Final Words & Conclusion

Final Words & Conclusion

Over the years we have tested quite a number of ASUSTOR NAS units. From A to Z depending on your budget, they have something for you available. Even the simplest AS1002T / AS1004T units (which are very affordable btw) offer plenty of performance and features. Once the SKU numbers get higher, so do the hardware and feature levels. And, as such, today we landed at the impressive AS6404T. The NAS unit delivers on all fronts. You could argue that it is a little bit more of the same, but for the demanding prosumer, HTPC enthusiast and/or SOHO buyer this unit really offers a lot. Take the new J3455 Quad-Core 1.5 GHz (burst up 2.3GHz) processor for example. It is based on the new Apollo Lake design, that means better IPC and you get four cores for all your (server) needs. What also surprised me was the excellent energy efficiency of this NAS. If we strip the NAS to its bare naked design and insert just one SSD, then the unit idles at roughly 6 watts, and full load performance in the 10 Watt range. Of course add, say, 5 Watts per HDD but yeah, this NAS is efficient, very much so. If you are your average consumer, we doubt you would need such a powerful solution as tested today. But if you have some security cameras connected to your network, this unit can function as a security suite. Also, if you download heaps and heaps of usenet or torrent content then hey, this unit offers fast downloads/uploads and has the processor and 8 GB dual-channel memory to deal with it, quite easily even. If you'd like to host a simple web application or run your own web-server, again the AS6404T can do it all. Realistically though you can do it also with the much cheaper AS1 series as the simple fact remains that the ADM software is incredibly efficient and can do massive things with just 2 cores and 512 MB or memory as well, but yes, if you like extra performance, features and the ability for server applications then your money is well spent on the AS6404T.

Pricing

At the time of writing, this NAS unit was not yet available. It did however list at €699,- For a consumer that is steep for a four-bay NAS unit, for a SOHO/business rather affordable. Hence this NAS remains to be a price competitive unit, especially for the small business owner and that heavy demanding consumer. Basically the AS6404T is an energy friendly server offering a wide range of features including file-sharing, usenet download, web applications, download systems, security center and so on. Combined with a new energy efficient and fast quad-core processor that offers plenty of power and 8 GB of memory set up in dual-channel this NAS is very comfortable for all your centralized storage needs.

ADM 3.0

ASUSTOR has ADM 3.0 in the works, this review reflects that new operating system. It feels exactly similar to the current 2.7x releases, however it has had an aesthetic overhaul. We had to try twice, but once we installed the 3.0 beta, we did not run into any issues. It is fast and very responsive. ASUSTOR has also ported most APPs already as I have not missed any of them. Combined with the extensive ADM software suite this NAS simply ticks all the right boxes as we haven't even talked about the amazing software suite that is available to you.

Overall Usage

The AS6404T is configurable and flexible in terms of HDDs capability. We tested the 4-tray version which brings in an extra RAID level, RAID5. You get RAID 0, 1, 5 or JBOD functionality. Performance wise with current gen HDDs you will not need RAID as you simply cannot pass the 125 MB/sec marker (Gigabit over Ethernet on a single link) anyway. If you want to go for RAID5, you do so for redundancy in-case of an HDD failure. The RAID array will remain intact and with a new HDD or hot-spare installed, the array will rebuild itself without loss of data. If you can get it working (and trust me it is hard) with activated link aggregation (pairing) your performance will go up. But for the regular consumer link aggregation is simply not viable. For SOHO environments it however can be recommended, but even then you'll be tied to expensive solutions such as capable compatible switches let alone getting your PC compatible. We have high hopes that 5 and 10 GigE will go mainstream later this year as even HDDs these days are much faster and are bottlenecked by Gigabit connections. But hey, with this unit on one Gigabit jack you'll still hover close to 120 MB/sec on read and write performance, you cannot complain there. If you decide to go for an Asustor NAS unit please check the HDD compatibility list and purchase your HDDs based upon their tested and recommended HDDs. In a past review I used Seagate Archive 8 TB HDDs, and these did not run very well. So, please make sure you select your HDDs wisely and check the QVL list available on the ASUSTOR website.

Performance

We reached expected transfer speeds over a single full duplex Gigabit Ethernet connection. Ethernet will always bring in some performance and lag issues over a network connection. I must admit that I liked what I saw, it's plenty fast for all your activities. With large files and a fast enough HDD over a Gigabit connection you will reach 110~120 MB/sec on read and writes. So for this type of Ethernet connection, really it can hardly go any faster. In a SOHO environment with 2-way link aggregations and proper equipment you can multiply that number by roughly 1.8x, but I do admit it is a feature mostly used in business solutions and it is just too hard to set up. We would love to see the first 5 and/or 10 Gbps Ethernet jacks implemented as the industry needs to move on we say. The performance is lovely when you take the processor into account, the quad-core low power Celeron combined with 8 GB memory. The AS6404T simply did not run into any performance issues and it has plenty of spare performance left thanks to very clever memory management. The GUI and ADM OS we feel is responsive and very fast, we do like the new ADM 3.0 update (albeit in beta at the time of writing this article). The usage of this processor also makes your applications fast enough, anything Apache and MySQL/MariaDB related for home usage will function fine as well as it serves all your download needs. We reached ~25 MB/sec downloads on torrents and NZB files, that last one was tested running on a proper SSL channel connection.

Flexibility

Here we land at the rest of the features and functions. You'll have your FTP server, you can upload images and music, make slide-shows out of it and show it on the web server of the device or watch photos and videos with the help of a software suite on your smartphone. You can stream DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) and this NAS can be automatically discovered by Digital Media Players (DMP), Digital Media Renderers (DMR) and Digital Media Controllers (DMC) allowing Pictures, Music and Video to be shared instantly at any time at home. All DLNA Certified Devices are capable of streaming content instantly from this NAS. The NAS can act as an iTunes server, with your mobile or, say, Apple iPod Touch you can stream music over Wifi. You can share files over the internet if you wanted to, and the list goes on and on. Keep in mind though that everything on this box is targeted at consumers and small business users (SOHO). Though you can access the WEB directory and make your own website, control and configuration over, say, the MySQL server we do warn you to take security measures. Make sure you secure your public files with proper Unix/Linux permissions. Thus at least a CHMOD 755 on directories and preferably 644 on files. You can log in to the box through SSH. The application list you can use on this machine is ginormous. Who ever thought of making a torrent download server inside a NAS box? You insert a .torrent file in the software option and all of a sudden the NAS is downloading content from the internet. It's nearly crazy to witness, how nice is that?

Energy Efficiency

In a single SSD/HDD setup, the NAS in its entirety consumes roughly 10 Watts, which is pretty impressive for a NAS unit with this stamina. Well, that's the result of choosing the right quad-core processor, it will consume a tiny bit more energy however the new Apollo Lake generation Celerons can clock down fast and conserve on energy. Once we set up one SSD for fast application performance and then another HDD we idle in the 10~15 Watt range, when the HDDs go to sleep we end up in that sub 10 Watts region again. I am very comfortable with that. If your HDDs are not used for, say, 30 minutes (or your own configured sleep time), they'll go into sleep mode and thus do not use any superfluous power. The unit also offers hibernation mode, the unit will go to sleep and consume less than a watt when sleeping, waking it up again however involves pressing a button or using a smart-phone app to activate it by WOL. A new feature that ASUSTOR has implemented is Wakeup over WAN, meaning outside your network you can remotely wake up the unit. Very handy if you are on the road and do not want your NAS to be active 24/7. ASUSTOR offers very energy efficient NAS units, which is an important thing considering they run 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. If I do some really rough math here, let's say we consume 15 watts averaged out. ((0.015 Watt x 24 hrs) x 365 days) x 0.21 KWh/eur =  26 Euros cost per year.

Final Words & Verdict

We've stated it a couple of times already, you just can't go wrong with an Asustor NAS. Currently it is easily one of my top ranking preferred brands for a NAS. I run two units myself in my office LAN, they never fail me and are always responsive and fast. ASUSTOR as such offers refined, well-balanced, powerful and energy efficient NAS servers. As a consumer it is however not easy to make the right choice: how many HDD trays/bays do you need and do you need a very powerful solution? Do you want server like functionality and performance, do you need this unit as an HTPC? It is the conundrum of options that will make a choice hard. For the entry level we still say that the AS1002T / AS1004T offer tremendous amounts of functionality and features for the money, and they remain plenty fast as well. However, in a more SOHO environment, or if you need a centralized server at home for, say, file-streaming or backups or running your own web environment, well that's where a NAS like tested today comes into play. The AS6404T sits in the flagship range with its quad-core processor and 8 GB of dual-channel memory. We say it is money well invested, Asustor is going to back that hardware with a 3 year warranty. Also you may expect regular ADM software updates keeping your running software up-to-date and secure. The unit as tested today might be a little much for the average user and consumer. While power consumption is really good for what it is, it might be a little high for consumers, for you we can strongly recommend the dual-core models. But I will make a side-note: right now each household might have 3 or 4 PCs all with their own storage units. Laptops, Tablets, Smart-phones, Smart TVs and media boxes streaming series and movies and so on have grown into the living room. When you think about it, doesn't it make a lot of sense to have a bit more of a powerful centralized server in your house-hold? NAS units like these will easily last you 5 to 10 years, so in the grand scope of pricing it might just be a very relevant purchase. Criticisms then, well I do not really have them other than two observations; for a flagship NAS unit I would have liked to have seen some sort of power failure UPS functionality. And yeah, an optional 5 or 10 Gbit Ethernet jack would have been nice as in the not too long future we will all make that move. Other than that the unit is future proof, even with the nice upgradable memory configuration. Building a media center? This AS6404T also comes with an HDMI 1.4b output that you can use. Install Kodi (available app) and your NAS will be able to play back Full HD content, even Ultra HD and HD audio streams. Though we doubt you'd be placing a NAS unit next to your TV. The new ADM 3.0 software suite looks promising. 

Overall it's two, maybe even three thumbs up for the AS6404T, this beast of a NAS can handle anything you throw at it and does it fast, very fast. Combined with excellent power efficiency and a massive software feature set these units are the top dog NAS servers out there. Centralized storage guys, in its best form. It's a steep investment, but you'll never look back or have regrets, that is a guarantee.

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