QNAP TS-433 Review

On this occasion we analyze an interesting NAS such as the QNAP TS-433 , which combines high storage capacity with 4 bays , management simplicity and enough power to set up our own personal multimedia store thanks to the 4-core ARM Cortex A55 CPU, 4 GB of RAM and the power of QTS 5.0.

It has advanced features such as 2.5 Gbps + 1 Gbps LAN ports to optimize transfer in RAID 0 or 10 and improve productivity in remote work. It equips an NPU processor for facial image recognition and a simple and screwless installation system in its bays.

Before proceeding, we thank QNAP for their trust in us by sending us this NAS for review.

QNAP TS-433 technical features

unboxing

The presentation of this QNAP TS-433 is modified by using a rigid cardboard box with a white vinyl-style exterior finish, where information and images of the NAS are shown. Let us remember that until now all the boxes were made of neutral cardboard. The interior does not change, and we have the product placed between two polyethylene foam molds, placed inside an insulated bag and next to a box of accessories.

The content will be the following:

• QNAP TS-433 NAS
• Power adapter with European plug
• Ethernet cable
• Mounting screws for hard drives
• Bay Block Wrenches
• User manual

Exterior design

The QNAP TS-433 is based on a tower design as is common for the manufacturer’s home and other business NAS. With 4 bays, the measurements and volume make it a very compact NAS with 16 cm in height and width, and 22 cm in depth , a pole that can be placed on any desk or on the floor. We recommend this last location so as not to notice the vibrations generated by the hard drives during operation.

This TS-433 model is another variant equipped with 4 storage bays , placing it above the TS-431K in power, but well below the TS-421 more focused on small business, or the new TS-462 with Intel Celeron. It does not equip M.2 slots or the possibility of expanding its memory, which is why it is presented at an adjusted price for what it offers, and accessible to home users.

We start with the front face of the NAS where the storage bays consisting of removable trays are located. It is the most comfortable design for the user, since they are trays made of plastic with quick anchoring for 3.5” SATA HDD units that are removed just by pulling the lever. They have 2.5” SSD/HDD capacity and a key lock to prevent unauthorized access.

In the left area is the LED panel that notifies the status of each installed storage unit, Network, copy mode and notifications. Continuing down we have a power button, a fast copy button when we insert a storage drive into the USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A port just below.

Over the metal chassis, minimalist design plastic covers have been placed for the entire NAS. Access to the interior is done by removing the white part that surrounds the bay area , previously removing 4 rear screws. This means that practically the entire NAS will be bare, although the left cover is fixed, and also where the PCB with the relevant hardware is fixed.

On the left side there is also a small grille to allow air to enter and the notification speaker to exit. Finally, the base of the NAS has 4 small non- slip rubber feet , which do not completely remove the vibrations from the hard drives.

Ports and connectivity

This will be a fairly simple section for the QNAP TS-433 , and going to the rear, the first thing we find is a large 120mm axial fan in air extraction mode. Just below it we have the Kensington lock slot.

The port panel consists of:

• Reset button
• RJ45 Ethernet 2.5Gbps
• RJ45 Ethernet 1Gbps
• 2x USB2.0
• DC-In Jack

One of the improvements for this NAS is precisely the network section by incorporating a 2.5 Gbps port that allows us to increase transfer rates with Jumbo frame support , together with a router or switch of the same speed, to take advantage of current motherboards by equipping this network bandwidth. In addition, we have a second interface for greater shared access capacity , increasing the multitasking and multiclient capacity of the NAS.

With a stipulated consumption of just over 22.5W in normal operation and only 8.45W in sleep mode , it has been enough to use an external power adapter and DC-IN input on the NAS itself. There are no expansion slots or the ability to upgrade RAM, so power consumption will hardly change over the life of the NAS.

interior and hardware

We access the interior of the QNAP TS-433 for practically nothing, since removing the outer cover we will only see the steel chassis where the bays and therefore the hard drives are placed. At least you can see the SATA power and data connections fixed to the bottom of the receptacle to connect the hard drive, be it 3.5” or 2.5” just by inserting the tray in the correct direction.

The NAS supports hot swapping of drives as well as EXT3, EXT4, NTFS, FAT32, HFS+ and exFAT file formats. There is no possibility to install QuTS Hero, so it does not support ZFS filesystem. The 4 bays are enough to support JBOD, Single, and RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10 storage configurations . All this with SSD data caching capabilities, iSCSI, iSCSI LUN with versatile Thin and Thick provisioning volumes and support for snapshots and AES-256 bit encryption.

We have a 4-core 64-bit ARM Cortex A55 processor running at 2.0 GHz, incorporating a floating point unit and encryption engine. Alongside it is 4GB of non-expandable memory, doubling the capacity of the previous model, and 4GB of flash storage needed for the dual-boot protection mechanism for the operating system.

One of the outstanding novelties for this model is to equip an NPU processor (neural network processing unit) which improves the performance of the hardware for high-speed facial and object recognition tasks. The CPU also includes ARM NEON technology , giving the possibility of mounting an entertainment center with video processing capacity and playback through the network.

Installation and operating system

We proceed to the storage assembly in this QNAP TS-433 , for which we will only use a HDD storage unit because it is the one we have available at the moment.

Initial setup

We will proceed to connect the NAS to the local network to be able to access it and carry out the management, since on this occasion it does not have dedicated video outputs. Either from the router itself or through QNAP Qfinder Pro we will discover the IP address of the NAS, and incidentally the administrator password that will be the MAC1 address without the “:” separators.

As soon as we access the NAS through the browser, we will be shown an initial setup wizard screen. We proceed by smart installation, and we recommend looking for the most current firmware possible to proceed with the installation, although the NAS itself already incorporates a QTS 5.0.0.2077 version in case we do not have internet access.

After downloading the firmware, the device will restart and then continue with the installation wizard , which will take about 5 minutes. It’s time to set the access credentials for our NAS and computer name , set the time zone and configure the dynamic or static IP address for the device. With this we will finish the configuration and we will be able to access the NAS.

Operating system

The QNAP TS-433 already supports QTS 5.0.1 , the high-level operating system for complete management by expert and non-expert users. Aesthetically, it is still similar to previous versions in terms of icon and desktop presentation , with a very intuitive interface and windows so that any user who comes from the usual OS feels comfortable.

From the first access, the operating system begins to guide us through its interface to carry out the basic configuration such as creating the storage space and volume through simple wizards with detailed information. This step will be essential to start storing data and installing applications on the NAS, since at least one hard drive is required, formatted like any other operating system.

A posteriori data cache can be configured per SSD, create new storage volumes, expand space by adding hard drives or create RAID . The notification system has improved both in capacity and variety as well as in the display of events by the user. However, other mechanisms such as the control panel, App and data management remain unchanged because they were already very good before.

Utilities and use of the QNAP TS-433

This QNAP TS-433 is designed as a NAS for centralized personal storage and media management tasks in home environments. Its hardware and features will cover this type of need and it even has potential for use in workplaces that provide remote access. From the App Center we will access endless free and paid applications to extend the functions of the NAS.

By configuring a RAID 0, 1 or 5 we can obtain a data server with high transfer capacity if we use data cache storage by SSD. In this way it is possible to create a multimedia store with photos , videos and music to share or even play it over the network. The NPU processor can be integrated with QNAP AI Core or QuMagie photo manager to enhance face and object recognition in images.

ARM NEON technology has high – definition video processing capabilities for streaming to PCs, TVs, or other DLNA -enabled devices or platforms like Amazon Fire, Apple TV, or Chromecast. It supports hardware H.265 video transcoding as long as we install CAYIN MediaSign Player with a Plus license.

With QTS 5.0 we will be covered in terms of protection against ransomware , integrating it into the generation of snapshots of our storage. It will be perfect as a private cloud , as it supports user account protection, 2-step verification, AES encryption, or protected remote access via myQNAPcloud , a must-have feature for any QNAP NAS.

Another almost mandatory function for the use of this QNAP TS-433 will be Qsync and the possibility of sharing and synchronizing all kinds of documents and data from the NAS to our network devices, be it PCs, Smartphones or other devices with a compatible operating system . We will be able to make backup copies of devices and store them on the NAS, set up a VPN network for private access, or even use Docker as an application container if we are developers or we like virtualization.

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Final thoughts on QNAP TS-433

The NAS has been spectacular at all times in terms of fluidity of applications and operating system, showing that this hardware is sufficient for multitasking capacity , with 4 GB of RAM being key above all . The 2.5 Gbps interface is interesting for RAID 0 or All Flash systems to achieve transfers of up to 300 MB/s with our equipment.

QTS is still a very powerful system despite its low resource consumption , with a simple management system for inexperienced users and complete for administrators. App Center contains countless applications to use on this device, with special focus on the configuration of personal data storage and multimedia center thanks to the NPU processor and ARM NEON technology .

Visit our new guide to the best NAS on the market

The design is an important section for this unit, since it combines the tower format with a minimalist appearance along with quick-extraction bays like professional NAS. Unnecessary elements such as a screen have been eliminated, although it maintains USB ports and the fast copy function, which is very useful for backups.

This QNAP TS-433 NAS is available at a price between €437 and €500 depending on the store , being somewhere in the middle between the TS-431K and the TS-462, offering versatility in home deployments, offices and even small workplaces . As always, QNAP does an impeccable job on their equipment, being a NAS to start from at a high level.

The Professional Review team gives it the gold medal and recommended product.

QNAP TS-433

DESIGN – 85%

HARDWARE – 82%

OPERATING SYSTEM – 95%

MULTIMEDIA CONTENT – 85%

PRICE – 88%

87 %

The QNAP TS-433 will be perfect to create a personal cloud based on multimedia content, powered by NPU and LAN 2.5 Gbps to obtain high transfer if we use RAID 0 or 10.