Asustor Lockerstor 2 Gen 2 NAS Review

[@PC-of7lw]

I'm a Synology fanboy and the Asustor will be my next device either gen2 or by the time I need it the gen3. Synology are pulling some really anti-consumer moves and I recently learned they've removed support for most USB devices in DSM 7. When I learned this it was the last straw. Imagine having dual 2.5 GbE ports or even 10GbE in future, Asustor just looks too appealing.

[@ast-og-losta]

Sold. After hours of research, this is the best buy for me. Thanks so much! Huge help!

[@kaanaslan_tr]

Hello, considering this video was made about a year ago, although you mentioned it as such a great product to have, you also mentioned about the lack of some software features. I don't know if you're still using this device but, how has the progress been since your review software wise? Has some of the features you were mentioning that had to be added or improved got available? I'm planning to buy my first NAS. I've been doing this with my Raspberry PIs but I really like to have a fully featured 2 bay NAS drive in my house both for storage and maybe even for hosting my web server and many more stuff... I think I like the features of this product but when you reviewed it, it was a new product and the software needed some tweaks. Do you think today, it is safe to go with this device without thinking about any software issues? Overall, has it got better since it was first launched? Thanks.

[@coldReactive]

Since you haven't gotten a response, and I was looking around; according to most reviews I've seen, this NAS has issues with large transfers by default. (EG: 2 TB at once.)

[@km3481]

Good to see them raise the bar for the competition. If I was in the market for a NAS I would def consider this brand! Never been a fan of mixing drives for some hybrid raid, hurts performance and never been an issue to me to have the same drives in the nas... btrfs is really sweet option over ext4 and having modern ports is nice. Great point Robbie, they took the best of the competition.

[@LeeMaiden]

This is the one I set up today with my 2- 8TB HGST drives and 2- 1TB NVMe's for read/write cache. it was a breeze, took the two 8TB drives out of the AS1102T and popped them in my new AS6702T and it did the work for me, didn't lose any data. This thing runs fast and good. Plus I can add two more NVMe's for more storage if I want.

[@PjotrII]

I just bought the 4 bay version (Asustor lockerstore 4 Gen 2), and it´s great! 4* 16TB Seagate HDD´s in RAID 10, 270 Mbit speed on (2,5 Gbit ethernet).

[@Stone1108]

I’m in the consumer group being targeted by Asustor with this product. I’m looking for my first NAS. it’s taking a while to decide, in fact I thought I found the one for my usage factor, however, as PC mentions in a comment, Synology are making some consumer unfriendly moves in the product line especially at consumer and prosumer level, so Synology, count me out! Having watched many of yours and other video reviews on the tube, this NAS, is looking a sound possibility for me, I also like how you describe the ethos and non-aggressive stance toward their products and consumers. I’m a photographer, I use a particular brand for the same reasons and as a result I get the product that i want and works for me every time. All I want is to edit some fairly heavy images, possibly the odd video, and organise my photos with some redundancy and backup, could this be the one!! Thanks for your continued ace hard work and honest unbiased reviews. 👏. Happy new year. 🥂

[@Lensman3333]

I am in the same Boat! I counted out Synology and can't really make my mind up between this model or teh QNAP 253E

[@Stone1108]

@@Lensman3333 I’m going to take a deeper look at the next level NAS’s. Expandable but also fast enough read and write to deal with this 100 heavy focus stacks. Don’t have to fill all of the bays straight away and will have space for one of those high speed cache thingies later on!! Too easy to get carried away with the outlay though!

[@Lensman3333]

@@Stone1108 That's the issue, I agree, TBH a Four Bay for me is not that much more, but the cost of additional drives is unaffordable for me. So I have decided to order the Gen2 Lockerstor

[@Arachnoid_of_the_underverse]

Its a pity a unit isnt make with interchangable cpu and ram slots , so you could say install an i3 and 16GB DDR4 so that upgradability to extend use type and life span was an option.

[@paulclarke5420]

Some older nas units were cpu upgradable (qnap ts-470, etc). This was not officially supported, but it could be done since the obtained cpu was a desktop socketed cpu. This is/was very rare since the atom based cpus were more power efficient, cheaper and designed for direct solder applications. :-(

[@Ilost11]

The time of removable CPUs is long gone in the pre-built all in one NAS space. Most of these processors are low-end embedded or mobile solutions due to power efficiency and cost concerns. Consequently all these processors are soldered as these CPUs are not sold standalone. There may be some niche cases where server grade CPUs are used where they could be socketed, but it's probably cheaper from a cost perspective to get those all-in too. As to RAM being soldered, there are some arguments for high speed DDR5 which benefits from being soldered over socketed, but it's mostly done to artificially segment products and force the user into an up sell from the manufacturer. The best we'll probably have for a while will be the Zima Cube.

[@marceldenouden9207]

I've read that people successfully installed 64GB RAM... officially it goes to 16GB but apparently stable with more :)

[@martinmueller4673]

It should be mentioned that - on the larger devices - you have to remove the nvme card to plug in a 10gb network card. In other words: To have high speed networking you'll have to give away the nvme storage.

[@Supermath101]

Though, they recently released a hybrid card with 10 GbE and 2x M.2 SSD slots.

[@samuelfebrian9398]

@@Supermath101where we can purchase or find it?

[@Supermath101]

@@samuelfebrian9398Amazon. Look for the AS-T10G3

[@johnnyxp64]

Just ordered it. 433€. Thanks for the review

[@etec1694]

O rei dos nas. Me dá um kkkkk desses aí da tela de lado

[@chekiechen]

I feel like since Synology gave up home NAS market, other brands feel emboldened to ask for higher prices…

[@lentilgod58]

Only thing i don't like about asustor is that theydo not mention years of support anywhere that i could find. All they say is that it will be supported "for a long time". They should make this more clear and direct: X number of years of support, like what Qnap and Synology do

[@ASUSTOR_YT]

We usually try to go as long as we can until things like driver support is not being updated anymore.

[@felixg.6493]

I have some technical questions, would be thankfull for help: -If used both, is the M2 and HDD storage combined or seperated? If yes, do they function like one raid and each must be the same size? -Can the M2 storage SSDs each be bigger than 2 TB? -I read, that the M2 must be installed first, because then the system will be installed there?

[@cyberfastfred]

The same with only the 4 nve ssd disks would be perfec for me. A smaller box is what I need.

the Lockerstor 2 Gen 1 goes now on sale , in Germany is costs 130 euro less than Gen 2 , would you still recomend the gen 2 ? I think those 2 SSD slots are enough to make the difference

[@damospearzo1032]

One question, i can't seem to find a native notes app for iOS or Android . Does the ADM software have one ? I have checked eveywhere but cant seem to find one. This is one thing that is a deal breaker for me.

[@tribbleorlfl]

So I'm new to NAS, but looking into it to replace an old, traditional external HDD that died. Figured now is a time to start ripping and up converting all my movies if I need new storage. Would you say this would be a good choice for a consumer like me? Do you have a recommendation for compatible NAS drives?

[@damospearzo1032]

Great video rob, i am a Syno fan boy and have been for quite sometime. I currently use a DS918+ as my NAS of choice but also have a Qnap TS251 as well . This Asustor NAS appears to have the best of Synology and Qnap with some very interesting bonuses as well. As someone who uses mostly the basics ie Calendar, Photo, Video, Notes, Surveilance, Backup, could you please do an in dedicated review on each one of these more basic necessities as well as the HDMI functionality. This is a NAS that seems to have it all for the home user and i would love to know a lot more !! This may be a replacement for my Qnap now and my Syno, inthe future. Great video !!!

[@trunksviper6583]

does any one knows a good direct attache storage

[@Lensman3333]

Rather confused, you said a little expensive for a two bay? Compared to the equivalent QNAP/SYNOLOGY it is less expensive, please qualify your statement. It make no sense. This NAS seems a lot more sophisticated and offers better hardware and spec that the QNAP 253E

[@coolstuff_.]

Cool

[@ecotts]

Meh!

[@do0zer1976]

I found this to be complete garbage, randomly drifting on and off the network... Who needs a nas that only works sometimes lol... LIfes to short for garbage like this...

[@ecotts]

I don't care how many NVME slots it has, its over priced. Keep in mind large reliable NVME drives are damn expensive, by the time you spend through the nose for them for that NAS to utilise it as a four or six bay and then add a bunch of decent worst case 1TB NVMEs this will be one mega expensive unit and its not even one of the big brands. Id rather buy a 4Bay Synology or Qnap with 2 NVME slots and possibly a PCI port and have the ability to put cheaper larger capacity drives and just have a better well polished, widely supported device. Also this device is going to have way less community support than the larger brands, less cross platform application and services, and likely less refined official apps and community apps in general. The HDMI is a cool to have but nine times out of ten although I always want one on a NAS I rarely ever use them, I just want to know its there if I ever need it. So its not essential but a nice to have. 2.5Gbe NICS are cool but it's pretty much standard now so its not really a selling point. If Asustor wants to make gains in sales and popularity and want to charge stupid money they should do things that we haven't seen very often rather than all the same boring shit that we've seen time and time again. How about they make a near equivalent NAS on par with Synology and QNAP hardware wise but have an edge where you can upgrade the CPU. How about they make a NAS with the ability to use their OS out the box or provide a supported firmware which can enable users to install TrueNAS or some other opensource OS of their choice. Change it up a bit... We live in a time that the world keeps droning on about global warming and that whole green agenda and these NAS companies keep making hardware which is NOT really upgradeable performance wise, its ridiculous. Asustor is just another typical NAS manufacturer that has just jumped on the NAS band waggon with the delusion that its on par with larger brands in this part of the world when actually its not and yet they still think they can offer next to nothing different and charge a premium. I ain't buying it!

[@PC-of7lw]

It's a little overpriced. Compare that to a Synology and you can't even find a comparible device.

[@Lensman3333]

NOT Overpriced compared toa. QNAP 253 E it is around £100.00 less expensive and offers more spec.

[@RRYYLT]

If you want to save money, Terramaster seems to be the only option at the moment.

[@Lensman3333]

@@RRYYLT I haven't compared the Terramaster to the Lockerstor Gen2