Asustor Lockerstor 4 (AS6604T) NAS Review - Asustor Introduction

Asustor Lockerstor 4 AS6604t NAS (2x 2.5 GigE) 
Among the most powerful and feature-rich NAS units we have ever tested.

We see two trends for NAS units, Multi GigE Ethernet and, of course, a move towards NAND-based flash storage. In that mindset, Asustor released their compelling Lockerstor 4 (AS6604T) NAS server. This SOHO NAS is aimed at new audiences, including pro-consumers and those seeking entertainment with everything that streams. Realistically though, it might be one of the most interesting NAS units we have tested to date as it is fast, very feature-rich, offers two 2.5 Gbps Ethernet jacks. Not just that, you may insert four HDDs or SSDs next towards two NVMe M.2 storage units. 

Opposed to that other slightly referenced Harry potter series Nimbustor NAS series, the Lockerstor comes retrofitted with familiar ASUSTOR looks and offers a more professional design. The AS6604T, with that 4 for 4 HDD/SSD trays, has been fitted with an Intel Celeron J4125 processor, which's a quad-core with frequencies that sit in the 2 GHz range with a max turbo to 2.7 GHz. This new model is aimed more specifically at a professional consumer. In our belief though, every household should have a NAS unit. The idea for this series is that digital data storage and functionality like streaming are becoming more important. If you require speedy and large capacity storage for videos streamed to multiple devices, then here's where the AS6604T comes into play. Next to it's four 3.5 and compatible 2.5" slots (can hold both HDDs and SSDs), this LockerStor also has the luxury of fully fetched M2 slots, that's right; pleural. These are NVMe compatible, so plenty fast also. If you have a Multi- GigE Ethernet infrastructure, you can reach ~300 MB/sec over a single ethernet jack, the processor is plenty fast enough to keep that file-stream locked and loaded. These key features alone make this a truly proper performing NAS, period. It has all the features you know from Asustor, but now even more.

• Two 2.5 GbE ports with up to 5 Gbps under Link Aggregation
• Dual M.2 NVMe SSD ports for fast caching
• 4K experience (HDMI outlut)
• Intel Celeron quad-core CPU - 30% faster than the previous generation.
• 4GB DDR4-2400 - 30% faster than DDR3
• Supports Wake on LAN and Wake on WAN

Asustor also gave this AS66604T NAS series a fitting processor; it is a 10W TDP Intel Celeron J4125 (Gemini Lake refresh - yep, you guessed it; 14nm ;-) quad-core CPU with a 2 GHz base and 2.7 GHz Turbo clock frequency. It has a 4K enabled iGPU with embedded graphics support (mostly used as a transcoding engine for NAS). That means that both the native media applications from Asustor and Plex Media Server will support transcoding (Plex does require a premium subscription to activate that, though). So that offers plenty of performance whilst remaining energy efficient as well. A NAS is, in fact, a server, so it'll need some system memory as well. Included is 4GB of DDR4 (SO-DIMM) memory; however, you can drop in another 4GB through the extension port to reach a total of 8GB. The OS that manages it all is ADM, now at revision 3.5. And I have seen this software quite grown over the years to something mightily impressive, stable, and most of all, secure.

ADM is paired with an easy to use desktop GUI (graphics interface). A recent feature included now and the support for the btrfs file system, which allows for snapshots of the storage volumes for easy backups and a docker application, Plex, and roon server for multi-media applications. You will also notice that the Lockerstor AS 66604T has the ability for on-device video streaming to watch a high-quality video like Youtube and twitch soon as the NAS unit even has an HDMI 2.0a output. Included software with your Asustor NAS purchase offers lots of first-party media handling applications, file management, backup tools, and system tools. For those of a more SOHO state of mind, there is also the support of the newer docker/container application for running smaller virtual environments; VirtualBox is supported for bigger VMs and has ClamAV Protection intrusion, malware, viruses, and more. We test the 4-bay model, loaded with features and a plethora of software that will allow anything from a simple FTP server to VM aware solutions and heaps of media functionality. By the way, these units receive a nice 3 warranty, something you only get with premium NAS servers from other brands. 

The problem with NAS units and reviews is that they are so feature-rich that a standalone review can hardly describe all functionality. But trust me when I say, ASUSTOR is way up there offering it all.  Before we start the review, let me also reiterate that this is an energy-friendly NAS thanks to the Gemini Lake refresh architecture. As an example, the unit active with one 2.5" SSD and one M.2 NVMe SSD consumes roughly 10 Watts, and that's it.  Today's tested model NAS unit has four HDD bays (hot-swappable) that are RAID compatible. It offers them NVMe M.2. slots and 2x full-duplex 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet jacks; it comes with 3x USB 3.2 (Gen1, 5Gb/s). Yeah, this NAS might be a terrific low power option while providing a small server in features. Have a peek at the product, and then we'll dive a little deeper into the review.