Introduction

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


Asustor is a key players in the NAS market, and ADM, their operating system, is mature enough to slot in right behind QNAP's and Synology's operating systems. ADM's software library is not as rich, though, which isn't surprising given Asustor is a relatively new company (founded in 2011).

The Nimbustor 4, or AS5304T, is a 4-bay, mid-level NAS Asustor states to be ideal for live streamers and content creators, next to fulfilling its primary role as cloud storage. It packs two 2.5 GbE ports, which, with the proper switch and Link Aggregation, can offer up to 5 Gbps network transfer speeds. You will need the appropriate drives to be able to reach those speeds, of course. Another major advantage of this NAS is the bundled HDMI port and 10-bit 4K hardware decoding capability. This means the AS5304T can be the "source" for your multimedia system, connected directly to a 4K TV or monitor without wasting your network's bandwidth, especially with super-high bitrate content. This is something I miss in Synology products; QNAP, on the other hand, does include HDMI ports in all of its multimedia-oriented NAS products.

The brains of the AS5304T is an Intel Gemini Lake Celeron SOC featuring four cores. The J4105 CPU is clocked at 1.5 GHz, and 4 GB of DDR4-2400 RAM support it. The RAM can be upgraded to 8 GB with a second SODIMM in the empty slot. Finally, since it can take up to four drives, the NAS supports all popular RAID levels (0, 1, 5, 6, and 10) and can of course operate with a single drive or JBOD.

The 3.4 version of the ADM operating system brings btrfs support, so you can use this filesystem instead of EXT4 for enhanced data protection due to the snapshot feature. Asustor's Snapshot Center app supports a maximum of 256 snapshots, which is more than enough for home use. StreamsGood is also new and allows you to easily catch up with your favorite streamers and gaming content creators. StreamsGood offers shortcuts for Twitch, YouTube Gaming, Facebook Gaming, King Kong, and Douyu.

Another pair of interesting apps are EZconnect.to and EZ Sync. The first allows you to connect to your NAS through a browser from everywhere, while the other app automatically synchronizes files between a PC and the NAS. Like all advanced NAS servers, the Nimbustor 4 also has an application through which you can monitor and control a set of surveillance cameras. Surveillance Center comes with four free camera licenses and supports many IP cameras in total. Asustor provides several guides on how to set up Surveillance Center and install the cameras, and there is also a compatible mobile app.

Specifications