The Asustor Flashstor 6 and Flashstor 12 Pro NVMe NAS

Last updated on 10 May 2024 📧 Subscribe
Contents hide
1 Asustor FLASHSTOR 6 and 12 Pro – ASUSTOR’s first all-M.2 SSD NAS
2 Asustor FLASHSTOR 6 and 12 Pro Hardware Specifications
3 Asustor FLASHSTOR 6 and 12 Pro Ports and Connectivity
3.1 Asustor Flashstor 6 and Flashstor 12 Pro NAS – ADM Software
4 Asustor FLASHSTOR 6 and 12 Pro – Price and Release Date
5 Need Advice on Data Storage from an Expert?

Asustor FLASHSTOR 6 and 12 Pro – ASUSTOR’s first all-M.2 SSD NAS

The speed at which compact server development moves can be pretty groundbreaking, as hardware that even a 2-3 years ago though impossible/unthinkable, can suddenly become comparatively pedestrian. That said, one area of server storage that has still yet to genuinely see consumer or even relatively prosumer integration is desktop flash storage. Whether it is because the potential performance benefits are way beyond the average punter’s requirements, that SSD storage still commands a high price tag or that the maximum storage potential of SSD NAND is still dwarfed by even domestic HDDs, However, 2023 is starting to see these barriers get broken down one by one and into this arena comes a new Asustor NAS that really does break the mold on what a desktop NAS can be or is possible to be! The Asustor Flashstor series comprises a 6 Bay and 12 Bay compact desktop NAS that supports up to 6/12x m.2 Gen3* NVMe SSDs, respectively. Now, an ‘ALL-SSD’ desktop NAS server is not new, however, a dedicated pre-built turn-key M.2 NVMe SSD-Only system really, really is (with only a couple of other examples that spring to mind before this). With a new chassis design built around a very different kind of internal storage media than usual, an internal hardware architecture that is a noticeable degree more affordable than many other flash server systems and a few key differences between the Flashstor 6 and Flashstor 12 Pro beyond just the drive bays, let’s take a closer look at a new kind of NAS solution!

*Yes, you can use Gen4 SSDs, but you will be downgraded to Gen3)

Asustor FLASHSTOR 6 and 12 Pro Hardware Specifications

First up, let’s discuss the Flashstor 6 and Flashstor 12 Pro hardware specifications, as there is definitely a mixed back of things here that will please sum and potentially annoy others! The general architecture of CPU, Memory and lanes afforded to those M.2 NVMe slots are largely the same (though I am a little surprised the 12 Bay Pro arrives with 4GB of memory, the same as the 6-Bay system). There are certainly those that are going to be a little underwhelmed by the appearance of an Intel Celeron here, as opposed to a Xeon or Ryzen – as flash systems need a decent degree of horsepower to push those drives inside to their maximum throughput potential. However, Asustor is clearly aiming this system at a lower tier of flash user, rather than a full-guns-blazing enterprise flash data center!

Model
Model FS6706T FS6712X
PRICE $499 – CHECK Amazon $860 – CHECK Amazon
CPU Intel Celeron N5105 Quad-Core 2.0GHz (burst up 2.90 GHz) Processor Intel Celeron N5105 Quad-Core 2.0GHz (burst up 2.90 GHz) Processor
HARDWARE ENCRYPTION ENGINE
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 4GB SO-DIMM DDR4 (4GB x1, Expandable. Max 16GB) 4GB SO-DIMM DDR4 (4GB x1, Expandable. Max 16GB)
M.2 DRIVE SLOTS 6 x NVMe/SATA 12 x NVMe/SATA
HDD N/A N/A
MAXIMUM DRIVE BAYS WITH EXPANSION UNIT 14 20
SUPPORTS SINGLE VOLUME LARGER THAN 16TB
This is not the first time we have seen this particular Intel Celeron CPU make it’s way inside other Asustor NAS. Indeed, the Intel N5105 has been the Lockerstor Gen 2 series (as well as many other NAS brand’s opting for this processor in their fully-featured/Prosumer tiers of desktop systems). Still, despite it making this system quite a power efficient for a flash system and very affordable, there is clearly a resulting bottleneck in the m.2 NVMes. In both the 6-Bay and 12-Bay system, the M.2 NVMes are running on Gen 3×1 connections, which results in each bay having a cap of 1,000MB/s throughput. Now, this is approx a 1/3 of the potential performance that even average Gen3 NVMes are capable of. The counterargument of course is that they could/should use a bigger/better CPU. However, this would bump the price up significantly, require additional CPU cooling in place and ‘increase’ the system in pretty much every way – moving outside the bracket of user it is clearly aimed at. The 4GB of memory that can be scaled up to 16GB on the 6-Bay FS6706T is quite reasonable, but I am a little surprised that the Flashstor 12 Pro FS6712T is ALSO the same 4GB. Flash servers are notoriously memory hungry and I would have liked to see the 12 Bay arrive with 8GB minimum. Whether this is another move to maintain that affordable pricepoint or related to continued memory shortages resulting in a similar price increase, I cannot put my finger on. I could also bang on about the lack of ECC memory included/supported (again, CPU related), but that is another arguable enterprise demand. Regardless, as an entry-level flash system that is also very compact in it’s profile, there are definitely benefits in pricing, base throughput and media use to this internal hardware architecture. Next, lets discuss the cooling of this system, as when it comes to SSD storage servers (especially M.2 NVMes), efficient and effective cooling is going to be make or break! Each of the 6/12 M.2 NVMe 2280 slots have a heatsink panel (connected with an included heatpad) that allows the growing heat of the SSD controller (and lesser extent NAND) to dissipate into the heatsink pannels and free into the active airflow from the base fan and vents.
I do wonder if one of the reasons/logical decisions behind the 3×1 SSD slots (beyond the CPU choice and it’s # of lanes) was to do with managing increased temperatures. Downgrading these m.2 slots from a traditional 3×4 architecture to 3×1 would certainly result in reduced temperatures of those SSD components. Nevertheless, the system also features multiple vent outlets around the chassis, as well as a significantly sized heatsink over the N5105 CPU. So, despite it’s small scale, there have clearly been considerations of how the system can maintain a decent operational temperature when in active use. Next, let’s discuss those ports and connections.

Asustor FLASHSTOR 6 and 12 Pro Ports and Connectivity

The ports and connectivity of the Flashstor 6 and Flashstor 12 Pro are largely the sale, barring one particularly large distinction. They both have excellent audio and visual outputs in S/PDIF for those running high-end audio systems and HDMI 2.0b for 4K at 60FPS, with improved bandwidth handling. These are combined with the Austor Portal application that results in a completely parallel running GUI to be accessed over HDMI (not just mirroring the network/web GUI of ADM – a completely separate GUI, controllable with a keyboard/mouse, network remote, mobile app remote, etc). The USB connectivity of the Flashstor 6 and Flashstor 12 Pro are largely the same, with both having 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 and 2x USB 2.0. Those USB 2.0 ports will be largely dedicated to accessories for the Audio/visual output, but the USB 3.2 Gen 1 (10Gb/s)  will ALWAYS be useful for external storage, network accessories, expansions and office peripherals (printers, scanners, UPS’, etc), There is also the option of using these USB Ports to connect official Asustor SATA HDD/SSD expansion chassis too – so you can add larger, more affordable cold/warm storage for general use if needed to the system. But, let’s discuss the main difference between the 6-Bay and 12-Bay – the network connectivity!
PORTS AND CONNECTIONS
EXPANSION 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2, 2 x USB 2.0 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2, 2 x USB 2.0
NETWORK 2x 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet (2.5G/1G/100M) 1 x 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10G/5G/2.5G/1G/100M/10M)
PCIE EXPANSION SLOTS – –
LCD PANEL – –
SIZE 48.3 (H) x 308.26 (W) x 193 (D) mm 48.3 (H) x 308.26 (W) x 193 (D) mm
WEIGHT 1.35kg / 2.98 lb 1.37 kg / 3 lb
INPUT POWER VOLTAGE External Power Adaptor:
65W x1
100V to 240V AC		 External Power Adaptor:
90W x1
100V to 240V AC
POWER CONSUMPTION 18.2 W (Operation);
0.83 W (Sleep Mode)		 26 W (Operation);
VOLUME TYPE Single disk, JBOD, RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6, RAID 10 Single disk, JBOD, RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6, RAID 10
HDMI OUTPUT 1x HDMI 2.0b, 1x S/PDIF 1x HDMI 2.0b, 1x S/PDIF
INFRARED RECEIVER – –
AUDIO OUTPUT S/PDIF x1 S/PDIF x1
TRAY LOCK
MYARCHIVE DISK BAYS 5 11
SERVICE LED INDICATOR – –
REDUNDANT POWER SUPPLY – –

Now there are DEFINITELY going to be two very different kinds of people that are reading the ports and connections above for the Flashstor 6 and Flashstor 12 Pro. Those that weigh up the price vs return of what is on offer across these systems are going to be quite happy. We have a choice of 2x 2.5GbE or 10GbE (scale/version dependant), with support of USB adapters to increase network connectivity that is further emboldened by things like SMB Multichannel and Port Trunking to open up these network speeds. Although clearly the performance potential of the M.2 NVMes are going to be greater internally, you are still going to have somewhere between 5Gbe and 10GbE (so 500-1,000MB/s or so) to play with externally. However, given that each of those M.2 NVMes has the potential for 1,000MB/s EACH in a 3×1 slot, that is quite a heft reduction to accept for 6-12x M.2NVMes in terms of external transfer speeds. Though the Asustor Flashstor 6 and Flashstor 12 Pro are very much ‘entry level’ flash systems, there is no avoiding that the brand has clearly had to introduce a level of compromise to the hardware in order to remain in this price bracket of $499 and $860 (at time of writing on Amazon.com). It’s worth also remembering too that the Flashstor series is not just hardware, but also includes the Asustor ADM NAS software. Let’s discuss what these two NAS’ support in ADM.

Asustor Flashstor 6 and Flashstor 12 Pro NAS – ADM Software

The Asustor Flashstor NAS arrives with the latest version of ADM included. Additionally, this software receives frequent updates to ensure that the software runs the very best it can on this system, as well as keeping up to date with security patches and application versions. The NAS software is accessible via a web browser and displayed very much like a normal computer operating system (desktop, user accounts, customizable themes, file management, running multiple tasks in windows that can be switched in the native tabs), but there are also a range of desktop client tools for accessing the NAS on your local machine natively, as well as a whole bunch of mobile applications that allow tailored access from your phone/tablet in more task-specific means (eg a photo app for viewing pictures and creating phone backup routines, a video app for enjoying your movies and boxsets, surveillance app to access your cameras, etc).  There is also a large range of support of 3rd party applications too in the ADM platform. Asustor is not as big a company as the likes of Synology and QNAP, whole put ALOT more money into their software development, but Asustor try to counter this by (when they do not have an in-house app) making native versions of 3rd party tools in their platform (example, they do not have a 1st party Virtual Machine app, but DO include huge support for VirtualBox). The platform is not quite as fully featured as DSM and QTS, but it is still a very smooth and accessible software platform. The app center has a few more 3rd party applications and slightly crowbarred software (eg the Amazon Media and Streaming service plugins) that is not updated up the original uploaders anywhere near enough (leading to running issues on these tools), but the 1st party apps run very well. The big takeaway on the Asustor software and it’s services is that the standard class of expected features of a modern NAS in 2022/2023 are here and run exactly as you would want, it is just some of the additional ones that other platforms have doubled down on (such as AI-related services in Photography and Surveillance for example) that are a little lacking. That said, the brand has definitely ramped up a number of the key security protocols and settings in the default setup.

SOFTWARE & FEATURES
FS6706T FS6712X
MAX. RESOLUTION 2160P 4K 2160P 4K
File Sharing
MAXIMUM NUMBER OF USERS 4096 4096
MAXIMUM NUMBER OF GROUPS 512 512
MAXIMUM NUMBER OF SHARED FOLDERS 512 512
MAXIMUM NUMBER OF CONCURRENT CONNECTIONS 512 512
iSCSI
MAXIMUM TARGETS 256 256
MAXIMUM LUNS 256 256
Virtualization Support
VMWARE READY NFS, iSCSI NFS, iSCSI
CITRIX READY
HYPER-V READY
Eco-Friendly Design
AUTO-STANDBY FOR BOTH INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL DISKS
SYSTEM AUTOMATICALLY ENTERS SLEEP MODE (SCHEDULE S3)
WAKE-ON-LAN (WOL)
WAKE-ON-WAN(WOW) –
ASUSTOR PORTAL
  • Disney+
  • Netflix
  • Spotify
  • Disney+
  • Netflix
  • Spotify
PHOTO GALLERY 3
FTP EXPLORER
HIDRIVE BACKUP
GOOGLE DRIVE
DROPBOX
MAIL SERVER
DOWNLOAD CENTER
PLEX MEDIA SERVER
VPN SERVER
MAX. NO. OF VPN SERVER CONNECTIONS 20 20
Surveillance Center
MAX. NO. OF SUPPORTED CAMERAS (WITH ADD-ON LICENSES) 44 44
SoundsGood
WEB BROWSER PLAYBACK
LOCAL PLAYBACK
  • HDMI
  • USB Speakers / DAC / Bluetooth Speakers
  • HDMI
  • USB Speakers / DAC / Bluetooth Speakers
PLAYBACK VIA OTHER DEVICES
  • AirPlay Speakers (with AiMusic on iOS device)
  • AirPlay Speakers (with AiMusic on iOS device)
PLAYBACK VIA OTHER DEVICES
  • AirPlay Speakers (with Remote on iOS device)
  • AirPlay Speakers (with Remote on iOS device)

Asustor FLASHSTOR 6 and 12 Pro – Price and Release Date

It would appear that the Asustor Flashstor series are available NOW and are listed online at the usual websites. Pricing, especially for the 6x M.2 NVMe version seems remarkably reasonable ($499 on Amazon.com at the time of writing), which given the scope of hardware here versus the 4-Bay Asustor Lockerstor Gen 4 at $609 (4x SATA + 4x NVMe Bays), is remarkably good value for a flash focused desktop NAS system. As long as you keep in mind that this is still an Intel Celeron-powered system, then you should be very happy with what you are getting here. Plus, the performance of ADM on the Lockerstor with this same architecture (CPU+Memory) has already been proven to work very well indeed. If you take FLASH servers very seriously, you are probably not gonna love this, but for those looking for an affordable home NAS SSD optimized solution in desktop form. There is alot to love here! I look forward to reviewing the Flashstor 6 and Flashstor 12 Pro later in 2023.

FS6706T FS6712X
$499 – CHECK Amazon $860 – CHECK Amazon

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      94 thoughts on “The Asustor Flashstor 6 and Flashstor 12 Pro NVMe NAS”

      1. When I hear you referring to these units as “cheap” or “affordable”, I have to wonder if it’s me who’s living on another planet, or you. I think they are horrendously priced. Perhaps you are thinking of their use by large companies? But just saying they’re less horrendous than some of their competitors doesn’t make; them affordable for a lot of us.
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      3. Probably a great review video, but I have to say that I don’t understand point #1. I could puke looking at this device, and I wouldn’t even want to put it into a closed cabinet. It’s a great device in terms of functionality and price, I’d definitely want to see more of these on the market, but the design really rubs me the wrong way.
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      4. Do you have any cpu heat issues? I’ve read on Reddit that some said there is design flaw that the contact of the cpu heatsink isn’t contacted correctly to the CPU
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      7. I am debating between DIY vs Terramaster F4-423 (currently at $399) vs this unit (Flashtor 6). I’ll be using it for basic storage and remote cloud access (Gdrive GPhotos replacement potentially Home Plex Server). What do you recommend?
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      8. Seriously considering one of these. M.2 is cheaper than SATA for flash storage.

        Any other storage appliance offering a good option for flash storage is incredibly expensive.
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      10. I think the worst Problem is realy the CPU. If Asus has used something like an AMD V1500B or an R2314 with 15 Watts but 16 PCIE 3.0 lanes, they could use 4 lanes for the NIC’s and USB which would be enough to even saturate a dual 10gbit NIC and 2 10gbit USB 3.2 Ports at the same time. That the NVME only run at 1GB/s or 2GB/s at the Store 6 wouldn’t be the problem. But with intel there are no efficient 16 lanes processors, so you have to go AMD which is notorious problematic at providing embedded Prozessors, Synology has some around.
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      11. After watching your reviews we have bought the Flashstor 12 for our video editing NAS. Great so far. One of our editing laptops is older and only can support 2.5Gb ethernet adapter speeds due to USB 3.1 Gen 1 bottleneck. If I got a second 2.5Gb adapter is it possible to set it up to get 2x 2.5Gb throughput❓ If so what do I need and how do I set it up❓
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      12. Thank you for the review of this product.

        I have been giving consideration to it and the form factor along with the SSD’s does have an appeal. This would be a home use application that does have SD, HD and 4k movies. There is also a fairly large amount of music files as MP3 and video as well. Other than that, it’s all about data and the combined volume is in and around 7TB. Again; home use two users.

        The question: what Drives of good quality would you recommend? I also understand through reading, the device is RAID capable. Is that part correct?

        In advance, thank you!
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      13. The product shows registered, but the website says it’s not, so I can’t open a ticket. I leave voice messages with Asustor and they don’t return my calls. I’m kind of stuck and not happy with their support. The 12 bay unit is displaying errors when I scrub and sometimes says the resource is not available. I don’t have these kinds of issues with NAS units from other brands. I’ve never had to contact the manufacturer for the other NAS units I have. Disappointing.
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      14. Disappointing. Talking very long about the procuct but still nothing about the noise of the device. If you are just saying “they are not loud” – that is not enough, I have heard the exact same comment about NAS as loud as a hairdryer.
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      15. In your next video, can you please advise the best NVMEs to use based on the throttling of Gen 3 x 1 and how to populate the NAS for best throughput i.e. is 3 NVMEs with Raid 5 the best. Thanks.
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      18. N5105 – Max # of PCI Express Lanes = 8 – Each NVME = Capable of 4 lanes. Whats the point of running NVME? May as well use SATA SSD’s.
        Now does anyone (at home) have the capability to run 60Gb/s (12x5Gb/s) networking. Nope. But….. Thinking outside the box and allowing for smb multi channel. maybe a third edition 12 bay, a ‘proper’ processor, with 4 10Gb/s SFP+ on the back and we might have some serious sales. There are definitely people out there who have that sort of capability. (like me)
        10Gb networking for home is a sensible price currently with mikrotik but 25/40/100 is still going to be real pricey until corporate entities start rolling this stuff to the pre-loved market
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      23. Great review as always.
        Apart from the higher cost/lower capacity of NVMEs compared to HDDs would you still recommend this 12 pro nvme NAS for video editing off of the server through 10Gbe, compared to a traditional 8-bay NAS with nvME caching?
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      24. Definitely interested but it is quite ‘plasticky’. I would have been keener to buy with a metal chasis, plastic just doesn’t say quality. I am quite keen to see what the competition produces that is similar. Kudos though for kicking off this type of NAS.
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      25. Hmm. Need something like this but with ZFS and encryption capabilities. I guess that would need a stronger CPU. I don’t really care about the external bottleneck, even 1 Gb is more than enough for what I need. I do care about the dimensions, noise, and power consumption, which far outweigh the network limits.

        Can you boot a TrueNAS on this or is the system drive vendor-locked?
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      27. I’ve recently found your site and your reviews here. Great job!

        I’d like to know if this would support having a SSD pool to have a PS 5 access it for game storage. Not sure how a PS5 would deal with NAS storage for game content.Any thoughts?
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      28. 14:04 — “a thousand megs per slot” . . . but assuming that is (or is not) with all six slot filled?
        For instance, if I make a pool out of three of six slots on FS6706T, then will each slot in such a pool get double that (i.e., 2,000 megs per slot)?
        With much appreciation. Great video ????
        Kindest regards, friends and neighbours.
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      29. Is there any drawback to connecting the NAS to a Mac Studio with SSD for the 10G speed and the rest of the computers on the network via ethernet? Do you get the same functionality in terms of storage and apps?
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      31. I saw your review of the Asustor Flashstor 12 Pro NVMe NAS and liked it, but I think there is missing information, such as:
        The type of memory used, is it ECC?
        Do we need to buy heat sinks for the M.2 drives?
        What is the type of the PCI lane connection, is it 3.1 or higher?

        Best budget that i found in Portugal was:
        Nome Marca unidade Preço Totais Preço Final
        ASUSTOR 12-Bay M.2 FLASHSTOR 12 PRO Asus 1 898,90 € 898,90 €
        Samsung 2TB SSD 970 EVO PLUS M2 PCIe – MZ-V7S2T0BW Samsung 12 113,58 € 1 362,96 € 2 333,90 €
        Samsung 2TB 980 Pro NVMe – MZ-V8P2T0BW Samsung 12 143,82 € 1 725,84 € 2 696,78 €
        Memória RAM Kingston 16GB 2666MHz DDR4 Non-ECC CL19 SODIMM – KVR26S19S8/16 Kingston 2 36,02 € 72,04 €

        Just for reference. Thank you for your attention. Keep up the good work.

        Best regards.
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      35. Spdif is a no for me. I am getting one of these but will be going Ethernet to my transport to the DAC. This will be replacing my DS220+. Fits and better looking ????
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      36. Let’s all face facts – if you’re expecting to fill a 10Gbps link with traffic all the time, or want/need a 25Gbps or 40Gbps+ link, you’re not looking at Asustor. You’re looking at professional solutions. My potential use for this is in long-term NAS storage, not performant storage. Meaning, I want to have 12x4TB disks in RAID 6, and load them with Plex data, and let them sit there. For over a decade. And be reliable. Something spinners can’t really nod their head at. With RAID 6 NVME drives, I would expect easily 10+ years of use – I’d expect that the CPU or memory may suffer a defect long before the drives die. The only thing I wish the 12 bay unit had would be dual 10Gbps ports – not for throughput (and I’m sure some people would scream about that) but for redundancy, so that if I do a switch upgrade and it reloads, nothing is interrupted from a file mount perspective.
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      38. *Note* – Fairplay to @ASUSTORTV , after my criticism of the system not arriving with M.2 SSD Heatsinks, they have produced a test video showing compelling evidence that the PCIe Gen 3×1 slots are not able to generate enough heat on a x1 speed each. I will be conducting sustained tests later on that factor in spiked use, but I have to hand it to them, it is a great response and makes a solid case. You can find their video here – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vr__5B3oGtM
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      39. Some notes about these Asustor FS 67 series NVMe NAS’s….
        1. Currently the only 4TB NVMe supported is the WD RED 4TB (WDS400T1R0C-68BDK0) per the Asustor HCL .
        2. The NAS will stream DSD (up to quad-DSD) to an attached USB DAC. However, none of the USB DACs listed on Asustor’s HCL support DSD.
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      43. The 1GBps per drive comment isn’t exactly accurate. Due to the CPU only having 8 PCIe lanes, they’re using ASMedia PCIe MUX chips to share all of the PCIe bandwidth. In a RAID6 array with all 12 bays populated with 2TB Intel 670Ps, I haven’t seen more than around 3100 MB/s reads and 840 MB/s writes.
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      44. Wait… Let’s nip this in the bud, shall we. Making no apology, this is a ha’p’orth o’ tar situation, though in NAS terms we are talking more leaky coracle than creaky man-o’-war. More than that, here is an offstage exercise in elephant wallpapering. Having said that, I do agree pretty much with mostly all you’ve said in your pros and cons presentation, and with ASUSTOR TV clarifications and rejoinders – but!

        It’s one thing to announce that the Flashstor is populated exclusively with NVMe cards, whilst waving the like to your ear. I can’t fault your delivery. It’s priceless. NVMe cards are silent as a dead parrot, of course. But the so called bad boy Flashstor NAS – with a manufacturer stated Operation Noise Level of 18.7 dB due to the built-in active cooling fan – is, well, audible. Not just audible, but with a strangely metallic, nay, ironic quality to the noise it produces.

        Very quiet, and barely noticeable, are relative euphemisms, like almost silent, not useful in translation. Every ear hears what it will. An acceptable level of noise depends subjectively on individual use case scenarios. I suspect the majority of any gathered assembly will be quite comfortable agreeing to differ on the intrusiveness, or otherwise, of a quiet device.

        Should you buy it? On a promise it never makes and doesn’t need to keep? See below. Even if you convince yourself to overlook the inclusion of a fan in the specification you won’t be spared the morning after. Remove the fan, or if it stops working of its own accord, and there is a series of loud beeps to alert all those within earshot. No secret. It insists functionally on being present and correct, and, as I may have indicated, it is noisy. It oughtn’t be, but it is. Thanks to two significant factors: a) aerodynamics, that is diameter/rotational speed/blade design, and in particular b) dual ball bearings.

        I suggest a line be drawn at the apparently casual use of the word silent since it means something entirely different, by varying degree indicative of subjective experience of noise level, to the word quiet. (Aside – You might want to call the latter virtual silence. Mmmm, a bit 70’s. How about artificial silence. Ah, yes, now that’s modern. Of course, it still means categorically not silent in any way whatsoever, rather of questionable value, a compensatory poor substitute for the real thing. Who cares.)

        If you require silence, as in Solid State Drive, and wish to eliminate noise, as in Hard Disk Drive, then buying this machine is a straight forward mistake. Silent running is statedly not a design goal of Asustor for the Flashstor. That being the case, what exactly is the unique selling point of it? The case is sturdy, but looks ridiculous and those are fake exhausts on the front, whatever Robbie told you. If the proprietor also spreads the idea that its firmware potentially is written to deny service to those seeking to install other operating systems or scupper rival investment group’s memory modules then at best it is an impressive marketing exercise. Impressive as in pressurised sales loosening your grip on reality and in turn making a big dent in your paltry bitcoin collection. So keep your eye on the pea. Let’s go.

        Highly desirable, a silent domestic NAS device is a simple and clear objective concept. A design goal. Not a missed target. Not an Asustor. Not even a Flashstor. Not yet, anyway. To this day, the only silent NAS is a NONAS.

        “We really wanted to make this quiet. Otherwise it defeats one of the purposes of an SSD NAS.” ASUSTOR TV on Flashstor thermal design.

        There it is again. That word. Quiet. Which means a degree of noisy as opposed to silent, which still means no noise.

        My DS415+, admittedly with Noctua fans, is quiet. The reason for upgrading the fans is to eliminate the metallic grinding sound of ball bearings, to make the fans mostly tolerable. But it isn’t silent with four WD Red 3TB HDD. The escaping chronic fixed level mechanical grinding sound, more than the lively seek chatter, is a depressive ergonomic that is unnatural to the ear and a factor in long term hearing loss. That’s why most sysops tend to not live in the server room, or for that matter the plant room, or indeed the belfry. What? Away then, with those naughty hard disks and their moving parts.

        “We really wanted to make this quiet.” Really. If by quiet you mean to some extent noisy, you succeeded. You didn’t. You did otherwise. Strange, but true. In doing so, as vouchsafed, you defeated one of the purposes of an SSD NAS. The distinguishing purpose presumably being to follow through silent (not quiet) solid state disks with a silent (not quiet) solid state chassis. You know. Silent storage. Instead of quiet (to some extent noisy) storage.

        By design. Quiet and not silent. Why is that? It needn’t be that way. Why stop at swapping out the last of those noisy spinning hard disks to do only half a job by leaving in a noisy spinning fan?

        With respect to the Flashstor, use of the word silent is merely adjectival funny business, or perhaps fanny business. What I mean is this. A useful practical description of an object ought to align itself with the uniformly objective convergence of common experience and yield to independent measurement and verification. Thus, silent is probably a non-starter as there is a ball bearing attached. Unless that fan is off, that is, or running on mag-lev oil bearings below the bar of a gentle draught, which it isn’t in this case.

        Thursday there were two Flashstor 6 in stock on Amazon UK – then there was one. Closer inspection of the design would suggest that Asustor decided wilfully not to render the wannabe silent NAS in fact, silent. The thick plottens. The design includes certain case screw heads, including the fan screws, buried under pressed and recessed hard plastic caps that defy attempts to disassemble. The dimensions of the custom fan itself are suboptimal to sourcing better performing parts. Fan replacement is therefore a factory repair. Good luck with that. One is physically hampered even from modding the Flashstor for peace and quiet. One may be seen but not heard, but one’s NAS – not so much.

        When the Flashtor NAS is up and running, it’s tiddly built-in fan is up and running. The ball bearing noise can be heard distinctly and penetratingly across the room. This is not to mention the rushing sound of air. Asustor has almost succeeded with that, although the fan is rather small. In fact the airflow can only be heard if one waves the entire NAS to one’s ear or, equally, places one’s ear really quite close to it.

        That is not the major problem. The fan shifts enough air at idle to keep the inner workings from overheating and the airflow often is inaudible depending on the ambient sound of working conditions. Only in the dead of night, when you should be asleep anyway, or if you are fortunate enough to work in library conditions, can this humble rush of air be heard. The poor wee fan has to work the surrounding air a little too vigorously to waft the necessary draught. The sound level is very much like a DS423+ on SSDs, sporting replacement Noctua fans fitted with series resistors. Don’t ask me how I know. Don’t get me started on those cheap rattly Synology fans in a flimsy case. Why do you think I took in the Flashtor? Desperation. It certainly wasn’t for looks.

        I want to live with my NAS, not to have to listen to it when I require to hear a pin drop. A little more commitment to acoustic performance could easily have resulted in a silent Flashstor. Misanthropic marketing motivated by the boundless wonder of public imagination supposes why produce something good and well-engineered straight off the bat when you can sell it again, and again, and again. To the tune of a waltz.

        The problem is this. And this is the whole point. Asustor have used, not the cheapest fan design it demonstrates reasonably good aerodynamics and manufacturing but cheap enough to suffer from noisy ball bearings. I say suffer, because the sound is remarkably similar to the grinding sound of a spinning hard disk.

        So here’s a paradox for you. The elephant in the room is the Flashtor itself. As a design and marketing concept it is admirable: bold, striking and courageous. However, you could say that its greatest asset is at the same time its inevitable downfall. It is a victim of its own success. It contains the seeds of its own destruction. In other words, it has balls. And it’s a little fanny.

        There is only one thing more disheartening than suffering from noisy ball syndrome, and that is foisting your head splitting ailment on sensitive, imaginative types who are trying to manifest (let’s be generous) original thinking. That, and the blinding irony of an SSD NAS sounding for all the world like a wheezy old dog of an HDD chassis. Oooh, the bells! The decibels!

        12th Gen Intel NUC with a Core i5-1240P 35W TPD in the Akasa Turing passive case with a 2.5″ SSD, mSata and NVMe is for real. Silent. Oh, the sheer relief. Obviously, that represents overkill for power in a domestic NAS. Count them. How many cores? But proof of concept beyond doubt by an order of magnitude. The removal of barriers to achieving a silent NAS. How are you going to test the market for silent NAS if you don’t release one? I see, you are testing the market for the acceptance of a decoy. As long as that’s understood. You can be the best at taking the pea.
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      48. I don’t trust the chinese Asus one single bit. Their customer service is pure crap. Here’s their latest “screw the customer” fiasco. https://youtu.be/cbGfc-JBxlY
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      49. Just please someone to tell the manufacturers, to put full size pci slot (or mobile 3070 soldered to the mb) and space for gpu and here you go, the perfect plex server ????????????
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      50. I bought one of these and decided to go for the Flashstor 6 version.

        I simply couldn’t justify the jump in price between the FS6 to FS12 for an extra 6 drive slots and the 10Gb LAN.

        For me tge FS6 is plenty fast enough.

        The reason I devided on one of these is they are almost silent and use barely any power. In sleep mode they make no noise at all and use literally nothing (less than 1 watt). But the main reason is they wake up from sleep in less than 2 seconds vs my Synology NAS which takes sone 40+ seconds to wake all the drives up and come to life.

        Mine is not accessible online and i only access it via VPN so my data remains safe and its plenty fast enough for moving files around my network vs my Synology with its limited 1Gb LAN ports (why Synology).

        The only slight issue i have is with regards to the NVMe drives. Because there is limited compatibility listed on the Asustor site for these i thought I’d try just a couple of Samsung Evo 970 Plus 2TB drives to start with and if tgey worked ok I’d add more.

        I bought two and set them up as RAID 1 and everything worked fine.

        I then thought id add another and change to RAID 5, so i got another 2TB exact same drive bought only 2 days later (all bought from Amazon). It set up as RAID 5 fine and seemed all ok but the 3rd drive seemed to be considerably hotter than the previous two.

        Also i noticed the 3rd drive was showing as having “ERROR INFORMATION LOG ENTRIES” when i checked that drive in the NVMe SSD status log.

        I assumed that drive might be faulty so RMA’d it. But the replacement was exactly the same. So i completely deleted the volume and set all 3 drives up a fresh as RAID 5. But that 3rd drive is still getting the ERROR INFORMATION LOG ENTRIES which is odd. The initial two drives don’t have them and they are exactly the same drives.

        Ive tried swapping drive slots etc but that 3rd drive just seems different. The only physical difference is the first two drives were manufactured date of 2022 but the 3rd (and replacement 4th drive) are manufactured dated 2023 so presumably newer firmware.

        Any ideas what these ERROR INFORMATION LOG ENTRIES are and are they a reason for concern? Why does this 2023 drive have them but not the 1st two drives?

        @Asustor TV

        Apart from that issue im loving the system and its a great price too for such a silent, low powered (energy wise) and rapid system)
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      53. What use cases are these useful for? Seems overkill for home use, seeing as you need a network setup beyond most home networks, and is this sort of performance really needed for Plex? If you’re doing home video editing why not store the videos while editing locally and then backup to NAS. Just curious.
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      55. I hope you do a followup on this device with a recomended ssd choice and tests. The hdmi output is also interesting. How well would that work vs. Accessing media on the network.
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      56. I hope you do a followup on this device with a recomended ssd choice and tests. The hdmi output is also interesting. How well would that work vs. Accessing media on the network.
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      57. A better CPU could have gotten Gen4 NVMe speeds, but then it would have doubled the cost and would be marketed towards content creators photo/video editing. With the N5105 and those ports it seems like it’s going to be marketed towards Plex media users.????
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      58. A better CPU could have gotten Gen4 NVMe speeds, but then it would have doubled the cost and would be marketed towards content creators photo/video editing. With the N5105 and those ports it seems like it’s going to be marketed towards Plex media users.????
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      59. I’m still trying to figure out a use for this. If it’s for media, then the cost of the storage for typically large media files is going to be far too expensive for a collection of any decent size. Besides, media files typically don’t need really fast access. In my experience with 3 brand name NAS’s, conventional HDD’s are just fine. If you are using this for smaller files, like in an office environment, then a conventional NAS with HDD’s is plenty fast in my experience. And if you need to speed up that conventional NAS, then a single SSD for cache may be the answer. I’m sure there are a lot of more knowledgeable users with different uses for this who could fill in the gaps for me but I just don’t see a practical value for money use for this NAS.
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      60. I’m still trying to figure out a use for this. If it’s for media, then the cost of the storage for typically large media files is going to be far too expensive for a collection of any decent size. Besides, media files typically don’t need really fast access. In my experience with 3 brand name NAS’s, conventional HDD’s are just fine. If you are using this for smaller files, like in an office environment, then a conventional NAS with HDD’s is plenty fast in my experience. And if you need to speed up that conventional NAS, then a single SSD for cache may be the answer. I’m sure there are a lot of more knowledgeable users with different uses for this who could fill in the gaps for me but I just don’t see a practical value for money use for this NAS.
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      61. NVME’s don’t get that hot. This is only needed if you are actually pushing them but 90% of the gen3 x4 NVME’s even when using them in high end computing don’t need heatsink. A NAS unless the user is pushing it with multiple users in an x4 configuration don’t need heatsinks. If they are limited by x1 i don’t see them even remotely coming close to needing a heatsink. This is another one of those geek things that the higher end users say you need but don’t realize that 99% of the people watching their content don’t. There are also some studies out there that show they work better when they are warmed up. This is definitely seen when talking immersion cooling.
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      65. 17:07 The heatsinks for the SoC are under the motherboard. Heatsinks for the SSDs if preferred, are sold separately. They’re the same heatsinks as the AS-T10G3. During testing, we could not cause SSDs to overheat in our NAS. This isn’t to say that some SSDs in the future might need heatsinks due to their design, we wanted to keep the NAS flexible to take almost any SSD while giving people the option to add SSDs later on and not pass those costs onto people who might not need them. Remember, the PCIe lanes are limited to x1 to match with the 10GbE and provide a higher quantity without much sacrifice in real world performance. Since they’re x1, they’re not being fully throttled sequentially and thus, run cooler.
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      66. 15:41 The problem with the claim that the SSDs aren’t able to stretch their legs is that, practically, no copper-based network solution is going to allow 40 Gbps on PCIe 3.0 x4. We’d have to buy a 40GbE controller, add heatsinks for the cooling, tell everyone to upgrade their PCs with QSFP+ 40GbE cards, tell everyone to buy expensive 40GbE switches for their network etc… PCIe 3.0 x1 perfectly matches with a 10GbE port, and to be honest, as a NAS user myself, very few actually do much internal transferring to make x4 sockets worthwhile. 99/100 interactions are through the NIC, the main entry point, and SSDs provide unbelievably superior random I/O performance, which helps with, actions that require HUGE amounts of small files, like video editing, audio editing, photo transfers and more. Such actions will not even saturate Gigabit, but will be substantially faster, orders of magnitude faster than regular hard drives. 10GbE helps balance it out.
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      68. 11:11 If we shoved an i3 in there, it’d cook itself. We want our customers to have their cake and eat it too. An i3 would still not support ECC either. The profile just won’t physically support a Xeon.
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      75. Excellent channel for listening to and get smarter while working.

        However, sometimes the mic pick up a bit too much breathing and I find it uncomfortable, especially with headset
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      77. I don’t need massive throughput. I need quite a lot of storage (12 – 18 TB), and I want it to be quiet and low power – which rules out large conventional drives, or multiple smaller conventional drives in a traditional NAS – it’s too noisy and uses too much power. Large capacity SSDs drives don’t exist, and there is currently no real cost penalty to NVMe over SATA SSDs, so NVMe it is. But I’d need to have a bunch of them. One option is a distributed filesystem like Ceph over several low power NUCs or Raspberry Pi type devices, but it’s a lot of faff. Or a custom PC with extra NVMe storage via PCI-x cards – but can that be power efficient? This Flashstor device might be the exact thing I need.
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      79. I picked up one of these (the 12 bay) because I don’t have massive data storage requirements and like the idea of a near silent NAS with great performance and the option to expand down the track if needed.

        Have had to log a support docket unfortunately due to an issue with the CPU overheating. System and NVME temps all normal but CPU sitting at 80C+ at idle.

        To their credit, they responded quickly and are troubleshooting.
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      80. Regarding the USB Ports, I was totally WRONG! They are 10Gb(s). Yep, hands in the air. Massive brain fart on my part! In my haste I misread the ‘USB 3.2 Gen 2×1’ as ‘USB 3.2 Gen 1×2’ – eg two USB 5Gb/s ports (my script notes are bullet points when recording). Absolutely premium F-up on my part. Gonna pin this comment to highlight my shame and correct!
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      83. Those mining board with tons of x1 slot possible can build can build something similar? There is adapter for pcie x1 to nvme,straight

        Some mining board got 16 or more nvme x1 slot , slap those adapter and plug tons of nvme x1 there

        Unfortunately many of them are running through pch which may causing bottleneck
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      85. Could I add a USB Wi-Fi adapter and connect to a router while also connecting to a PC via the ethernet port (separate LAN address of course)? I’m assuming yes.
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      86. It is the future eventually. We just need to wait for affordable high capacity NVMes. I wish we could get some low cost “archive type” SSDs: more capacity at lower speeds, e.g. 16TB@1000Mbps. I’d get some including this Flashstor ????
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      87. really struggling to understand what anyone would use this for. It appears its geared towards being a QUIET low powered media center. Maybe for someone who doesn’t have the space to store disk based nas anywhere and doesn’t have the internet connection to stream but otherwise it feels like it would be too expensive for other purposes.
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      88. FFS! instead of going with a beautiful ryzen CPU tgsr could support ECC RAM they dechded that the safety of our data is not important 🙁
        Unbelievable.. and what a shame in 2023!
        Hopefully the new product Linus Sebastian invested in won’t do the same unforgivable mistake.
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      90. Running the Flashstor 6 with 4 drives now – OK so far – currently playing with different RAID configs and wondering if I should just go JBOD for editing with this. Have the Synology 920/923’s as primary backup/duplication.
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      94. Good review, thank you. Would like to see the resources utilized WITHOUT the surveillance BETA software running. Many users likely use their NAS for surveillance duties, but in my home/office environment, we have our own security and the NAS is dedicated to media and storage. After watching this review, I am uncertain if there are sufficient memory resources for an environment that does not include surveillance.
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