The QNAP TS-233 ($199) is a reasonably priced two-bay network attached storage (NAS) device designed for home users who want to store and share data in their own private cloud. Small and stylish, this NAS offers a number of QNAP and third-party applications for storing and organizing photos, music, video, and other multimedia files. It was a snappy performer in testing and proved easy to install, but it lacks multi-gigabit connectivity and doesn’t offer quite as many apps as our Editors’ Choice pick for two-bay NAS drives, the Asustor Drivestor 2 AS1102T.
A Capable Brain for Your Personal Cloud
The TS-233 uses the same chassis as the TS-230 that we reviewed last year, but instead of a baby-blue finish, this model comes in white. The enclosure measures 7.4 by 3.5 by 6.1 inches (HWD), and the front sports LED indicators for system status, LAN activity, drive activity, and USB One-Touch Copy activity. You'll also find a power button, a USB 3.2 port, and a One-Touch Copy button. (The last is for performing data backups to and from an external USB drive.)
The rear of the TS-233 holds two USB 2.0 ports, a 1Gbps LAN port, a power jack, and a reset button. You don’t get any multi-gig ports with this NAS like you do with the Asustor Drivestor 2 AS1102T, nor does it offer an HDMI video port like the more expensive QNAP TS-253D-4G NAS does. Multi-gigabit connectivity is important in some cases, such as if you're distributing large files to multiple clients on the network simultaneously, but many casual users won't miss it.
As with most of the NAS devices we review, the TS-233 does not come with drives already installed. You'll have to bring your own. It will accommodate 3.5- and 2.5-inch drives, and has a maximum internal storage capacity of up to 36TB (two drives of up to 18TB each). You can increase your total storage capacity by connecting the NAS to a compatible QNAP expansion unit.
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The TS-233 is powered by a quad-core ARM Cortex-A55 2.0GHz processor, 2GB of RAM, and 4GB of flash memory. It contains two internal hot-swappable drive bays with tool-less sleds and supports RAID 0, RAID 1, Single Disk, and JBOD configurations. A single 80mm fan keeps internal components from overheating.
As with other QNAP NAS devices, the TS-230 uses the QTS operating system, which offers a familiar Windows-like user interface. When you first install QTS, the main desktop screen contains several frequently used icons for managing the NAS. As you add more apps, their icons are added to the screen.
To download more apps, tap the App Center icon. Here you’ll find dozens of QNAP and third-party apps that let you use the NAS as a cloud server, a multimedia server, a surveillance system, a backup solution, and more. That’s a generous selection of apps, if not quite as generous as the more than 100 apps that you get with the Asustor Drivestor 2 AS1102T.
To create users and user groups, manage network connections, set privileges, and configure system settings, tap the Control Panel icon, where you can drill down into multiple settings menus. File Station opens a screen where you can create folders, share folders and files, and restore data to a previous point in time via a saved Snapshot that you've scheduled in advance.
To schedule Snapshots, tap the Storage and Snapshot icon, which opens a screen where you can also manage storage pools and check disk health. To protect your data from malware, tap the Malware Remover icon to create scanning schedules and view event logs.
Testing the QNAP TS-233: Plenty of Speed for Home Use
As with other QNAP NAS devices, the TS-233 was easy to install. I started by installing two 10TB Seagate Ironwolf drives and connecting the NAS to my network using the included LAN cable. I powered up the NAS, and downloaded the QNAP Qfinder Pro utility. When I opened the utility, the TS-233 was instantly recognized. I clicked on the drive’s entry in the utility and clicked Start Smart Installation. I gave the NAS a name, created a password, and used DHCP to automatically obtain an IP address.
After several minutes, the drives were initialized and the NAS restarted. Next, I launched the QTS management console and created a volume and a storage pool with a RAID 1 configuration, which yielded a total storage capacity of 9.02TB. It took almost 12 hours for the drives to synchronize, at which point the TS-233 was ready for file transfer testing.
To measure NAS read and write performance (file transfer performance), we move a 4.9GB folder containing a mix of music, video, photo, and office document files from the NAS to a connected desktop system and back again. The TS-233 provided solid file transfer scores in our testing: Its score of 87MBps on the write test was identical to that of the Synology DiskStation DS220j and 17MBps faster than the TerraMaster F2-210 (70MBps). But the Asustor Drivestor 2 AS1102T was faster than them all, if only by a slim margin (89MBps).
The TS-233’s score of 87MBps on the read test beat the TerraMaster F2-210 (77MBps), but was just a tad slower than the Synology DiskStation DS220j (90MBps) and the Asustor Drivestor 2 AS1102T (89MBps).
A User-Friendly Media Hub
The QNAP TS-233 is a solid choice for users that want to store music, video, photos, and personal data locally, and make it available from anywhere in their own cloud. It offers two tool-free hot-swappable drive bays, a user-friendly operating system, and a sizable catalog of apps that let you use the NAS in a number of ways. The TS-233 performed well in our file transfer tests and was easy to install. It's a perfectly sound pick for general use, but just know that you’ll get a wider selection of apps and a multi-gig LAN port with our current Editors’ Choice winner for two-bay NAS devices, the Asustor Drivestor 2 AS1102T.
The QNAP TS-233 is an affordably priced two-bay network attached storage (NAS) device that makes it easy to store and share your data in your own personal cloud.
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