Page 8 - Conclusion
When I reviewed the Thecus N2310 network attached storage system last year, I said it was important to discern between being cheap and being smart with your money. For an impressively low price of $125 when it was released, the N2310 was, frankly, more "cheap" than "smart". Fast forward a year and a bit, we have the ASUSTOR AS1002T, which retails for about $180 at press time. Designed with value in mind for home networks, how much more will the extra fifty five bucks bring you? For one, great looks. I understand appearance is subjective and in the eyes of its beholder, but I really think the diamond plate finished cover is a real looker. On the more objective side of things, the ASUSTOR AS1002T is easily the highest performing unit in its class; delivering high network throughput in low demand workloads. This performance comes with no virtually power consumption penalty compared to the ultra-efficient Thecus N2310. Thirdly, and this being the biggest determining factor, is the company's ADM 2.5 operating system. ADM, along with QNAP's QTS, are both leaders in the industry, and being able to run a full version of ASUSTOR's user friendly and feature loaded operating system on the AS1002T makes it an extremely convincing case. Of course, with the low price tag and long feature list does come with some compromises. Firstly, the Marvell ARMADA-385 1GHz CPU is not exactly known for its number crunching prowess, and with only 512MB of RAM, the AS1002T is only suitable for small networks with light workloads, plus a limited amount of apps running in the background. Also, the AS1002T does not feature any easily removable drive trays, so if you want to swap drives, your best bet is to turn off the system and disassemble the shell. However, this is only a small inconvenience to most home users. Lastly, it does not feature any hardware multimedia ports like HDMI or optical audio out. But for $180 at press time, I am not complaining. Its feature set is competitive for the price, with its performance and operating system easily one of, if not the best, in its class. If you do not own a NAS right now, ASUSTOR's latest value entry may be your gateway drug. After all, you have to be a user of a good NAS to understand one. The ASUSTOR AS1002T is a good NAS. The question is, will you be a user?
ASUSTOR provided this product to APH Networks for the purpose of evaluation.
APH equal.balance Award | APH Review Focus Summary:
8/10 means Definitely a very good product with drawbacks that are not likely going to matter to the end user.
7/10 means Great product with many advantages and certain insignificant drawbacks; but should be considered before purchasing.
-- Final APH Numeric Rating is 7.5/10
Please note that the APH Numeric Rating system is based off our proprietary guidelines in the Review Focus, and should not be compared to other sites.
The ASUSTOR AS1002T is a great looking NAS that delivers class leading performance, with one of the best operating systems in the market today, for only $180 at press time.
Do you have any comments or questions about the ASUSTOR AS1002T? Drop by our Forums. Registration is free, and it only takes a minute!
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. A Closer Look - Hardware (External)
3. A Closer Look - Hardware (Internal)
4. Configuration and User Interface, Part I
5. Configuration and User Interface, Part II
6. Configuration and User Interface, Part III
7. Performance and Power Consumption
8. Conclusion
