QNAP HS-251 (2GB RAM version) 2-Bay Fanless Personal Cloud NAS with HDMI output, DLNA, AirPlay and PLEX Support (HS-251-US)

Very powerful, easy-to-use management interface. Fast transfer speeds from Windows. Good cloud backup options (including Azure, which is great if you have MSDN). And totally silent!Even without the media features and realtime transcoding this is a great NAS unit and the best I've owned.I have this running a pair of HGST Deskstar NAS 3.5-Inch 4TB 7200RPM, which are not on the support list for this model (probably due to the fanless design). They do run a little hot under heavy load, but within specified limits, and are reasonably cool when idle. I don't expect any trouble with normal home use.

Excellent concept, but I give them a failure in execution. The HDMI out is flawed and doesn't work with any of my TVs and I've tried three different brands and 4 different HDMI cables. However, it does work with my Dell monitor on my PC which has HDMI input. But, the whole reason I purchased this was to view on my TV. They asked me to revert back to an older firmware which tells me they have poor quality assurance in there firmware releases. Would of been nice to have optical audio out or additional options for those of us that don't have HDMI input amps. If you were planning on this being your entertainment center NAS think again. Someone will get it right one year.

Stable despite the fanless design, elegant outlook and easy set up

Gets really hot. To keep it running it really needs to sit in the open with nothing around it. If you place it in a cabinet... even one that’s very well vented; it overheats... at least running the 2 1TB WD drives that are recommended for it.

I'm giving this 3 stars mainly due to the lack of instruction and as a result you spend a lot of setup time. Setup of the backup function is easy enough. I bought this also to act as a music and movie server. Items of disappointment:- the hdmi port leverages what's called the HD station.- hd station only supports a handful of apps none of which provide the movie experience I wanted. I eventually got the plex server app running on the Nas as well as idevices and a plex app on my Samsung bluray player. Plex gives the metadata lookup and ondemand like experience I want but not through the hd station/hdmi port (using Ethernet port).- setup in general is tricky because there are multiple apps that all do similar things so without a lot of trial and error you really don't know which one is going to offer what you want. I went through multiple "movie server" apps. For each there is no instruction so be prepared to youtube, watch setup videos, and do some trial and error.Was able to get email notification working but had to change a security setting on the gmail side.I'm 90% where I want to be with this unit but anticipate some more trial and error.Also it is a quiet unit, using WD red drives and so far no signs of a heat issue.In short it's not a bad unit but I wouldn't recommend it for the average user at this time. If you are somewhat tech savy and don't mind the online research and the trial and error method you will likely be ok.I did my best to research NAS units looking for a user friendly all in one experience. It was between qnap and synology but at a point you just have to buy it and try it. I'd be curious about synology...Piece of advice for qnap. If you create or even centralize links to YouTube for set up videos for your most downloaded Apps and call that out in the included documentation I think users would appreciate it. Searching forums kind of sucks....

Easy to set up and no complaint at all.

Not a product for regular users. Boots into DOS....

Best T.S. experienced in many years.No longer need to worry about backups. RAID system (dual mirrored drives) completely, and now this server allows me to get and play movies, music and software on my TV, audio receiver and laptops.NO FAN but stays completely cool!!!

I recommend this product. Easy to install and easy to set up. Works perfectly.

Good, not perfect. As a storage device, excellent, quiet and seemingly bullet proof. Easy to setup and get working. As a media centre, however, not great. I was hoping for a better interface which grouped and categorized the media and provided a visual directory of all of my movies and music. What I got was a good file store interface, which certainly enabled me to pick the movie of my choice, but not a great interface for my family.**UPDATED** After 2 months of use, I'd say 3 Stars. As a relatively informed computer purchaser, I was surprised that the 1GB unit shipped - without any ability to upgrade the RAM. I wanted to use the virtualization unit and found out later that it requires a minimum of 2GB RAM. Disappointed.