QNAP decided it was nigh time to offer a more affordable NAS than any of their TS-x70 units, with the same features and similar performance, and the TS-470 even outperforms the TS-x70 units in some areas. This is the first NAS to use Intel's new Celeron J1800 (Bay Trail) CPU, and it is a fantastic choice for a NAS box since it offers good performance and great energy efficiency. You see, because NAS boxes run custom-tailored Linux distributions, system requirements are greatly reduced, so even a Celeron CPU backed by only 1 GB of RAM can perform incredibly well, which is unlike a normal PC running Windows. Inevitably, some cost-specific cuts had to be made to lower this NAS' price, and the first such cut boils down to a plastic enclosure, which, however, looks nice because of its white color and generally good construction quality. The plastic trays are obviously another such price cut, and they actually do look pretty cheap for a NAS of this price category. The TS-451 costs much less than the TS-470, but $700 is still significant, so I would have liked higher quality HDD trays, or, why not, metallic ones. Users looking to use the NAS as a multimedia station sitting right next to their TV will definitely appreciate its bundled HDMI port, and it will also give the hardcore administrator some local control for some hands-on troubleshooting should a problem arise. Since an HDMI port costs next to nothing, it is nice to even see NAS servers bundle one. Streaming multimedia content is surely convenient, but having the ability to exploit such right over an HDMI port is even better. If you plan on purchasing this NAS, you should, in my opinion, grab the 4 GB RAM variant, especially if you plan on exploiting its multimedia capabilities or the Virtualization Station. My tests also found that upgrading the RAM total results in a significant boost to network transfer speeds.

To conclude today's incredibly long review, I found the TS-451 to be a superb NAS, which leaves QNAP with a strong offering for the mid-range category. With its impressive performance, great looks, and huge feature set, it is the NAS server for enthusiast users or a small business environment. I only wish installing a memory upgrade would be as easy as with the TS-x69 or TS-x70 models, but you could just avoid the hassle by picking up the 4 GB version instead. QNAP is, on top of that, asking $135 for the optional 4 GB DDR3 module.