QNAP Systems, Inc., today launched the quad-core 1.7 GHz TS-431KX NAS with 10GbE SFP+ connectivity. The TS-431KX provides high bandwidth for intensive data transmission, allowing SMB and startups to easily backup/restore and synchronize data without breaking their budget. The TS-431KX supports Snapshot technology and HBS (Hybrid Backup Sync) local, offsite and cloud backup that enable a well-rounded disaster recovery plan to ensure uninterrupted services.

The TS-431KX is powered by a quad-core 1.7 GHz processor, 2GB RAM (upgradable to 8 GB) with one 10GbE SFP+ and two 1GbE network ports. Coupled with a QNAP QSW series 10GbE/NBASE-T network switch, users can easily build a high-speed 10GbE network environment to achieve faster and streamlined workflows. Featuring tool-less and lockable drive bays, the TS-431KX makes installation easier while also ensuring the drives are safe and secure.

QNAP Systems, Inc., a leading computing, networking and storage solution innovator, today launched the new lightweight, quiet, and feature-rich TS-230 NAS that can easily fit into any living environment. Adorned with a refreshing baby blue hue, the TS-230 is ideal for home and daily central storage, back up, photo and video sharing. All digital assets on the TS-230 are securely protected by the powerful snapshot function. Coupled with multimedia apps and transcoding feature support, the TS-230 is an ideal entry-level NAS for creating a smart and fun lifestyle.

The TS-230 uses a Realtek RTD1296 quad-core 1.4 GHz processor and built-in 2 GB DDR4 RAM for meeting personal and home NAS applications. It provides one Gigabit port and supports SATA6 Gbps disk drives, AES-256 encryption, and SSD caching. The cooling fan uses an HDB type Sintetico bearing fan for maintaining high airflow and low noise, providing better cooling for the TS-230 to ensure constant system operation. The tool-less hard drive installation makes TS-230 setup easy even for a NAS newbie.

QNAP Systems, Inc. (QNAP), a leading computing, networking and storage solution innovator, has added support for Zabbix, the Enterprise-class Network Monitoring Software. With Zabbix, system integrators and IT professionals can easily use QNAP NAS as Centralized Network Management Platforms to control multiple edge devices in real time. Administrators can also deploy Zabbix on multiple NAS to enable Distributed Network Architecture on medium/large-sized networks or to apply High Availability for enhanced network management efficiency and security.

With SNMP compliance and a Web GUI, Zabbix allows users to monitor network services and the CPU utilization, network usage, memory and storage capacity of all the connected SNMP-compliant servers/devices via the Dashboard and Analysis Report. If a default error occurs (for example, a network server is down), administrators are promptly notified via email and SMS, ensuring real-time network control and efficient troubleshooting.

QNAP Systems, today introduced the new dual-core 2.0 GHz short depth rackmount 4-bay NAS - TS-451DeU. Featuring a compact 1U 12-inch-depth chassis that allows easy installation in small media cabinets or places with a lot of cabling, the TS-451DeU provides dual 2.5 GbE ports, two M.2 2280 SATA 6 Gb/s SSD slots, storage scalability, and highly-anticipated business and media features. The TS-451DeU is an ideal cost-effective entry-level rackmount NAS.

"The TS-451DeU presents a modern 2.5 GbE NAS solution for businesses to tackle everyday tasks like file backup/restore, and to boost team collaboration with higher productivity," said Jason Hsu, Product Manager of QNAP, adding "As the short depth design is suited for media cabinets, the TS-451DeU is also an ideal multimedia server with the support of video streaming and transcoding."

QNAP Systems, Inc., a leading computing, networking and storage solution innovator, today launched the quad-core TS-x31K series NAS (including 1-bay, 2-bay and 4-bay models) that provides centralized data backup and management, easy file access and sharing, feature-rich multimedia applications and secure Snapshots protection. Featuring a compact pure white minimalist design, the TS-x31K blends in with any home décor and takes up very little space, making it an ideal solution for home users to build reliable private cloud storage.

The TS-x31K series is powered by a quad-core 1.7 GHz processor for exceptional home performance. With 1 GB RAM, Gigabit LAN (1-bay: one GbE port; 2-bay and 4-bay: two GbE ports), SATA 6 Gb/s, and AES-256 bit encryption, the TS-x31K delivers fast and stable connectivity. Featuring tool-less and lockable drive bays, the TS-x31K makes installation easier while also ensuring the drives are safe and secure.

QNAP Systems, Inc., a leading computing, networking and storage solution innovator, today announced its collaboration with Backblaze, Inc. ("Backblaze"), a US-headquartered data storage provider, for the integration of Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage into several QNAP solutions, including HybridMount, VJBOD Cloud, and Hybrid Backup Sync 3 (HBS 3). With Backblaze B2, QNAP NAS users can now enjoy a cloud storage service that is easy, affordable, and predictable.

"By supporting the advanced Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage, we've provided QNAP NAS users with greater choice in building fast, cost-effective, and expandable hybrid cloud solutions," said Josh Chen, product manager of QNAP.

Seagate Technology plc (NASDAQ: STX) today reported financial results for its fiscal third quarter ended April 3, 2020. "Seagate executed very well in the third quarter while navigating the unprecedented challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Our teams worked tirelessly to safeguard the health of their colleagues, support customer demand, and execute our product roadmap. In this challenging environment, we achieved strong financial performance, delivering revenue and non-GAAP EPS that were above our guidance midpoint and continuing to generate solid free cash flow," said Dave Mosley, Seagate's chief executive officer.

"Our results demonstrate the resilience of our business model, which combined with our strong balance sheet and liquidity offer stability to manage through this uncertain environment. Over the long-term, we believe the strength of our technology innovation and product portfolio position Seagate well to capitalize on secular demand for mass capacity storage as well as the growing necessity for cost effective data management solutions driven by the transition to IT 4.0."

QNAP Systems, Inc. (QNAP), a leading computing, networking and storage solution innovator, today introduced the brand new QuTS hero NAS operating system that integrates the app-based QTS with a 128-bit ZFS file system to provide flexible storage management, comprehensive data protection and optimized performance to meet business-critical application needs. Meanwhile, QNAP rolled out the special edition QNAP NAS— the TS-h1283XU-RP, TS-h1277XU-RP, and TS-h977XU-RP— with QuTS hero preinstalled and multi-core computing power, providing more powerful, reliable and cost-effective NAS solutions for demanding IT applications.

"The QuTS hero edition is the evolved QTS that integrates ZFS advantages with multiple cost-free apps that expand NAS functionality, delivering overall improvements in data integrity, performance, and managerial flexibility," said Sam Lin, Product Manager of QNAP, adding "Faced with explosive data growth, VDI popularity, increasing SSD adoption, 8K media, and other disruptive IT trends, modern businesses can count on QuTS hero solutions to meet future demands and achieve maximized IT efficiency."

Earlier this week, Western Digital was in the line of fire when it emerged that several of its WD Red family of "NAS-optimized" hard drives allegedly employ some form of shingled magnetic recording (SMR), a physical-layer data writing technique that maximizes density at a heavy cost of random write performance that effectively makes the HDDs unfit for use in RAID volumes, and in turn most NAS applications that commonly employ RAID and encourage end-users to build RAID volumes for data redundancy. A new report by Blocks & Files finds that the issue is more widespread than previously thought, and that even Seagate employs it without disclosure on certain models.

Several of Seagate's higher capacity Barracuda desktop internal hard drives use SMR without disclosing it in their data-sheets. These include the 8 TB ST8000DM004, and 5 TB ST5000DM000. Both these drives are sold under the Barracuda Compute brand, which markets "home servers, entry-level DAS, and desktop computers" among its use-cases. Seagate does market its Archive and Exos lines of HDDs are employing SMR, but mention of the technique is buried in their data-sheets, and not prominently in product marketing or packaging. Archive and Exos are targeted at bulk cold storage setups where capacity is more important than performance. Meanwhile, Toshiba has confirmed that its Desktop HDDs too employ SMR. The company's MQ04 2.5-inch and DT02 3.5-inch HDDs employ "managed SMR" (i.e. use conventional recording and switch to SMR as the platters are running out of space).

Western Digital launched the WD Red line of hard drives and solid state drives specifically for NAS applications. The rigors of NAS involves not just near 24x7 uptime, but also the ability to work in RAID volumes, as most NAS servers ease the process for end users to set up RAID volumes for data redundancy. Data Storage-focused tech publication Blocks & Files alleges that some WD Red HDDs are shipping with shingled magnetic recording (SMR), a physical-layer data recording technique that makes the drive unfit for RAID, and in turn unfit for most serious NAS setups.

SMR is a recording technique that aims to achieve higher data density per platter, by partially overlapping tracks, by taking advantage of write tracks being wider than read tracks. Think of it as trying to cram a little more than one line of text per ruling, in a ruled notepad. The biggest trade-off with cramming in more data using SMR is a heavy loss in random write performance. The controversy of Western Digital shipping SMR WD Red drives came to light when Alan Brown, a network administrator with the UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory, noticed that a brand new WD Red HDD kept getting kicked out of RAID arrays during resilvering (rebalancing of data with the addition of a new disk to an existing RAID array).

In response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses have adopted work from home policies. Synology's wireless routers feature powerful VPN server capabilities that enable businesses to quickly facilitate a remote workforce. Starting from April 6, Synology VPN Plus licenses will become free to purchase until September 30, 2020.

"We have seen many businesses rushing to adopt VPN solutions in order to set up an infrastructure to enable a remote workforce. Over the past two months, we have seen a five-fold increase in VPN Plus license purchases," said Hewitt Lee, Director of Synology Product Management Group. "As the situation continues to develop in unprecedented ways, we understand that many are uncertain of how to maintain business continuity. Synology is offering VPN Plus licenses for free in an effort to help businesses resume operations remotely."

TerraMaster, a professional brand that specializes in providing innovative storage products, is proud of its competitive and affordable network-attached storage that offers the best-in-class pricing as well as feature set with the F2-210.The TerraMaster F2-210 NAS allows easy, centralization of your multimedia files so you can enjoy them throughout your network or through the cloud, so users don't need to worry about sharing your files in multiple devices. The F2-210 simplifies and streamlines the storage, setup and consumption of your multimedia content whether it be home movies, family photos or your music library, the F2-210 puts them all in one place to make things more accessible.

The F2-210 supports both Emby and Plex media servers to centralize all your multimedia content. Whether it be videos, music or photos, whichever your media server or choice is, you can use the power of either Emby or Plex to catalog and streamline your content library all in one place. Go from powerful data storage to a powerful, feature-rich entertainment center, Emby and Plex both offer exceptional and easy to use interfaces as well as robust organization tools so you can access and organize your data all in one central app.

Seagate Technology plc, a world leader in data solutions, today announced the latest in high-performance solutions for multi-user NAS environments, adding to their award-winning IronWolf SSD product line. Seagate's IronWolf 510 is an M.2 NVMe SSD with caching speeds of up to 3 GB/s for NVMe-compatible systems and is ideal for creative pros and business NAS needing 24x7 multi-user storage that is cache enabled.

The IronWolf 510 SSD meets leading top NAS manufacturer requirements of one drive write per day (DWPD), allowing multi-user NAS environments to do more with their data with lasting performance. The IronWolf 510 SSD is reliable with 1.8 million hours mean time between failures (MTBF) in a PCIe form factor, two years of Rescue Data Recovery Services, and a five-year limited warranty. IronWolf Health Management helps analyze drive health and will soon be available on compatible NAS systems.

QNAP Systems, Inc. today launched the 2-bay TS-251D NAS. Powered by an Intel J4005 dual-core processor, the TS-251D can be used with QNAP's smart AI photo management application, QuMagie, which integrates AI image recognition to group similar photos together in album "People", "Things" and "Places". The 4K media transcoding and streaming capabilities of the TS-251D brings users an excellent and satisfying cross-device multimedia experience. The TS-251D also provides a PCIe slot for expanding its core functionality.

Powered by an Intel Celeron J4005 dual-core 2.00 GHz processor (burst up to 2.7 GHz), DDR4 RAM (up to 8 GB), one Gigabit LAN port, and supports SATA 6 Gbps drives. The TS-251D provides dependable read/write speeds and Intel AES-NI 256 hardware-accelerated encryption to secure sensitive and confidential data on the NAS. The TS-251D also supports snapshots, allowing users to quickly recover data in the event of accidental deletion/modification or ransomware attack.

AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) today announced several promotions and a new hire to strengthen its senior leadership team to further enable the company's continued growth.

AMD announced four senior vice president promotions:

• Nazar Zaidi to senior vice president of Cores, Server SoC and Systems IP Engineering with continued responsibility for leading the development of leadership CPU cores, server SoCs and system IP.
• Andrej Zdravkovic to senior vice president of Software Development, leading the teams responsible for all aspects of AMD software strategy and development across AMD graphics, client and data center products.
• Spencer Pan to senior vice president of Greater China Sales and president of AMD Greater China, with responsibility for leading all sales and go-to-market activities for AMD in Greater China and expansion of strategic partner and customer relationships in the region.
• Jane Roney to senior vice president of Business Operations, responsible for aligning and scaling critical business processes across the company to support growth and help ensure consistent execution.

TechPowerUp and Seagate brought you the IronWolf Black Friday Giveaway, throwing three of Seagate's finest pieces of consumer storage up for grabs. The IronWolf series from Seagate represent durable internal HDDs and SSDs for NAS, DAS, NVR, and other high-uptime client applications. Among the prizes are the 14 TB IronWolf internal SATA HDD, and 480 GB IronWolf 110 high-endurance SSD. Without further ado, the winners:

• Neil from The Philippines, wins a 14 TB IronWolf SATA HDD and 480 GB IronWolf 110 SATA SSD (one of each)
• Lisa from Virginia, USA, wins a 480 GB IronWolf 110 SATA SSD

A huge Congratulations to you two! TechPowerUp and Seagate will return with more such interesting Giveaways!

Update Dec 17th: Unfortunately Lisa never responded to us to claim her prize, so we randomly picked another lucky winner: Frank from Washington, US.

TechPowerUp and Seagate partner to bring you the IronWolf Black Friday Giveaway. The IronWolf line of storage solutions from Seagate are targeted at NAS, DAS, and other high-uptime, quasi-enterprise environments, spanning both HDDs and SSDs. Two lucky winners stand to bring home IronWolf gear. The first lucky winner receives a 14 TB IronWolf internal SATA HDD and an IronWolf 110 SSD 480 GB (one of each). The second lucky winner gets an IronWolf 110 SSD 480 GB. The Giveaway is open worldwide (wherever legal), till December 4th. Do check out great Black Friday deals on Seagate IronWolf storage products at your favorite retailer.

For more details, and to participate, visit this page.

TechPowerUp and TerraMaster brought you the TerraMaster NAS Giveaway, with two of our lucky readers standing a chance to welcome home a TerraMaster F2-210 NAS. The F2-210 is a high price-performance 2-bay NAS server with a powerful application processor for the highest data throughput and multi-layer security. It comes with the TNAS management software, which is a powerful web-browser based suite of data-management applications. Entries for the giveaway are closed and the results are in. Without further ado, the winners:

• Tia from Florida, USA
• Stephen from New Mexico, USA

A huge Congratulations, Tia and Stephen! TechPowerUp and TerraMaster will return with more such interesting Giveaways.

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd, a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, today launched the TRX40 AORUS motherboards which deliver the best performance on the newest 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen Threadripper Processors. The flagship TRX40 AORUS XTREME packs a beastly direct 16+3 phase digital power design and pairs it with an equally impressive thermal solution consisting of Fins-Array Technology, a Nanocarbon Baseplate, an 8 mm mega heatpipe, aluminium I/O armor, and a 5 cm chipset fan. TRX40 AORUS motherboards are PCIe 4.0 ready and are designed to maximize PCIe 4.0 performance with lower impedance and superior PCIe 4.0 signal quality.

With features such as server-class Intel X550-AT2 Dual GBE LAN, 8DIMM quad-channel DDR4 memory with XMP 4400 MHz+ performance, Intel WIFI 6, 4-way dual width PCIe slots, GC-TITAN RIDGE AIC, and more, the enthusiast-grade TRX40 AORUS motherboards are ideal for content creators looking to build a high-end workstation, hardcore gamers who want a powerful new gaming rig, or even users who want the best of both worlds.

TerraMaster, a professional brand that specializes in providing innovative storage products, including network attached storage and direct attached storage, is thrilled to share with everyone its undisputed budget offering for the NAS market. The TerraMaster F2-210 is built with quality in mind but offers a comprehensive feature set for the unbeatable price of $149.99. The TerraMaster F2-210 is perfect for new NAS users or SOHO usage that need a centralized storage solution but don't want to break the bank. With the F2-210, experience a full NAS experience at less cost so you can focus on what you need to do. The TerraMaster F2-210 has an MSRP of $149.99

TerraMaster builds the F2-210 around the ARM v8 quad-core processor. This CPU is used by many competing product but only TerraMaster is offering it at this price range. With speeds up to 1.40 GHz, users can enjoy performance of up to 114 MB/s for both read and write, perfect for file sharing amongst multiple devices or backing up your important data and memories. Use the TerraMaster as a media entertainment server for your 4K video files and enjoy real-time transcoding so you can enjoy your files with any devices. The F2-210 will handle most functions with no problem and easily repay itself in a year with savings in multi-device cloud backup account or live-streaming service accounts.

AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) today announced revenue for the third quarter of 2019 of $1.80 billion, operating income of $186 million, net income of $120 million and diluted earnings per share of $0.11. On a non-GAAP(*) basis, operating income was $240 million, net income was $219 million and diluted earnings per share was $0.18.

"Our first full quarter of 7 nm Ryzen, Radeon and EPYC processor sales drove our highest quarterly revenue since 2005, our highest quarterly gross margin since 2012 and a significant increase in net income year-over-year," said Dr. Lisa Su, AMD president and CEO. "I am extremely pleased with our progress as we have the strongest product portfolio in our history, significant customer momentum and a leadership product roadmap for 2020 and beyond."

TerraMaster, a professional brand that specializes in providing innovative storage products, including network attached storage and direct attached storage, is announcing today the availability of its new storage solution for SME, professional and power users. The TerraMaster F5-422 features a powerful hardware configuration to bring excellent performance where it matters; for professionals and SME applications looking to maximize shared storage. Thanks to the introduction of the 10 GbE LAN, the TerraMaster F5-422 can deliver data faster. Backed by TerraMaster's latest TOS operating system, the F5-422 delivers an excellent feature set to any use. The TerraMaster F5-422 has an MSRP of $599.99 USD.

The F5-422 features a quad-core 1.50 GHz Intel CPU which has a boost clock of 2.30 GHz. 4 GB of DDR3 memory compliment the processor as well as built-in AES NI encryption. For maximum accessibility, the F5-422 features a 10 GbE port as well as 2x 1 GbE LAN, the F5-422 can be made available to a wide number of users without the bottleneck of traditional single LAN connections. The TerraMaster F5-422 is rated up to 670 MB/s write speeds and 650 MB/s read performance on a 5x 6 TB Seagate IronWolf RAID5 setup. Perfect for professionals like video editors working with 4K videos or others that need rapid access to large data with strict speed requirements.

TerraMaster, a professional brand that specializes in providing innovative storage products, including network attached storage and direct attached storage, recently released an affordable storage solution for home and SOHO users that offers great value and performance especially for those looking at a sub-$200 product.

If you're a first-time NAS user or a power user looking for an affordable solution for file-sharing for the home, the TerraMaster F2-210 offers everything you expect from a entry-level NAS for less whether it's for simple file storage to cloud sharing to media and entertainment. TerraMaster has you covered. The F2-210 2-bay NAS storage is optimized for affordable yet optimal use for file sharing and multimedia and entertainment use. Its price position makes it one of the most powerful 2-bay NAS solution at its price bracket. The TerraMaster F2-210 has an MSRP of $149.99.

QNAP Systems, Inc. today introduced the new QXG-10G2T-107, a dual-port PCI Express (PCIe) 10GBASE-T/NBASE-T NIC that supports 5 network speeds. It can be installed in a compatible QNAP NAS or a Windows /Linux PC with PCIe 2.0 x4 slots, providing organizations or individuals with a flexible and economical 10 GbE network connectivity solution.

The QXG-10G2T-107 uses the Aquantia AQtion AQC107S Ethernet controller that supports 10/5/2.5/1 Gbps and 100 Mbps network speeds. The RJ45 connector design also allows users to use existing cables. Transmission speeds can reach up to 5 Gbps when using CAT-5e cables, or up to 10 Gbps when using CAT 6 (or advanced versions) cables, unleashing the full potential of the QXG-10G2T-107.

Western Digital Corp. (NASDAQ: WDC) today reported revenue of $3.6 billion for its fourth fiscal quarter ended June 28, 2019. The operating loss was $381 million with a net loss of $197 million, or ($0.67) per share. Excluding certain non-GAAP adjustments, the company achieved non-GAAP operating income of $158 million and non-GAAP net income of $50 million, or $0.17 per share.

In the year-ago quarter, the company reported revenue of $5.1 billion, operating income of $843 million and net income of $756 million, or $2.46 per share. Non-GAAP operating income in the year-ago quarter was $1.3 billion and non-GAAP net income was $1.1 billion, or $3.61 per share.