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Add to SafariWhen comparing QNAP TS-128 vs Western Digital 4TB My Cloud, the Slant community recommends QNAP TS-128 for most people. In the question“What are the best NAS enclosures under $300?” QNAP TS-128 is ranked 4th while Western Digital 4TB My Cloud is ranked 5th. The most important reason people chose QNAP TS-128 is:
This is one of the cheapest dual core, 1GB (RAM) single-bay NAS units you can get.
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Good value for money
This is one of the cheapest dual core, 1GB (RAM) single-bay NAS units you can get.
Pro Intuitive, easy set-up process
This unit doesn't come with hard disks preinstalled. To get it set up, you just have to insert the hard disks, plug in the unit, connect it to your router and switch it on. After that, just log on to myQNAPcloud and you’ll have full access to the NAS through the web interface. The interface is extremely intuitive and user friendly. Even a beginner will enjoy it.
Pro Performance is enough for casual home use
This unit comes with a 1.1GHz dual core ARM processor and 1GB of DDR3 RAM. Its specs are enough for casual home use, like web browsing or movie watching. On the other hand, more demanding tasks, like media transcoding, would require something beefier in terms of performance.
Pro Integrates with cloud services
This NAS can integrate with popular cloud services, like Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Yandex Disk, and others, making data transfers very quick and hassle-free.
Pro Can be turned into a media server
Plex media server software is available for this NAS and can effectively turn it into a media server. Though note that the NAS won't be performant enough to transcode media on the fly.
Pro Can be used for surveillance
The TS-128 comes with two free surveillance camera licenses and can store data from up to eight surveillance cameras.
Pro Impressive third-party application support
The amount of available third-party applications is quite impressive. There's a varied selection, including media applications, cloud storage apps, as well as mobile and desktop companion apps.
Pro Low power consumption
Running this unit 24/7 doesn't cost much: it idles at 5.03 Watts and operates at approximately 8.96 Watts. Even in operational mode, this unit would consume approximately 78.5 KWh total in one year.
Pro Offers excellent value for money
This NAS unit comes with a 4TB Western Digital Red Hard Disk pre-installed. Considering that a similar 4TB HDD would cost $150 by itself, this $160 NAS offers great value.
Pro Easy access via browser control panel
It has a user-friendly control panel that can be easily accessed with a standard web browser.
Pro USB connectivity
If you hook up a USB storage device, you can access its stored files as a regular NAS storage volume.
Cons
Con Lost data can’t be recovered
When buying a single bay NAS unit, keep in mind that a drive failure will result in total and permanent data loss. To avoid this, consider investing in a DAS (direct-attached storage) as well. The DAS can be attached to the QNAP TS-128 via USB. It has built-in software to allow you to actually set up automatic NAS backups to DAS (such as once a week). This ensures your data remains safe, though it also entails extra costs.
Con Slow GUI
GUI is almost unusable due to lag. Moving files around and organizing files already on the drive is a headache.
Con Available with Western Digital hard disks only
Buying this NAS pre-installed with non-Western Digital hard disks is not possible.
Con No data protection features
As with most single-bay NAS units, you risk losing all of your stored data in the event of a disk failure. You can still use an external USB drive to manually backup your files every once in a while, though.
Con Official documentation leaves much to be desired
The documentation lacks important technical parameters such as CPU, RAM size and type, power consumption and even read/write speed. The Western Digital web resource also doesn’t include a list of compatible applications.
