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While fast networking 10GbE-supporting NAS units have been slowly, very slowly, making their way into the business sectors, there has been an even slower creep to seed the consumer market with NAS units that support the fast networking technology.
Asustor has taken the plunge and brought two 10GbE equipped models into this market sector, the two bay AS4002T and the four bay AS4002T. Both use the same combination of a dual-core Marvell ARMADA-7020 64-bit CPU and 2GB of DDR4 memory.
Asustor's NAS OS, ADM (Asustor Data Master) is one of the best NAS OS around. Quick and easy to install, it is straight forward enough to navigate around and it is constantly kept updated with more advanced main features and even more additions to an already impressive list of apps in App Central.
When it comes to backing up your data (remembering that RAID is no substitute for properly backing up your data) you are almost spoilt for choice with the AS4004T, providing well over 12 different backup options is pretty impressive. Want to back data to the cloud? Then no problem as Amazon S3, WonderBox, xCloud, CrashPlan, Box.net, HiDrive, Ralus, ASUSWebStorage, Dropbox, Google Drive and OneDrive are all supported.
If not the cloud, then there are remote options using FTP Explorer as well USB external drives (via the front USB One Touch button) and local backup. You can backup to another NAS and if you are a Mac user, Time Machine is also supported. Then there is the MyArchive technology that allows NAS hard drives to be saved as archive disks.
Should you find yourself running out of storage space, no problem, the AS4004T supports the AS6004U 4-bay expansion unit via a USB 3.0 connection. At the time of writing this review the AS6004U supports drives up to 14TB. The AS4004T can support two AS6004U units via its two USB connections.
It's a very quiet NAS in operation (Asustor quote figures of 19dB standby and 32dB in operation), and we could barely hear the NAS itself – all you can really hear is the good old hard drives rattling away when they are being accessed.
To bring a 10GbE equipped NAS to the consumer space, Asustor have made a few compromises with the AS4004T. The choice of a dual-core processor meant that it did struggle with some of our intensive write tests (although the read performance is good) and you don't get an HDMI port or any super-fast USB ports either.
Still, for under £350, the Asustor AS4004T does provide that 10GbE networking, which alongside the excellent ADM OS, makes this unit worth buying.
We found the Asustor AS4004T on Overclockers UK for £339.95 (inc VAT) HERE.
Alternatively, the NAS is also available from Amazon UK for £339.00 HERE.
Pros
- Good read performance.
- 10GbE network support.
- ADM OS.
Cons
- Dual core CPU struggled with some of our write tests.
- Not much in the way of external ports.
KitGuru says: By using a low-cost ARM processor and cutting back on popular port options like HDMI and USB 3.1 Type C, Asustor has managed to bring 10GbE connectivity to the consumer market at a reasonable price point.
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