QNAP Releases Its Thunderbolt 2.0-equipped TVS-871T Business NAS

We first learned of the “World’s First” Thunderbolt-equipped NAS at Computex back in June. At the time, we didn’t know all there was to know about QNAP’s TVS-871T, but it was only a matter of time before the juiciest bits were revealed. As this post might allude to, that time is now.

The TVS-871T is built on the TVS-871, with the notable enhancement being the inclusion of Thunderbolt. We’re dealing with the 2.0 version of the spec here, which grants maximum bandwidth of 20Gbps (2.5GB/s). In the real-world, we’re not quite sure what the actual maximum throughput speed will be, but given this NAS’ capabilities, it’s going to push it as hard as it can.

There are two variants of the TVS-871T, but both share most of the same specs. Both have 16GB of memory (non-ECC), a 512MB DOM, support for 8x SATA 6Gbps drives (HDD or SSD), 4x 1Gbps Ethernet ports, 2x 10GbE Ethernet ports, 3x USB 3.0 and 2x 2.0 ports, 2x Thunderbolt 2.0 ports, and an HDMI port. On the device itself are a few special buttons, including a one-touch copy and password/network reset button. The only thing notable this NAS doesn’t have is redundant power.

Where the variants differ is with the CPU. For those needing the ultimate in performance from their NAS, a model can be opted for that ships with Intel’s Core i7-4790S, a quad-core / eight-thread model clocked at 3.2GHz sporting 8MB of cache. The other chip is Intel’s Core i5-4590S, also a quad-core model but without HyperThreading. This chip is clocked at 3GHz and has 6MB of cache.

The TVS-871T is a high-end NAS that can turn into an even higher-end solution with the use of QNAP’s RAID Expansion Enclosures. With multiple 5- or 8-bay enclosures, customers can utilize 13 drives total for a maximum of 104TB, or ramp up to 56 drives total for a staggering 448TB.

As with many NASes, it’d be impossible to cover half of what the TVS-871T can do without writing an article. You can head on over to the official product page to learn more about what the NAS is capable of.

Pricing hasn’t been given for any variant of the TVS-871T, but with the TVS-871 i7-4790S model costing about ~$2,200, that should give you some idea to what the Thunderbolt model will demand.

Given its capabilities, I hope that we’ll learn about other Thunderbolt-equipped NASes soon.

Addendum: Official pricing is $2,799 for the TVS-871-i5-16G and $3,199 for the TVS-871-i7-16G.