{"id":9109,"date":"2020-09-17T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-09-17T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aviancetechnologies.com\/blog\/asustor-as6602t-review-this-nas-is-a-super-streamer\/"},"modified":"2020-09-17T10:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-09-17T10:00:00","slug":"asustor-as6602t-review-this-nas-is-a-super-streamer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aviancetechnologies.com\/blog\/asustor-as6602t-review-this-nas-is-a-super-streamer\/","title":{"rendered":"Asustor AS6602T review: This NAS is a super streamer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0\u00a0
\n[responsivevoice_button rate=”1\u2033 pitch=”1.2\u2033 volume=”0.8\u2033 voice=”US English Female” buttontext=”Story in Audio”]<\/p>\n

Asustor AS6602T review: This NAS is a super streamer<\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

Asustor\u2019s NAS-box offerings continue to impress, with the $399, two-bay, AS6602T (LockerStor 2) being the latest to come through the lab. It sports a more business-like look than the recently reviewed AS5202T (Nimbustor 2), and it adds M.2 NVMe slots for caching SSDs to the mix.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the same high-quality, 2.5GbE product as its cousin at its core, but NVMe caching is expensive overkill for the home environment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Design and specs<\/h2>\n

At first glance, I was far more impressed with the the business-like styling of the AS6202T than the \u201cgamer-oriented\u201d look of the AS5202T. The front is still black, but with a matte finish, and the all-metal shell is pewter. It reminds me of QNAP back in the day, but with more sculpting and defntely more style. It\u2019s a very impressive-looking box.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s inside is equally impressive. There\u2019s 4GB of DDR4-2400 memory and a latest- gen Intel Celeron J4125 CPU running at 2GHz. There\u2019s a second SODIMM slot if you want to expand the memory to 8GB. And to jump the gun on the performance discussion, an investment in additional memory versus NVMe might deliver a better return than for most users.<\/p>\n

The two 3.5-inch bays feature push-button release and are combo metal\/plastic rather than the pure plastic that most boxes this price use. There are no quick-change rails, but I\u2019ll take the small hassle of screws if it means metal over lastic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The front of the AS6602T hosts the power button, a single 5Gbps Type-A USB port, and the typical power and drive status\/activity LEDs. On the back, are two 2.5GbE (RJ45) ethernet ports that can be aggregated for better performance. There are also two additional 5Gbps Type-A USB ports, an HDMI 2.0a output, a Kensington lock port, and a barrel-shaped power jack.<\/p>\n

\"as6602t<\/a> Asustor<\/small>
\n

Asustor outfits the AS6602T with dual 2.5GbE ports, as well as twin 5Gbps USB ports and a 4K HDMI output for external displays.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As with the recently reviewed Synology DS720+, the AS6602T has two M.2\/NVMe slots for SSDs. Unlike the easy-access panels on Synology\u2019s box, the AS6602T requires that you remove the shell and a PCIe adapter card to install them. The Synology approach takes less than a minute, the Asustor 5 to 10 minutes. That\u2019s not really a big deal since installing SSDs is likely to be a one-time operation\u2014if you do it at all\u2014but it\u2019s worth mentioning.<\/p>\n

This review is part of TechHive\u2019s coverage of the best NAS boxes for media streaming and client backup, <\/span>where you\u2019ll find<\/span> reviews of competing products, plus a buyer\u2019s guide to the features you should consider when shopping for this type of product.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

OS and apps<\/h2>\n

Asustor calls its Linux-based windows-in-a-browser operating system Asustor Data Master, and while it\u2019s not quite as mature as those delivered by QNAP and Synology, it\u2019s darn close\u2014and getting closer.<\/p>\n