Designed for home office and small-business users, the QNAP TS-432X-4G uses high-speed networking ports and a quad-core CPU to deliver speedy performance. It has four easily accessible tool-free drive bays, 10GbE and 2.5GbE LAN ports, and a pair of USB ports, but it lacks an HDMI port and built-in M.2 slots. At $579, it’s a good value for a multi-bay NAS device. Still, you’ll get a much larger app catalog, four M.2 slots, 10GbE and 5GbE networking, and USB4 connectivity with our more expensive Editors’ Choice winner for multi-bay NAS devices, the $1,299 Asustor Lockerstor 4 Gen 3 (AS6804T).

Design and Specs: Four Bays, But No HDMI or Integrated M.2

The TS-432X-4G shares the same basic design as the TS-464 that we reviewed in 2022, but this time around, the 6.6-by-6.6-by-8.9-inch (HWD) enclosure is black and silver rather than black and gold. The right side of the front panel holds status LEDs for power, LAN, USB, and drive activity. They are joined by a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port, a power button, and a One-Touch Copy button. Behind a removable front panel cover are four hot-swappable drive bays and tool-free drive sleds for 2.5- and 3.5-inch drives. As with most NAS devices, you’ll have to supply your own drives.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

The rear panel has a 10GbE SFP+ LAN port, a pair of 2.5GbE LAN ports, a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port, and a power port. Finally, a covered low-profile PCIe slot will accommodate a 10GbE card or a dual M.2 expansion card. Unlike the Asustor AS6804T, the TS-432X-4G does not offer on-board M.2 slots for SSD acceleration. Also missing is the HDMI port that you get with the QNAP TS-464.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

The TS-432X-4G is powered by a 2GHz AnnapurnaLabs AL524 quad-core CPU, 4GB of DDR4 RAM (which is expandable to 16GB), and 512MB of flash memory. It can accommodate up to 96TB of storage using four 24TB drives and supports RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6, RAID 10, Single, and JBOD configurations. It also supports EXT4 file extensions and volume snapshots that capture a complete image of your NAS system so you can revert to an earlier version if problems arise. For more storage capacity, QNAP offers multiple tower and rackmount expansion units.

(Credit: QNAP)

As with other QNAP NAS devices, the TS-432X-4G uses the QTS 5 operating system, which offers a Microsoft Windows-like user interface with tiles that make it easy to manage the NAS. When you first start it up, you’ll see nine tiles, and more are added as you add new apps. The Control Panel tile takes you to a screen where you can configure system settings and file services, assign user privileges, create shared folders, and manage network and file services. The File Station tile opens a screen to view recently uploaded, opened, and deleted files. Here you can also create and share links to files stored on the NAS and view snapshot images by date.

Use the Storage and Snapshots tile to create storage pools, manage drive health, create snapshot backups of each storage pool, and configure any attached external storage devices. When you tap the iSCSI Storage tile, you’ll open a screen where you can create iSCSI targets and LUNs. The Virtualization Guide tile provides tips on how to use Citrix XenServer, Microsoft Hyper-V, and VMWare vSphere services, and the Help Center tile opens a screen where you can access a QTS user manual and other online resources. Tap the Malware Remover tile to scan and remove viruses and other malware.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

When you tap the QNAP App Center tile, you’ll see a catalog of 78 apps that let you use the TS-432X-4G as a cloud server, a backup server, a media server, or a surveillance station for your IP cameras. You’ll also find a nice selection of business, entertainment, and backup apps, but you’ll get a much larger selection of apps (more than 200) with the Lockerstor 4 Gen 3 (AS6804T).

Setup and Performance Testing: Speedy File Transfers

Setting up the TS-432X-4G is easy. I installed four 10TB Seagate IronWolf drives and connected the NAS to a 2.5GbE switch, which is also connected to my desktop PC and my router. I downloaded and ran the QNAP Qfinder Pro utility, and it immediately recognized the NAS. I tapped Start Smart Installation, made sure the firmware was up to date, and gave the NAS a name. Next, I created a username and password, set the date and time, and had the NAS obtain an IP address automatically. I applied the new settings, tapped Initialize, and waited about 10 minutes for the NAS to initialize and reboot. Finally, I created a storage pool with a RAID 5 configuration and a storage volume that yielded 27.27TB of storage capacity, and waited several hours for the drive to synchronize.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

The TS-432X-4G turned in speedy scores on our file transfer tests, in which we measure its read and write times by moving a 4.9GB folder containing a mix of music, video, photo, and office document files between the NAS and a desktop PC.

Its score of 245MBps on the write test was faster than the TerraMaster F4-424’s score of 178MBps but not quite as fast as the Ugreen DXP4800 Plus (288MBps) or the Asustor AS6804T (283MBps). On the read test, the TS-432X-4G managed a score of 272MBps, which topped the Ugreen DXP4800 Plus (168MBps) but came in right behind the TerraMaster F4-424 (280MBps) and the Asustor AS6804T (283MBps).