quad-core Intel® Celeron® processor
4K (H.264) video playback and 1080p/4K video real-time transcoding directly from the TS-453A to a HD/4K display.
Personal cloud storage web & mobile app login access
4x usb 3.0
2x hdmi out
4gb ram upgradable
Dual Os
Ir remote
One touch usb copy button
Raid configutation support
Official Plex media server & kodi support
Supports VMware®, Citrix®, Microsoft® Hyper-V and advanced virtualization features
If you've been thinking or looking for an all-in-one personal cloud/storage device with a whirl of features & capabilities straight out the box then this price & device might sweet you.
I've havent used Gameseek before but at this price it seems worth the risk & hassel. These are going for £385 to £400+ on amazon & ebay. I've had my eye on the 2 bay versions which sells for at least £290 - incl delivery from all usual online stores so that why this seems like a good deal.
it's not a cracking price if they didn't sell any - it's misleading
K13OllieD to jimhuf
24 Mar 163#11
No, but no real setup required for lazy people who can't follow some simple guides and love to waste money :P
3x the price of a microserver for a less versatile product, i know i would never reccomend one of these locked down NAS units.
(Havent voted either way)
jimhuf
24 Mar 163#7
is this 3x better than a HP Microserver?
All comments (38)
ch00w00
24 Mar 16#1
Anyone know how good the on the fly trancoding is with this for plex?
Bighare
24 Mar 16#2
Are these noisy?
curtisf08
24 Mar 16#3
the plex nas compatibility page suggests this may struggle with Hi bit rate 1080p transcoding but there are lots of user on forums saying the haven't had any probs
curtisf08
24 Mar 16#4
just noticed the titles a slightly incorrect, this is definitely the 4 bay ts-453a released last quarter of 2015
Devastator
24 Mar 16#5
Got this 4 Bay one...with HGST (Hitachi) drives it's noisy.... with WD Red drives you can hardly hear it. Plex transcoding works fine. HDMi output with KODI installed also works just great :smiley:
Devastator
24 Mar 16#6
At this price would definitely recommend.
jimhuf
24 Mar 163#7
is this 3x better than a HP Microserver?
K13OllieD to jimhuf
24 Mar 163#11
No, but no real setup required for lazy people who can't follow some simple guides and love to waste money :P
3x the price of a microserver for a less versatile product, i know i would never reccomend one of these locked down NAS units.
(Havent voted either way)
CaptainSocks to jimhuf
12 Apr 16#27
No, but it costs less than 1/3 to run...
curtisf08
24 Mar 16#8
does anyone know how to edit the title ?
Skyhiigh
24 Mar 16#9
Great price, just wish the 2 bay would drop in price a little too!
Both the 2 bay and 4 bay should have enough CPU & RAM to transcode on the fly with Plex.
Skyhiigh
24 Mar 16#10
Depends on how you class 'better', it's smaller, a dedicated device designed and tested for a specific purpose, and likely uses less power in active and passive modes.
Plus no faffing with cashback.
Less flexible if you want to use it for other non-NAS purposes though.
RufusG
24 Mar 16#12
Thanks bought one, have offer from flubit £354 , but that's even better
RufusG
24 Mar 16#13
Its smaller and looks better in the living room :wink:
Devastator
24 Mar 16#14
Not to mention quieter, easier to setup out of the box and uses less power.
jonesmarka
24 Mar 16#15
no longer available
6liuxa
24 Mar 16#16
it was only available to advertise /draw attention to gameseek
Less than a day available
RufusG to 6liuxa
25 Mar 16#18
I bought one just after deal been posted when it was 18 in stock, now my order satus - awaiting stock :wink:
cigbunt
25 Mar 16#17
loads better than synology... heat
benjai to cigbunt
12 Apr 16#37
Really? How? Doesn't the Synology have better apps/support for other devices like Sonos etc etc?
curtisf08
25 Mar 16#19
I noticed that too, mines went from "order placed" to "awaiting stock" yesterday. I checked this morning and its now displaying order placed.
RufusG
29 Mar 16#20
My order cancelled :disappointed:
sach1636
11 Apr 16#21
looks like no one got this one. cracking price tho
lilbeastie to sach1636
12 Apr 163#22
it's not a cracking price if they didn't sell any - it's misleading
jacksonliam
12 Apr 16#23
I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all that, but how does this look nicer than a microserver? Exposed drive bays and a glaring blue LCD?
You can buy a lot of electricity for £200... But I doubt the measured difference in idle power would be much.
Microservers are pretty quiet and can be silent, swapping the fan cost me £8!
I'll give you easy setup though :-D
jasee
12 Apr 16#24
Easy setup is not everything and some file extensions may still not be supported directly. Or just not fast enough. I'm thinking of large 3d mkvs or .rmvbs. The main thing is a fast cpu. and a gigabit connection. I've several microservers, and zytel NAS and a t140 thinkserver and everything is going on the latter, eventually
sproutratty
12 Apr 16#25
What fan did you go for? I have the older microserver and it's noisy :-( the main issue with the microserver is that you need to know how to set up Linux and then get Plex running properly. That said, it's relatively easy to do this and providing you have a smart(ish) TV you can then connect to your plexmediaserver via a powerline adapter and put the microserver somewhere other than your living room.
sproutratty
12 Apr 161#26
I'm not sold on the idea of having what is basically a NAS running as a mediastreamer plugged straight into my telly. It's a pretty ugly beast.
Quasso
12 Apr 16#28
Been doing some fairly extensive research lately.. here's my wishlist for a custom build media server. It's got everything other than the processor in there. I picked up a cheap i3 from eBay for £55. This also includes 3tb storage, and is _way_ more powerful, fully customisable, and according to my research practically silent (I'm yet to purchase the parts in my wishlist): http://www.amazon.co.uk/registry/wishlist/3BPUDSVRP62J8
Those components total £226, + the £55 = £281. Quad core processor, 8GB ram, 3tb WD red storage, up to 6 drives installed (with a bit of tinkering..) why bother with anything else?! Simple to build, just install a good distro of linux and you've got a really solid, upgradeable unit.
lilbeastie
12 Apr 16#29
slightly bigger case admittedly, but this is a better bet than your wishlist to me (less RAM & only 4 SATA ports but a better processor and lots of expansion options for essentially the same money (as no WD red included, but you do get a 1TB drive included).
Quasso
12 Apr 16#30
Cheers. I did see this.. initially on balance I actually preferred the setup I'd put together, but I also thought the listed price was including the cashback.. at ~£200 that is a belter of a deal to be honest. Proper ECC ram and server-grade processor too... hmm indeed! The case is only really larger in terms of depth. I'm trying to think if there's somewhere I could keep this puppy hidden.
Have you any experience with it? My only other concern at this stage would probably be its noise levels.
lilbeastie
12 Apr 16#31
not personally - i nearly pulled the trigger a few days ago but I already have far more PCs than I need and this box would just end up sitting around for the next 12 months before I got round to doing anything with it, and by then I could get more for my money.
there's a wealth of info around if you google it - if I recall correctly it's quieter than the microserver, and with 4 expansion slots and a nice open chassis it's much easier to work on with more space for upgrades. If you don't need the CPU there's also a Pentium version that has been as low as £100 after cashback but seems to be nearer the £150 at the moment so the faster version is the better value at this point.
jacksonliam
12 Apr 16#32
I used these:
£8.32 x 1 - Noiseblocker BlackSilent Pro Fan PL1 Fan - 120mm
£3.74 x 1 - Noiseblocker BlackSilent Fan XM1 Fan - 40mm
Cant remember if a molex adapter is in the box but if not they're less than a quid!
The psu fan is shorter so I used electrical tape to 'seal' around the psu. The psu fan I hooked up to a spare molex with an adapter rather than messing about hooking it up internally in the psu as the stock fan was.
It's now inaudible across a small room with the disk spun down (I wont have any ticking clocks in my house or wear mechanical watches as I can't stand the noise). With even my quietest drive spun up the drive noise completely covers any fan noise.
Been rock solid for 2 years now, my WD greens don't even get warm. The downside is you need to de-dust the rear vent more often because of the lower air flow!
Quasso
12 Apr 16#33
Appreciate the info, I'm at work at the moment so I currently have little to no time to research, I'll be home in a couple of hours though and I'll dig deep!
ukez
12 Apr 16#34
To be fair it looked to me to be an obvious typo or mistake by whoever was responsible for data inputting on the site.
A Qnap TS-253a-4G is a 2 bay NAS, not a 4 bay.
A TS453a is a 4 Bay, TS653a is a 6 Bay and a TS853a is a 8Bay. It should have been obvious to anyone that bothered to look elsewhere.. :laughing:
jasee
12 Apr 16#35
The link now points to the TS-453A-4G but with a price of £441.83, if the buyers here get the four bay for £308, they'll be lucky :wink: but personally, I don't think it's worth even that
curtisf08
12 Apr 16#36
I mistyped the title. I called gameseek before i shared the deal and was told there in stock and priced £308
In hindsight, I should of been a bit more selfish and waited until my order arrived before posting, might of had a better chance of receiving my order .
I was thinking about building a microserver but I needed something I could switch on with minimum setup process and have ease of use for the rest of my family.
plex/storage and ease of use 24/7 is my requirements
Opening post
4K (H.264) video playback and 1080p/4K video real-time transcoding directly from the TS-453A to a HD/4K display.
Personal cloud storage web & mobile app login access
4x usb 3.0
2x hdmi out
4gb ram upgradable
Dual Os
Ir remote
One touch usb copy button
Raid configutation support
Official Plex media server & kodi support
Supports VMware®, Citrix®, Microsoft® Hyper-V and advanced virtualization features
If you've been thinking or looking for an all-in-one personal cloud/storage device with a whirl of features & capabilities straight out the box then this price & device might sweet you.
I've havent used Gameseek before but at this price it seems worth the risk & hassel. These are going for £385 to £400+ on amazon & ebay. I've had my eye on the 2 bay versions which sells for at least £290 - incl delivery from all usual online stores so that why this seems like a good deal.
( no hdd's included )
Manufacturers web link
https://www.qnap.com/i/en/product/model.php?II=212
This is Qnap Ts-453a-4g
- RufusG
Top comments
3x the price of a microserver for a less versatile product, i know i would never reccomend one of these locked down NAS units.
(Havent voted either way)
All comments (38)
3x the price of a microserver for a less versatile product, i know i would never reccomend one of these locked down NAS units.
(Havent voted either way)
Both the 2 bay and 4 bay should have enough CPU & RAM to transcode on the fly with Plex.
Plus no faffing with cashback.
Less flexible if you want to use it for other non-NAS purposes though.
Less than a day available
You can buy a lot of electricity for £200... But I doubt the measured difference in idle power would be much.
Microservers are pretty quiet and can be silent, swapping the fan cost me £8!
I'll give you easy setup though :-D
Those components total £226, + the £55 = £281. Quad core processor, 8GB ram, 3tb WD red storage, up to 6 drives installed (with a bit of tinkering..) why bother with anything else?! Simple to build, just install a good distro of linux and you've got a really solid, upgradeable unit.
Have you any experience with it? My only other concern at this stage would probably be its noise levels.
there's a wealth of info around if you google it - if I recall correctly it's quieter than the microserver, and with 4 expansion slots and a nice open chassis it's much easier to work on with more space for upgrades. If you don't need the CPU there's also a Pentium version that has been as low as £100 after cashback but seems to be nearer the £150 at the moment so the faster version is the better value at this point.
£8.32 x 1 - Noiseblocker BlackSilent Pro Fan PL1 Fan - 120mm
£3.74 x 1 - Noiseblocker BlackSilent Fan XM1 Fan - 40mm
Cant remember if a molex adapter is in the box but if not they're less than a quid!
The psu fan is shorter so I used electrical tape to 'seal' around the psu. The psu fan I hooked up to a spare molex with an adapter rather than messing about hooking it up internally in the psu as the stock fan was.
It's now inaudible across a small room with the disk spun down (I wont have any ticking clocks in my house or wear mechanical watches as I can't stand the noise). With even my quietest drive spun up the drive noise completely covers any fan noise.
Been rock solid for 2 years now, my WD greens don't even get warm. The downside is you need to de-dust the rear vent more often because of the lower air flow!
A Qnap TS-253a-4G is a 2 bay NAS, not a 4 bay.
A TS453a is a 4 Bay, TS653a is a 6 Bay and a TS853a is a 8Bay. It should have been obvious to anyone that bothered to look elsewhere.. :laughing:
In hindsight, I should of been a bit more selfish and waited until my order arrived before posting, might of had a better chance of receiving my order .
I was thinking about building a microserver but I needed something I could switch on with minimum setup process and have ease of use for the rest of my family.
plex/storage and ease of use 24/7 is my requirements
Read the specs..HDMI is the killer feature