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

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QNAP TS-253PRO Network Attached Storage

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

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General Specifications

Brand

QNAP

Model

TS-253PRO

TS-253A

Origin

China

About the Product

The TS-253 Pro, featuring the easy-to-use QTS operating system, is a powerful, reliable, secure and scalable NAS solution designed for mission-critical business applications and to meet fast growing data storage needs.

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

12 TB

6 TB

Number Of Slots

2 -bay

Storage Drive Type

2.5”, 3.5”, SATA 3Gb/s, SATA 6Gb/s

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-253PRO Network Attached Storage

Excellent NAS with extensive capabilities, high speed and easy installation.
Great NAS with 12TB capacity. Would recommend.
Two slots of this one, great for me.
I used 3.5 drive slots. Great capacity.
Excellent upgrade from older model, big size of memory. Excellent storage.

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

Black

Height

5.91 in.

Width

4.02 in.

Depth

8.5 in.

8.05 in.

Weight

3.84 lbs.

Features

CPU

Intel Celeron

Intel Celeron N3150

RAM

8 GB

4 GB

RAID Support

RAID 0, RAID 1, JBOD, Single

RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, JBOD

Extras

High performance, QvPC Technology, Cross-platform file sharing, Centralized data storage, Private cloud storage

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, myQNAPcloud, VMware, Citrix, IT Management Station, Qsync, On-Demand Apps

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-253PRO Network Attached Storage

Very comprehensive feature set and easy to use.
It is easy to use and has so many features it is the server that keeps on giving.
I use it for automated file and photo backups. Great features.
It's powerful, quiet, easy to use, has lots of features and is reasonably priced.
Very pleased with comprehensive feature list and performance so far.

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-253PRO Network Attached Storage

Wake on LAN so it goes it a sleep mode and wakes when you try to connect to it. 2 LAN ports.
Speed wise it's very quick, the remote access is also very comprehensive.
Much faster than my old one. Would recommend.
You can run full virtual machines from it. Great speed, really fast.
Nice but very, very slow. Very disappointed and let down so far.

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

CE, FCC

FCC, CE

Other Information

Manufacturer

Link

Manual

Download