INTRODUCTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   NAS popularity is increasing by the day largely thanks to the number of new models’ manufacturers are launching into the market every year. Of course, as mentioned in previous reviews in order to reduce development costs manufacturers sometimes take older models and equip them with newer components not only in order to be able to cope with whatever potential buyers may need them for but also in order to compete with newer models released by the competition. This of course is nothing new since we see it all the time in most areas of the industry from electronics like TV screens, speaker systems and PC related products up to even cars so it's really nothing to be surprised about. ASUSTOR released the AS3102T NAS back in early 2016 and just like several other of their models they decided to give it a boost by upgrading its hardware components and releasing it once again as the AS3102T V2 model in late 2018 (and yes it did take a while for it to find its way to our lab).

   Founded in 2011, ASUSTOR Inc. was established via direct investment from ASUSTeK Computer Inc. The ASUSTOR brand name was created as a portmanteau of “ASUS” and “Storage”. ASUSTOR is a leading innovator and provider of private cloud storage (network attached storage) and video surveillance (network video recorder) solutions, also specializing in the development and integration of related firmware, hardware and applications. We are devoted to providing the world with an unparalleled user experience and the most complete set of network storage solutions possible.

   Under the hood of the original AS3102T ASUSTOR had paired the Intel Celeron N3050 dual-core CPU (clocked at 1.6GHz - 64 Bit model with 2MB of L2 cache and a burst speed of up to 2.16GHz) with a total of 2GB DDR3L RAM running at 1600MHz (not expandable) and a 512MB flash DOM. The AS3102T V2 on the other hand is equipped with the faster Intel Celeron J3060 dual-core CPU (clocked at 1.6GHz - 64 Bit model with 2MB of L2 cache and a burst speed of up to 2.48GHz) but still has the same 2GB DDR3L RAM running at 1600MHz (not expandable) and the same 512MB flash DOM. In terms of available connectors whereas the AS3102T came with three USB 3.0 ports, single RJ45 Ethernet port and a single HDMI v1.4b port the AS3102T V2 has three USB 3.0 ports, two RJ45 Ethernet ports (with support for link aggregation) and a HDMI 1.4b port. So, time to continue with today's review and see if the last year's AS3102T V2 is a worthy successor to the first AS3102T released 3+ years ago.

 

 

SPECIFICATIONS AND FEATURES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Typically for an ASUSTOR NAS the AS3102T V2 arrived inside a white box that has a large product picture at the front right over the specifications and bundle contents lists and next to the main product features.

 

 

The various android apps are listed on the left side (we've covered all of them in our past reviews).

 

 

Some of the product features are showcased on the right side with the help of several pictures.

 

 

The product features are printed at the rear in 19 languages.

 

 

As usual the moment you open the box you will see a thank you note from ASUSTOR along with 5 barcodes linking to various pages.

 

 

The NAS is wrapped inside a plastic bag and placed between two foam spacers (the rest of the bundle is placed in a smaller cardboard box).

 

 

Along with the AS3102T V2 and its power adapter you will also find two RJ45 cables, small plastic bag with mounting thumbscrews, software CD and the quick start guide.

 

 

THE AS3102T V2 EXTERIOR

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The AS3102T V2 measures 218mm in length, 165mm in height and 102mm in width (weighs 1.17Kg).

 

 

The fascia is made out of plastic like the rest of the enclosure and next to it we find the activity LEDs (on/system status/Network/HDD), IR receiver and a USB 3.0 port.

 

 

Moving at the rear we find a 70mm exhaust fan, power on/off button, reset button, 2 RJ45 Ethernet ports, 2 USB 3.0 ports, HDMI v1.4b port, DC in and a Kensington lock.

 

 

As with previous models the AS3102T V2 sits on top of 4 feet.

 

 

At the base of the enclosure you can also see the proper way of sliding it to access the interior (just don't forget to remove the two rear thumbscrews first).

 

 

THE AS3102T V2 INTERIOR

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As mentioned already opening the housing is very easy, just remove the two thumbscrews and pull the right side.

 

 

Just like with its predecessor the Intel Celeron J3060 dual-core CPU is located right beneath a large heatsink.

 

 

Two 1GB DDR3L SDRAM modules by Samsung are placed at the front of the heatsink.

 

 

Also visible are the 512MB Flash Module by ADATA and a Super IO/LPC controller (temperature/voltage monitoring and fan control) by ITE.

 

 

We'll be using two of our Seagate IronWolf 12TB drives to properly test the AS3102T V2. Mounting is not hard at all and requires to place 4 thumbscrews on the sides of each drive (still since you may need to access the drives regularly a front loading system would be best).

 

 

SETUP

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prior to starting the setup procedure, you should head onto the official support page to download the ASUSTOR control center and the latest firmware version (we used the latest v3.3.2.RJ12 version for this review).

 

 

You can also start the setup procedure via your smartphone (connected to the local network of course) but as usual we'll be using the ASUSTOR Control Center and a web browser.

 

 

Of course, in order to initialize the NAS an HDD needs to be mounted in the NAS.

 

 

The installation wizard will ask you to either update the firmware of the NAS automatically from the internet or manually (you will need to download it first) as seen above.

 

 

Next step will be to format the mounted drive, create partitions, install the firmware and restart the NAS.

 

 

After that you can choose between the fast 1-click setup and the custom setup (we always follow the lengthier custom route).

 

 

Via the custom route you will need to set the server name (if you don't like the default one), server password, time zone, network options and configure the drives (single/RAID/JBOD) in order to proceed.

 

 

If you decide to format the drive or drives using the Btrfs file system you can use the snapshots feature which effectively backups all the data in your NAS (EXT4 was used for our performance tests).

 

 

At the end of the setup procedure you will be asked to register the NAS and choose the services you'd like installed (for Home/Personal or Business use - again we used both for this review).

 

 

ADM 3.3.2.RJ12 PART 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just like previous versions the main screen of the ADM OS includes all the applications installed by default (we did two installations to show to all of you, one with Business apps and one with Home/Personal apps).

 

 

The resource monitor can be configured as seen to include information you may like to see.

 

 

As with all ADM versions to date from the Access tab you can add/remove user accounts, groups, domain users, domain groups and you can also create shared folders and set application privileges.

 

 

The Activity Monitor allows the end user to monitor the NAS so from here you can check the available space on the installed drive(s), check the CPU/Memory/Network/disk usage/utilizations and see what processes are currently running.

 

 

From the app central tab, you can check to see which apps you have already installed, check for updates and of course install even more.

 

 

ASUSTOR currently gives access to a grant total of 286 apps via App Central.

 

 

The Backup & Restore tab allows you to remote sync options, setup FTP/Internal/External backup jobs, configure one touch backup (front USB port), use the cloud backup feature (via Amazon S3) and also adjust various settings.

 

 

From the External Devices tab, you can check the state of attached drives, format them, prepare them for ejection and you can also check the state/adjust the settings for attached printers, Wi-Fi/Bluetooth adapters and UPS devices.

 

 

The File Explorer page allows you to upload and download files from and onto the NAS without much effort (however mapping network drives via Windows Explorer is much faster).

 

 

Under the Services tab the end user can find several server options for Windows/Mac OSX/NFS/FTP Server/WebDAV/Web Server/MySQL Server/Terminal/ MariaDB (MYSQL compatible)/ Rsync/ SNMP (PHP cashing is supported) and SFTP use.

 

 

The system information tab does exactly as it says so from here you can check the model name and device status, check logs and even use the Dr. ASUSTOR feature (diagnostics).

 

 

Via the EZ Sync Manager (and EZ Sync for your PC) you can create backup jobs which essentially can be used to synchronize data between your computer(s) and your NAS.

 

 

ASUSTOR decided to use the ClamAV open source antivirus engine for their NAS which can of course be used to detect trojans, viruses, malware and other malicious threats.

 

 

ADM 3.3.2.RJ12 PART 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Via the DataSync app you can sync your files with online Cloud services like Google Drive, DropBox and OneDrive for Business.

 

 

As usual you can share pictures to your mobile devices via the photogallery tab.

 

 

The SoundsGood application allows streaming of music onto all your connected mobile devices.

 

 

From the Download Server tab not only can you download files using the BitTorrent Client but you can also use it to download files directly from HTTP/FTP.

 

 

The Hi-Res player can be used to playback audio files and as you can see it also offers various information about each artist/track.

 

 

This time over we were glad to see that the ASUSTOR Surveillance Center managed to automatically detect all our IP cameras. However, it did so as "generic" ONVIF compatible models (ASUSTOR needs to extend compatibility a lot more than what they have so far) so if your models fall in the same category you need to know the exact maximum frame rate of each resolution.

 

 

Everything related to the installed drives is placed inside the Storage Manager tab so here you can create and manage volumes (single/JBOD/RAID), check the state of the drives via SMART (if you have an IronWolf or IronWolf Pro drive install the program will even check the warranty period for you), use the iSCSI/LUN feature and create snapshots (if the Btrfs file system is chosen).

 

 

The snapshots feature is very easy to use, just create and name a job to do an immediate backup of all the NAS files or schedule one to be repeated whenever you want to.

 

 

Pretty much everything else is placed inside the settings tab so from here you can adjust including the network settings, regional options, hardware options (LEDs/Buzzer/Fan control/Power settings), various notification options, ADM defender (firewall), certificate manager, ADM update (manual or automatic), network recycle bin, energy saver (drive standby mode/fan control/wake on LAN), EZ connect (remote access - even if you get an error in the last line of the manual connect tab you will still be able to connect), factory default settings and product registration.

 

 

Let’s not forget that via HDMI you have access to numerous applications like the ADM itself, Chrome, Chromium, Netflix, YouTube, Twitch, Nuclear and the Surveillance station (among others). Unfortunately, we were unable to install the latest KODI version to the AS3102T V2 (since it hasn’t been supported by ASUSTOR since 2018 we were going to manually install it) so we can’t comment on its media playback capabilities.

 

 

 

 

TESTING METHODOLOGY – PERFORMANCE RESULTS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   Originally, we had decided that since some of the NAS servers/devices we've tested in the past are no longer in our possession (naturally) we would keep performing the exact same testing methodology we did in the past for as long as possible in order to provide accurate comparison results. However, since our real-life tests are not enough for some people, we also decided to throw in ATTO and Crystal Disk Mark to cover the more demanding users. However as always we will be using a single Seagate Constellation ES.3 4TB SATA III and up to 10 Seagate IronWolf 12TB SATA III hard disk drives with 3.5” compatible units (we switched to 12TB models for RAID tests since August 2018 – due to high workloads the performance of previous drives had started to deteriorate) and up to two (for now) Enterprise Capacity 2.5 HDD V3 2TB SATA III HDDs with 2.5” compatible units to perform several upload/download tests with 10.9GB (Single) and 40,8GB (RAID) files. Tests are repeated a total of 4 times after which we record the average numbers (from the 4 peak ones) into our charts. The network device used for 1GbE tests is the same Netgear D7800 VDSL Modem/Router we’ve been using lately when performing tests on NAS servers. Since the 25th of June 2015 for 10GbE tests we’ll be using a Netgear ProSafe XS712T 10G Smart Switch and an Intel XT540-AT2 10GbE PCIe card (10GbE compatible NAS cards will be provided from each company and stated in each review).

SINGLE DISK TESTS

RAID TESTS

 

TEST RESULTS – TEMPERATURES / CONSUMPTION / NOISE

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CONCLUSION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   When ASUSTOR released the first AS3102T back in early 2016 it may not have impressed with its performance but it was a balanced solution aimed towards home users which performed extremely well. Fast forward 3 years later and the new AS3102T V2 is actually not much better than its predecessor especially since they are both trading blows in data transfer performance. The addition of an extra RJ35 Ethernet port may result in higher performance through link aggregation but considering the small number of modem/routers and even entry-level switches (if at all) that actually support that technology we don’t think it’s going to be a decisive factor among home users (and professionals will probably opt for a much higher-end model). Actually the AS3102T V2 is a clear winner in just one of our charts, power consumption so honestly if you already own the first AS3102T we don’t think there’s nearly enough reasons for you to even consider switching to the AS3102T V2 (unless of course you own a modem/router/switch that supports link aggregation – and you also have two RJ45 ports on your computer with also support for link aggregation).

   With a current price tag set at USD219 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and 237Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk) the AS3102T V2 is actually around 20% cheaper compared to the AS3102T when it first made its debut in early 2016. So although it’s not really a significant upgrade compared to its predecessor the AS3102T V2 does offer a good bang for your buck and that combined with the very rich app database ASUSTOR offers and of course their very good product support (3-year warranty included) are certainly enough for us to also give it our Golden award (just like its predecessor).

PROS

- Good Performance Levels
- Features
- Power Consumption
- 3 USB 3.0 Ports
- 2 RJ45 LAN Ports (Support Link Aggregation)
- HDMI v1.4b Output
- Single, JBOD & RAID 0/1 Modes
- ADM OS
- Price (For Some)

CONS

- Internal Drive Mounts
- Rear On/Off Power Button
- Fixed RAM Size
- Small Upgrade Compared To The AS3102T