Review on 💾 Expand Your Storage with QNAP QM2-2P-244A Dual M.2 22110/2280 PCIe SSD Expansion Card - Low-Profile Bracket, Bundled with Full-Height and Low-Profile Flat Brackets - 2 x SSD Capacity by Robert Lemons

Recently bought a QNAP TS-453be and found that after setup all the disks are used to store the OS and applications. I didn't care, and I wanted the OS to be separate and on fast SSDs. I would notice a significant slowdown in the Plex interface since the database is running in a RAID group and not on an SSD. I could get an expansion enclosure and put an SSD in there. This would be a more expensive and space consuming option. In a way, this would prevent buying QNAP, so I decided to go that route. If you look at the QNAP website, it says that the TS-453be is compatible with a large number of QM2 M.2 expansion cards. You have to look closely to understand the differences. Basically it's just SATA and NVMe m.2 support and then version + number of PCIE lanes. I chose QM2-2P-244A because TS-453be can only support this speed. Getting a faster card would mean losing even more money. I wanted to get a non-QNAP card, but found that QTS doesn't necessarily allow third-party cards to use SSDs for the same types of storage devices. Instead of risking not being able to install an operating system on it, I got myself a QNAP card. Before installing I made sure to back up all my settings in QTS and my Plex database/configuration (that's really all I'm using right now). Installation was easy. Just a few screws in the case and it moves apart. Installing the m.2 drives was interesting because you need to put standoffs on the board to keep the chips in good contact with the heatsink. Before I started, I pulled all of my data drives out of the case. QNAP then had to be set up like new. However, when I was done, the OS and applications from the SSDs worked. I am using the following SSDs: Silicon Power 512GB NVMe M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3 x4 TLC SSDTeam Group MP33 M.2 2280 512GB PCIe 3.0 x4 with NVMe 1.3 3D NAND None of these drives are listed as supported on the QNAP website and if You read QNAP information gives a big warning that they listed the SSD as supported. However, these work great. I have no problems with them at all. I chose them because they were the cheapest back then (and actually had a better warranty than many of the bigger brands), had a high MTBF, and used different memory chips. After ordering, it turned out that they use the same controller chip. I was trying to get 2 hard drives of the same size using different memory chips and controllers so using RAID 1 would make sense. It makes sense to have two identical SSDs in RAID 1, but since SSDs aren't mechanical drives, they're likely to fail at the same time, so it's best to use different drives (this doesn't apply to other RAID levels). Starting this way was when I put my data discs back in. QTS scans hard drives for volumes and then creates duplicate shares for them. Cleaning up is pretty cumbersome, but it's easier if you just create new shares, move your data there, and then delete the old ones. After a lot of trial and error, I created symlinks so that the new shares simply point to the old ones. This allowed all locks, logs, and caching to be preserved on the SSDs. Working with Plex on SSDs makes a world of difference. Images load much faster now. It's back to how it works on my more powerful desktop. After all this, I found out that Synology has a NAS that is almost identical to the TS-453be, but with two built-in M.2 slots (and accessible without disassembly). It wasn't in my feature search when I decided on the NAS box, so I didn't even consider it beforehand. It's more expensive than QNAP, but after adding the QM2 card, it's not. Sorry I don't remember the model number but just an honest warning if you are considering the TS-453.