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expiredvns1 posted Dec 13, 2022 05:43 AM
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expiredvns1 posted Dec 13, 2022 05:43 AM

QNAP TS-653D-4G 6-Bay NAS Enclosure

+ Free Shipping

$520

$649

19% off
B&H Photo Video
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Deal Details
B&H Photo Video has QNAP TS-653D-4G-US 6-Bay NAS Enclosure on sale for $559 > now $519.99. Shipping is free.

Thanks to Community Member vns1 for finding this deal.

Key Features:
  • Intel Celeron J4125 quad-core 2.0 GHz processor (burst up to 2.7 GHz)
  • Intel HD Graphics 600
  • 4GB SO-DIMM DDR4 (Max 8GB)
  • 6 x 3.5-inch drive bays (Diskless)
  • 2 x 2.5GbE ports
  • 1 x PCIe Gen 2 slot
  • 3 x USB 2.0 ports
  • 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports
  • 1 x HDMI output

Editor's Notes

Written by Corwin | Staff
  • About this deal:
    • This is priced $90 lower (13.8% savings) than the $649 list price.
    • Refer to the forum thread for additional details and discussion.
  • About this product:
    • This has a 4.5 out of 5 star overall rating on Amazon based on over 840 reviews.
  • About this store:
  • No Longer Available:
    • Amazon has QNAP TS-653D-4G 6-Bay NAS Enclosure on sale for $559. Shipping is free.

Original Post

Written by vns1
Product Info
Community Notes
About the Poster
Deal Details
Product Info
Community Notes
About the Poster
B&H Photo Video has QNAP TS-653D-4G-US 6-Bay NAS Enclosure on sale for $559 > now $519.99. Shipping is free.

Thanks to Community Member vns1 for finding this deal.

Key Features:
  • Intel Celeron J4125 quad-core 2.0 GHz processor (burst up to 2.7 GHz)
  • Intel HD Graphics 600
  • 4GB SO-DIMM DDR4 (Max 8GB)
  • 6 x 3.5-inch drive bays (Diskless)
  • 2 x 2.5GbE ports
  • 1 x PCIe Gen 2 slot
  • 3 x USB 2.0 ports
  • 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports
  • 1 x HDMI output

Editor's Notes

Written by Corwin | Staff
  • About this deal:
    • This is priced $90 lower (13.8% savings) than the $649 list price.
    • Refer to the forum thread for additional details and discussion.
  • About this product:
    • This has a 4.5 out of 5 star overall rating on Amazon based on over 840 reviews.
  • About this store:
  • No Longer Available:
    • Amazon has QNAP TS-653D-4G 6-Bay NAS Enclosure on sale for $559. Shipping is free.

Original Post

Written by vns1

Community Voting

Deal Score
+30
Good Deal
Visit B&H Photo Video

Price Intelligence

Model: QNAP TS-653D-4G 6 Bay NAS for Professionals with Intel® Celeron® J4125 CPU and Two 2.5GbE Ports

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Top Comments

Dead_Cow
475 Posts
148 Reputation
Not well at all. I have 3 QNAP devices at home (TVS-672XT, TVS-471 and a TS-451D2-2G). The TS-451D2-2G is a 4 bay celeron that I decked out with 32GB of RAM. I have recently transcoded all my movies and shows to HEVC (h265). You could clean up all your media, and store it all your on this, then make sure you're streaming to modern devices only and turn off transcoding entirely. If you do that, this will be fine, otherwise, you'll need to turn off some features of Plex (like video thumbnail creation) because this will have a hard time getting out of it's own way. Even my TVS-672XT that's upgraded to an i7 with 64GB of RAM has a hard time with multiple 4k streams, but the truth is you don't need to transcode in many cases anymore if you've chosen the correct media formats to store in, then, install TDARR and let it go to town turning your entire collection to that format. A side benefit of transcoding to h265 is a massive space savings. I went from my collection being 24TB to 13TB with no perceivable loss to visual clarity. If you're not running some million dollar AV system, I have some 4k movies encoded with h265 and 5/1 AC3 that are less that 2GB in size. Also, make sure to remove all burned in subtitles. That's a huge cause for transcoding.

Sorry for rambling. TL;DR: this is completely inadequate for transcoding really anything (not just 4k), but you shouldn't need too nowadays.
pwnbox
18 Posts
10 Reputation
I've had this unit for a while now. And I think you got a defective unit; unless if you're speaking from personal experience and not collection of angry reddit posts - I would look to replace it.

QTS isn't terrible, I do think it's behind Synology or the others that you mentioned if you're just looking to NAS this device.

QNAP does have a lot of zero days - but it's pretty well documented about not opening up anything to internet on their forums, well any forums for QNAP due to this. Pretty standard for any type of App/Hardware these days to limit the attack surface as much as possible.

There's the third-party / maintained QPKG repos out there to help. But yeah, they're slow to update and they're third-party. I didn't find them clunky and worked as expected.

I migrated all my Apps (Sonarr/Radarr/Sab/PiHole...ect) to container station via Portainer / Compose. I do think Container Station would be okay but just for overall management Portainer is the way to go.

Not sure where you're getting the VM loading times and specifically for Home Assistant, as that's how I'm running my HA instance. It's back up in less than minute during updates via the App or system reboots (well maybe slightly on VM restart, def no where near 20mins)

I also have an Microsoft Intune/ConfigMgr lab running in there with multiple different client OS's for testing; Ubuntu and Ansible/Teraform lab - they're all speedy, I haven't found any issues.

I've updated the memory to 32gigs and haven't had any Kernel Panics / stops. The VMs see the memory I assigned and it's def over the allotted 8gbs.


I don't know, I just haven't had the experience you've outlined above with mine. I've maxed out the drives with 14TB disks, 32gb RAM. I did a lot of research when I first started looking and it was between this guy and a 6 bay Synology, I ended up on the QNAP just for the hardware and I knew coming in EVERYONE said QNAP software sucks and is inferior to Synology - I was worried I was going to see that. I've never used Synology - but I can say that I haven't felt I couldn't do something I wanted or had issues with so far. I don't regret going QNAP.
vns1
111 Posts
54 Reputation
Just to mention a few things that seem to be lost:
1. This is a Celeron CPU - so, expectations need to be adjusted accordingly. Don't expect some tremendous performance with transcoding videos for example - but it will still do the job.
2. RAM - it does support and can use 32GB (which is super handy if you want to run a few containers). That's what I have, tested and confirmed. The caveat - you must use dual-rank memory modules. Here are the details: https://forum.qnap.com/viewtopic.php?t=165535
3. Fan noise - I have the 4-drive unit, fan is practically silent.
4. HDD temperatures - it is more than good. To do initial burn-in on the drives I ran ShredOS (similar to DBAN) to fill 4x16TB drives multiple times with random data. This was a 100% load for the drives for over a week - which is way beyond what's typical for a NAS - and all drives kept 40-41C and the entire system performed flawlessly.
5. Do you need 2.5G Ethernet ports - YES! With 4 drives at 160-180MB/sec I was getting 600-700Mb/sec combined easily from the drives. Your bottleneck is the LAN port. Even if you bridge the two you will still hit the limit.
6. Extra PCIe slot is very handy. I was surprised that a 10GBps Mellanox 311 SFP+ card was literally a plug-and-play thing. It was fully supported and just worked.
Minor annoyance with that - you will have to mess with the low-profile bracket as QNAP decided to use a non-standard bracket. Not that it was a big deal - I had to bent one bit, and drill a new hole for the screw (as I insisted on it being installed and screwed properly). You could just install it without the bracket and it will be mostly fine - after all you will likely put the NAS somewhere once and never move it from there.
7. The 6-drive unit is extra tempting as drives are really cheap those days. So, instead of transcoding or do other magics to reduce file size I would just get a few extra drives.

74 Comments

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Dec 14, 2022 12:54 PM
475 Posts
Joined Oct 2004
Dead_CowDec 14, 2022 12:54 PM
475 Posts
Quote from Husbeard :
Thanks for your grains of knowledge. Can you expand on the burned in subtitles? How can we do them instead that won't make streaming 4k worse?
So that will be not so short. Are you looking for techinical know how on how to do the process of removing the data and subtitles? In regards to that, I pull out: subtitles, any data, and leave only english tracks (unless it's anime, then there's a different routine for that), but I don't pull out non english tracks in handbrake when I'm using it manually (like below).

You can test this on small scale. I encode everything in MKV, so here's how to do that:
  1. Download/install Handbrake on a computer that has an encoder on it (most intel chips have QSV onboard, so you can use that)
  2. Start handbrake and load up a video file by dropping it into the GUI.
  3. Make the following settings:
    • In presets, select h.265 MKV <resolution of your video file> (so if you have a 1080p file, select "H.265 MKV 1080p30")
    • On Summary tab, deselect "Passthru Common Metadata"
    • On Dimensions tab, no changes
    • On Filters tab, turn off decomb
    • On Video tab
      • change framerate to "same as source"
      • change encoder to H.265 10-bit (Intel QSV)
    • On audio tab, no changes (it should have deteected the audio in the file and have it set to match, you could change the setting here and make the audio smaller, too)
    • On Subtitles, click CLEAR
    • On chapters tab, clear the check in "Create Chapter Markers"
  4. Next, in Save AS (at the bottom), enter or browse to a path (including a filename) where you want to output the video to.
  5. Click start near the top (green button)
Handbrake will transcode the video to h265. This can take some time. Test the file in your plex instance stremaing to different devices. Monitor in plex dashboard, and using the streaming info on the clients. "Direct stream" is as good as "Direct Play" and either is what you're trying to get to. Once you're satisfied, then you can look up running a TDARR instance to automate all this against your entire collection.

Now, when you want a subtitle on, in the Plex client, just select the subtitle option and it will fetch them from the internet. It's not perfect, but works in I'd say about 90+% of the times I try it. There is also a way to download the subtitle file and include it alongside the video file, but I don't do that so I cna't help with that. There is a program called BAZARR that is meant to automate the download of subtitle files, though.
Last edited by Dead_Cow December 14, 2022 at 06:18 AM.
Dec 14, 2022 02:20 PM
1,710 Posts
Joined Nov 2009
HusbeardDec 14, 2022 02:20 PM
1,710 Posts
Quote from Dead_Cow :
So that will be not so short. Are you looking for techinical know how on how to do the process of removing the data and subtitles? In regards to that, I pull out: subtitles, any data, and leave only english tracks (unless it's anime, then there's a different routine for that), but I don't pull out non english tracks in handbrake when I'm using it manually (like below).

You can test this on small scale. I encode everything in MKV, so here's how to do that:
  1. Download/install Handbrake on a computer that has an encoder on it (most intel chips have QSV onboard, so you can use that)
  2. Start handbrake and load up a video file by dropping it into the GUI.
  3. Make the following settings:
    • In presets, select h.265 MKV <resolution of your video file> (so if you have a 1080p file, select "H.265 MKV 1080p30")
    • On Summary tab, deselect "Passthru Common Metadata"
    • On Dimensions tab, no changes
    • On Filters tab, turn off decomb
    • On Video tab
      • change framerate to "same as source"
      • change encoder to H.265 10-bit (Intel QSV)
    • On audio tab, no changes (it should have deteected the audio in the file and have it set to match, you could change the setting here and make the audio smaller, too)
    • On Subtitles, click CLEAR
    • On chapters tab, clear the check in "Create Chapter Markers"
  4. Next, in Save AS (at the bottom), enter or browse to a path (including a filename) where you want to output the video to.
  5. Click start near the top (green button)
Handbrake will transcode the video to h265. This can take some time. Test the file in your plex instance stremaing to different devices. Monitor in plex dashboard, and using the streaming info on the clients. "Direct stream" is as good as "Direct Play" and either is what you're trying to get to. Once you're satisfied, then you can look up running a TDARR instance to automate all this against your entire collection.

Now, when you want a subtitle on, in the Plex client, just select the subtitle option and it will fetch them from the internet. It's not perfect, but works in I'd say about 90+% of the times I try it. There is also a way to download the subtitle file and include it alongside the video file, but I don't do that so I cna't help with that. There is a program called BAZARR that is meant to automate the download of subtitle files, though.
Thanks a bunch. I'm familiar with handbrake, just was always putting in the English subtle and creating two audio tracks. One for stereo and one for pass through for whatever source the file has.
Dec 14, 2022 04:16 PM
34 Posts
Joined Jan 2018
TalentedGuide261Dec 14, 2022 04:16 PM
34 Posts
I have QNAP 453Be, Is it worth to upgrade to this one? Or should look into something like TrueNAS?
Dec 14, 2022 04:19 PM
1,692 Posts
Joined Aug 2004
liamtoh1Dec 14, 2022 04:19 PM
1,692 Posts
Quote from TalentedGuide261 :
I have QNAP 453Be, Is it worth to upgrade to this one? Or should look into something like TrueNAS?
Your reasons for wanting to upgrade should dictate.

More HDD bays and if you are happy with QTS / QNAP support then it may make sense to upgrade. I have 453Be and will stay there at least until for some time. I only use it for Plex.
Dec 14, 2022 04:42 PM
867 Posts
Joined Jul 2007
kabal57Dec 14, 2022 04:42 PM
867 Posts
if ya'll are ok with spending $550+ on one of these junk prebuilts, why not build your own and have a much better machine for the same or less $$
I have my nas running a
$270 i7 11700, a
$150 b560 motherboard
$100ish 32gb ram
leftover computer case/ cpu from a previous build
and a $25 10gb nic and you're off and running .

I run OMV and jellyfin on mine, and the only downside is the power usage is 100w idle, and 110w even with 5+ streams
I chose that cpu for the IGP transcoding and the newest intel HD graphics at the time.. but tbh you really don't even need it for video encoding unless you're using REALLY old devices for your media.. most of it is audio or subtitle transcodes. I have a mix of h264 and 265 media, with all kinds of audio formats, and mostly just direct play everything with no issues.
2
Dec 14, 2022 04:47 PM
34 Posts
Joined Jan 2018
TalentedGuide261Dec 14, 2022 04:47 PM
34 Posts
Quote from liamtoh1 :
Your reasons for wanting to upgrade should dictate.

More HDD bays and if you are happy with QTS / QNAP support then it may make sense to upgrade. I have 453Be and will stay there at least until for some time. I only use it for Plex.
Don't need the additional HDD bays right now, I recently started using the containers and virtualization in 453be for home automation and was wondering what additional benefits this could provide on top of additional bays? Also if anyone has opinion on TrueNAS vs QNAP,?
Dec 14, 2022 05:07 PM
188 Posts
Joined Dec 2011
inser1Dec 14, 2022 05:07 PM
188 Posts
Quote from ElatedWalrus2609 :
I have had a WD PR4100 16GB RAM for years now. Wouldn't even consider another brand, runs Plex like it was made for it.. Good friend of mine swears by Synology and honestly I hear good things about them from end users as well. I more or less co-mod a computer forum of 61K members and growing and ran another of 10K+ in the late 90's.. I have been in the hardware side of IT for 20+ years, retail and commercial. Currently I work in provisioning advanced networking. The reason I question the amount of cooling and how they cram the drives together is this. Heat outside of physical damage (dropping) is the enemy of hard drives. There is a reason why a the major NAS hard drive manufacturer chooses to give a little cooling room around hard drives in the enclosure. Again in order to make the enclosure smaller QNAP is exposing the installed electronics to excessive heat which can affect performance Lastly why would "Two 2.5GbE Ports" be of any value on a NAS? Every NAS I have used is always throttled by the bandwidth available from the Hard Drives which is substantially less. Whatever brand NAS you settle upon keep cooling and internal temperatures high on the wish list. You are in it for the long haul and most consider NAS as an archival storage appliance as well.
Broseph, a single modern HDD can saturate 1gbe, that's only 125MB/s assuming no transport overhead. 115MB/s is realistic. With 4 bays in raid 5/6 you are closer to saturating 2.5gbe. If you put in SSDs (prices are dropping fast), you'd exceed 2.5gbe easily.

I'm looking for 10gbe for my NAS at this point since its depressingly hilarious seeing transfers pegged at 115MB/s with basically no ramp up or ramp down at all.

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Dec 14, 2022 05:14 PM
188 Posts
Joined Dec 2011
inser1Dec 14, 2022 05:14 PM
188 Posts
Quote from kabal57 :
if ya'll are ok with spending $550+ on one of these junk prebuilts, why not build your own and have a much better machine for the same or less $$
I have my nas running a
$270 i7 11700, a
$150 b560 motherboard
$100ish 32gb ram
leftover computer case/ cpu from a previous build
and a $25 10gb nic and you're off and running .

I run OMV and jellyfin on mine, and the only downside is the power usage is 100w idle, and 110w even with 5+ streams
I chose that cpu for the IGP transcoding and the newest intel HD graphics at the time.. but tbh you really don't even need it for video encoding unless you're using REALLY old devices for your media.. most of it is audio or subtitle transcodes. I have a mix of h264 and 265 media, with all kinds of audio formats, and mostly just direct play everything with no issues.
That NIC by itself is using around 15W...

There's plenty or reasons to choose a purpose built appliance, that's been covered many times. If you're happy with a custom build then this isn't for you.
1
Pro
Dec 14, 2022 07:37 PM
277 Posts
Joined Apr 2009
alster
Pro
Dec 14, 2022 07:37 PM
277 Posts
Quote from vns1 :
Are you sure $430 was for the 6-bay unit? (and not for the 4-bay, which was at that $430 price this year - for several days on amazon actually, and $399 last year)
See here
https://slickdeals.net/f/16021597-qnap-ts-653d-4g-us-diskless-6-bay-nas-free-shipping-430-after-coupon-newegg

The 4-bay one was $299

Pretty unreal
Dec 14, 2022 11:43 PM
867 Posts
Joined Jul 2007
kabal57Dec 14, 2022 11:43 PM
867 Posts
Quote from inser1 :
Broseph, a single modern HDD can saturate 1gbe, that's only 125MB/s assuming no transport overhead. 115MB/s is realistic. With 4 bays in raid 5/6 you are closer to saturating 2.5gbe. If you put in SSDs (prices are dropping fast), you'd exceed 2.5gbe easily.

I'm looking for 10gbe for my NAS at this point since its depressingly hilarious seeing transfers pegged at 115MB/s with basically no ramp up or ramp down at all.
10gb is great.
This is from 2 samsung 980 pros in raid 0 to my nas, which is 8x hgst/wd SAS drives
https://i.ibb.co/4mC3nCg/lan-speed-2.jpg
it will stay pegged at 995 MBPS
Dec 15, 2022 04:09 AM
54 Posts
Joined Sep 2005
sivaeskayDec 15, 2022 04:09 AM
54 Posts
I'm a noob. Once installed with media, Can the media collection be accessed wirelessly across all the rooms through Google Wifi or need to be hardwired?. Thanks in advance.
Dec 15, 2022 04:30 AM
1,692 Posts
Joined Aug 2004
liamtoh1Dec 15, 2022 04:30 AM
1,692 Posts
Quote from sivaeskay :
I'm a noob. Once installed with media, Can the media collection be accessed wirelessly across all the rooms through Google Wifi or need to be hardwired?. Thanks in advance.
Yes, if you set up a Plex Server
Dec 19, 2022 09:50 PM
44 Posts
Joined Jun 2021
AilanDec 19, 2022 09:50 PM
44 Posts
Deals dead
Dec 26, 2022 01:52 PM
1,623 Posts
Joined Jun 2008
DavNeilDec 26, 2022 01:52 PM
1,623 Posts
Quote from catbert :
I don't get why people would like to pay $560 for what's effectively a Celeron PC? 2.5GbE cards are like $30 piece.
I was looking for DIY thread, usually in the discussion someone mentions that, so far I have not seen in first 2.5 pages. I have ReadyNAS which I bought for 50 dollars.

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