New Asustor AS3302T and AS3304T Drivestor Pro NAS Releasing Soon
Good News for anyone who has been looking at buying a new NAS in 2021, but is looking to keep things a tad affordable, with the reveal of the new Asustor DriveStor Pro NAS series in 2-Bay and 4-Bay. These new value series models arrive with an ARM 64bit based CPU, DDR4 memory, 2.5Gbe connectivity, 4K media support and the majority of ADM applications – whilst still keeping things on the cost-effective side. Using a familiar chassis to the AS40 series and Nimbustor ranges that came before, the new Drivestor 2 and Drivestor 4 Pro are largely designed to provide access to a number of the more modern and desirable aspects of owning your own private cloud solution (along with all those applications and tailored services) in a far more compact and low impact way. This low impact is extended beyond the wallet, with a 65W/90W PSU respectively, 12.3W/32.1W power usage reported in operation respectively and tiny chassis’ at 170(H) x 114(W) x 230(D) mm and 170(H) x 174(W) x 230(D) mm. Let’s take a look at what the Asustor Drivestor Pro 2 and 4 NAS bring to the table in 2021.
What Are the Hardware Specifications of the Drivestor Pro 2&4 NAS?
The hardware specifications of the Asustor DriveStor series are not going to blow you away too much, but you have to remain relative to the intended end user here. These are designed to be affordable entry points into both Asustor NAS and 2.5Gbe network storage solutions. They are comparable in a number of ways to the older AS1002T and AS1004T, but with a significant jump in the base level hardware inside and outside. Moving up from a dual-core Marvel 32bit CPU in the predecessors, the Drivestor Pro AS3302T and AS3304T arrive with the popular Realtek RTD1296 1.4Ghz Quad-Core 1.4Ghz 64bit ARM processor, double the memory at 2GB (which sadly can’t be expanded, as it is soldered to the mainboard) and 2.5Gbe (rather than the increasingly less desirable 1Gbe). A full breakdown of ht available specifications is below:
| Drivestor 2 Pro AS3302T | Drivestor 4 Pro AS3304T | |
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| CPU | Realtek RTD1296 1.4GHz (Quad-Core) Processor | Realtek RTD1296 1.4GHz (Quad-Core) Processor |
| Hardware transcoding engine |  |
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| Hardware acceleration engine | H.264 (AVC), H.265 (HEVC), MPEG-4 Part 2, MPEG-2, VC-1 | H.264 (AVC), H.265 (HEVC), MPEG-4 Part 2, MPEG-2, VC-1 |
| Memory | 2 GB (not expandable) | 2 GB (not expandable) |
| M.2 drive slot | – | – |
| HDD | 2 x SATA3 6Gb/s; 3.5″ HDD | 4 x SATA3 6Gb/s; 3.5″ HDD |
| Maximum internal raw capacity (capacity may vary by RAID type) |
36 TB (18 TB HDD X 2) | 72 TB (18 TB HDD X 4) |
| Expansion unit Drive bay with | 14 | 16 |
| Maximum raw capacity using expansion unit (Capacity may vary by RAID type) |
252 TB (18 TB HDD X 14) | 288 TB (18 TB HDD X 16) |
| Supports Single Volume Larger Than 16TB | – | – |
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| expansion | USB 3.2 Gen 1 x3 | USB 3.2 Gen 1 x3 |
| network | 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet (2.5G/1G/100M) x 1 | 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet (2.5G/1G/100M) x 1 |
| PCIe Expansion Slots | – | – |
| LCD panel | – | – |
| size | 170(H) x 114(W) x 230(D) mm | 170(H) x 174(W) x 230(D) mm |
| weight | 1.6kg / 3.53 lbs | 2.2 kg / 4.85 lbs |
| Input power voltage | External Power Adapter: 65W x1 100V to 240V AC |
External Power Adapter: 90W x1 100V to 240V AC |
| Power consumption | 12.3W (Operation) 6.04W (Disk Hibernation); | 23.1W (Operation) 10.1W (Disk Hibernation); |
| Volume type | Single disk, JBOD, RAID 0, RAID 1 | Single disk, JBOD, RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6, RAID 10 |
| – | – | |
| Infrared receiver | – | – |
| Audio output HDD | – | – |
| Tray lock | – | – |
| MyArchiveDisk Bays | One | 3 |
| Service LED indicator | – | – |
| Redundant power supply | – | – |
As mentioned (about 8 million times, I know) these two new NAS systems are designed around VALUE, so although the above specifications are not going to blow anyone’s mind looking for a high-end Plex solution, VM utilities or heavy-duty file processing, the Drivestor 2 Pro and Drivestor 4 Pro NAS will still allow a large number of features and functionality for 1080p/4K Multimedia playback, multi-tier backup strategies and the majority of features available in ADM. Here is how the Drivestor 2 Pro and Drivestor 4 Pro compare with the Asustor Lockerstor and Nimbustor series at 2.5Gbe throughput and a single 10G test file:
What Are the Software Specifications of the Asustor Drivestor Pro 2 and 4 NAS?
These new NAS solutions arrive with the latest version of the System software ADM included, as well as supporting numerous 3rd part software services, straight out of the box. We are taken numerous looks at ADM in the past and although these have largely been on Intel-powered solutions, the number of applications and services available on the DriveStor NAS systems is still the bulk of the important ones. Unsurprisingly, because this system does not feature an embedded graphics processor or an x86 chip, some of the more graphically demanding applications are absent. However, there are still a number of key features and functionality in each of the DriveStor Pro NAS systems (though obviously, the 4-Bay has a few more storage based advantages along the way). Below is a breakdown of how each system compares in traditional storage capacity, iSCSI support, shares and more:
| Drivestor 2 Pro AS3302T | Drivestor 4 Pro AS3304T | |
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| Max. Resolution | – | – |
| File sharing | ||
| Maximum number of users | 4096 | 4096 |
| Number of groups | 512 | 512 |
| Maximum number of shared folders | 512 | 512 |
| Maximum number of simultaneous connections | 512 | 512 |
| iSCSI | ||
| Maximum number of targets | 256 | 256 |
| Max LUN | 256 | 256 |
| Virtualization Support | ||
| VMware Ready | – | – |
| Citrix Ready | – | – |
| Hyper-V Ready | |
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| Eco-friendly design | ||
| Automatic standby for both internal and external disks | |
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| The system goes into sleep mode automatically (Schedule S3) | – | – |
| Wake-on-LAN (WOL) | |
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| Wake-on-WAN (WOW) | |
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Then you have the question of how much of the Asustor NAS ADM software library the system can support. The Drivestor Pro is not HDMI enabled, so that removes Asustor Portal and the local visual output applications, but there are still some useful 1st party applications available to use on these value systems:
| Drivestor 2 Pro AS3302T | Drivestor 4 Pro AS3304T | |
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| ASUSTOR Portal | – | – |
| Photo Gallery 3 | |
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| FTP Explorer | |
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| HiDrive Backup | |
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| Google Drive | |
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| Dropbox | |
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| Mail Server | |
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| Download Center | |
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| Plex Media Server | |
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| VPN server | |
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| Max. No. of VPN Server Connections | 20 | 20 |
| Surveillance Center | ||
| Max. No. of Supported Cameras (With Add-On Licenses) | 25 | 25 |
| SoundsGood | ||
| Web Browser Playback | |
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| Local Playback |
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| Playback via other devices |
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| iTunes Server | ||
| Local Playback |
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| Playback via other devices |
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If you are interested in learning more about the Asustor NAS system software a little more, check out our review below from another of their recent hardware releases:
When Will the DriveStor Pro 2 and Drivestor Pro 4 NAS Be Released and How Much Will They Be?
Given that these products have been revealed on official pages in some regions of the world, it is safe to say that release must be remarkably close (early Summer 2021 at least), but there is still the ever-present factor of hardware shortages right now in 2021 (see video below), so it would be remiss not to take this into consideration. Overall, I think it can be safe to say that the Drivestor 2 Pro and Drivestor 4 Pro will likely see the Summer 2021 release (June/July at the very latest) and be comparable in price to the older AS1002T and AS1004T that came before it. I look forward to reviewing these systems to see how they compare with the latest generation of solutions from competitors Synology and QNAP, as although the 2.5Gbe support on this system is appealing, the CPU & Memory featured might have lost their shine in the eyes of some buyers. I look forward to seeing if these new value models can still cut the mustard in 2021.
| Drivestor 2 Pro AS3302T | Drivestor 4 Pro AS3304T |
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