Menu
What's new
By:
Filters Better Search

ASUSTOR 5 SERIES

  • SNBForums Code of Conduct

    SNBForums is a community for everyone, no matter what their level of experience.

    Please be tolerant and patient of others, especially newcomers. We are all here to share and learn!

    The rules are simple: Be patient, be nice, be helpful or be gone!

R

rahduke

New Around Here
Is a review of these devices forthcoming? It's a really interesting product, I just received the 5002T it is pretty powerful...
 
Reviews of both the 5000 and 5100 series are in the works.
 
sweet, lets get em out there. I've looked for weeks for reviews of these devices they do not exist anywhere! Having the first legit review would be a boon for the site ;)
 
stevech said:
so how 'bout an informal critique?
Click to expand...

Glad you asked!

Build Quality:
Metal enclosure, nice clickyness when you insert the drives, seems pretty quiet, although I have nothing to compare it to.

Setup:
The Asustor 5002T arrived on my doorstep last night after work. By 9pm I had configured to my liking and integrated and into my network, SAB,Couchpotato, FTP, NFS, SAMBA, SSH, permissions, Plex, UPNP etc. So it was super easy to setup and get configured. I used a single WD RED 6TB drive and upgraded to 4GB ddr3 ram, some old macbook memory a friend gave me, it worked perfectly. I setup link aggregation as well (Adaptive Load Balancing) really cool feature, I'm not positive it increased throughput and stability because I started with LAG from jump but I suspect it's been helpful.

Performance:
I was really concerned about SABNZBD performance and Plex transcoding however my concerns were quickly alleviated when I was able to achieve full download speeds thru SAB (10mb per sec) after just a few tweaks to the configuration. Transfer speeds from my desktop backed up folders (totaling about 75GB in movie directories) moved very swiftly topping out at about 107mb per second. While that was transferring I decided to push the little box as far as I could so while the transfer was happening I downloaded some very large files through SABNZBD and began Plex streaming to my phones and laptops (2 local network, 2 outside network) and streamed a 1080p film through NFS to my living room TV. It all went off without a hitch for the most part, however fast forwarding/skipping while all this was happening did cause some issues and my file transfers fell to about 80mb per sec. The CPUs were absolutely pinned at 100% during this process which is to be expected. Overall I was pretty impressed :):)

Plex transcoding definitely taxes the CPUs which do not yet take advantage of the Intel Quick Sync feature of the j1800 Baytrail processor. I touched base with ASUSTOR about this and they confirmed they will be incorporating the FFMPEG-QS fork to improve transcoding by Q2 of this year (whether or not this applies to Plex or just their aiVideo app I have not been able to confirm yet).

I have not yet been able to test the consistency of multiple streams over a long period of time since I was just kinda messing around, however I should find out soon enough. Lots of my friends and family use my Plex server to stream stuff to their smart tvs/apple tvs/phones etc. On my old NAS (ix2-dl) I was running all my apps on my desktop and just using the NAS as storage and this caused a ton of issues with streams failing, stalling out local streams etc. Hopefully I can finally turn off my main PC and save some power by running everything on this powerful little bastard. PS do not waste money on the ix2-dl it is garbage.


Pros:
-Super powerful
-LAG really seems to help with multiple streams load balancing and such
- App store is robust,tons of apps
- Accepted off the shelf memory (DDR3)
- Easy to setup
- Fairly quiet

Cons:
My biggest issue thus far is with flaky access to the server while outside the network, for some reason I'm having trouble connecting to the thing from my phone and browser at work. Sometimes it works perfectly other times I get 404 errors, sometimes I get kicked off the server and when I try to reconnect it just stalls. I put in a trouble ticket with ASUSTOR
- No Quick Sync support yet
- Asustor forums are basically a ghost town, not nearly as much community support as Synology, QNAP etc
- The Android Apps aren't well designed and there are problems connecting to the various services.
- The CPU seems to run really hot its been at 50c or higher all day

Overall:
I'm really pleased with this NAS so far. There are a few nagging issues however I'm fairly confident they will be resolved. For $308 from Amazon this thing is a steal. Time will tell whether or not it can handle the stress I plan on putting it through but so far so good. I'm really excited to find out where it stacks up against other 2 disk NAS servers in its class...

I was going to build a stand alone NAS mini-itx server if this didn't work out but it seems like I won't have to go that route. I think I'm happier with just buying an off the shelf device because of how easy it is to get everything up and running. I know FreeNAS is solid but I would imagine getting LAG working properly and getting all my apps and services working up to snuff would have been a big pain in the butt.
 
Last edited:
the DIY NASes lack the features in the good commercial NASes, of which there are only 3 or so brands.

Is the problematic remote access using SSL? Using router port forwarding?
 
I don't open my NAS to the Internet... too paranoid about backdoor hacking into the NAS.

It is open on my LAN and WiFi (a risk I'll take due to WPA2).

Maybe someday I'll get SSL going and open it to the internet. But then there's that recent flaw in SSL.
 
well I'm not too worried about it, all I keep on my NAS are movies, tv shows and music. No personal information or my millions in BTC lol....
 
Hi rahduke, it would be great if you could share your experience with the asustor over the last few months.

I am thinking of either the 5104 or synology 415+.

Everyone keeps saying how good synology is. But there are few real world reviews of the asustor. It is by far more powerful and upgradable and I am leaning towards it.
 
penyekz said:
Hi rahduke, it would be great if you could share your experience with the asustor over the last few months.

I am thinking of either the 5104 or synology 415+.

Everyone keeps saying how good synology is. But there are few real world reviews of the asustor. It is by far more powerful and upgradable and I am leaning towards it.
Click to expand...


Sure, it's been really rock solid. I can count the times I've reset it on one hand. ADM updates roll out every few weeks I really couldn't be happier with the 50002T. The only knock I have dovetails with what you mentioned. The community using these devices is small the forums aren't very active but the devs are very responsive. I suspect if Asustor keeps up the good work it's been doing it won't be long until the community grows substantially. In short: I whole heartedly recommend the 5 series, Go for it!
 
Rock solid, to me, means never having the NAS needing a forced reboot.
That's my 2+ year experience with Synology and their DSM.
 
I've never needed to reboot the device for a problem I could specifically blame on the NAS. I've had WiFi issues, repeater problems, and issues with a few of my Htpcs where I've reset every device on the network.
 
stevech said:
Rock solid, to me, means never having the NAS needing a forced reboot.
That's my 2+ year experience with Synology and their DSM.
Click to expand...
Believe it or not, Steve, there are good products other than the ones you use.

ASUSTOR is backed by ASUS and is coming on strong. They are beating both QNAP and Synology on both performance and price. Feature set is behind a bit, but it's coming along.
 
Thanks for the links. I've read the reviews and they were pretty glowing.

Given the value for $$/performance ratio, I'll probably be going for the 5104.

I'm planning to get 1 4TB disk first and then probably add on 2-3 more later. Will this be a problem?

I'm also planning to get HGST as they seem to have the best reliability amongst the brands. Any feedback on them otherwise?
 
thiggins said:
Believe it or not, Steve, there are good products other than the ones you use.

ASUSTOR is backed by ASUS and is coming on strong. They are beating both QNAP and Synology on both performance and price. Feature set is behind a bit, but it's coming along.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the snark.
ASUS makes good stuff. Just not ready for top drawer status in NASes.
I and others here recommend Synology or QNAP. I don't own a QNAP.
 
thiggins said:
ASUSTOR is backed by ASUS and is coming on strong. They are beating both QNAP and Synology on both performance and price. Feature set is behind a bit, but it's coming along.
Click to expand...

Thiggins, what features do the rest have that is behind in the asustor?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

o-l-a-v
Anyone tried the ExpertWifi routers yet? EBR63, EBM68
Replies
17
Views
1K
tiddlywink
tiddlywink
C
ASUS XT12 With ASUS RT-AC86U
Replies
6
Views
544
ChaoscripT
C
Zakalwe
How do I check the performance of my router? [RT-AC68U]
Replies
15
Views
1K
Zakalwe
Zakalwe
J
News TEG-S750 (Version v2.0R) 5-Port 10G Switch
Replies
3
Views
670
gocoax
G
N
How long have Asus devices received security updates in the past?
Replies
2
Views
827
Tech9
Tech9

Latest threads

Sign Up For SNBForums Daily Digest

Get an update of what's new every day delivered to your mailbox. Sign up here!

Members online

Total: 807 (members: 20, guests: 787)
Top