Introduction

We would like to thank Asustor for supplying the review sample.



On our test bench today is an Asustor NAS for enthusiast home users who need something strong and feature-rich. The AS5102T not only offers the functionality of a NAS, but can also play the role of a fully featured multimedia player or be the brains of a surveillance setup. This unit can take up to two HDDs and utilizes a quad-core Intel Bay Trail CPU (J1900). Clocked at 2 GHz, it can boost up to 2.42 GHz when the need for more computational power arises. According to Asustor, it is capable of up to 220 MB/s read and write speeds if its two Ethernet ports are combined through the Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP). However, you do need compatible switches, probably managed ones, that support the protocol. Most home users have less advanced switches without LACP.

Another interesting feature is that it has an S/PDIF port to connect to your sound system for some seriously good sound quality. The AS5102T also has an HDMI port, which allows it to play a central role in a multimedia setup, especially since its hardware supports the smooth playback of 1080p content and Asustor includes Kodi, formerly XBMC, as one of many compatible applications, and there are its advanced surveillance capabilities we will examine rather thoroughly in today's review. Asustor is to the best of our knowledge the only NAS manufacturer that provides four camera licenses with their products for free. All other manufacturers usually only provide one. The free licenses are a strong buying factor for someone looking for a NAS that is tasked to handle such surveillance duties. The price of IP cameras has also dropped significantly over the past years, which makes a small home-surveillance center pretty affordable.