Aoostar TB4S-OC Review – USB4 and Oculink NVMe DAS

Aoostar TB4S-OC NVMe USB4 and Oculink DAS Review

As much as I love to talk about network attached storage (NAS), I would be lying if I said I didn’t have a soft spot for direct attached storage (DAS – also referred to as locally accessed storage). Even though traditional NAS has been around now for several decades, direct attached storage has been around almost as long as the subject of data storage itself. The advantages and desirability of add-on locally accessible storage have appealed to practically everyone, and as network attached storage has continued to evolve, direct attached storage has not exactly been putting its feet up with a paper and a cup of tea! Fantastically fast connections like USB4, Thunderbolt 4 and the increasingly popular Oculink — which is effectively PCIe external connectivity, made easy! Into this growing and exciting field of storage, AOOSTAR has launched the TB4S-OC, an enclosure that connects via 40Gbps USB4 or Oculink! Originally designed as a NAS expansion device, as many of the growing range of appliances in NAS and mini PCs support both of these ports, this allows you to immediately add four Gen 3 SSDs to your operating system of choice and greatly boost your storage performance.

Specification	Details
Model	AOOSTAR TB4S-OC
Material	Aluminum Alloy
Storage Capacity	Single slot supports up to 4TB, total capacity of up to 16TB
Supported SSD Type	4x M.2 2280 NVMe SSDs (PCIe 3.0, backwards compatible)
Interface Ports	1x Oculink port, 1x USB4 port, 1x DC power port
Transfer Speed (Per Slot)	Up to 800MB/s
Total Transfer Speed	Up to 2.5GB/s in RAID 0, 2.1GB/s in RAID 5
Power Supply	DC charger (included in the box)
Cooling System	Base-mounted, silent active cooling fan
Thermal Performance	47°C during read tests, 46°C during write tests, 41-42°C during copy tests
RAID Support	Software-based RAID (JBOD, RAID 0, RAID 5)
Chipset	ASM2462PDX (low power consumption design)
Product Dimensions	10.7 x 10.7 x 2.9 cm
Weight	Compact and portable
Included Accessories	Oculink cable, USB4 cable, DC charger, 4x SSD heatsinks, adapter cable (for GEM10 series)
Compatibility	USB4 and Oculink compatible mini PCs, laptops, and NAS systems
Price	$179.00

Aoostar TB4S-OC Review – Quick Conclusion

The AOOSTAR TB4S-OC NVMe USB4 and Oculink DAS offers high-speed storage expansion with USB4 and Oculink interfaces, supporting four M.2 NVMe SSDs with transfer speeds up to 800MB/s per slot. Compact and efficient in design, it includes a base-mounted cooling fan for heat management during heavy workloads. While it lacks hardware RAID support, it relies on software RAID for managing multiple SSDs. In testing, the TB4S-OC showed consistent performance with 822MB/s read and 788MB/s write speeds, and 265MB/s for SSD-to-SSD transfers. In RAID 0, it reached 2.5GB/s and 2.1GB/s in RAID 5 with the AOOSTAR GEM10 mini PC/NAS. Its thermal management kept SSD temperatures safe, peaking at 47°C during read tests. Though versatile, it is limited by the lack of hardware RAID and compatibility with older USB ports.

BUILD QUALITY - 8/10

HARDWARE - 8/10

PERFORMANCE - 8/10

PRICE - 9/10

VALUE - 8/10

8.2

PROS

👍🏻High-Speed Connectivity: Supports USB4 and Oculink, providing faster data transfer rates up to 40Gbps.
👍🏻Compact and Portable: Small form factor with durable aluminum design, making it easy to transport and integrate into existing setups.
👍🏻Supports Up to 16TB Storage: With four M.2 NVMe SSD slots, the device can accommodate significant storage capacity.
👍🏻Efficient Thermal Management: Maintains safe operating temperatures, even during intensive tasks, with an active cooling system.
👍🏻Versatile RAID Options: Software RAID support (RAID 0 and RAID 5) allows for flexible storage configurations.
👍🏻Excellent Performance: Achieves up to 2.5GB/s in RAID 0 and 2.1GB/s in RAID 5, delivering impressive transfer speeds.
👍🏻JBOD Option Available: Ideal for users who prefer independent drives without RAID configuration.
👍🏻Wide Compatibility: Works with both NAS systems and mini PCs that support USB4 and Oculink interfaces.

CONS

👎🏻No Hardware RAID Support: Lacks built-in hardware RAID, relying on software RAID, which may be a limitation for some users.
👎🏻Limited PCIe Lanes (x1): Each SSD slot is limited to PCIe Gen 3 x1, capping individual drive speeds at around 800MB/s.
👎🏻Incompatibility with Older USB Ports: Does not support legacy USB3.0 or USB2.0 ports, restricting usage to newer interfaces only.

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AOOSTAR TB4S-OC Review – Design

AOOSTAR has been a growing name in the world of network attached storage for a few years now, releasing some pretty unique devices into the market. In the last 12 months we have reviewed several different devices, such as the GEM10, from this brand that have factored in support of both USB4 and Oculink connections.

AOOSTAR TB4S-OC will allow you to expand via USB4 (and indeed, the 64Gbps connection of Oculink) and not only expand your original storage but expand it with genuinely fast NVMe storage that can match the performance of internal SSDs.

Up until this point, if you wanted to expand a NAS using USB, you were limited to simply expanding with slower hard drives or utilizing slightly faster SSDs. As good as these sound, they pale in comparison to the faster M.2 NVMe storage provided by the system’s internal SSDs.

Some users, of course, quite like this, as it allows them to use the internal SSD bays inside their NAS for hot data, while utilizing the slower external USB storage on hard drives and SATA SSDs for cold storage long-term.

However, that still means the transfer of data between the main NAS and the external system on most traditional expansion devices is limited to USB, which ends up being between 500MB and 1,000MB per second (depending on the version of USB 3.2 you are using).

However, the TB4S-OC being able to take advantage of USB4 or Oculink will massively open up the bandwidth afforded between the NAS and the expansion system. So that means that hot data can be stored externally if needed, or even just warm data, and data can be moved between a NAS and expansion up to a maximum of 6,400MB per second.

That said, you are still going to need external power. Luckily, the system arrives with a pretty decent external PSU.

Regarding maximum performance potential, this is heavily dependent, of course, on the lanes afforded to the SSDs inside an expansion, as well as the SSDs themselves, but this is still a massive increase over what traditional USB expansions have been able to provide to NAS directly previously.

The TB4S-OC arrives as an incredibly compact external enclosure that easily fits within your hand. The system features a base-mounted, silent, active cooling fan. I was not able to find much in the way of fan control when connecting this to the GEM10 AOOSTAR system with Unraid running, but that does not mean that other NAS operating systems would not be able to control the enclosure fan via their own control panel.

One neat little extra is that the system also includes a power supply splitter. It a small extra, but definitely appreciated.

The 2nd connector on the splitter is a standard barrel power connection and can be attached to a similar barrel PSU.

Under the base panel is a larger fan assisted heatsink panel.

This sits directly on top of the M.2 Slots and the kit includes the m.2 thermal panels to allow for dissipation from the drive into the heatsink.

Removing the base-level fan shows us the internal 2280 length M.2 NVMe slots.

Each slot is a Gen 3 x1 lane speed interface, which means that each one can provide somewhere between 800MB to 1,000MB per second bandwidth to a connected drive.

AOOSTAR TB4S-OC Review – Storage

There are definitely going to be some users disappointed to hear this, as even fairly average class Gen 3 x4 SSDs have the potential to reach 3,000MB per second bandwidth, but clearly there has to be some lane distribution at play, and all of these drives are being fed into a singular controller that needs to be USB4 compliant at 40Gbps.

The system does not support any internal hardware RAID and is supplied as JBOD only. This is not the end of the world, as the majority of expansion DAS boxes in recent years have arrived in JBOD form, and although as just a typical USB direct attached storage device support for a hardware RAID would be desirable, it is less so in the world of modern NAS.

Equally, improved efficiency of CPUs and RAID management have also significantly reduced the overhead that managing RAID on an external box would have had in previous years.

The benefits of RAID across multiple drives are fairly well documented, and these four SSDs, if pooled in RAID 0 or in RAID 5 with a single disk of redundancy, would significantly improve performance and eat up a lot more of that USB/Oculink bandwidth up for grabs.

RAID video embedded picture

AOOSTAR TB4S-OC Review – Performance Testing

When it comes to performance, the AOOSTAR TB4S-OC delivers solid results across both read and write operations, as well as internal data copying. Below are the performance metrics based on testing:

• 1 SSD Read Performance: 1GB File Creation, 90x, via Terminal/SSH = 822MB/s
• 1 SSD Write Performance: 1GB File Creation, 90x, via Terminal/SSH = 788MB/s
• Copy 1GB from SSD 1 to SSD 2: 1GB x20, via Terminal/SSH = 265MB/s

Although the write performance is slightly lower than the read performance, these figures are very respectable and demonstrate how well the TB4S-OC handles typical NAS or DAS expansion tasks. Copying data between SSDs is a bit slower, but still well within acceptable performance for the system’s configuration.

Thermal management is also worth noting, with the system effectively dissipating heat during intensive tasks.

• During SSD Read Tests, the SSDs peaked at just 47°C.
• During SSD Write Tests, the SSDs peaked at 46°C.
• During SSD Copy Tests, SSDs peaked at 41-42°C.

These temperatures are well within safe operating ranges for SSDs and indicate that the AOOSTAR TB4S-OC is able to handle sustained workloads without risking overheating or performance throttling.

Performance Test	Results
1 SSD Read Performance	822MB/s (1GB File Creation, 90x, via Terminal/SSH)
1 SSD Write Performance	788MB/s (1GB File Creation, 90x, via Terminal/SSH)
Copy 1GB from SSD 1 to SSD 2	265MB/s (1GB x20, via Terminal/SSH)
RAID 0 Performance	2.5GB/s transfer speed to AOOSTAR GEM10
RAID 5 Performance	2.1GB/s transfer speed to AOOSTAR GEM10
SSD Read Test Temperature	47°C peak
SSD Write Test Temperature	46°C peak
SSD Copy Test Temperature	41-42°C peak

AOOSTAR TB4S-OC – Review Conclusion

The AOOSTAR TB4S-OC NVMe USB4 and Oculink DAS is a versatile storage expansion solution designed to offer high-speed connectivity through USB4 and Oculink interfaces. With support for four M.2 NVMe SSDs and transfer speeds of up to 800MB/s per slot, the device provides users with fast, reliable storage, ideal for expanding both NAS and mini PC setups. Its compact aluminum design ensures efficient heat dissipation, and the inclusion of a base-mounted cooling fan helps maintain optimal temperatures during heavy workloads. The absence of hardware RAID support, however, means it relies on software-based RAID solutions for managing multiple SSDs.

Performance-wise, the TB4S-OC delivers consistent read and write speeds, with 822MB/s read and 788MB/s write during testing. The ability to transfer data between SSDs at 265MB/s makes it a capable storage expansion for professionals requiring additional high-speed storage. In RAID 0 configuration, the device achieved an impressive 2.5GB/s transfer speed to the connected AOOSTAR GEM10 Flash mini PC/NAS, while in RAID 5 it reached 2.1GB/s, balancing speed with redundancy. Its thermal management is also noteworthy, as the device maintains safe operating temperatures under load, peaking at 47°C during intensive read tests. Overall, the AOOSTAR TB4S-OC provides a flexible and efficient storage solution, though users should be aware of its limitations in terms of internal RAID functionality and compatibility with older ports like USB 3.0.

AOOSTAR TB4S-OC PROS	AOOSTAR TB4S-OC CONS
High-Speed Connectivity: Supports USB4 and Oculink, providing faster data transfer rates up to 40Gbps. Compact and Portable: Small form factor with durable aluminum design, making it easy to transport and integrate into existing setups. Supports Up to 16TB Storage: With four M.2 NVMe SSD slots, the device can accommodate significant storage capacity. Efficient Thermal Management: Maintains safe operating temperatures, even during intensive tasks, with an active cooling system. Versatile RAID Options: Software RAID support (RAID 0 and RAID 5) allows for flexible storage configurations. Excellent Performance: Achieves up to 2.5GB/s in RAID 0 and 2.1GB/s in RAID 5, delivering impressive transfer speeds. JBOD Option Available: Ideal for users who prefer independent drives without RAID configuration. Wide Compatibility: Works with both NAS systems and mini PCs that support USB4 and Oculink interfaces.	No Hardware RAID Support: Lacks built-in hardware RAID, relying on software RAID, which may be a limitation for some users. Limited PCIe Lanes (x1): Each SSD slot is limited to PCIe Gen 3 x1, capping individual drive speeds at around 800MB/s. Incompatibility with Older USB Ports: Does not support legacy USB3.0 or USB2.0 ports, restricting usage to newer interfaces only.

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