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QNAP has introduced the TS-h966TX, a compact 9-bay NAS that pairs five 3.5-inch SATA bays with four 2.5-inch U.2 NVMe bays and puts dual Thunderbolt 4 ports, 10GbE, and 2.5GbE on the back of a tower that QNAP says is 36% smaller than its previous HDD-based 6-bay Thunderbolt 4 NAS models. It runs a 6-core Intel Core i3 and QNAP’s ZFS-based QuTS hero, and it’s aimed at video production and other high-bandwidth media workflows where a workstation connects directly over Thunderbolt 4 while the rest of the team hits the same storage over 10GbE. The four U.2 bays are what set it apart from QNAP’s earlier Thunderbolt NAS designs, which were HDD-only, and they follow the U.2 push QNAP made on the desktop with the TVS-hx77AX earlier this month. Hybrid 5+4 Bays With U.2 NVMe The 5+4 layout keeps bulk HDD capacity in the five SATA 6Gb/s bays, which also take 2.5-inch SATA SSDs, and gives the four U.2 PCIe NVMe bays their own job as either an SSD storage pool or an SSD cache, with no capacity lost from the SATA side. M.2 NVMe SSDs fit the U.2 bays through QNAP’s QDA-UMP4A adapters. All nine bays are hot-swappable. QNAP’s own performance figures cover both access paths. With four Samsung PM9A3 1.96TB U.2 SSDs in RAID 5 on a thick volume, QNAP measured 1,182MB/s write and 1,181MB/s read for 1M sequential transfers over 10GbE SMB, and a directly connected Thunderbolt 4 client reached 2,252MB/s write and 2,004MB/s read using AJA. Intel Core i3, DDR5, and Thunderbolt 4 on the Back The processor is a 6-core Intel Core i3 running up to 4.4GHz with Intel UHD Graphics and hardware-accelerated transcoding. The TS-h966TX-8G ships with 8GB of DDR5 in one of two SODIMM slots and tops out at 64GB with two 32GB modules. Both Thunderbolt 4 ports sit on the rear panel alongside a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port, the 10GBASE-T port (10G/5G/2.5G/1G/100M), the 2.5GbE port (2.5G/1G/100M/10M), a USB 2.0 Type-A port, and an HDMI output that drives up to 4K60. The front carries the power and USB copy buttons and a second USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port. The Thunderbolt 4 ports connect compatible Mac and Windows systems directly for 4K editing, media ingest, and project transfers; QNAP notes that connected PCs need Thunderbolt 4, Thunderbolt 5, or USB4 for its supported backup workflows. Capacity can grow past the nine internal bays over USB4 with QNAP’s TL-D810TC4 JBOD enclosure. QuTS hero and ZFS The TS-h966TX runs QuTS hero, QNAP’s ZFS-based operating system, which brings WORM and immutable storage, self-healing against silent data corruption, inline deduplication, real-time compression, and ZIL protection for in-flight writes during a power failure. QNAP’s QSAL technology monitors SSD lifespan at the RAID level to reduce the chance of several SSDs in a group wearing out at once. Mac and Windows backup are supported, myQNAPcloud One handles cloud storage and remote data protection, and Qsirch covers file search, including semantic image search and RAG-based search. The system also supports AES-NI encryption, Secure Boot, Wake-on-LAN, jumbo frames, and up to 2,000 concurrent CIFS connections at the maximum memory configuration. Cooling is a single 140mm fan, and power comes from a 150W external adapter; QNAP rates typical operating power at 55.186W with all bays populated and 38.619W in disk standby. “With dual Thunderbolt 4 ports, built-in 10GbE and 2.5GbE connectivity, and the reliable data protection of ZFS, the TS-h966TX provides a secure, high-performance storage foundation for video production environments,” said Eddie Chuang, product manager at QNAP. QNAP TS-h966TX Specifications QNAP TS-h966TX Availability The TS-h966TX-8G is available for pre-order now at $1,299 from the QNAP store in the US, with delivery estimated at two to four weeks. It carries a three-year standard warranty, and QNAP offers a five-year extension.
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