Two bays and 2.5GbE on the cheap
The QNAP TS-216G ($239) is one of the company’s most affordable two-bay network attached storage (NAS) devices. Intended for home and small-business users, it offers a pair of LAN ports, one of which is a 2.5GbE port, three USB ports, and a good assortment of apps. Our extensive testing shows that it also performs well and is easy to configure. However, thanks to its second multi-gig LAN port and SSD caching capabilities, the $369 Asustor AS5402T is a better choice for many buyers and remains our Editors’ Choice winner for two-bay NAS devices.Design: Multi-Gig, But No HDMI
The TS-216G forgoes the typical matte-black cabinet used on most NAS devices and instead sports a matte-white finish with a thin black panel on the front that holds five LED indicators, a power button, a one-touch backup button, and a USB 3.2 port. The two lockable drive trays are tool-free, but the cabinet is secured by two tiny screws. At 6.5 by 4 by 8.7 inches (HWD), it won’t take up much room on your desktop.
The rear panel is home to a 2.5GbE LAN port, a 1GbE LAN port, two USB 2.0 ports, a power jack, a reset button, and a single 70mm fan for cooling internal components. Missing is the HDMI port and the second 2.5GbE port that you get with the Asustor AS5402T. Included in the box are two drive-sled keys, a LAN cable, a power cable and AC brick, drive-mounting screws, and an installation guide.
The TS-216G uses a quad-core ARM Cortex-A55 2.0GHz processor, 4GB of flash memory, and 4GB of onboard RAM, which is not expandable. Also missing are the M.2 SSD slots that you get with more expensive devices, such as the Asustor AS5402T and Synology DiskStation DS723+.
