Asustor hit the medium and even mainstream category hard with the new AS 3 Series, and they thankfully avoided using weak single-core CPUs, equipping these NAS servers with the new Intel Atom SoC instead, a much stronger and more adequate solution for NAS usage. ADM, their operating system, also made huge strides in the right direction since I last tested one of their products, now offering more features and improvements, and fixes to those parts that where in need of fixing. During my long test sessions, I never encountered a crash or problem with ADM, something that clearly proves its reliability and maturity, though it hasn't been around for as long as the competition's operating systems. But it isn't perfect. My main gripe is with the inability to manually re-size a window in ADM's interface—you can only minimize or maximize windows. There is also no widget support, which could have come in very handy, but I am pretty sure that Asustor will look into both issues to make the necessary fixes/additions in their next major release of ADM.

The area that Asustor is way ahead of the competition in is surveillance, since their NAS servers come with four camera licenses out of the box instead of the one the competition provides. This is a major advantage if you like to use your NAS for security applications as you won't have to spend a significant amount of extra money on additional licenses. The fresh Atom SoC CE5335 CPU equipping the AS-302T is also able to cope with every task assigned to it, and the XBMC player and this NAS server's HDMI and line-out outputs will make your media player catch dust. APP Central will even supply you with any additional applications you need to further personalize your NAS according to your needs.

To sum up, the AS-302T comes at a great price, one at which you won't find another branded NAS with an Atom CPU, and has lots of potential because of its capable hardware and rich software features. I really think this is the ideal NAS for an enthusiast user as it will easily handle even the needs of a small office without costing a bomb. The time to buy an Asustor NAS is now since they have, in my opinion, kept a low price profile to infiltrate the market, and, yes, I am pretty sure that they will do so soon enough if they manage to keep their quality and performance standards, but whether they will keep their aggressive pricing strategy remains to be seen.