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ts453p.gnu-linux.net

QNAP TS-453 Pro-8G
Processor Celeron J1900 (Integrated)
2.00GHz (Max 2.42GHz), 2MB Cache
Motherboard TS-453 Pro
Case Tower, 4x Hot-swappable tray
PSU ATX 250W, 100-240V
Ram 8GB DDR3L 1333MHz RAM (2x4GB PC3L 10600)
Videocard Intel HD Graphics (Integrated)
Hard Disk 512MB DOM
Hard Disk Western Digital WD Red (WD60EFAX)
6TB SATA3 5400 RPM (256MB Cache)
Hard Disk Western Digital WD Red (WD60EFAX)
6TB SATA3 5400 RPM (256MB Cache)
Hard Disk Western Digital WD Red (WD60EFAX)
6TB SATA3 5400 RPM (256MB Cache)
Hard Disk Western Digital WD Red (WD60EFAX)
6TB SATA3 5400 RPM (256MB Cache)
Network

4x Gigabit RJ-45 Ethernet Port (Integrated)

LED Indicators

Status, LAN, USB, HDD 1-4

Buttons

Power/Status, USB One-Touch-Backup, reset

Ports

3x USB3.0, 2x USB 2.0, HDMI

   
OS QTS 4.5.2
Function

Network Attached Storage


Extra Information
Purchase Date December 2014
Purchase Cost

719 Euro (base system without 3.5" disks)
491.96 Euro (4x WD Red 3TB (WD30EFRX))

Upgrades

October 2019:
4x Western Digital WD Red 6TB (755.69 Euro)

Retired April 2021 (Sold)

Description

As stated on the QNAP website, "The TS-453 Pro, featuring the easy-to-use QTS operating system, is a powerful, reliable, secure and scalable NAS solution".

Intel LPC clock issue
Unfortunately this device is impacted by the Intel Atom C2000 bug which impacts several devices of different manufacturers where the LPC circuitry stops functioning and may cause operation to cease or an inability to boot. To date this NAS has performed reliably, and a workaround of soldering a 100 ohm resistor could revive the hardware when it inevitably fails.

WD SMR Debacle
In October 2019 the 4x 3TB WD RED WD30EFRX were taken out of service after almost 5 years of use and sold off. The drives were replaced with 4x WD RED 6TB WD60EFAX drives, a purchase decision which was based on the reliable service the 3TB WD drives had provided.

Even though it did not come to my attention until April 2021 while I was investigating my options for a NAS Replacement, in April 2020 several threads popped up in Reddit claiming that WD was using Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR) hard drives in their WD RED NAS line of drives. SMR drives are a cost cutting solution which allows drive manufacturers to product drives with increased storage density over previous HDDs that use Conventional Magnetic Recording (CMR). WD did not document these changes in the drive specifications initially until several online resources pointed out erratic behaviour with RAID arrays, in particular when using ZFS (which I intended to use as my next NAS file system).

While using my WD60EFAX drives did not cause any immediate issues for my NAS needs (as the NAS is mainly used as a home backup system), I did observe slower behaviour compared to the previous generated 3TB drive on maintenance activities such as RAID Scrubbing and found as well that the SMART complete test would never complete (while a rapid test worked fine). However, if I had known in advance the limitations of SMR when using the drive in a RAID array, I would have purchased a different type of NAS disk. WD dropped the ball and the bait-and-switch operation performed on WD Red drives was a nefarious move.

WD has in the meantime addressed this by introducing the WD Red Plus line (which are intended for intensive workloads including ZFS and are based on CMR technology) but kept the WDx0EFAX (2TB, 3TB, 4TB, 6TB) available as SMR drives in the regular WD Red line.

Click here to view a picture.