QNAP’s 1 petabyte storage solution is the NAS of your dreams

The enthusiast in us loves to see a manufacturer try something a little different to the norm – or better yet, something entirely outlandish. Taiwanese storage specialist QNAP tends not to shy away from high-end hardware, and the firm’s UK arm is taking things to another level with the launch of a turnkey 1 petabyte solution. That’s a thousand terabytes, in case you wondered.

Dubbed TS-h3087XU-1PB-V1-OS, this enterprise-grade storage server is built to order for medium-sized businesses and costs £30,000 plus VAT. Pre-configured and certified for immediate use, it delivers huge on-prem storage for everything from media production to data-intensive generative AI.

While aimed squarely at the business market, there will be a select few home cinema enthusiasts becoming excited. If your budget is way, way, way, higher than my own, this is the kind of server you may gravitate toward. So, what exactly do you get for £30k?

The foundation of the beast is a TS-h3087XU-RP ZFS system powered by an eight-core, 16-thread Intel Xeon E-2378 processor. The 30-bay unit (24 x 3.5in plus 6 x 2.5in) typically packs 64GB DDR4 ECC memory, which QNAP upgrades to a maximum 128GB for this off-the-shelf configuration.

That alone would satisfy most, yet there’s plenty more ammunition. TS-h3087XU-RP is paired to a 24-bay TL-R2400PES-RP storage unit via a QXP-3X4PES PCIe Gen3 x4 expansion card, taking the total number of hard-disk bays up to 48.

Drives, naturally, are included. QNAP opts for 48 of Seagate’s 24TB EXOS HDDs, as well as half-a-dozen 480GB Kingston DC600M Enterprise SATA SSDs for hybrid configuration. Requisite cables and rail kits are also included, and the whole package is backed by five years of next-day, on-site support from launch partner StorTrec.

Sourcing the entire kit list would set you back in the region of £28k plus VAT, meaning only a small premium for a pre-configured solution that has passed drive inspection and offers the peace of mind of on-site service should the need arise.

While you’re dreaming of the home cinema room you’d build if money were no object, take a moment to enjoy QNAP’s full specification table below.

In an age of AI and big data, there’s a growing market for traditional NAS manufacturers to venture further into pre-certified, ready-to-go enterprise storage solutions. With a one petabyte flagship, QNAP is ready to make some noise in this space.