QNAP TS-464

[Enquiries]

hi, I am now on my 3rd QNAP, from a 2-bay, to a TS-453A and now a TS-464, kindly reccomended by your good selves. I work from home so use it for everything, backing up my work files on the fly, Roon server, download server, and Plex. I have 3x 14Tb drives in RAID 5, 2x 2Tb SSD's running apps, and a spare 1Tb SSD on expansion card for the Roon database.

I upgraded to QUTS Hero believing it would speed things up, but the interface is EXTREMELY slow. I know I am asking a lot of it, but it is unusable at times. I tried to use the SSD's as a cache but read it was pointless, I upgraded to 32Gb of RAM, but that's not made much difference, and I'm now just thinking the processor isn't up to it.

My TS-453A is an older model, but I don't think it was this bad, so I am just asking for some advice - should I cut my losses and go for a bigger QNAP, or an Asustor AS6804T, or stick with it and figure out the problem? I just don't think it is up to the job.

I'd really appreciate your help. thanks

[ed]

Since you’ve already maxed out RAM (32GB) and tested SSD caching, it does sound like QuTS Hero is the main bottleneck on your TS-464. Hero is ZFS-based, which adds a lot of overhead, especially on a CPU like the Intel N5105 in your NAS. While Hero has great data integrity features, it’s more suited to higher-end NAS with powerful CPUs.

A Few Options to Improve Performance:
Switch Back to QTS – Hero is heavy on system resources, and your workloads (Plex, Roon, backups) don’t benefit much from ZFS. Moving back to QTS (Ext4) should significantly improve responsiveness.
Optimize SSD Usage – Instead of caching (which doesn’t help much in your case), use the SSDs as a dedicated separate volume for your apps and your Roon database. This should speed things up a bit.
Upgrade to a More Powerful NAS – If you want an upgrade, the QNAP TVS-h674 (i3-12100) or TVS-h874 (i5/i7 12th Gen) will fly through your workloads while still supporting Hero.
Alternative: Asustor AS6804T?
It’s a great NAS with an Intel Core i5, but Asustor’s ADM OS isn’t as refined as QTS/Hero. If you’re already comfortable with QNAP, it might be better to go for a higher-end QNAP model instead.

Best Recommendation for Your Budget (£1500):
Short-Term Fix: Switch back to QTS and optimize SSD volumes.
Best Upgrade: QNAP TVS-h674 (i3-12100) – A major performance boost while keeping Hero.
Futureproof Beast: QNAP TVS-h874 (i5/i7 12th Gen) – If you want unmatched Plex/Roon performance.