ASUSTOR AS3102T Mainstream 2-Bay NAS Review

Introduction Lately, I have been reviewing quite a few high-end NAS devices, but today it has become time for a more mainstream unit. I'm taking ASUSTOR's AS3102T 2-bay NAS for a test drive and will check out how well it performs and what it can do. Right out the box, the AS3102T presents itself with ASUSTOR's classic diamond pattern on the front and otherwise a simple design that will blend well with most environments. There aren't the big highlights here as the unit loads the drives internally and it has to be opened to do so. In return, this design gives us a cleaner exterior look. On the inside, the AS3102T features an Intel Celeron 1.6GHz dual-core processor with a burst up to 2.48 GHz. The CPU features both an AES-NI hardware encryption engine and a hardware transcoding engine that supports H.264 (AVC), MPEG-4 Part 2, MPEG-2, and VC-1 formats. This nice CPU is then coupled with 2GB DDR3L memory that sadly isn't upgradable. However, it is a dual-channel memory setup and that is a thing that will help a lot with the performance, especially when dealing with 4K resolutions. As a two-bay NAS unit, you can load two hard disk drives and end up with 16TB raw storage using 8TB drives. That's quite impressive for the small size and best of all, it can all be remote controlled thanks to the built-in infrared receiver. That part becomes especially useful when we use the built-in HDMI port for direct usage. Speaking of the HDMI port, we better take a look at what ports the AS3102T has to offer in general. On the front is a single USB 3.0 port below the IR receiver, but the front is clean besides that. We find two more USB 3.0 ports on the rear of the unit and all three can be used for wireless connection dongles, printers, storage drives, or input peripherals. These ports all come in handy when the HDMI 1.4b port is used for direct usage on your TV or monitor where you can control the NAS as if it were a media centre with KODI, YouTube, Plex, games, and other apps from the comfort of your couch. The HDMI port is even capable of handling a 4K resolution and thanks to the dual-core CPU, that should be a smooth experience. We also find a single Gigabit Ethernet LAN port that probably is the most important connector for a NAS. I mentioned earlier that the drives were internal, but that doesn't make the installation more difficult or tedious. ASUSTOR opted for thumbscrews that allow you to make a tool-less installation. There are two screws on the rear and another four for each internal drive, making it quick and easy to setup when you first get it and just as easy to upgrade at a later time. The AS3102T is also a power saving and ECO-friendly device. Auto-standby is supported for both internal and external drives while the fan control makes sure to keep the noise to a minimum while it still supplies enough airflow to cool all the parts. The LED night mode conserves a little bit extra power, but it's mostly useful to keep annoying blinking lights turned off while you try to sleep or otherwise could get distracted by it. It's a great feature that also just can be used to dim the lights. It also features power scheduling where you can tell it when to turn itself on, off, or restart on its own. The power consumption is kept at a low 13.7W during active operation and 7.478W when the internal drives enter hibernation mode. It will barely consume anything during sleep mode where it goes below 1W. The noise level is rated to 18.6 dBA when the hard disk drives are idle, but that could naturally vary a little by location and used drives. As all ASUSTOR NAS, this one is also powered by ADM which has become quite a powerful operating system filled with great features. Home users will be happy to find features such as UPnP media streaming capabilities for the general usage as well as more specialized apps such as built-in Itunes server. The photo gallery where you can store and organize all your photos is another awesome feature that a lot of people love and so is the download manager that can handle both peer-to-peer and direct downloads. Takeasy is also available and it allows direct download of media from sites such as YouTube and Vimeo, allowing you to enjoy the videos when you're offline too. Two other great app features in ADM are SoudsGood and LooksGood, and as you might have guessed, they are for audio and video playback, may it be via locally connected speakers or through your favourite web browser. More advanced and even business users will love features such as the built-in Mail server and surveillance center. The system also comes with both a VPN server and client abilities. Backups can be handled in multiple ways from Rsync over Cloud to FTP and external drives. Everything you'll want. Speaking of clouds, ADM also supports Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, and HiDrive. The default file system is EXT4 but external drives with other file systems such as FAT32, NTFS, or HFS+ are also supported. Even iSCSI is included with the AS3102T that comes with all its advantages such as 256 snapshots, direct storage attachment, and high compatibility and flexibility. Feature Highlights Powered by the latest Intel Celeron processors Local HDMI multimedia output (4K, 1080P and high-definition multi-channel audio) Hand screw design for toolless installation Stylish diamond-plate finished cover design Equipped with hardware transcoding engine Accessories The AS3102T comes with everything you need to get started. A welcome and setup guide, a driver disk, a power supply with a cord for the region you purchased it in as well as an RJ45 LAN cable and eight screws for the drives. A closer look Let us start with the closer look at the top of the units front. We find four LEDs here for power and status, activity, network, and disk access. Moving further down and we see the IR receiver placed above the front USB 3.0 port for easy portable drive connections. And that was the front. There is a little more to see on the rear side of the NAS as this is where we find the power button among other things. It is located right at the top so it is easy to access even when reaching over the NAS to use it. Right below the power button is the reset button hole that can be used with a paper clip or similar small object. We find two more USB 3.0 ports on the rear for more permanent attached devices such as a mouse, a keyboard, a printer, and wireless dongles. Below the USB 3.0 ports, is the HDMI 1.4a port with 4K output thanks to the onboard Intel Graphics. Last but not least comes the RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet port. Turning the NAS upside down allows us to see the four large rubber feet and an air intake vent. A sticker with the serial number and mac address can also be found here as well as the power requirements should you ever need another external power brick. Opening up the NAS is as easy as removing the two screws on the rear of the unit. We see a normal but effective 2-piece case design where all parts are located in the one and the other just acts as a cover. A simple PCB daughter board connected through a PCIe slot is used for the SATA connectors. Slide the drives in and secure them with the included screws and you're ready to go. Just close it up again and connect power and network in order to get going. The included power supply can deliver up to 65W with its 21V 5.417A specifications. Taking the NAS apart reveals the PCB which in itself is quite simple. The CPU is located in the middle with a heatsink on top and since it handles most features, there is no need for much else. The other side of the PCB is utilized a little bit too, but again, there isn't need for much. Going in closer on the heatsink, we spot half the RAM right next to it. In this case, it's made by Samsung. The other half of the memory is located on the other side of the PCB, keeping it all close together pin-wise. The shorter the line to travel, the better the performance will be. One thing can't be handled by the CPU and that is the network connection. For this, we have a Broadcom BCM57701 Gigabit Ethernet Controller. It's a single-chip solution which makes the integration very easy. There's also a USB flash module onboard with 512MB capacity. This is used for the operating system and basic functionality. We mostly see these made by ADATA and that's also the case here. There is one more addition and that is the SATA daughter board used for the drive connections. Again, we see a very simple design because there isn't any need for more. System Specifications, Features & Power Consumption Hardware Specifications Software Specifications Features Login The ASUSTOR login screen is simple in itself and it can be customized to your likings too. Dashboard The dashboard is also customizable where you can add more pages, change the background, and move your icons around. A taskbar at the top provides quick navigation between open windows and apps as well as quick access to the search function and user features. Each user can access their own settings where they can change passwords, see their volume usage, and change the appearance. Power Consumption The chart contains the actual power consumption measured at the PSU connection and while loaded with a maximum amount of drives. Peak, or maximum, power draw will occur during boot times. Setup - Initialization, Storage, and External Initialization One of the easiest ways to get going with your new ASUSTOR NAS is through the ASUSTOR Control Center. It doesn't just allow you to find all your ASUSTOR devices on your network, it also provides easy accessible features and function for your new NAS. The initialization will be done through your default browser and it only takes a few clicks to do. The first choice is whether you want to update the system with the newest version online or just initialize it. Depending on your network setup, the update might fail. But once it has been setup, it will work fine. But that depends on how well your DNS is set and how complicated your network is. In 99% of all cases, you can update instantly. After having picked the version to install through the last page, the NAS will install it and format the system partition to be used. From here on you can do the rest with one click, but I still chose the custom way here as it shows you more. The first basic settings you need to provide is a name for the server and a password for the administrator user. Next up is the time settings, whether you want to set it manually or automatically update it via NTP servers. I recommend the latter one. Next up are the network settings. With a device like the AS3102T, we don't have that many options, simply because it only has one LAN port. We can still set all the vital parts such as address method. Last but not least, we need to configure what kind of drive setup we would like. With two bays we are limited to single drive, JBOD, RAID 0, and RAID 1 setups. And that's all. The system will now apply the settings we just made and be ready shortly. We have one more option and that is to register the NAS to our ASUSTOR ID. If you don't have one already, you can create one for free. It allows for easier connection to your NAS from remote locations and mobile devices. It's also a lot easier to set up than a common DDNS service. The first time we get to the ADM user interface, we are greeted with a short welcome guide. We can close it or let it show us the basics of how the system works. You might also be prompted for a system update and I highly recommend applying it if you do. Everything runs automatically after you have confirmed the update. A little later the system needs to be restarted and it's ready to be used again. Storage Options We created a storage setup during our initialization, but we might want to change that later on and that's no problem either. The Storage manager has everything related to your drives located in one single place. Whether you want to delete and create a new setup or migrate your setup depends on what you have now, whether it's possible. But if it is, then ADM supports this too. We can also keep an eye on the individual installed drives and run both disk tests and get the SMART details. ADM doesn't just read out a few select items from the SMART info, it provides the full list for you to read and interpret according to your needs. iSCSI has a lot of advantages over normal shares and I am one of the people that have embraced this over normal sharing methods. The AS3102T has full iSCSI support and it is as simple to setup as the rest. Virtual Drives You can also create virtual drives from ISO files within reach of the NAS. Just select a file and give the virtual drive a name and you're good to go. An awesome feature for sure that can make installation from old optical medias a lot easier once you have digitalized them. External Devices The AS3102T supports plenty of external devices. The most common attached device will most likely be storage, but we also have support for USB printers, wireless devices, UPS, and optical drives. Besides those useful here, you can also attach input devices to be used together with the direct media output through HDMI. Setup - Users, Groups, Shares, and Services Up until now we only made our drive setup and got our administrator user, and that is something we need to change. The logical next step would be to create more users, some user groups, and some shared folders for all our file. All three of these settings are found in the Access Control which should be one of the first icons on your ADM desktop. User Accounts We only need to supply two pieces of information to create a new user, but we can add more. The mandatory information is naturally the username and password, but we can also set the user id manually, assign an email address to the account and set expiration date. More options include that we can add the user to a new group. We haven't created any new groups, so we only have the normal general user pool and our administrator group. We can also assign access rights to our shared folders and set disk usage quota for each user. Multiple users can be created with ease too, either by importing a text file or using the add multiple users function. Creating a lot of users take some time, so sit back and wait and once it's done, you'll have a list similar to the one below, if you used similar input as seen above. User Groups Micro managing a lot of users can be a time-consuming process and that is where user groups come into play. By assigning users to groups, you can quickly set access rights for all included users at once rather than have to do it all manually for each single user. Once you have entered a name, you can select from all the existing users and add them to the new group right away. The same way, you can add more users to this new group directly when you create more. Shared Folders The shared folders are the backbone of your NAS. These are what you'll see in your network environment and what you easily can mount as network drives within your workstations. There will be some default folders created by the system and apps you chose to install, but you can also create your own here. You can enable the network recycle bin for each share individually and you can also opt for encryption of each share. Encryption will take some performance, but this NAS is built with a hardware encryption engine that will aid this process a lot. Access rights can be set per user, per group, and as general rules. You can also edit all this later on after you created the share, so no worries if you make any errors. Application Privileges With so many different apps available as you have, you also need a way to control which users have access to which apps. You can do this by app or by user, depending on which is most convenient for your current edit. Services ADM's design has put all similar functions into groups, making them easy to find. The same goes for all the network and connection services. The first point covers Windows (Samba) and Active Directory connection which most likely will be the most common. After all, there are more Windows based systems than anything else among users. Mac OS X users will find the corresponding network service too called AFP. Time Machine is also supported here for the users utilizing that feature. Linux and Unix users will naturally also find NFS here. There isn't much to say to this as it is like it is on any other *nix based system. The built-in FTP server looks simple at first, but it supports the most vital features. Features include encrypted connections and FXP as well as user and bandwidth limitations. You can also set the passive port range and external IP manually. WebDAV service is also supported and naturally that includes SSL connections. The built-in web server can be used for your own websites too. A virtual host setup is also included here, making it easy to assign your domains to the proper folders. The built-in database system is MariaDB and you can find apps for visual editing in the app store. Secure connections are important, not just for enterprises but also for home users. SSH is also among the supported connection methods, but you won't find the basic telnet anymore. Using a NAS for content backup is a common function and ADM can run as a Rsync server right out of the box. Last but not least, we find the TFTP server, an older protocol but one that's still alive and kicking in some areas, and the SNMP service trap. Network Configuration With just one network port, we don't have that many options within this section - but the important ones are all here. We can change the name of the server and the DNS and IPv6 settings on the first page. The second tab contains the interface settings such as DHCP or manual IP settings. You can also change the packet size here. There's only one advanced setting available despite the button and that is VLAN tagging (IEEE 802.1Q) You can also connect the NAS to wireless networks with an optional USB dongle. Once connected it will work the same way it does on any other system with wireless. Set the mode, search for networks, and connect to your selection. Should you need custom proxy settings, then that isn't a problem either. I don't think this is a feature that is used that often, but it's important to have when needed. The VPN configuration is outside the network settings and within its own category, but it kind of still belongs to the network settings. Here you can add all your VPN connections. You can also download the VPN server app from the App central should you need more than what ADM in itself can offer. Setup - Activity, Hardware, Notification & Other System Features System Information We've created a basic system by now and it might be time to take a look at some of the monitoring and information parts of ADM and the AS3102T. The first place to stop is probably the system information. It will provide information such as what hardware is inside the NAS and the basic settings. On the first page, we had the general system information and now on the second, we get the network information. Next up is the logging feature that allows you to watch all events that happened while you were away. We can also watch what users currently are connected to your NAS, a useful feature when upgrading and rebooting. You don't want to interrupt and possible corrupt people's file transfers. The last page features the Dr. ASUSTOR self-diagnose feature. It will run a quick scan and offer suggestions on improvements. Activity Monitor Where the storage information brought you static information about your setup, the activity monitor provides a real-time display of usage. We can watch the utilization of each CPU core, how much RAM is being used, and check up on the network traffic. The disk usage graph will give you a view on what drives and volumes are being used and how much. A quick view here could tell you whether it's time to upgrade or if you're good for a while longer. Should you run into bottlenecks or slow performance, then the process page is a good place to stop by. Check up on what feature is dragging your CPU and ram usage down. Hardware Settings The hardware can't just be monitored, we also get a few things that we can change. One of the coolest features here is the LED brightness adjustment and night mode. Turn those lights off at night so you don't get annoyed by blinking lights while you try to sleep. The buzzer can also be turned off for specific events and you can disable both the infrared receiver and the reset button here too. Energy control isn't just good for the environment and your electricity bill, it's also great for your hardware. The less it's being used, the cooler it will run and the longer it will last. Disk hibernation mode is a great way to give your drives a breather while you also decrease the noise generation and increase the drives lifetimes. The EU power regulation setup (EuP) is also supported, but you can control it all manually too. Enabling that feature will take over control of the rest that you see here. Power scheduling is another great way to save power and increases the lifetime of your hardware. Why have the system running when it isn't being used. You can schedule power on, power off, restart, and sleep activities for the NAS to do on its own. No need to run the system when you aren't accessing it anyway. The fan can be automatically adjusted speed wise, but you can also permanently set it to either low, medium, or high. Use these settings with care, you don't want your NAS to run too hot. Notification A headless unit requires a good notification ability to let you know when your actions are required. The AS3102T can both send and receive notifications via different methods. The most common used will probably be via email. But you can also let the NAS send push notifications to your mobile devices. It does require you to have an iOS or Android powered phone tho, so Windows users are out of luck for now in this aspect. They can still use the good old email function tho. More Features There are a bunch of features more available in ADM and here are a few more of them in a brief view. The first is the ADM defender, the built-in firewall and network defender. While it's a simple tool, it is quite effective at what it does. You can create trusted IP lists as well as black and white lists in order to filter traffic and only allow those inside that also should be there. The network recycle bin is another useful feature. No more losing files because you deleted them of a network mounted share. The network recycle bin provides the same security for your network shares as you have on your local computer where you can drag things out of the trash again. It is also very easy to connect to your ASUSTOR NAS from any remote location. The Cloud connect allows for easy connection through a name instead of a complicated address that even might change regularly. The EZ-Router feature takes advantage of UPnP and can assign ports and forward them properly in your router without you having to do it manually. Having everything controlled from one central location is very convenient. Backup, App Central, VirtualBox & More Apps Backup A good NAS setup also includes a good backup system and ASUSTOR again collected all parts within one section. Whether you want to create remote sync jobs, internal or external backups, FTP backups, or even cloud backups, ADM has you covered. Source, target, and intervals are set when you create a job and you can also edit them later on, should you need to. The cloud backup here is only for Amazon S3, but other cloud services are supported through apps from the app store. You can also backup and restore your entire system settings here, and that's those of your NAS. As mentioned, you can also get other cloud services on your ASUSTOR NAS and they can be found through the app central that we'll take a look at in a bit. App Central The App Central is where you find even more functions, features, and apps. There are a lot to choose from, may it be games such as dream chess and free civ or the FTP explorer and even Libre Office. Third party apps that aren't in the central can be installed manually too, but you should be sure that you can trust the source that supplied it - the same way you always should be careful in this regard on any device. You can browse apps by viewing all or limit it to the official ASUSTOR apps. You can also sort them by groups, especially useful when you want to find all the features for the Portal function. And there's even a beta apps section for apps that still are being tested. VirtualBox One of the really cool features that you definitely should try out is the VirtualBox app. And yes, the name already gives away what it is. You can run virtual systems on this NAS too, may they be Android, Linux, or Windows. The setup and configuration are real easy and done with just a few steps. You should already have an iso file with your installation on the NAS when you start here, it will make things easier. Select how much you want to use of the 2GB RAM the AS3102T has. And define the virtual hard drive setup. Now you can start the server after which it'll need a boot medium in order to continue. You can also open console windows with a single press. More Features and Apps There are plenty more apps, as mentioned, but there are some that are more important than others. One of my favourite tools is the download center that can handle all sorts of downloads from torrents and magnets to direct HTTP and FTP links. The FTP explorer is a basic FTP client that will allow you to connect to other FTP servers directly from your NAS. A convenient and fast way to transfer files from one system to another. LooksGood is an amazing video player app that works in conjunction with other ASUSTOR apps and the hardware transcoding abilities. SoundsGood is similar, only for sound instead of video. Takeasy is another download client, but this one is for streaming sites such as YouTube and Vimeo. Download your favourite videos and watch them offline too. Apple device users will be happy to find an iTunes server as well. There's also a personal cloud system And the popular Plex server is also present. Direct Usage via HDMI The AS3102T features an HDMI out which can be used for a direct connection to a TV or monitor. Another great benefit and bonus from such a device that stores all your media files anyway. You got a ton of available apps, features, and even games here too. You can use Chrome, Chromium, or Firefox to browse the web for your favourite websites. Watch Netflix or other streaming services directly on your TV via the NAS. And you can use the ever popular KODI (formerly known as XMBC). As mentioned, you can even game here. There are console emulators such as the SNES one, but also full games such as FreeCiv and Dream Chess. Even an office pack has been included as an app that can be installed with a single click. You get the full Libre Office directly on your NAS. Just connect a keyboard and mouse and you're ready to work from the living room. You also got access to your virtual machines directly from here, giving you almost endless possibilities. Testing Method Most of the hardware for NAS testing isn't an important factor when it comes to benchmarks, most of it comes down to the network infrastructure. I will be teaming the two Intel Gigabit Ethernet ports on my test bench and connect them to my managed switch. The same will be done with the available LAN ports on the NAS, which should give a great testing environment. As part of the testing, the NAS is connected through a D-Link DXS-1210-12TC managed 10GBase switch and then to our test bench to give the best real world setup test that we can and the NAS itself will be packed with Western Digital's latest RED NAS drives. Intel's NASPT software does require us to drop the memory down to 2GB, as using any more would lead to data caching and skew the results. I will be testing the NAS box performance under each of the RAID options that it has available as well just a single drive. Full volume encryption and shared folder encryption will also be tested where available, to check what impact it has on the performance. Test system: Supermicro C7Z97-OCE Intel Xeon E3-1230Lv3 Exceleram EP3001A 2GB PC3-10666 Kingston HyperX 240GB SSD Sapphire R7 240 2GB be quiet! Dark Power Pro 11 850W Thermaltake Water 3.0 Performer C Lian Li PC-T60 Disks in Product: WD RED NAS 6TB Angelbird SSD2go Pocket 512GB USB 3.0 Network Setup: D-Link DXS-1210-12TC D-Link DXE-820T We would like to thank our sponsors for supplying us with the components needed for the test system as well as drives. Software used: With a device of this sort having so many different applications, Intel's NASPT software covers all the bases and also gives us a set of results that we will be able to utilize and give a benchmark against other similar systems in the future. Intel NASPT (Network Attached Storage Performance Toolkit) performs its test by transferring varying sizes and quantities of data to and from the device based on twelve different scenarios. HD Video Playback HD Video playback is a read test, where a single 2 Gb file is read in 256 kB blocks sequentially from the drive. This simulates where a 720p HD video is being watched across the network to a media player on the other end. 2x HD Video Playback 2x HD Video Playback works with exactly the same data set as the first HD Video test, however, this time, the same content is streamed twice from the NAS box simulating two simultaneous streams being made to external media players. 4x HD Video Playback In the same way that the 2x Video Playback streams to the equivalent of 2 external media players at the same time, the test here doubles that again up to a simulated 4 media players. HD Video Record The HD Video Record test is, as the name suggests, a write test to the NAS box. A single 2 GB file is written to the device in 256 kB blocks sequentially to the disk. HD Playback & Record The HD playback and record test now put the drive under the same single record and playback tests as before, but now at the same time. This will factor for the quick changes needed to switch between reading and writing two large blocks of data across the network to the device. Content Creation For content creation, Intel have simulated access to via video creation applications. This is made up of 98 files with 12 MB reads and 14 MB writes in varying sizes of blocks. The activity is predominantly non-sequential with the majority of access time made up of writing to the drives. There are quiet periods of read/write activity interrupted with busy periods to present a difficult workload on the drives. Office Productivity The office productivity simulation is very similar to the content creation, with a total of 607 files written to and read from the drive. A total of 1.4 GB of data is written to and read from the drive with a close balance between each made - the majority of write access is made up of 1 kB writes. File Copy To NAS This test quite simply put copies a single large file from the test system to the NAS box to show how well the system can sustain a single write speed. The 1.4 GB file is copied to the drive and written in 64 kB blocks. File Copy From NAS File copy from the NAS works in exactly the same way as the copy test, but it works in the opposite direction. The single 1.4 GB file is read off the NAS in 64 kB blocks. Directory Copy To NAS In the directory copy to NAS test, a directory tree representing that of a typical commercially available office suite is copied to the NAS to trace the bulk copy of a complex directory. A total of 2833 files making up 247 MB are moved, but the file sizes vary considerably with an average size of 41.4 kB. Due to the varying sizes of the files, only around 50% of the writes are sequential. Directory Copy From NAS In the same way that the file copy from NAS traces the same file back across to the test system, the directory copy from NAS does exactly the same but to the entire directory that it copied across previously. Photo Album Last of all is a test based on a photo album. When a photo album is viewed on-screen, only the images that you see are loaded from the drive and so when you scroll through the album, the new images have to be fetched and read. The album here contains 169 photos with varying file sizes based on the size, quality, and detail in the image. Reading the files in a photo album puts an unusual read load upon the drive as the metadata is read, a thumbnail constructed and finally the image viewed. Average Throughput This page shows the average throughput from each of the previous 12 tests in one and it can serve as an easy comparison between products. Encryption Throughput A proper security setup is important for a NAS and we'll naturally also test how the unit performs in this regards. With built-in hardware encryption engine, we shouldn't see much of a performance impact here. Final Thoughts Pricing At the time of writing, the ASUSTOR AS3102T can be yours for $247.00 at NewEgg (Currently with $17 further discount through promo code), for £234.95 at Overclockers UK, or starting from €259,00 through Geizhals. Overview The ASUSTOR AS3102T is a solid mainstream NAS for a fair price. You get a great base with an Intel Celeron dual-core CPU and 2GB dual-channel memory which will be plenty for to operate what most people will use their NAS for. The CPU comes with both hardware encryption engine and floating point unit that further help the performance while the dual-channel memory helps with intensive tasks such as transcoding and 4K resolutions. There are plenty of USB 3.0 ports for peripherals and external storage, a gigabit ethernet LAN port, and an HDMI 1.4b port for direct usage. Everything you'll want, more or less. You can even control it with an IR remote thanks to the built-in IR receiver. We saw a solid performance in our benchmarks and a strong encryption performance. The latter is simply due to the CPU used that does a really great job here. The AS3102T isn't just performing well, it also looks good with the simple exterior and diamond pattern on the front. It doesn't feature external drive bays, which you might consider good or bad depending on what you want, but it does it give it a sleeker appearance. The setup and installation are still a breeze thanks to the finger screws for both the chassis and drive installation. The whole thing is powered by ADM which is a powerful operating system. It is built more like a mobile operating system than a classic NAS system in the design and where you find things. This makes it very easy to find things for novice users that aren't that familiar with NAS system. Those who are will also find what they're looking for quickly thanks to the logic design and grouping of features that belong together. One window has everything in regards to drives, another to access rights, and another again for backup and so forth, you get the drift. And speaking of apps, there are plenty to choose from. Whether you want to collect, stream, or manage video files, photos, or audio files, you'll find what you need with the Photo Gallery, LooksGood, and SoundsGood. With the HDMI port, the NAS can be used directly with any HDMI monitor. Just attach a keyboard and mouse or use a remote control. The ASUSTOR portal then allows you to use the NAS as a PC replacement in many ways. You can use LibreOffice to work, play games, or use KODI to browse all your media files - and much more. I would rate this NAS as a home user NAS, but it still features plenty of functions that businesses are looking for. From iSCSI support over surveillance systems to mail server and cloud integration, the AS3102T does it. It even comes with the VirtualBox app which lets you run VMs on the AS3102T. Pros: Intel Celeron CPU, hardware encryption engine, and hardware transcoding HDMI 1.4b output with 4K support Stylish design with scheduling and night modes Tool-less installation Cons: RAM isn't upgradeable/expandable "The ASUSTOR AS3102T is a basic NAS that fulfils all a user needs. A solid performance from great hardware powered by a good operating system." Thank You ASUSTOR for providing us with this review sample.

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