Asustor AS-604T review

The Asustor AS-604T is a four-bay network-attached storage enclosure that provides up to 16GBs of storage space, data protection and many connection ports, as well as a wonderfully easy user interface. You can even download third-party apps to provide extra functions specific to your business.

Installing hard disks in the AS-604T is a simple affair. Unusually, the AS-604 T lets you initialise the hard disks without the need to find it on your network with a PC-based utility; you can do it simply with the NAS’s two-line LCD display and some buttons.

The AS-604T’s built-in menu also has a one-touch backup option that’ll copy the contents of any drive plugged into the USB3 port on the front to the NAS’s internal storage, lets you view the IP address and subnet mask of its network connection, see how large its storage volume is and change its network name and network connection settings.

As well as the USB3 port on the front, the AS-604T has five rear USB ports, two eSATA ports and a HDMI port. It’s equipped with a 2.13GHz dual-core Intel Atom processor and 1GB of DDR3 RAM, which is expandable to 3GB. Two Ethernet ports can be used for failover and load-balancing.

Asustor is comparatively new to the NAS market, but we were pleased to find that the NAS’s web interface compares well to those of top-flight rivals such as Synology and QNAP. If you connect to it via a web browser you see a neat screen of colourful and clearly labelled icons. These icons open windows when clicked that you can then drag around as you can in Windows or Mac OS. A handy search tool at the top right of the interface makes it easy to find anything that isn’t immediately apparent.

The Asustor AS-604T’s web interface is easy on the eye and easy to use

It’s easy to find everything you need, from the NAS’s own file manager to backup settings and configuration options for external devices connected to the eSATA and USB ports, such as external hard disks, printers, wireless adaptors and the communication interface for an uninterruptable power supply (UPS).

As with all the best NAS manufacturers, Asustor has created an app centre from which you can add extra features to the AS-604T. There’s a wide selection available, including Dolphin, which is an open-source social network that could serve as an alternative to your office intranet. You can even install ticketing systems to track support issues. There are many multimedia applications, including a Boxee server that lets you use the AS-604T as a media player via the HDMI port on the back. You can control the media server by either using a mouse and keyboard connected to the NAS or installing an app to your Android or iOS device.