# Asustor AS-302T



## crmaris (Sep 9, 2013)

Asustor is working hard to establish itself, and the recently released 3 Series follows through on those endeavors by targeting home and SOHO users. We will take a look at the AS-302T: It can take up to two HDDs, is equipped with a dual-core Atom processor, and includes many multimedia features.

*Show full review*


----------



## miluthui (Sep 11, 2013)

Nice review, I've always wanted to try a NAS but one thing that bothers me besides the high cost is that I have to format my HDDs to use with the NAS. Buying new HDDs could solve the problem but I'm afraid I can't afford that. I want to keep using my current HDDs which already have over 7TB of data on them. Is there such a NAS that allows to use existing HDDs without reformatting?


----------



## mcloughj (Sep 11, 2013)

Maybe your best bet would be to build a small, cheap dedicated machine to act as a nas?

I have used NASs for years now and they are great.


----------



## miluthui (Sep 12, 2013)

mcloughj said:


> Maybe your best bet would be to build a small, cheap dedicated machine to act as a nas?
> 
> I have used NASs for years now and they are great.


I already did that just look at my system specs , it's not cheap though cost me around $1500 or more


----------



## FreedomEclipse (Sep 12, 2013)

miluthui said:


> Is there such a NAS that allows to use existing HDDs without reformatting?



I dunno about other NASs but ive just become a proud owner of a Synology NAS earlier in the week. When I was setting it up it give me options on the type of RAID that i might want to use. you can set it to JBOD but im not sure if this would erase your data first, though its likely it would as the file format used is ext3 and not NTFS or FAT16/32

I purchased a 2bay nas - Originally i wanted a 4bay unit but for the money you put into setting it up you could build a mid range gaming rig with it so i opted for the 2bay.

Since the Linux can read NTFS file systems, you can hook up an external hard drive for it and transfer data across it quicker - It wont wipe the data on the drive if you hook it up like that unless you deliberately go out of your way to get the files deleted.

Unfortunately since my NAS is only running a Marvell CPU, it is pretty weak. compared to the NAS in this review but It works well as a media/cloud storage server once all the data has been loaded onto it.


----------



## remixedcat (Sep 12, 2013)

It would be nice to see a PLEX+Roku 3 test!!! I got a Roku 3 and in need of an NAS.


----------



## FreedomEclipse (Sep 12, 2013)

remixedcat said:


> It would be nice to see a PLEX+Roku 3 test!!! I got a Roku 3 and in need of an NAS.



Highly recommend you either build your own NAS or at least get one with a Intel Atom in it. the Marvell CPUs dont support PLEX.


----------



## remixedcat (Sep 12, 2013)

What Synology NAS do you have?


----------



## FreedomEclipse (Sep 12, 2013)

Unfortunately its a modest DS213J, Budget wouldn't allow for anything else unless it was a HP Proliant microserver


----------



## remixedcat (Sep 12, 2013)

How has it been for you? What transfer speeds do you got?


----------



## FreedomEclipse (Sep 13, 2013)

Its been pretty solid so far - hardest part of it is deciding which raid to go for then loading it up with  almost 1.5TBs of data which takes time - transfer rates are pretty decent i suppose, fast enough for a media/cloud/download server







running Cat6 cables through a Netgear Prosafe gigaswitch


----------



## remixedcat (Sep 13, 2013)

Not too bad


----------



## FreedomEclipse (Sep 13, 2013)

I wanted a faster write speed - Hence why a 4 bay would have suited me nicely, more storage, more speed and still have raid to fall back on incase things should go bad.


----------



## remixedcat (Sep 13, 2013)

I want one to store OS Images and double as a media server.


----------



## FreedomEclipse (Sep 13, 2013)

cant go wrong with a Synology or Qnap


----------



## remixedcat (Sep 13, 2013)

Great! Thanks for the info!


----------



## miluthui (Sep 13, 2013)

FreedomEclipse said:


> I dunno about other NASs but ive just become a proud owner of a Synology NAS earlier in the week. When I was setting it up it give me options on the type of RAID that i might want to use. you can set it to JBOD but im not sure if this would erase your data first, though its likely it would as the file format used is ext3 and not NTFS or FAT16/32
> 
> I purchased a 2bay nas - Originally i wanted a 4bay unit but for the money you put into setting it up you could build a mid range gaming rig with it so i opted for the 2bay.
> 
> ...


Well I only use Windows but most NASs only use Linux file system for internal disks, Linux can read Windows file system but Windows can't read Linux file system that will be a problem if I want to take the HDDs out of the NAS and use them with my Windows based PCs.

I heard that Linux can also write to NTFS now then why not just use NTFS for NAS?


----------



## FreedomEclipse (Sep 13, 2013)

miluthui said:


> Well I only use Windows but most NASs only use Linux file system for internal disks, Linux can read Windows file system but Windows can't read Linux file system that will be a problem if I want to take the HDDs out of the NAS and use them with my Windows based PCs.
> 
> I heard that Linux can also write to NTFS now then why not just use NTFS for NAS?



Honestly, If youre gonna be constantly swapping drives around instead of using a NAS for what it was designed for - left alone tucked away somewhere in the corner somewhere then maybe an external USB drive dock or something like a Hornettek Enterprise 4X will be more suitable for your needs - all you would have to is create back up image of a driver you want to 'mirror' once every week or 2 weeks.


Theres no point to a NAS if youre gonna be ripping and swapping drives out constantly


----------



## miluthui (Sep 13, 2013)

FreedomEclipse said:


> Honestly, If youre gonna be constantly swapping drives around instead of using a NAS for what it was designed for - left alone tucked away somewhere in the corner somewhere then maybe an external USB drive dock or something like a Hornettek Enterprise 4X will be more suitable for your needs - all you would have to is create back up image of a driver you want to 'mirror' once every week or 2 weeks.
> 
> 
> Theres no point to a NAS if youre gonna be ripping and swapping drives out constantly


lol I'm not gonna be swapping HDDs constantly, I just think if someday the NAS is broken it would be nice if I can take out the HDDs and use them with my Windows PCs right away without dealing with incompatible file system. 

That's why I asked "I heard that Linux can also write to NTFS now then why not just use NTFS for NAS?"

Btw that Hornettek Enterprise 4X really does look like the Vantec NexStar HX4R. I wanted to buy that one back then but it got many bad reviews because of its JMicron chipset so I avoided it in the end.


----------



## FreedomEclipse (Sep 13, 2013)

'Some day' could be years or even decades, If youre honestly worried then i would probably recommend building your own NAS - M-ATX mobo, weakest CPU you can find for that board, throw in 4gig of ram and use something like FREENAS or NAS4FREE for OS - that way its something does break it would be easily to find parts to replace it. throw it all in a shoebox or spend money on a small case like a NODE 304

A low powered AMD APU is highly recommended for a BYO NAS setup.

It would be more powerful then any pre-made NAS on the market, it would be louder and most likely eat more juice from mains but you get that 'fail safe' as parts can be replaced.

Otherwise depending what part of the world you are from its 2years warranty from Synology or Qnap - take the hard drives out RMA it, put it in the NAS thats sent back and everything should still be more or less the same as you left it.


----------



## miluthui (Sep 13, 2013)

FreedomEclipse said:


> 'Some day' could be years or even decades, If youre honestly worried then i would probably recommend building your own NAS - M-ATX mobo, weakest CPU you can find for that board, throw in 4gig of ram and use something like FREENAS or NAS4FREE for OS - that way its something does break it would be easily to find parts to replace it. throw it all in a shoebox or spend money on a small case like a NODE 304
> 
> A low powered AMD APU is highly recommended for a BYO NAS setup.
> 
> ...


I'm from Vietnam where warranty is almost non-existent especially if it's about computer stuff, once you buy a thing here don't expect for a return or refund. Most of the time they will blame it's your fault and you'll have to pay some money to get it fixed. Not to mention there are not many brands to choose here, it's either unavailable or too expensive. Heck the Asustor AS-302T in this review is nowhere to be found here, that's why I had to go to Singapore to buy most of the parts for my new mini-ITX build back then.

And you still haven't answered my question ""I heard that Linux can also write to NTFS now then why not just use NTFS for NAS?""


----------



## FreedomEclipse (Sep 13, 2013)

miluthui said:


> And you still haven't answered my question ""I heard that Linux can also write to NTFS now then why not just use NTFS for NAS?""



Because NTFS is a windows file system not Linux. Linux is open source and windows isnt for Linux to work primarily in NTFS would require that some sort of licensing be paid.

HOWEVER nobody said you cant buy a 32GB SSD for linux and have a 2x3TB that are formatted in NTFS from a windows PC running in the same linux box though If you wish to set up raid then  the OS may require that you format them.

You can *MOUNT* NTFS for free but you cant have it natively *WRITE* NTFS as Linux wouldn't be free anymore.


----------

