For too many years, Synology has dominated the small NAS space for small businesses and family users. While their products are well defined and of professional quality, they are not great value for money and the pace of technological development of their products has been freezing.
For users to see solutions that are both more accessible and innovative, Synology needs a credible opposition, not just token NAS devices offered by drive-manufacturing brands.
Asus, or more specifically its Asustor sub-brand, has been one of the companies that frequently faces Synology, and today we are going to review one of its latest NAS solutions.
Purely for cost, the AS1102T seems like a very desirable alternative, but the devil is indeed in the details with this device.
Prices and availability
In the UK, the typical cost of the AS1102T is between €XNUMX and €XNUMX, for a unit with no pre-installed drives. At Amazon.com, the cost of sale is € one hundred seventy-nine ninety-nine and it is a similar cost at Newegg.com.
These units are already being phased out quickly, so stock may be limited in certain areas.
(*two*)
Mounting the discs is very simple with a screwdriver (Image credit: Mark Pickavance)Design and functionality
NAS case makers take a variety of approaches when building a NAS, and Asustor uses one akin to Synology, a steel frame wrapped in lightweight plastic.
Since this design has either open bays or trays, this results in a remarkably similar structure that can be accessed internally by removing 2 thumbscrews on the rear of the unit.
Once removed, much of the outer casing opens up to reveal the internal case, card, riser card with 2 SATA drive connectors.
There is room for 2 x 5" hard drives and screws are included to attach them to the frame.
Although the documentation does not explicitly mention them, 2,5-inch mechanisms can be installed, although no screws are suitable for these.
The 1 GB of DDR4 memory is surface mounted on the main board, which unfortunately eliminates the possibility of further expansion.
Technical sheet
Here is the configuration of the TechRadar Asustor DRIVESTOR 2 (AS1102T) tested:
Processor: Realtek RTD1296 4-core processor at XNUMX GHz
RAM: 1 GB DDR4 non-ECC (not upgradeable), XNUMX GB eMMC
Storage: 2 x three.5" HDD SATA (drives not included)
LAN ports: 1 x 2,5 GbE (RJ-XNUMX)
External ports: 2 x USB 2 Gen 1
Extension: via USB only
Weight: one with fourteen kg without variators
Dimensions: one hundred and two x two hundred and eighteen x one hundred and sixty five mm (width x depth x height)
Power consumption: eleven point six W (operating) five.97 W (hibernation unit)
Warranty: three years
With the largest SATA drives currently free, this NAS could hold thirty-six Tb (2x eighteen Tb), and by connecting external expansion via the USB ports, even higher overall capacities can be achieved.
With the units mounted and the case reassembled, the included laptop-style power supply plugs in with a LAN cable at the rear, and the AS1102T is ready for action.
There's a USB 0 port on the front and another on the back, and these can be used for shareable USB devices such as printers, or as we've already mentioned, external storage.
The front also includes a small collection of LED lights and what appears to be a sensor like those used with remote infrared controls.
Asustor manufactures one as an accessory for other NAS boxes, but curiously it is not mentioned in the documentation nor as compatible with this device.
Used
The Asustor AS1102T is "barebone" in that there is no disk installed. You'll need to get some of the drive in addition to this, and if you want to install 2 drives, then 2 of the right size and brand is a great idea.
One drawback we noticed when installing ours was that there were no rubber grommets or other padding between the physical drives and the metal frame. As a result, the frame transmits the vibrations from the drive actuators to the housing, making this device just the thunderous side. Someone probably appreciated throughout the development how each stroke of the registers was enlarged by the absence of certain minor elements that cost a fraction of a penny.
The repetitive noise of this device would annoy most people if they were on or under their desk, or next to the television, for example.
This flaw is somewhat surprising, considering the detail present in other aspects of this design.
The resolution to include eight GB eMMC flash memory allows the drive to provide a basic interface even before the drives have been released. A suite of commercial desktop and Apple Mac applications have also been created to take full advantage of NAS hardware to support network users.
It is possible to find the IP of the network by other means, but Asustor has a control application developed to find any Asustor NAS on the internet and also start the installation of the operating system. This methodology is common to many NAS brands, and the Asustor tool has auxiliary functions that make it useful to continue on the computer after the NAS is operational.
Assumptions are made about the default configuration of the drive and may need to be corrected later, but the installation wizard attempts to assist the user in making the appropriate resolutions.
If you install 2 drives, it will accept a speculum RAID 1 configuration, although you can change it to JBOD or RAID 0 via the web interface at the time the system is up and running.
No applications are installed by default, which eliminates the need to remove those that are not suitable for the intended use.
Where Synology was once the undisputed king of apps, Asustor's choice easily matches or even better in certain respects. With 1 GB of RAM, there's enough workspace to load many tools without slowing down performance, and it's a convenient device for software developers working with Drupal Trademark, Docker, PHP, or Python.
But it is a true Swiss Army Knife of NAS with currently XNUMX free installable tools and applications for use on Asustor NAS devices, and XNUMX of which can run on this hardware.
For those who are curious to see what tools they can employ, Asustor's site provides an overview of installable applications for their NAS hardware.