Asustor Reveals AS4004T 10GbE Toolless NAS
LAS VEGAS, NV -- Most of us don't upgrade our NAS with every new processor or feature release. The category is rarely a hot topic among gamers, but many PC enthusiasts have either built or bought a NAS at some point. The largest problem with these products has always been the cost. Modern burly NAS cost as much as a PC—and they should. The small form factor designs, exceptional software, and hardware costs are very high. The systems cost as much as computers because they are computers, and then some.
Asustor might have just the upgrade to entice those typically hesitant customers. The company plans to release a new model that features 10Gb Ethernet as well as four drive bays, and at a great price point. The new AS4004T (and two-bay AS4002T) could be just what the market needs to break wide open to a new group of users. The AS4004T features two 10GbE network ports, a single 1GbE port, single fan cooling, and a toolless design that will cost less than $400 (unofficial pricing is set at $360).
To help reduce costs, the Asustor AS4004T and two-bay version AS4002T don't use external multimedia ports like HDMI or S/PDIF. The system is mainly a storage box, a true network-attached storage system used to hold data. The low-power Marvell Armada 7020 processor is powerful enough to stream media files over DLNA but we wouldn't expect the system to transcode high bit-rate content without dropping frames. We will have to test that feature when the system comes to market later this year.
Asustor's ADM software is one of the best available. The system's 2GB DDR4 system memory will allow users to load some software, but don't expect to run several third-party add-in packages at the same time without overloading the 1.4GHz processor.
This system's main feature is the speedy 10Gb network connection. Netgear announced a new consumer-focused router at CES 2018 with two 10GbE ports. We've written about this topic at every large trade show since 2015. 10GbE is slowly coming to lower-cost devices like the new AS4004T, but the rate is much slower than consumer demand.
Asustor has entered the toolless drive bay club with this product. We expect to see future NAS products from the company to share the new drive tray design.
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Chris Ramseyer was a senior contributing editor for Tom's Hardware. He tested and reviewed consumer storage.
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mspencerl87 Yea.. Sure those 5400RPM, 7200RPM, are capable of saturating one 10GB card. Let alone two. I think this a gimmick.Reply -
zozzlhandler I think you didn't say what you meant to say. But 4 SATA HDDs *can* saturate a 1 Gb link (note not 1 GB but 1Gb - there is a difference) and so 10Gb will result in a substantial performance improvement. I doubt that 4 SATA HDDs can saturate a *two* 10Gb links, but that is not the point. Its useful to have a backup link in case something goes wrong (which happens often enough in my experience). At this performance level, most users will want dual links. And most users of this product will access it from multiple clients, in which case the two 10Gb links will provide a performance boost also.Reply -
Xajel Reply20604067 said:Yea.. Sure those 5400RPM, 7200RPM, are capable of saturating one 10GB card. Let alone two. I think this a gimmick.
Yes even single HDD can saturate a single 1Gbe, so a 10Gbe will help specially when there's multiple HDD's in a RAID array like RAID 0, 5, 6, 10...
about 2x 10GbE in the 4 bay NAS, it's not always about saturation, it's about redundancy also.