Asustor Lockerstor 4 Gen 2 NAS Review - Hardware, Software and Apps

[@preacherplays]

Solid information, thank you. I've been looking for months and still haven't made up my mind; but every video you drop fills my head with the information I need to think through my purchase well.

[@ASUSTOR_YT]

If you have questions, feel free to ask!

[@edutun265]

@@ASUSTOR_YT what's the max GB for NVMe SSDs ?

[@ASUSTOR_YT]

@@edutun265 No practical limit right now with SSDs currently on the market. Always ensure to check our compatibility list to ensure compatibility.

[@edutun265]

@@ASUSTOR_YT where's the list? Can you share a link please?

[@ASUSTOR_YT]

@@edutun265 It's on our site under the support tab. Every time I post a link, the comment disappears. Unfortunately.

[@ASUSTOR_YT]

4:26 We love extra bonus points!

[@Mythologix]

I have been looking to upgrade from my Buffalo NAS and after watching several of your videos I made up my mind and went with this Asustor, ell actually I got the Gen 1 model the 660 not 670. It just came in today so now I'm rewatching your videos to learn more on setting it up for my needs, but I can already say I'm just blown away by how much more user-friendly the system is when compared to my old system. Thanks for putting out such great and informative videos, it helped me make a solid choice.

[@WillBelden]

Hope you got this thing free, because this is an EXCELLENT review!

[@coolstuff_.]

I went with a 4-bay Asustor NAS based on best value and it works very well for my needs. After owning it 6 months, I learned I did not follow best practices when i set it up to guard against ransomware attacks so I went through the trouble of starting over. Glad I did because those best practices I implemented during setup prevented me from surfing the pain others did when the ransomware attack Deadbolt hit. I was away from town at that time but slept soundly knowing I shored up every vulnerability the attack targeted. I can’t thank NASCompares enough for these type of videos that helped organize my digital life with a NAS.

[@ASUSTOR_YT]

Thank you for your support!

[@exploremarketingllc]

Where did you find how to best set up this device? I just got one and need some steps to take, and am worried about this exact thing. Thanks so much…👍🏽

[@1BSDjunkie]

Hello Robbie! Really enjoy all of your informative videos and product reviews! You keep it interesting as I enjoy the conversation. Grateful how you guys encourage others to participate in the forum - which gives back to the community.

[@8-Bit-Retro]

I've had one of these in my Amazon basket for a while - waiting until the right time. Now it's the right time and all the 4-bay Lockerstor 4 Gen 2 AS6704T models seems to have disappeared from existence - typical! Can't find them on any of your affiliate sites or more generally 'out there'. Hope there isn't an issue as I earmarked this after watching a number of your reviews (thank you!). It is certainly time for me to upgrade my Netgear RND312 (which to be fair has served me well...) - hopefully they will re-appear soon...

[@MultiLagge]

Love your seagull back there ❤😅

[@Cary_mac]

Based on your review and being able to sell my old DS1515+ for a decent price I’m giving Asustor 4 a go. Pretty excited to try something new out!

[@jukimax]

Very nice content, also enjoy a lot of your informative videos and tips :)

[@daveg4417]

I am looking at buying one of these Asustor AS6704T units soon. To replace a Synology 2-Bay to go RAID10. I like the looks and features of the Asustor better than the equivalent Synology. I have two brand new WD Black 1TB NVMe that I can use for cache. The btrfs is a nice feature to guard against bit-rot. I use the NAS as one of four backups as its only purpose. I have for years been watching the TrueNAS forums and pricing out ITX Server systems, and I just can't get anywhere near the price of the NAS boxes or the features.

[@jconnerley]

Your channel is pretty neat. I initially took note of your video about migrating away from WD nas, because i have decided to do that for a variety of reasons. Ive been looking at Synology, but also asustor especially the AS6704T. I want to migrate toward solid state, but also incorporate hdd's i already have. Id like to pull the two WD 4 TB hdds from my wd mycloud ex2 ultra and install in a new NAS, and preserve the data. Is that sensible? Current ex2ultra must be using them in some kind of RAID array. Will asustor or indeed any new nas have the abilty to set up these drives in a suitable RAID configuration and preseve the data?

[@dandrevs]

Would you still recommend gen 1 for 2023 purchase? Will the software get updated down the road? I'm finding some at great prices locally. Need to emphasize one of the use cases will be Plex Media Server with max 2 streams at any moment.

[@SolarEnergyBTC]

would be ideal if you would show how to upgrade the RAM inside of the 6704T, the chip that is inside, not the easy access one. I havent found a video showing how to get at the chip on the front of the MB, only the simple easy one on the back.

[@edutun265]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/q2rUgY2HmN-ohqs

[@exploremarketingllc]

I was wondering how to do this too…

[@Echoes-of-Elsewhere]

I came across your amazing channel today, Thank you for the good information! I am looking for a 4-6 bay hardware RAID 5 or 6 external enclosure for storage and backup. I was looking at DAS, but I like this Asustor NAS system. Is this Asustor NAS use a hardware level raid controller or does it use internal software to address the drives? As a comparison I was looking at the QNAP TR-004 the Yottamaster FS5RU3, or the Syba SY-ENC50118. Price concern but I rather have better reliability if i can keep the price reasonable. One more thought can you use a M.2 PCIe M Key to 6 x SATA 6Gbps Adapter Card RAID adapter in one or more of the slots, knowing that I wont be able to put the cover back on. Thanks for any advice in advance.

[@AnzacPT]

was undecided between the 6604 and the 6704 to replace my Netgear RN214. went with the 6704 as i thought it was the best option. should receive it next week. a big plus for me was future option to use 10gbe, but now it seems i have to choose either NVME or 10GBe?

[@lowesmed5681]

Would like to hear more about the MyArchive feature in your ADM review 🙏🏻 Sounds pretty cool

[@yiyinyu9679]

Great video! I wanted to know if the 4SSD bay can be used to store parity for raid 6. Let's say I want to use 4x4TB spin drive and 2x2TB m.2 SSD to achieve 5x4TB raid 6? and use the 2 remaining m.2 for caching?

[@KevinMuldoon]

Fantastic overview. This looks like one of the best 4 Bay NAS options available today (I know software isn't as refined as others though). The only thing that was holding me back initially is the SSD setup as it's a pain that 10GBE would only be available by removing the SSDs, but it looks like the combined SSD(2 NVME)/10GBE card is compatible. Kevin

[@fablesofsilence]

Do you have a link to the card you are mentioning here? Thanks

[@KevinMuldoon]

@@fablesofsilence It's reviewed here kzbin.info/www/bejne/l5i2eYSVoJ5saJI

[@nastynemesis1525]

where can i buy extra ram for this ASUSTOR AS6704T please

[@roberthorvath9756]

Great review! Just one question: are there any application for the ASUSTOR that can stream DSD or FLAC to a DAC WITHOUT any change/reencode?

[@ArcanesWorld]

I'm thinking of getting this, but I wanted to know more about the ram upgrades on this and if the round is proprietary like Synology or can you use outside ram and NVME's?

[@ToldYouSo18]

Asustor can have different branded hardware

[@exploremarketingllc]

Just got this and am curious for editing large video files (mostly), storage and back up, and faster speeds, and access when out of town to edit my files…what else would you recommend me getting to add on to it? From what I researched, more RAM(?), at least one M.2 SSD Nvme card, and also the 10 Gbe NIC card…does this sound right (knowing I can add more on as I go)? I have two 20TB Seagate Ironwolf Pros as well. Thanks for the input…I’m new to using a NAS!

[@praetorxyn]

I'm considering the AS6706T at some point in the future if I can justify it. I have a Synology DS918+ in RAID 10 with four WD Red 12 TB drives in RAID 10 at the moment, but one of those drives just died a couple months ago, and while I replaced it, I'm now paranoid about the other three... but I don't want to mix and match drives. So while I'm not exactly hurting for capacity, I'm kind of using it as one justification for an upgrade, as I could then reinitialize the Synology in RAID 5 and use it as an on-site backup, I guess. The AS6706T seems the way to go IMO as it comes with the 8 GB RAM in the internal slot standard - meaning you don't have to take the whole damn thing apart to upgrade to 16 GB RAM - and it also has an internal power supply, because I absolutely hate power bricks and wall warts in terms of cable management. The trouble is, I can't really justify it at the moment because: 1. I don't really have a good place to put it - particularly if it's going to be louder than the DS918+ (and I'm assuming most of the noise would come from using Seagate 20 TB Iron Wolf Pros, which are 7200 RPM and much denser compared to my four WD Red 12 TB drives, which are 5400 RPM) 2. My network is only 1 Gbps at the moment. Just as I don't really have place on my desk for another NAS, I don't have a place on my desk for a 2.5 Gbps / 10 Gbps switch, and my house is not wired for ethernet. Ideally, I'd put a rack in the basement and get the house wired for ethernet with a patch panel, then put in a rack router and use PoE 10 Gbps switch and APs, then I could put the NAS anywhere I damn well wanted and just run a cable to it, but that's harder to justify than the NAS.

[@hapzfl]

Hello, I am currently using an older Synology NAS. Can a BTRFS formatted Synology HD be read directly by the Asustor NAS by swapping the HDs? Or do I have to go thru a cumbersome file transfer?

[@ASUSTOR_YT]

18:16 Don't forget SMB Multichannel!

[@VegasMadMikey]

Does it support mixed drives as different brands, speeds, etc? Also are the drives hot swappable? Thanks

[@ast-og-losta]

Hello, Im confused. What type of m.2 do I need? 3.0 3x2, 3x4? Is there a maximum capacity? What should I use for Plex?

[@Dr.Krates]

Hi nice informative video. have anyone got experience in running Moodle on ADM? I am trying to run Moodle for a small school. I got it running ok locally, but how do I make it accessible on the internet?

[@anub1s15]

so what i got from your notes on noise there wouldn't be much difference between this and a DS220+? using 2 8TB WD Red Plus (5640rpm) in raid 1 and I was kinda shocked (coming from 1 4TB WD Red Pro) at how loud these drives were in the ds220+ was wondering if it was the...imo crappy cage amplifying the vibrations tried almost everything but it really would give my old 300GB WD Velociraptors in raid 0 or my 4TB WD Black a run for there money in the noise department...almost curious just how loud this thing would be if I went with 7200rpm drives >.>

[@Battersea-kd9to]

i'm new to this.. what is the NVme drives used for on a NAS? OS drive or more storage?

[@livinginsql6918]

Beyond NAS, do you think I could use this product to spin a small windows vm unfortunatedly some things i need require windows only programs (ms office modules). Having this running in a VM in a nas would make more sense than having a stand alone small machine.

[@idlesurfer214]

Great video! Noobie question 1: Can this be run solely using SSD's? I'm not a fan of noisey hardware. Noobie question 2: Heat. Will the ssd's need individual thermal pads and heatsinks?

[@Scorpan]

A quick question.. with Asustor supporting BRTFS. is it using the brtfs raid or is it the old trusty mdadm with just btrfs as a filesystem on top of it? thinking about the RAID 5/6 issues with the btrfs raid..

[@PC-of7lw]

I've had a Synology 920+ for over 2 years. Wanted a newer model for my house but looking at Synology's line up I can't help but feel they are locking many features out of their lower end models and for what gain? I love DSM 7, it's rock solid with the occasional SMB service stopping and needs a reboot. The software is mature. However 1 GbE feels extremely dated and to see it on their higher priced models makes me laugh a little. There's a spare M.2 slot on my 920+ which I can't even use for storage? While the Lockerstor can, heck the 10 bay model has two 10GbE ports future proofing the thing by alot. Some of Synology's newer models 923+ don't havea GPU either, occasional transcode or VM hw acceleration goes along way. Torn at the moment. Asustor looks extremely tempting, when the time comes if their software has mutured I think it'll be a no brainer. Not to mention the endless possibilities of Gen2 USB like maybe running an external GPU? Amazing stuff from Asustor and I could soon be a customer when the price drops a little more.

[@90aunder]

Stupid question, but is there a noticable speed benefit to installing to nvme over hdd? Thanks for the informative video - very helpful in my decision making (deciding between Qnap TS-464 and this, coming from TrueNAS)

[@alevy55]

Thank you for a thoroughly informative review. I own this NAS with 4 Seagate 8TB ea. RAID 5, and upgraded the RAM to 16GB. However there are 3 as of yet unsolved issues for which any advice would be appreciated: 1. Using Chromebook OS on Asus CX5400, EZsync does not work, it's for Windows pcs. What's a good alternative? 2. Backup App, no option to backup Chromebook to the NAS or even external USB drive. Is there an alternate app? 3. WOL works using AiData on Android phone. But using the Chromebook WOL using AiData doesn't work. Other two functions, sleep and power off do work. Asustor Tech Support is trying to resolve this issue. Thanks for any advice and for all the informative videos.

[@praetorxyn]

For syncing documents / pictures / calendar / contacts between devices, I host the LSIO Docker container for Nextcloud, and it works brilliantly. My Windows desktop and ancient Mac laptop are setup so that the Documents / Pictures folders just directly point at Documents / Photos in Nextcloud, so anything I put in those folders automatically syncs to every device I have. My Android phone is setup so that when I take a picture, it automatically uploads it to my Nextcloud Photos folder and deletes it from the phone, and both my phone and iPad are setup so when I save a picture, it automatically uploads it to Nextcloud Photos/Memes (because if I'm saving something, it's probably a meme) and deletes (though on the iPad I have to go to Photos and manually delete, probably because of some iOS restriction). In general, third party apps tend to be way more powerful than these 1st party NAS apps from Synology, QNAP, and Asustor, in general. So if you have a problem to solve, I'd just try googling best Docker container to do X.

[@jahon2013]

M.2*4 is good!

[@vinniemezzina3154]

Went to look at this and noticed something which you would need to correct in your review. If you upgrade to the 10gb nic then you have to remove the M.2 card. You have to go into the settings and switch from M.2 to PCI 10gb card so the NVME drives can't saturate the 10gb nic since they can not exist together. Unless you can find a card that does both and maybe get it to work. Love your reviews keep up the excellent work

[@ASUSTOR_YT]

We intend on having a solution in the next couple months. Stay tuned!

[@exploremarketingllc]

So does this mean you can’t have the 10Gbe and an M.2 card at the same time?

[@corenut6520]

The new model 10G nic also include 2 nvme slots. yes,you will only lost 2 slots for 2280 ssd

[@mikec00566]

I think i might be getting Asustor LOCKERSTOR 4 Gen2 AS6704 for £619 and 2 x Seagate IronWolf Pro 16TB NAS for £265 each or would i be better getingf the 6 bay for £200 more with 8 gb memory

[@WillBelden]

Considering the 6-bay as an upgrade for my aging Drobo 5N. I'm a huge fan of these apps, whether 1st- or 3rd-party, because while I'm a programmer, I am NOT a Linux guy. And Docker is even supported here.

[@mdd1963]

Just got the 6 bay 6706T in today, love it!!!

[@WillBelden]

​@@mdd1963 I ended up with the Synology DS 1522+, 5x8TB in RAID6 for 20.xTB total storage. (I was at only 10 TB with my old Drobo 5N.) Been pretty happy with it in the couple months I've had it online. Docker, for sure, but just an awesome interface with the DSM 7.2.

[@eddyhaze8239]

the NAS man

[@aquamania64]

Hey, is Synology going to release a new nas to compete with this one ?

[@PC-of7lw]

I doubt it, it feels like Synology has created a line up so not to threaten their higher end models. It's exactly the game Camera manufaturers play. I'd consider a Synology myself to sync with my 920+ but everything they have on offer at the moment is extremly unappealing, 1GbE anyone? No way to use M.2 for storage, no GPU from their recent models, No gen2 USB, and many more. I haven't even mentioned the ridiculousness of a £500+ eSata expansion unit if you want more drives.

[@jpbeauch1]

I still use the 6404. Should I switch? what gain is to expect if I do?

[@ASUSTOR_YT]

Do you need 2.5GbE that can be combined to 5 Gbps? Do you need m.2 SSDs? Do you need amazing 4K transcoding? Do you want to set up two NAS devices to mirror and have a local backup? If you said no to all four, then it's probably not entirely necessary to upgrade. We'll be here when your needs change and we appreciate your support!

[@Lensman3333]

Seems to be a better buy than QNAP/SYNOLOGY

[@IulianGeorge-cigraphics]

i upgraded mine with 4 nvme in raid 6 on which I installed ADM. 4 HDDs in raid 5 and 16 GB RAM

[@ASUSTOR_YT]

Thank you for your support!

[@diavuno3835]

They do make the best looking hardware /feature set m I wish the software was better

[@87vortex87]

Can I also install Truenas Scale on this hardware?

[@ASUSTOR_YT]

No. It does not support TrueNAS Scale.

[@87vortex87]

@@ASUSTOR_YT thanks for the reply.

[@ASUSTOR_YT]

@@87vortex87 No problems.

[@Hail_News]

Yes ☺️ yess!! Dollars are best

[@rwetmore]

Robbie, you really need to get over your obsession with plastic and foam in packaged products. Most reputable manufacturers are moving to paper/cardboard packing, as it helps prevent plastic waste gushing out into our biosphere. Plastic recycling is a myth. Proper packaging techniques (double-boxing, molded pulp inner frames, etc.) help protect products during shipment. Same goes for metal vs. plastic enclosures. Metal is readily recyclable. If a device is noisy as a result, then the manufacturer needs to take steps to dampen sound. Help your viewers become responsible citizens of the planet.