Meet the QNAP TS-364 3-bay NAS server with 2.5G Multigigabit port

Main features

The manufacturer QNAP is the only one that currently has models with 3 bays for hard drives, most manufacturers have 2 bays, 4 bays and more, but none have enough bays to form a RAID 5. In addition, this new model has a completely renovated hardware, with a very powerful processor capable of managing any process.

Processor and RAM

This new NAS server incorporates the processor Intel Celeron N5105a processor Quad Core running at a speed of 2.0GHz but goes up to a speed of 2.9GHz when higher performance is required, albeit only on one core. The “Turbo” mode will allow us to increase the speed up to 2.6GHz in all its cores temporarily to provide the best performance.

This new processor incorporates AES-NI hardware encryption acceleration, this means that we will be able to encrypt and decrypt the data of the encrypted volumes very quickly, in addition, if we use protocols that use data encryption such as FTPES, SFTP or VPN servers, we will also see that the download and upload speed is clearly superior. Another aspect that we must highlight is that this processor has hardware video transcodingincorporating an Intel UHD Graphics that is integrated, this is ideal for transcoding with Plex or other programs.

Refering to RAM of this TS-364, we have a module of 4GB DDR4 SO-DIMM RAM, but can be expanded up to 16GB with two 8GB DDR4 SO-DIMM modules. Thanks to the fact that we will be able to have up to 16GB of RAM, we will have the possibility of virtualizing operating systems, using Docker containers and much more.

Storage

This equipment has a total of 3 bays to house hard drives, the data interface is SATA3 at 6Gbps as usual. In these disk bays we will be able to install 3.5 “, 2.5” SATA3 hard drives and also 2.5 “SSD drives to use it as a storage pool, Qtier and even as SSD cache acceleration. Depending on our needs, we can configure the SSD bay as we want. A very important detail is that in the case of using 2.5” disks or SSDs in this NAS, we will need a tray base for 2.5” drives that is purchased optionally, otherwise, only we will be able to mount 3.5 ”units.

In this new TS-364 NAS we have two M.2 slots for NVMe SSDs, specifically it has a total of two M.2 2280 PCIe Gen 3 x2 slots to use it as SSD cache or to use it as a storage array with all SSD. Thanks to this additional storage, we will be able to greatly increase the read and write speed on the overall storage pool of the NAS, and even be able to use a specific storage pool where it has the best possible performance.

connectivity

This new QNAP NAS model is aimed at a domestic environment where we want to have a very good quality, price and performance ratio. The connectivity built into this equipment is as follows:

• 1 2.5G Multigigabit port, supports Jumbo Frames at 9K.
• 2 USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports at 10Gbps type A, we can make really fast backups with this type of connectivity.
• 1 USB 3.2 Gen 1 port at 5Gbps type A.
• HDMI 1.4b output with a resolution of 4K at 30Hz.

Unfortunately this equipment does not have any PCIe slot available to expand the possibilities of the NAS, installing a QM2 card from the manufacturer QNAP for more storage, more USB ports and even to install a 10G Multigigabit network card.

Other features

This equipment has dimensions of 142mm high, 150mm wide and 260mm deep with a net weight of 1.64Kg. Regarding the power consumption in full operation with all units full, the manufacturer QNAP estimates that it has a consumption of 32.8W. As for cooling, we have a single 92mm rear fan to extract hot air from inside the server, it also includes a Kensington connector to prevent theft and a total of three physical buttons (power, reset and USB copy).

As you have seen, this new 3-bay NAS model has all the ingredients to be one of the best for the home environment. What we liked the most is that we have a powerful processor and 2.5G Multigigabit connectivity.

Operating system

The operating system built into this NAS server is QTS 5.0, the latest version of QNAP’s operating system with the latest improvements in security, speed, installed applications, and more. This equipment is not compatible with the QuTS hero operating system with the ZFS file system, and we also do not have the option to install it as it happens with the high-end models of the manufacturer, therefore, we have to use QTS 5.0 compulsorily.

In this QTS 5.0 operating system we have the possibility of installing a large amount of additional software through the App Center, as we have shown you on many occasions. We would also have the possibility of using this NAS as if it were a videoconferencing system, by installing the QNAP KoiMeeter application, since we have a 4K output so we can connect a TV without any problem.

Now that you know all the features of this new team, let’s see the unboxing and first impressions.

Unboxing and first impressions

The first thing that caught our attention about this QNAP TS-364 NAS is that it is physically the same as the other 3-bay NAS for hard drives that we have previously tested at RedesZone. The only thing that changes are the internal components like the processor, connectivity and other features, but physically they are exactly the same. What we did not like is that we do not have the usual disk bays, which we can take out and put in without having to disassemble the entire case, in addition, in NAS with the typical bays we have the possibility of installing 2.5 disks »without any type of adapter or base, something that we will need in this model if we want to use them with 2.5 discs».

The price of this NAS model is around €500, a very competitive price if we take into account its technical characteristics, you can buy it directly from here:

In the following video you can see in detail all the features of the NAS, the contents of the box and also what this new QNAP TS-364 device looks like: