Network-attached storage isn’t always about flashy features and multimedia muscle. Sometimes, it’s about getting the fundamentals right, and that’s where QNAP TS-432X finds its groove.
Priced at around $579 / £570, this four-bay NAS strips away some of the niceties of its siblings in order to achieve a more affordable MSRP, focusing on what matters most to power users: fast networking, clean RAID support, and a mature software experience. It’s the sensible choice for those who care more about file integrity and throughput than they do about transcoding Plex libraries.
QNAP TS-432X
£570 / $579
Pros
- 10GbE SFP+ port
- Great read/write performance
- PCIe expansion
- Feature-packed QTS
- Tool-free installation
Cons
- No M.2 support
- No HDMI support
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How we test and review products.
What makes QNAP TS-432X particularly compelling is its focus on out-of-the-box utility. While many modern NAS devices still require add-in cards or compromises to hit ten-gigabit speeds, this unit includes native 10GbE SFP+ alongside dual 2.5GbE ports. It’s the kind of hardware spec you’d expect to find further up the food chain, but here it’s accessible to anyone with a need for serious data movement, be it large project files, active collaboration workspaces, or simply high-volume backups without the wait.
Design and build
If you’ve encountered any of QNAP’s budget NAS systems before, TS-432X won’t surprise you. It shares much of the same DNA as QNAP TS-464, with a a shell made of conservative matte black plastic that won’t look out of place tucked beneath a desk or in a backroom rack. The unit’s four-bay layout is front-loaded and hidden behind a distinctly reflective panel with subtle LED indicators peeking out from the right side. QNAP clearly isn’t aiming for showmanship here – this is a box built to do a job.
Measuring 226.5 x 170 x 165mm (LxWxH), it’s reasonably compact for a four-bay system, especially given the built-in 10GbE SFP+. Each drive tray pops out easily and supports both 3.5in and 2.5in drives without the need for additional brackets. Tool-less installation keeps setup fast, though those coming from higher-end units might notice the trays aren’t lockable and lack any vibration dampening. It’s enough to stave off prying paws but nothing particularly secure. Still, for a model in this class, the build feels suitably sturdy.
Sticking with a quad-core processor, QNAP has swapped Intel out for an Alpine AL524 from Amazon’s Annapurna Labs operating at 2GHz. Since this is built around ARM Cortex-A57, you’re confined to the brand’s QTS operating system rather than the more versatile QuTS hero, but that’s just as well given the software works better with the slimmer 4GB DDR4 SODIMM memory out of the box. You can expand to 16GB using the single slot later down the line if you need a little more oomph, which might be a smart play if you prefer ECC (error correction code) support. Similarly, you can run up to 96TB of sotrage using four 24TB drives if you have the means.
There’s enough ventilation to keep airflow moving smoothly front to back, with a single 120mm fan clamped to the rear. This tends to hum a little on the loud side at just short of 40dBA but you can customise the fan curves in QTS for something a little kinder to the ear.
What you won’t find are some of the nice-to-haves seen on TS-464. There’s no HDMI output for direct display use, and no M.2 slots for NVMe caching or tiered storage. Two USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports rated at 5Gb/s hold down the fort, one on the front and the other on the rear. That marks a fair few ommissions, but the trade-off here is that TS-432X comes with a native 10GbE SFP+ alongside dual 2.5GbE Ethernet ports without the need for an expansion card.
Speaking of which, the PCIe Gen3 x2 expansion slot returns, letting you plug the gaps and plan ahead with a 10GbE expansion card or even adding those missing M.2 slots later down the line.
Getting started is a cinch with toolless fixtures, although QNAP does provide a set of 2.5in and 3.5in screws to secure your drives to the brackets if you so choose. I’ve decided to keep the screwdriver to one side for the time being, preferring the freedom to juggle my Seagate drives as I need.
If you’re using blank HDDs or SSDs, simply slot everything in place, turn it on, and wait for that long beep to confirm it’s up and running. To log in, you can go through QNAP Qfinder Pro, the official cloud installation via browser, or by scanning the QR code on the side of the device. Using QTS 5.1 or earlier sets the initial username and password as admin and your MAC address, but the password swaps to your Cloud Key if running QTS 5.2 or later.
Software
It’s easy to get caught up in hardware specs, but software is what defines a NAS day-to-day. Thankfully, QNAP’s QTS 5.1 remains one of the most versatile NAS operating systems on the market. It lays out its toolkit in a clean, tile-based interface that keeps the essentials front and centre.
Designed like a simplified version of a desktop operating system, QTS comes complete with familiar features including icons, drag-and-drop file management, and multitasking windows. To borrow Parm’s similie likening it to Google’s Android, you get what you want out of it regardless of networking proficiency. The helpful setup wizard is there to guide beginners through the basics of file sharing, such as setting up volumes, Snapshots, and RAID 0, 1 ,5, 6, 10, single, and JBOD configs but there’s plenty for more seasoned adventurers to discover with the assortment of plugins from the App Center.
File syncing across devices, IP camera surveillance management, remote access services, and even media indexing – it’s all a few clicks away. While the TS-432X isn’t the best fit for heavier workloads like containerisation or media transcoding, the sheer breadth of lightweight utilities available means it still punches well above its weight for small teams and savvy home users alike.
The Storage and Snapshots app is your go-to for building pools, checking drive health, and scheduling backup snapshots regardless of internal or external storage – it’s surprisingly powerful once you dig into it. There’s also a dedicated iSCSI manager that lets you carve out targets and LUNs for more specialised deployments, making it a decent fit for lab environments or more complex backup hierarchies. And yes, there’s even a Malware Remover on hand to keep digital gremlins at bay.
Performance
Our test setup pairs TS-432X with four 8TB Seagate IronWolf NAS hard drives configured in RAID 10. This connects to a QNAP QSW-1208-8C 10GbE unmanaged network switch using an SFP+ cable before feeding into our usual Ryzen 9 7950X3D Windows 11 testbench via Ethernet.
Our 7950X3D Test PCs
Club386 carefully chooses each component in a test bench to best suit the review at hand. When you view our benchmarks, you’re not just getting an opinion, but the results of rigorous testing carried out using hardware we trust.
Shop Club386 test platform components:
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D
Motherboard: MSI MEG X670E ACE
Cooler: Arctic Liquid Freezer III 420 A-RGB
GPU: Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 7800 XT
Memory: 64GB Kingston Fury Beast DDR5
Storage: 2TB WD_Black SN850X NVMe SSD
PSU: be quiet! Dark Power Pro 13 1,300W
Chassis: Fractal Design Torrent Grey
Equipped with MSI MEG X670E ACE, a 10GbE connection comes baked into to the motherboard, an increasingly common trend moving forward.
Witnessing what this lean little box can really do, we turn first to CrystalDiskMark. Sequential read and write speeds of 829MB/s and 444MB/s respectively run rings around its predecessor, flexing more than double the performance of 2.5GbE.
While one hand gives, the other takes. Low random read and write speeds aren’t surprising without SSD caching, but there is a noticeable hit that appeared in all of our tests.
PCMark 10’s Data Drive Benchmark puts things into perspective. Chucking several small files at the NAS, from transferring 339 JPEGs from system to server, to making copies of the files and then transferring the copies back, QNAP TS-432X pushes past TS-464’s score.
Of course, synthetic tests only take you so far and the real-world performance might be worth the trade-off. Copying three 5GB files (a total of 15GB) over from our test PC takes around 30 seconds, blitzing past anything TS-464 can muster. This is twice as fast as a 2.5GbE NAS and five times quicker than a standard 1GbE alternative.
Tasty numbers, yet these merely represent a starting point as our 8TB Seagate IronWolf NAS hard disks configured in RAID 10 act as a bottleneck. The potential is far higher if you introduce 2.5in SSDs into the mix, with QNAP’s internal figures highlighting sequential read speeds of up to 590MB/s via dual 2.5GbE, or a tantalising 1,181MB/s via 10GbE. Make room in your budget, as SSDs are required to take full advantage of these high-speed interfaces.
As for running costs, TS-432X draws 62W from the wall with all four Seagate disks spinning. Not enough to run up your electricity bill and a small sacrifice for the performance.
Conclusion
QNAP TS-432X is a case study in purposeful restraint. By forgoing headline features like HDMI output and NVMe support, it channels all its energy into doing one job well: moving and protecting large data. The inclusion of native 10GbE SFP+ and dual 2.5GbE with ample processing power at this price point is a rare win, hitting the mark for anyone in need of reliable, high-speed storage.
There are some noticeable compromises. It doesn’t excite the Plex enthusiast looking for a media server replacement and the lack of visual output and M.2 support also stings, but you can remedy the latter with its PCIe Gen 3 x4 expansion slot, building on the solid foundations. QNAP clearly knows its audience here; those who value RAID flexibility, robust backup tools, and fast, direct file access over docker and desktop mirroring.
Frankly, you won’t find another 10GbE model with the same processing prowess in this price range, as TS-432X is one-of-a-kind. There are more versatile options out there if you’re willing to foot the bill but QNAP has set the bar to entry for such lofty speeds lower than ever before.
