Qnap introduces the TVS-AIh1688ATX. This new NAS features a modern Intel chip that supports twelve HDDs and four U.2 NVMe SSDs.
Qnap launches the TVS-AIh1688ATX. This is a substantial NAS equipped with twelve slots for hard drives and four slots for 2.5-inch U.2 NVMe SSDs. The NAS is powered by an Intel Core Ultra processor.
‘AI-NAS’
Qnap strongly emphasizes this CPU and Intel’s accompanying marketing advice. The Core Ultra series features a light NPU onboard to accelerate AI workloads. Although this NPU is nowhere near powerful enough to support ChatGPT-like tasks, PC manufacturers have been using its presence for about two years to claim they’re selling ‘
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For the TVS-AIh1688ATX, you can choose from an Intel Core Ultra 7 with twenty cores or a Core Ultra 9 with 24 cores. In the latter case, you get about 36 TOPS of AI computing power to support AI-driven image and video analysis on the NAS itself. 36 TOPS isn’t much, but here a NAS has a major advantage over a PC: AI tasks can take longer and run in the background.
Additional Specifications
The CPU is powerful enough to support virtualization, alongside typical NAS tasks like shared data storage and backup. The NAS features four slots for DDR5 memory and supports ECC. The most powerful variant of the new device (the TVS-AIh1688ATX-U9-48G) comes with 48 GB in one slot. You can expand the memory to a substantial 192 GB.
QuTS Hero
Qnap integrates two 2.5 GbE ports on the back, as well as two 10 GbE connections. The substantial device features three PCIe Gen 4 slots, allowing you to optionally integrate a 100 GbE network adapter. There’s also room for a Thunderbolt 5 expansion card. The TVS-AIh1688ATX also has two USB 4 Type-C ports onboard.
The operating system of choice is QuTS hero. This OS from Qnap itself supports the ZFS file system, alongside various other capabilities like ZIL protection against power loss and snapshots.
The specifications of this NAS suggest the device is suitable for more demanding enterprises. The NAS is suitable to serve as the beating heart for organizations like SMEs or satellite offices of larger companies that want a powerful local storage server that can do more than just store data. These capabilities come with a price tag: the flagship TVS-AIh1688ATX-U9-48G with Core Ultra 9 and 48 GB DDR5 ECC RAM costs €5,016 excl. VAT.