The amount of time Online RAID Capacity Expansion and Online RAID Level Migration can take, varies and depends on a number of factors:

Generally speaking, Online RAID Capacity Expansion can take longer than Online RAID Level Migration as there is more physical drive swapping involved. Either operation could easily take up to ten hours or more, as the operation is dependent upon the CPU of the NAS and not a dedicated RAID controller with its own coprocessor and RAM. Even though the Intel 1.6GHZ Celeron in the TS-509 Pro is much faster than the 500MHz Marvell 5281 processors in the other TS-series NAS servers, don’t expect either process to finish in an hour or two—particularly if you have a lot of data stored on the NAS.

Although both processes are usually safe, as with any major disk-based operation, it’s not a bad idea to have a current backup of all your data and system settings from the NAS waiting in the wings—just in case.

Benchmarks

The QNAP TS-509 Pro Turbo NAS was benchmarked against the follow NAS servers:
 

Benchmarks were conducted from a single PC workstation configured as follows:

The PC and NAS units were connected to an SMC 8508T 8-Port Gigabit Ethernet Switch. Since QNAP did not implement Jumbo Frame support in the TS-509 Pro, Jumbo Frames were disabled on the workstation’s integrated Marvell Yukon 88E8056 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller; the TS-409U, TS-409 Pro and ReadyNAS NV+. To keep things fair, the TS-509 Pro’s network interface was set to Standalone mode, as the other NAS servers only have a single LAN port.

Now for the benchmark suite and results:

Iometer

Iometer (Build 2006.07.27) was used to measure sequential reads and writes to a drive mapped to a share of each NAS using a 1GB test file. Details on how the benchmark was configured and run, are available in this thread at the Netgear ReadyNAS Community Support Forum.

When I first saw the results, I immediately though two things. Either too many long nights and NOS energy drinks were finally catching up to me—or I did something wrong. I ran the tests three more times, but the results were the same. The TS-509 Pro is clearly in a class by itself when it comes to throughput performance. This thing is F-A-S-T!

I attribute the results to two things. First, the Gigabyte of RAM. I had been saying over and over in the last three review of QNAP NAS servers, that the amount of RAM available will either make or break overall performance. If you’re building a NAS bundled with resource-hungry multimedia, database and web services, the last thing you want to do is hobble it with 256 – 512MB of RAM. During my previous reviews of QNAP NAS servers, the Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ consistently out-performed the TS-409 Pro and TS-409U precisely for this reason. I expected that 1GB of RAM in the TS-509 would level the playing field. In the Iometer tests, it went well beyond my expectations and demolished it.

Second, I have no doubt the 1.6GHz Intel Celeron Processor under the TS-509 Pro’s hood also played a major role in its outstanding performance on this benchmark. My only regret is that I don’t have a managed 802.3ad-readt Gigabit Ethernet switch. I can only imagine what the TS-509 Pro can do in Load-Balancing mode!

File Copy

The folder containing the installation of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion with approximately 26,020 files ranging in size from 69KB to 1.13GB stored in 2,513 folders weighing in at 12.6GB total, was copied from the workstation’s local drive to a drive mapped to a share on each NAS. SoftPerfect’s NetWorx 4.0 was used to record amount of time it took to copy the test folder from the local drive to the mapped drive on the target NAS, and the maximum transfer rate achieved in KB/sec.

While you can argue over the merit of scripted, synthetic benchmarks, it’s hard to argue with real-world results when you start throwing actual data around. Once again, the TS-509 Pro dominates in the file copy test, coming out way ahead in throughput and the amount of time it takes to copy 12.6GB worth of files from the smallest to the largest nested in thousands of folders. Whether you’re backing up restoring, you want to get the job done as quickly as possible, and the TS-509 Pro does not disappoint.

eSATA vs. USB File Transfer

This benchmark was performed exclusively on the TS-509 Pro. The Oblivion test folder that was created with the File Copy benchmark. was backed up from the BENCHMARK share on the TS-509 through QNAP Server Administration’s Back up to an external device function under System Tools—to a Western Digital 320GB SATA II hard drive installed in an Antec MX-1 USB/e-SATA 3.5-Inch Hard Drive Enclosure. The benchmark was performed with the target 320GB hard drive formatted in FAT, EXT3 and NTFS through the USB 2.0 connection, then the eSATA connection. The purpose was not only to show the dramatic differences in file throughput speed between USB and eSATA, but to also examine any performance differences between the three file systems.

It’s no secret or surprise that eSATA is faster than USB 2.0. What is interesting is the impact in performance that different file systems have. Here we see that the FAT file system offers faster throughput for both USB 2.0 and eSATA, than EXT3 and NTFS when backing up from the TS-509 Pro. But while speed is great, there are other factors to consider. Both NTFS and EXT3 are more robust compared to FAT, which means there’s less likely to be corruption issues. NTFS is also more efficient at saving files larger than 4GB. The EXT3 file system is more widely used by Linux systems and NAS servers like the TS-509 Pro due to its support for journaling. Software is required to read and write to drives formatted with the EXT3 file system under Windows. FAT, on the other hand, can easily be read by almost any operating system. On the down side, FAT is a less “secure” file system than NTFS or EXT3.

Backup Utility Performance

The three programs for the backup utility performance comparison on the QNAP TS-509 Pro Turbo NAS were used:

The same 12.6GB folder containing the Oblivion installation on the workstation, was used as the test data. Each utility was used in turn to back the folder up to a share on the TS-509 Pro. The verify operation was enabled for Acronis True Image Home and Microsoft Backup Utility for Windows. NetBak Replicator does not have a verify option.

Microsoft’s Backup Utility for Windows has never been the fastest backup solution on the planet—with or without performing a post-backup verify. Backup Utility for Windows stores the backup in a single file with a .BKF extension. There's no compression taking place during this process, which would normally help improve backup performance and preserve disk space. One advantage to Backup Utility for Windows, is that it’s native to the OS—meaning that you don’t have to install any special backup software to recover files from a backup made with Backup Utility for Windows.

QNAP’s NetBak Replicator uses a file-by-file copy scheme similar to the XCOPY file operation that creates the following folder structure to the target backup share:

<IP ADDRESS>\<SHARE>\<User Name>\<Machine Name>\<Local Drive>\<Backup Folders>

Because it leaves the file and folder structure intact without any form of compression or modification, you can easily access the files and folders created by NetBak Replicator through Windows Explorer from any workstation with a share mapped to the drive containing the NetBak backup. Since it does not perform a post-backup verify, NetBak Replicator performs backups faster than Microsoft Backup Utility for Windows. NetBak Replicator also has the ability and advantage over Microsoft Backup Utility, to automatically perform synchronization backups from computers on the network down to the TS-509 Pro whenever changes are detected on the client system.

Acronis True Image represents the pinnacle of desktop backup power, performance and ease of use. With its advanced compression technology used to maximized disk space and performance, True Image creates image files that not only allows you to browse the image to view the files and folders within through Windows Explorer. You can copy files and folders from the image file as if they were in their original state on the hard drive. True Image also has the ability to do bare-metal disaster recovery backups that can restore a computer to its original state—operating system, programs, user files and customized settings—without having to go through time consuming operating system and application re-installs and then data recovery from a conventional backup. Something that neither Microsoft Backup Utility nor NetBak Replicator can do. As with my previous reviews of QNAP NAS servers, True Image once again comes out ahead performance-wise against the other two utilities.

There is one disadvantage True Image has compared to Backup Utility for Windows and NetBak Replicator. Though most 3^rd part backup solutions are superior to those bundled with a product, you have to pay for the privilege of using them—True Image is no exception, requiring that you purchase a license for each computer it’s installed on. True Image isn’t expensive, but the cost does add up when buying multiple licenses, obviously. The other two utilities are free, which to someone with multiple networked PCs on a budget, might end up being the better bargain. At the end of the day, any good backup is better than absolutely none at all.

Noise

Using my Galaxy Audio CM-130 SPL Meter 12 inches away from the front of the TS-509 Pro, noise levels were recorded and averaged at four stages:

The load condition was created by copying 60GB worth of photo, music and video files of various sizes from my laptop to a share mapped on the NAS. I removed as much extraneous noise from the office as possible, and launched the file copy batch file I created from the laptop in the room outside my office so that the noise coming from the laptop would not influence the reading.

Here’s how the TS-509 Pro did:

Now let’s compare the TS-509 Pro against the other desktop tower NAS units.

 The TS-509 Pro’s larger case allows more air to circulate, cooling components more effectively, making better use of the larger, slower turning 120mm fan under normal operation to help keep things impressively quiet. Although the TS-509 Pro’s fan is noticeably loud on boot up (it would be hard to ignore standing across an average-sized room), it quickly ramps down during POST—similar to the way cooling fans operate on high-end video cards for gaming. Overall, the TS-509 Pro’s noise level throughout its range of normal operation is better than the TS-409 Pro and ReadyNAS NV+, and way better, not surprisingly, than the TS-409U—which is designed for a server or computer room in an IT department. Keep in mind that if you add a fifth hard drive to the unit, the noise level will go up a bit.

Conclusion

To say that the TS-509 Pro Turbo NAS is the most impressive NAS server in QNAP’s line-up would be an understatement. Take QNAP’s extensive, all-in-one feature set, add a 1.6GHz Celeron Processor, five SATA disk capacity for up to 4TB of storage, an eSATA port; a Gig of DDR-2 RAM, a slick LCD screen with PC-less first-time installation, dual Gigabit Ethernet LAN ports capable of redundancy, performance-enhancing load balancing and IP segmenting; DOM Architecture with Fail-Safe Dual OS Protection, Wake on LAN and Scheduled Power on and off—and blazing performance to top it all off—and you’ve got what is pretty much the ultimate tower-class desktop NAS server. Even with all the installed drives cranking way, the quiet operation of a unit this size and capacity compared to many desktop tower NAS servers, is nothing short of amazing.

Naturally all that power doesn’t come cheap. With an on-the-street price of close to nine-hundred bucks without hard drives, the TS-509 Pro is clearly aimed at businesses or the elite home networking enthusiast with very deep pockets. And plenty of room on their desk, of course.

The price tag would be a bit easier to swallow if this hi-tech diamond didn’t have a few rough spots that needed polishing. Mostly browser-related issues that have dogged the entire QNAP TS-series product line since its inception—like the broken SSL logins with IE7 and of course, the endless drama with Multimedia Station. Or the bizarre “bad cable” issue I had with my APC UPS. I’m hopeful that QNAP will nail the lid on the coffin on these issues in a future firmware release, though I’m starting to have doubts about Multimedia Station. Anyone out there in the open source community want to come to QNAP’s rescue with a better alternative—one that could be installed via QPKG—anyone? Please? Also a NAS of this caliber definitely deserves more than a 1 year warranty.

Gripes aside, if I were in the market for a NAS today that I could purchase once and not have to worry about for a long time (and had the bucks), the TS-509 Pro would be it, hands down. It may not be able to run the Nurburgring in 7 minutes and 38 seconds, but like the 2009 Nissan GTR, the QNAP TS-509 Pro Turbo NAS is big, expensive, loaded with all kinds of hi-tech goodness, fast as hell and in a class by itself.

Barry’s Rigs ‘n Reviews would like to thank Vera Wang at QNAP for making this review possible!

Final Score: