliability is low. If any hard disk has a problem, the data will have problems, mainly damaged. It's the faulty disk, and without proper action, the entire disk will fail. The biggest use of JBOD is to maximize its low cost advantage when reliability is not high.
RAID 0: Connect at least 2 hard disks in series to form a large storage pool, which is also the sum of all hard disk space, and the read and write speed will also be multiplied, but the disadvantage is that as long as any hard disk has problems, all data will be played Finished, if you want speed or dare to fight for character, you can try it, but it is not recommended to use it.
RAID 1: It consists of at least 2 hard disks or hard disks with multiples of 2. The available space of the final storage pool is only 50% of the capacity of all hard disks, and the utilization of hard disks is reduced by half. When the hard disk data is written, half of the space is used for storage. The other half is used for backup, which is very safe. When one of the hard drives has a problem, it can be restored by hot swapping after being replaced. This mode is automatically set by my current 2 hard disk system. It is safe, but the utilization rate is low.
, create a disk area
After the storage pool is created, we also need to create a disk area.
The so-called disk area is to create a usable space in the storage pool, which is equivalent to the computer, separate disks C, D, E, etc., and then you can start to store data in the created C, D, and E disks .
▼The next step is to create a disk area, which is created in the newly created storage pool 1, and other default settings are sufficient.
▼Then configure space for this disk area, you can create the corresponding space according to your personal needs, and then create the remaining space to another disk area, or you can choose the largest, use up all the storage pool space, and create only one disk area .
▼After the disk area is also configured, you can see that there is your newly created disk area under storage pool 1. There is only one here. If you build two, there will be two.
Next, create the shared folder in the disk area you created. In fact, it is equivalent to creating an folder in the C drive, such as creating a "movie" folder to store movies.It's just that the folder we created on computer C is called "local folder", which can only be accessed locally, while the folder we created on the NAS is called "shared folder", which can be accessed remotely by .
. Create a shared folder
Creating a shared folder is to create a folder in the created disk area to organize and summarize your data, such as movies, music, work files and so on.
First open the file manager, then you can see on the left that I have created a movie folder in the disk area, where I can put all the movie files. If you want to create a new one, click the new icon to create a shared folder.
You only need to set the folder name, others are default.
Basically here, you can already interact with the NAS, but there is another important thing, which is to set up remote access to ensure that you can back up and access the data on your NAS anytime, anywhere at home and when you are away!
. Create remote access
Select myQNAPcloud cloud service, set your own device name, the system will automatically assign you two links, and you can access your NAS data remotely through these two links in the future.
So far, your NAS is a complete body that integrates local access and remote access.
3. My usage scenario
NAS is set up. What are the usage scenarios? Now I will share with you some scenarios that I often use. We will not talk about the specific tutorial this time, and will analyze it in detail next time.
, data backup
Data security backup is an important basic function of NAS. You can synchronously back up important data to the NAS for an extra layer of protection.
There are various backup methods. You can directly drag and drop the files you want to save into the NAS folder, or you can back up by one-click USB backup on the front of the TS-253D. In addition, there are various automatic backup strategies.
In addition, there is a separate photo backup, which backs up all your photos to the NAS, such as children's photos, which are backed up by age.
2, data remote access
When you are away from home, sometimes important data is stored on the NAS and needs to be temporarily downloaded and viewed, or you want to watch movies stored in the NAS when you are on a business trip, you can browse the resources in the NAS through remote access.
I often use the following two ways to access:
a. Computer access, directly enter the remote link URL, and directly access the data in the NAS;
b. Mobile access, download the Qfile APP of QNAP, access through mobile phones, I often use it when I travel on business Qfile to watch video resources in the NAS.
3, home audio and video player
Using NAS as a home audio and video data center is the choice of many NAS users. By installing the PT downloader on the NAS, you can download movie resources 24 hours a day and form a private audio and video library.
TS-253D can directly connect to projector or TV through HDMI interface and use its own HDMI interface to play video resources. The J4125 processor has hardware transcoding turned on, and there is no problem in daily use.
In addition, mobile phones, TVs, and projectors can access NAS content through the local area network, and can also play video resources.
Finally, emby/plex/jellyfin has a very good management of video resources and can form a beautiful video wall for easy remote access; using Kodi (TV version available) to manage and play NAS video resources is also a common method for enthusiasts.
In short, there are various usage scenarios and playability, far more than that. We can talk about it in detail in the next tutorial.
4. Summary
TS-253D is a dual-disk flagship model of QNAP, and its high scalability under high configuration brings more possibilities to this machine.
Low-power processor J4125, compared with the previous generation, the performance has improved significantly; with high-definition HDMI interface, it is more friendly to create home audio and video; dual 2.5G network ports, breakthrough Gigabit is more efficient; even more commendable, TS-253D is small in size The fuselage is still equipped with a PCIe expansion slot, and various gameplays such as the later update and installation of 10 Gigabit network cards, NVME SSDs, and Wi-Fi 6 network cards are worth looking forward to!
Overall, this is a very balanced NAS with no flaws. For users like me who rely on data backup and remote access at work and use it to build a home audio-visual center in life, it is worth starting!
