QNAP TS-h1290FX NAS Review The All Flash 25GbE NAS

Late last year, we showed how we were Building New STH Studio Storage NAS around the QNAP TS-h1290FX. The reason we picked this platform versus building our own was simple: it is a 12-bay U.2 NAS based on AMD EPYC with built-in 25GbE and multiple PCIe Gen4 slots. With a relatively expandable system that is very quiet, there is a lot to like in this NAS. Make no mistake, however: it is a high-end NAS in the truest sense of the word, and as a result, it is not a NAS for everyone.

While QNAP offers a large array of NASes, few of them rival the TS-h1290FX in either storage performance or capacity. This is because QNAP has opted to build an outright storage server in a tower design, wiring up 12 PCIe Gen4 slots to a full-fledged AMD EPYC system. Thanks to the high storage density and high bandwidth afforded by U.2 SSDs, the box can accommodate 737TB of flash storage with upwards of 14GB/second of aggregate read performance, taking full advantage of the plethora of PCIe lanes offered by the server platform.

As a result of its high-end hardware heritage, the TS-h1290FX is primarily aimed at enterprise customers who need access to large amounts of high-speed storage in something other than a data center environment. The biggest use case here being dealing with raw video and video editing, which is a big part of the reason we chose to build our studio NAS around it in the first place. It turned into a system that we also host AI models feeding various systems around the studio.

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QNAP TS-h1290FX External Hardware Overview

With 12 drive bays, space for multiple PCIe cards, and a complete server-grade platform inside, the QNAP TS-h1290FX is a rather bulky box. QNAP needed to not only provide space for storage devices and I/O, but also ample cooling capacity to keep everything at an appropriate temperature. A modern U.2 SSD alone can draw 24W alone when active, so a full 12-drive array is a significant amount of heat. The end result is a very muted design focused on function first and foremost – meaning you will not mistake the fact that this is a NAS when first looking at it.

Consequently, most of the front side of the TS-h1290fx is made up of those 2.5-inch drive bays. Besides acting as hot-swappable storage bays, this is also where the front air intake is for the system.

Each removable tray allows for a 2.5-inch SATA or U.2 drive to be toollessly mounted into the tray. Each tray can also be individually locked or unlocked, allowing for a single tray to be unlocked without needing to free (and potentially accidentally remove) any of the rest of the drives.

Each bay can accept a drive up to 15mm in height. And when filled with such a drive, it is a tight fit.

Sitting above the drive trays is a small LCD panel and a pair of buttons for basic status messages and configuration options. Ultimately, the TS-h1290FX wants to be networked to be fully configured – or failing that, installing a video card to give it local display functionality – but there needs to be a basic level of configuration abilities built-in if only to help get the box up and running on the local network. In a pinch, limited system and drive information is also accessible from the LCD panel.

Finally, the rest of the front buttons and the sole USB port can be found towards the bottom-left side of the NAS. The USB ports on the system are all relatively basic, offering 5Gbps (USB 3.2 Gen 1) transfer speeds. Directly above the USB port is the One Touch button, which can be used to trigger the NAS to copy backups between the NAS and a USB device (though where you will find a USB drive big enough to backup a 12-bay NAS is an exercise left to the reader).

Further above that is the power button, which, depending on how long it is held, allows for both soft power-off or forced power-off.

Rotating the box counter-clockwise, the left side of the NAS is notable for hosting an air intake. Because the NAS utilizes an internal ATX form factor 750W power supply, this is where the air intake for that PSU resides.

Flipping over to the rear of the NAS, we find several more ports, quite a bit of ventilation, and some additional PCIe expansion slots.

Starting at the left, the first set of networking options with the h1290fx are a pair of 2.5Gbps RJ45 Ethernet jacks for plugging into conventional networks. With 10Gbps Ethernet now getting cheap, this is arguably the most dated aspect of this circa-2022 design, but it still does the job.

Meanwhile, we have plates covering 4 PCIe expansion slots, which we will get to on our tour of the internals.

On the right side, things start with two more USB-A ports. Like the front port, these are both 5Gbps ports, so while there are some mid-speed connection options for local data transfer, the NAS really wants to be on a network.

Meanwhile, the odd jack to the left of that is actually a COM port – though officially it is solely for QNAP’s own engineering use.

Finally, towards the right, we have the higher speed networking option for the TS-h1290FX with its dual 25Gbps SFP28 Ethernet ports. Backed by a Mellanox ConnectX-6 controller, the 25Gbps ports are designed to connect the NAS to more exotic and higher-performing Ethernet networks – and tapping into the 25Gbps Ethernet ports is practically a necessity to reap the full performance of the NAS. Even then, QNAP has measured I/O throughput at over 100Gbps, so you may want to add some more ports.

Behind the PSU cut-out, we find the system’s 750W ATX power supply.

Now, let us go down a level by opening up the TS-h1290FX and taking a look inside.