QNAP delivers BitTorrent-lovin' TS-109 Pro II and TS-209 Pro II NAS drives

QNAP's TS-109 / TS-209 NAS drives weren't anything to sneeze at, but the company's looking to improve overall responsiveness and speed up BitTorrent download performance with a pair of successors. The one-bay TS-109 Pro II and two-bay TS-209 Pro II both include a potent 500MHz Marvell processor and 256MB of DDR2 RAM, which is double the memory stuffed within the prior iterations. You'll also find a new and improved BT engine that promises "the [same] level of P2P download speed as PC-based BT downloads," built-in Joomla! CMS 1.5.1, scheduled backup / logging applications, DivX-friendly TwonkyMedia v4.4.4 and support for DLNA / NFS / SMB multimedia sharing. Sorry, no pricing deets to share at the moment.

[lettcco @ Apr 24th 2008 2:41PM]

I wish I would have known that their TS-201's transfer speed is only half of what my computer can do, even over a gigabit connection. I would have built a cheap and quiet PC instead I spend ~$300 plus the drives.

[Preda @ Apr 24th 2008 3:28PM]

How does this compare with something like the KPC where I can get a 2 bay unit for $210(newegg)

I know it'll use more power and be larger, but that seems to be a bit better purchase.

[dj-kenpo @ Apr 24th 2008 5:41PM]

I agree.
the kpx will also make sweet love to your tv and display all those video torrents.

seems more efficient in the end. one box, doing more.

[RattusP @ Apr 24th 2008 3:36PM]

I'm suprised Engadget isn't comparing it to the EEE PC!

[TavisJohn @ Apr 24th 2008 3:44PM]

I got their TS-101 to do BitTorrent and as a mini webserver... It does really well as a NAS, but the webserver, Media server, BitTorrent, all kind of overtax it... (At least how I use it it does) Also when it comes to connecting USB hard drives for more network storage, it sucks! The whole permissions thing does NOT work for external drives!

So I got a cheap referb laptop and I connected a couple of USB drives to it. I use my TS-101 to store data I want to have a constant backup of! (I have a 500gig internal and a 500gig USB connected in a RAID 0) And it works GREAT for that! I can be back up and running in a matter of minutes if the main drive fails by just swapping them.

[OnlyShawn @ Apr 24th 2008 3:46PM]

you've exceeded your exclamation point quota for at least two weeks.

[karlthebaer @ Apr 24th 2008 3:48PM]

To the community: What are your feelings of NAS drives vs. a cheap personal media server? Also, what about combining a cheap NAS with a personal media server. I would like to be able to control/stream music wirelessly from my laptop and I have looked at digital media streamers like Squeeze Box and Popcorn but it sure seems like a lot to pay -- especially if I have to have the external hard drive with my music pugged into my laptop any time I want to use it. Where my stereo is located I have space for a thin client or other very small box, but don't have the space for a monitor. Also, I've never had much experience with remote desktop but I'm assuming I could use that to access and control the media server. I'm currently running XP/Ubuntu GG dual boot and am more proficient with XP than Linux. Any links, thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.
KsB

[Evan @ Apr 24th 2008 5:58PM]

I'm pro-NAS (I love my hacked Buffalo LinkStation Live):

A NAS is more power efficient than a PC. I calculated a difference of at least $20 a year on my electric bill.

I could build a PC this is as quiet, or as small, or has as much drive capacity, or is as cheap as a NAS, but I couldn't build a PC that is all of the above.

[Jeebus @ Apr 28th 2008 1:19PM]

"I calculated a difference of at least $20 a year on my electric bill."

Well, that settles it then!

[OneLove @ Apr 24th 2008 4:58PM]

I want to take a qnap right now.

[dj-kenpo @ Apr 24th 2008 5:39PM]

I pulled a 500mhz celeron based system out of the trash 2 years ago. stuffed a 250gb drive in it, 512mb ram (free) never looked back. utorrent and vnc are all I need.

120 watts baby.

and prob only twice the size of this as it's a mini atx based system.

[Evan @ Apr 24th 2008 6:10PM]

120watts?

That's still FOUR TIMES what a NAS uses! A 4-drive NAS is around 30 to 40 watts, while a single-drive NAS can be under 20watts!

[Chad @ Apr 24th 2008 5:57PM]

The k45 does not support raid. I was going to do the same thing, but no raid support due to it using the ICH7 chipset instead of the ICH7-R. Thinking about using a pci sata raid card on it though and still coming out for around $450

[Edward @ Apr 24th 2008 6:15PM]

Dunno, being a vista user, I decided I needed some more storage, so I went out and bought 500GB drive,... $105 at Fry's.
No, quit it, my machine is an old P4 with the LG775 chipset, yes I do have an ok video card.
Anyways, I have IIS7, with FTP and TVersity, so now I can stream anything to my PS3 and or 360.
Sure if it is transcoding on the fly, my machine is really working, so what, that means I am watching a movie. In any case, with the 360 being able to play AVI files, I really dont need it to transcode too much.
I watch all of the AVI and WMV HD files on the 360, all of my MKV's I convert to VOB's and watch on the PS3...
Why you guys buy these stupid boxes running linux for your home that is most likely all windows is beyond me. I mean, you have to buy the box, which is the price of a cheap computer, then you buy the drives, then you find out that Twonky doesnt work with your PS3, then you decide to change it, for that you need telnet, and editing really cool config files, and then you dont know why sometimes it doesnt work, and it really doesnt have a log.
Have Fun!

[James Dehnert Sr @ Apr 24th 2008 6:29PM]

I just RMA's a TS-109 Pro that I bought since it just didn't interact with the Apple systems at home. I have more Mac's than PC's at home so it wasn't going to work for me, but if your a PC house, this box should be really nice.

[Baxter Madu @ Apr 24th 2008 8:32PM]

don't say deets

[Jeebus @ Apr 28th 2008 1:20PM]

deets.

[spacegravity4me @ Apr 24th 2008 10:44PM]

am I the only person that sees how qnap can totally mean that it takes the ques in your bit torrent dL's and mankes them take a nap cause they'll dL so fast. That or you could just que it all up and then go take a nap. Am I the only person that thought that? I'm not.