Page 2 - A Closer Look - Hardware
The ASUSTOR AS-602T looks fairly close to what one would expect a typical NAS device to look like. It looks quite similar to the QNAP TS-219P II, but that is probably due to the two hard drive slots in a top-down orientation more than anything. Your call. The front of the ASUSTOR AS-602T is made out of a black plastic. A fairly sizable ASUSTOR logo can be found at the top left, as shown in our photo above. Below the logo are two LEDs; the power LED and the storage LED. Located near the bottom left are two more blue LEDs that indicates the LAN connections at the back. Last but not least, we have a USB 3.0 port here that can be used for external storage devices. On the right, we have two removable storage trays, which are held on by a button/latch design that allows for easy access to the drives at any point. These trays can accommodate either 2.5” or 3.5" devices using the included screws and mounting holes.
Looking at the back of the ASUSTOR AS-602T, we are greeted with a big surprise. At first, I thought I was imagining things, but after close inspection, I found there were actually quite a few ports at the back. Starting from the top left, we are greeted with a 70mm exhaust fan, which is the only form of cooling used for this network attached storage system. From the very top on the right, we have yet another USB 3.0 port for more external devices. Found below that are two eSATA ports for additional external storage devices. Two sets of Gigabit Ethernet ports and two USB 2.0 ports can be found underneath the eSATA ports aforementioned. Finally, we have probably the most surprising connector here, which is an HDMI port -- which would allow for external displays. That is probably the biggest benefit, meaning one can install their own set of OS or software on the NAS and even possibly use it for different purposes such as a HTPC and file server at the same time. An app called Boxee already allows you to do that. The possibilities are quite endless with the addition of an external display.
Three Phillip-head screws can also be found around the NAS here at the back, with one at the bottom right and bottom left corners, respectively; with the last one located top and center on the shell. Removing these screws gives one insight about the interior of this ASUSTOR device, we will take a look at the internals in a bit.
Turning over the device and revealing the bottom, we are not greeted with too much here. What we do see are the metal panels on the rest of the ASUSTOR AS-602T, which is constructed mostly out of SECC save for the front panel and drive tray latches. Four vibration stoppers can also be found here to reduce vibrations and sliding of the device on smooth surfaces.
Removing the two vertically mounted 3.5" drive trays, we are partially shown the internals of the ASUSTOR AS-602T. We can see from this that the two drives are supported by a mounted daughterboard at the back controlled by a SATA controller independent of the device. The trays here are very easy to use, as you just need to pull on a latch and slide out the trays, making for easy removal and installation. As with all other SATA systems, hard drives are hot swappable and can easily be replaced. Each of these trays can have either a 3.5" or 2.5" device installed using the included screwed as aforementioned. The ASUSTOR AS-602T supports Single disk, JBOD (Linear Disk Volume), RAID 0 (Disk Striping), and RAID 1 (Disk Mirroring). The ASUSTOR AS-602T also supports AES 256-Bit Folder Encryption for anyone that needs the added security features of encryption.
After removing the case cover, we are able to see the full internals of the ASUSTOR AS-602T network attached storage system. The space inside is quite tight, due to the small physical size of the two-drive bay NAS. A metal frame is used to cover up most of the remaining space, and the motherboard can be barely seen from this angle. The exhaust fan, on the other hand, can easily be identified, and it shows quite clearly how little room there is left over in the AS-602T. Also seen from this angle is the small daughterboard backplane used for the two hot swapping bays up front. The most intelligent thing they probably did in terms of design was placing the CMOS battery in a reachable location, so if the battery ever runs out, it can actually be replaced by the end user without disassembling the entire thing.
ASUSTOR's AS-602T features an Intel Atom D2700 processor running at 2.13 GHz with 1 MB of L2 cache, paired up with 1 GB of DDR3 memory. This combination is found on quite a few NAS devices on the market right now, which includes the QNAP TS-269 Pro and the Synology DS713+. One major upside of the ASUSTOR AS-602T is the expandable memory. You can install up to 3GB of DDR3 memory from the included 1GB of DDR3 memory. It is also interesting to note this product is the most fully featured out of the three when it comes to the number of ports and memory expansion.
Page Index
1. Introduction and Specifications
2. A Closer Look - Hardware
3. Configuration and User Interface, Part I
4. Configuration and User Interface, Part II
5. Configuration and User Interface, Part III
6. Performance and Power Consumption
7. Final Thoughts and Conclusion
