Cheap Home NAS - Asustor AS1102T & AS3304T Review

[@ishmaelmusgrave]

My brother has been running an (older) Asustor for years, and it's been rock solid and quiet.

[@itwins3517]

One thing I learnt buying non-upgradeable RAM NASes, is the developer will keep adding contents into their firmware that require more and more RAM as version progresses. When that happens, your system becomes slower and slower to a point that becomes unusable. Synology was one that pissed me off 15 years ago with the DS101G and the DS211J with 256MB and 512MB RAM respectively, both systems the RAM were not upgradeable. I vowed never to buy anymore NAS that the RAM is not upgradable. So something for you to keep in mind.

[@pilsplease7561]

I have a synology nas thats 8 years old and just reached end of life software wise it had a arm processor at 1.7ghz and 2gb ram stock but accepted up to like 8gb which I added and never needed. Was one of the very high end synology 6 bay nas units. DS 1515, sadly im looking to replace it due to software being obsolete. I got to replace it at some point just cant afford to do so right now.

[@kesamek8537]

Affordable home NAS solutions whether prebuilt or self built are very interesting. Thanks for the video.

[@markwith140]

In this world where corporations try and squeeze as much money out of us as they can and where many of us have a massive amount of data and multiple computers and devices, i think NAS is more relevant than ever, even more so. I have an Asustor NAS and while the up front costs are pretty steep it was worth the money. I can recommend, easy to set up. I am even thinking of getting another for off site storage.

[@kengallacher2722]

i'm running a 10 year asustor model as a plex server with no problems. can stream two hd streams to two different rooms. don't use the nas to play the file, use a media player to do all the work. chances are you probably already have one in your home, firestick, nvidia shield, xbox, playstation and some TVs. but then i expect most of you know that and i'm not sure why the video doesn't mention it.

[@Divaxz]

Dude, your channel is amazing, you deserve more, keep the good work!!: Learned a lot from your videos! :D

[@ynocoolnamesleft]

appreciate the review

[@keithmiller9665]

Very interesting. With UK energy prices set to takeoff in September 2021 electricity consumption is a factor for me when something is going to be running 365x7x24. Looked at units like these and QNAP etc, but ended up running with a passive cooled Raspberry Pi 4B with 2GB of RAM and 4xSSDs, low power consumption. I reencode my videos before putting them on the NAS. I also had to buy USB 3 hub for the 4xSSD. Both Pi and hub have a total combined power consumption of 10 watts.

[@TechteamGB]

Nice! That's really impressive power consumption

[@DeeDee.Ranged]

I have a Pi 3B laying around. Should be able to put OpenMediaVault (runs on Debian buster/bullseys) on it.

[@Salman8506]

You need Plex pass to enable hardware transcoding...the issue of delays that you see is due to software transcoding trying to cope up with that cpu....do a redo with Plex pass and should be able to tell the difference...

[@j-bro]

If you want a Plex 'server' that is capable of just about any media for multiple streams at once, a prebuilt POS with a 10th Gen Intel CPU is plenty, which apparently is around the same price or cheaper than the 4 bay. My Dell doesn't break a sweat at a couple streams, no idea what it is capable of.

[@DeeDee.Ranged]

Still using my QNAP TS-459 from 2007 in raid 5. As the OS supplied by QNAP is obsolete installed OpenMediaVault on it a couple of years ago all just rock solid. Even if the QNAP TS-459 motherboard gives up I can build another one with an old mobo laying around in a PC case and set it up with OpenMediaVault put the 4 drives in it and presto all running again in raid 5.

[@larsgregersen]

Great Review. Could you please explain to me why you want to get Plex and why transcoding is so great?! I simply store my videos on a harddrive that shares the videos via DLNA, which my TV and mobile devices are able to pick up using VLC or other players. I keep the videos in MKV- or MP4-format and no transcoding is necessary.

[@Ndlelex]

That has been my go to solution for years; it has worked great for me.

[@labrat256]

12 Angry Men? You have a fine taste in films.

[@TechTechPotato]

I just had to bin/recycle my AS6204T because it won't turn on. I think it has the C2000 bug

[@TechteamGB]

Oh damn, that's a shame. Hopefully no data lost?

[@kennztube]

I beg to differ, its very important to have your own files backed up. And whatbif services are down or get hacked.

[@the-patient-987]

For that kind of money I would definitely build my own.

[@martinhorvath181]

for 150? not sure

[@thebubblegoose3038]

Could you store games on these and play games off of these? I homestream my games through my gaming PC with Moonlight, and could use the storage.

[@doomtomb3]

The AS1102T is perfect for me EXCEPT only 1GB RAM....

[@jouldalk]

Why chose asustor rather than Synology or Qnap? They don't seem much cheaper in my region...

[@itwins3517]

I haven't tried an Asustor yet and am thinking of buying one next. Was hoping it has expandable PCIe slot like Qnap.... Currently using a couple of Qnap NASes and I can say they are very buggy. My TS-653b took at least 10 firmwares updates before it became stable. Adding an external USB drives can also be problematic. Inserting a Qnap TR-002 into my TS-653b and TS453d and it locks up the servers 50% of the time its embarrassing. Also tried an Orico external USB enclosure into either systems have the same effect. Also won't recognize my 16TB USB drive when I installed a QNAP USB 3.2 Gen 2 Dual-Port PCIe Expansion Card (QXP-10G2U3A). Argh! Why not Synology? No 2.5Gbe network in any of their products. And because it's has no expandable PCIe slot (except high-end models), you cant just add in a 2.5 or 10Gbe PCIe card. You have to buy another unit. You really don't want to go the USB 2.5Gbe dongle method - it's not stable. Look at most Amazon reviews and you will know

[@doomtomb3]

Asustor is fine, I had their NAS for five years no complaints

[@dogwomble]

I'm actually buying one of these over Synology/Qnap. Essentially what I'm looking for is to use them as simple file storage, so the limited CPU is unlikely to be a factor. The selling point was a single 2.5 gigabit port over 2x1gb. Given the new PC I'm building also does 2.5gbit, this allows at least some upgrade path over gigabit should the need ever arise.

[@guywhoknows]

I had a old one of these, then they changed and nothing worked. It had some link online that they took away and thus rendered the Nas trash. It funny how you talk about a Nas as if it has big function and needs a high power CPU. It loads data across the network and this doesn't take a lot of power. My dual core system will max out the drive and Lan, but the drive connection speed is important (SATA2/3) If the array can strip and give good speed, and back up or parity. The Having one Lan port can reach saturation easy so the design if for one user. My 12 drive, quad core SAS system has 10gbe and it's a node, but there are four drives on two sleds. Then two on the front and two at the bottom. It works better than these, will Plex easy and transcode as it's got a dedicated GPU. The question is those USB3 drive bay sled things as that adds storage and "back up" though that not ideal. And any think the software looks like Synology DSM?

[@TheSNNJ]

I first like it, then watch it :D

[@muhammaddino5140]

my giveaway, i came here 1st

[@pilsplease7561]

Cloud storage is trash, too many ways to lose data a physical nas is always the best way to save data

[@nvidiashield8143]

Asustor is garbage, don't make my mistake and buy this junk!