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GENERAL NAS FEATURE COMPARISON

NAS Plex (local 4K) Plex HD (remote) Plex 4K (remote) BACKUP (MS/GOOGLE OFFICE) BACKUP (BAREBONE) PHOTOS (OBJECT AI) VIDEO EDITING (4K) VIDEO EDITING (8K) DOCKER VIRTUAL MACHINES PC MODE (QVM) 2.5GbE 10GbE 25GbE Thunderbolt NVMe Pcie Expansion HDMI Drive Mixing
HS-264 โœ“ โœ“ โœ“โœ“โœ“โ“˜โœ“โœ“โœ“โœ“โ“˜โœ“โœ“โœ“
FS2500 โœ“ - -โœ“โœ“โœ“โœ“โœ“โœ“โœ“โœ“โœ“โœ“
AS5402T โœ“ โœ“ โœ“โ“˜โœ“โœ“โœ“โœ“โœ“โœ“

LATEST PRICE LIST

HS-264591.69 GBP599 USD
FS2500129.95 GBP140 USD
AS5402T369 GBP379.15 USD

BEST FOR Virtualisation

NAS CPU Cores Threads Speed (GHz) Docker/VM Score ECC
HS-264 Intelยฎ Celeronยฎ N5095 4-core/4-thread p... 4 4 2 (MAX:2.9) Docker/VM 4036 NO /8 GB DDR4, not expandable
FS2500 AMD Ryzen V1780B 4 8 3.35 Docker/VM 8216 ECC /8 GB DDR4 ECC UDIMM
AS5402T Intel Celeron N5105 4 4 2 (MAX:2.9) Docker/VM 4036 NO /4 GB DDR4 (1 x 4 GB + 1 free)

BEST FOR MULTIMEDIA

NAS GPU Base_GHz/Max Codec FPS Transcoding Plex
HS-264 Intelยฎ UHD Graphics 450/750 H.264 60 2160 2160p
FS2500 / 0 1080p
AS5402T Intelยฎ UHD Graphics 450/800 H.264 60 2160 2160p

BEST FOR FILE STORAGE

NAS BAYS Bandwidth HDD storage expansion Drive mixing File System
HS-264 2 HDD 5Gbit (2 ports combined) 44TB โœ“ EXT4
FS2500 12 HDD 22Gbit (4 ports combined) 264TB โœ“ EXT4 BTRFS
AS5402T 2 HDD 5Gbit (2 ports combined) 44TB EXT4 BTRFS

*All NAS support multiple RAID/ volume groups, if you want to mix different size drive on non supported model.

BEST FOR BACKUP

NAS Level HA AI Google Microsoft encryption
HS-264 folder face โœ“ โœ“ HDD/volume /folder
FS2500 folder face+object /folder
AS5402T folder /folder

BEST FOR VIDEO EDITING

NAS MAX LAN speed Ports transcoding PCIe NVMe
HS-264 2.5Gbit โœ“ Slot 1: PCIe Gen 3 x2
FS2500 10Gbit 2x RJ-45 10GbE 1 x Gen3 x4
AS5402T 2.5Gbit โœ“ 4x PCIe Gen 3 m.2 NVMe

BEST FOR SURVEILLANCE (CCTV)

NAS HDMI QVM transcoding AI
HS-264 2 x HDMI 2.0 (up to resolution 3840 x 2160 @ 60Hz) โœ“ โœ“ โœ“
FS2500
AS5402T HDMI 2.0b 4K 60PFS โœ“

BEST FOR SMART HOME/ AI

NAS Virtual switch Docker/VM HDMI S/PDIF / AUX
HS-264 โœ“ Docker/VM 2 x HDMI 2.0 (up to resolution 3840 x 2160 @ 60Hz)
FS2500 Docker/VM
AS5402T Docker/VM HDMI 2.0b 4K 60PFS

LATEST VIDEOS RELATED


AVAILABILITY / RELEASE DATE

Brand Model TW USA UK Released
Qnap HS-264 โ€ข โ€ข โ€ข 2022-01
Synology FS2500 โ€ข โ€ข โ€ข 2021-12
Asustor AS5402T โ€ข โ€ข โ€ข 2023-07

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RELATED REVIEWS

SOFTWARE - 8/10
HARDWARE - 8/10
PERFORMANCE - 8/10
PRICE - 8/10
VALUE - 8/10


8.0
PROS
๐Ÿ‘๐ŸปThe Silent NAS series has always been impressive and unique
๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿป
๐Ÿ‘๐ŸปVery unique and discreet at just 4.1cm in height
๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿป
๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿป
๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿป8x Included Camera Licenses
๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿป
๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿป
๐Ÿ‘๐ŸปIncludes Anti-virus, Firewall Tool, VPN client tools, Malware Remover, network manager and Security Councilor Tool
๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿป
๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿป
๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿป3 Different Container/VM tools that also feature image download centers
๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿป
๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿป
๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿป10Gb/s (1,000MB/s) USB Ports will be incredibly useful
๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿป
๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿป
๐Ÿ‘๐ŸปLarge range of expansion options in the TR/TL series in 2, 4, 6, 8 and 12 Bays
CONS
๐Ÿ‘Ž๐ŸปComes across as a less impressive package than the HS-453DX (though the HS-264 is $200 less)
๐Ÿ‘Ž๐Ÿป
๐Ÿ‘Ž๐ŸปSustained high power use makes the top panel noticeably hot
๐Ÿ‘Ž๐Ÿป
๐Ÿ‘Ž๐Ÿป
๐Ÿ‘Ž๐Ÿป8GB of Memory Max, despite the CPU and other 64 series QNAPโ€™s supporting upto 16GB

ASUSTOR provides their own ADM server software platform with all of their solutions and although it is not quite as advanced as offerings from most expensive NAS solutions in the market, it still arrives with a huge range of applications, services and is accessible via a web browser, mobile applications and desktop client tools. Their latest revision of this software is remarkably responsive and this alongside a number of their solutions also arriving with HDMI support means that you have a wide range of ways in which to access the data on your Asustor NAS in a tailored and appropriate way. The majority of their NAS solutions also arrive with BTRFS support too, as well as possibly the widest support in the market for 3rd party tools available in their application center. They are a little less polishing in the design of some of their tools compared with their biggest competitors Synology and QNAP, but they also provide a better value for money in their hardware with many solution such as the Locksterstor series featuring some genuinely game changing hardware for the price point. Here are some of the highlights of the ADM software catalogue:

Plex - Hardware Transcoding (with a Plex Pass) is likely and with 1080p handled very well indeed, as well as some Plex 4K transcoding in H.265 - lower tier stuff though

Virtual Machines - A graphical embedded CPU like the Gemini Lake in this Nimbustor NAS will run Windows 10 and Android VMs very well. With the added support for Ubuntu and Hackintosh with VirtualBox

Storage Management - BTRFS Support, as well as EXT4 for the traditionalist, Multiple Snapshot storage and browsing for recovery, a large number of ISCSI and LUN target creation, fast-acting SSD caching use

Network Management - Support of LAG, Load Balancing and virtual switches, as well as maintaining top transmission over 2.5/5Gbe for editing or gaming over the network. As well as Jumbo Frame control, DDNS automation, Wake on LAN support and internet/external NAS access with EZ Connect

Backups - Supporting a wide range of multi-tiered backup options that can be carried out simultaneously thanks to the powerful CPU in the Nimbustor NAS, such as network RSync, USB Backups, NAS-2-NAS migration, Cloud Backups with Google Drive, Dropbox and Backblaze and numerous RAID levels internally for redundancy.

Content Management - Numerous Content Management Systems (CMS) and Customer Relationship Managers (CRMs) available in 1st and 3rd party forms, with simultaneous operations supported by the Asustor Nimbustor 4 NAS

User Account Control - Supporting over 4,000 accounts, each with their own bespoke privileges and access levels, as well as grouping methods to automate the process easily

Security - AES 256bit hardware encryption on data in/out of the device, as well as over backup methods, with the J4105 CPU in the AS5304T maintaining high R/W speeds throughout, as well as Windows ACL permission and configuration, auto blacklisting and multiple VPN provider support

Antivirus (ClamAV) โ€“ย Scheduled Scans, Automatic Virus Definition Updates, Quarantine Infected Files

Download Center โ€“ย Supports BT(Torrent & Magnet Link), HTTP and FTP Downloads, Torrent Search, Bandwidth Control, RSS Subscription and Automatic Downloading (Broadcatching), ASUSTOR Download Assistant for Windows & Mac

DropBox, OneDrive and Google Drive Sync โ€“ย Each ADM Account is Able to Individually Log into one cloud Account, supporting Sync, Directly Upload Files to cloud from the NAS, or from cloud to NAS

LooksGood Media App โ€“Built-in three main video library categories; movies, TV shows, home movies and smart video sorting management

    • The efficient global search function allows for searches by keywords followed by the execution of more detailed searches for the purpose of finding categories of movies, TV shows, home movies and parameters such as actors, director, year, genre, writer and title

    • Attractive poster wall and thumbnail display

    • Automatic production of video poster thumbnails

    • Centralized management and ability to configure the order of favourites and playlist history

    • The system administrator is able to configure video library and editing permissions according to user preferences

    • Can configure access permissions to share with

    • Multimedia conversion feature

    • Self-defined smart folder for video conversions

    • Supports digital TV recordings via digital

    • Easy streaming with Chromecast and DLNA

    • Supports playback of videos in Apple TV via AiVideos tvOS version

Mail Serverย โ€“ Each ADM Account can Become an Independent Email Account, Provides SMTP, IMAP and POP3 Mail Protocols, Spam Filter and Black List Settings, Antivirus Scanning for Emails, Exclusive Email Backup Mechanism, Auto-Forwarding and Auto-Response Protocols

Photo Gallary โ€“ย โ€œAlbumโ€ and โ€œBrowseโ€ Viewing Modes, Manage Photo Album Access Rights: Public Access, Restricted to Certain Accounts, Album Password, Multi-level Folder Structure Support, Supports Tagging of Photos, One-click Sharing to Social Media (Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Plurk, email), Intuitive Drag and Drop Management, Slideshow Viewing Mode, Supports a Wide Range of Image Formats: JPG/JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, TIFF, RAW and Supports Video Playback

Surveillance Centerย โ€“ Up to 64 channels in 720p on single live view display, On-screen camera controls including camera PTZ, manual recordings, take snapshots, configure camera settings and open Maps, Up to 4 channels of synchronous and non-synchronous playback with audio, Intelligent video analytics including motion detection and foreign object detection, Supported Browsers: Windows Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, Firefox, Mac Safari, Mac Firefox ESR, Event notification supports SMS, E-mail, and mobile push notification, AiSecure mobile app for iOS and Android with Push notification, Maximum IP Cam (4 Free Licenses; Additional Licenses to be Purchased)

Takeasyย โ€“ Download from YouTube, Vimeo, Twitch and More, Selectable Video Type and Quality, Automatic Downloads with YouTube or Twitch Subscriptions, Preview Downloads in Progress and Online Playback

SoundsGood Audio Appย โ€“ Import Personal/Public Music Collection, Personal/Public Music Collection Permission Control, Playlist Editor, ID3 Tag Editor, Local Speaker Support: HDMI, USB, Audio Jack, Supported Audio Formats for Browser: MP3, WAV, Ogg, Supported Audio Formats for Transcoding Through Browser: AIFF, Flac, Supported Audio Formats for Local Speaker: MP3, WAV, Ogg, AIFF, Flac

Backup Toolsย โ€“ Rsync (Remote Sync) Backup, Cloud Backup, FTP Backup, External Backup, One-Touch Backup, EZ Sync, Btrfs Snapshots

How many of these tools are supported on any particular Asustor NAS and the frequency of applications your can run at once will still depend on the hardware of the solution you are looking at in their portfolio, but the bulk of them are available on ALL solutions from the brand. Find out more below in my reviews of ADM:

Asustor ADM Video Review

In terms of these two brands, there is been a long-running theme all the way through that Synology has focused on FIRST-PARTY (i.e. Synology-brand) software and hardware priority, then supporting THIRD-PARTY services/hardware when they havenโ€™t got a viable alternative in-house โ€“ to mixed degrees of popularity. Whereas QNAP has been a much more level playing field where they have released their own innovative hardware/software (occasionally a little too quickly) and singing its praises, but also tried to keep customization and flexibility for 3rd parties as open as possible and shouting loud-and-proud about that too โ€“ which can be a tad overwhelming for the less tech-savvy. Both brands have done an incredible job evolve their platforms as much as they have to date, especially when Microsoft, Google and Amazon are pouring BILLIONS into the SaaS (and PaaS and IaaS โ€“ Platform and Infrastructure as a Service) in order to create entirely streamable ecosystems for businesses, with NAS brands like Synology and QNAP not only integrating with them but also thriving alongside them as a local/bare-metal failsafe. These are all very lofty ideas and ones that most home or small business users will likely have little time for right now (aside from where NAS fits in with their Google/Office 365 office tools like documents, email and spreadsheets at a pinch) and for those users, who the NAS stands on its own two feet is what is going to matter most. Synology is earning its position in the market as the complete 1st party software and hardware package, with a genuinely groundbreaking range of available services, but still managing to make NAS accessible for all in DSM 6.2/7.0/7.1. That said, the trends we are seeing in those sub-enterprise services that are slowly receding in support of popular 3rd party hardware, software and services, making using a Synology NAS alongside your own existing setup in a frictionless way cannot be ignored and leading some to think Synology is shifting their industry position towards something higher.

QNAP NAS on the other hand, although maybe trying to cover too many bases at once, is still trying to cover as much as it can to appear to their audience. Their support of considerably more 3rd party platforms/software/services, even when they have their own software available, is certainly admirable and aside from rather aggressive pricing on their QVR Pro surveillance platform, are still the better choice for those who want a much more adaptable and customizable platform. Its a pretty understandable fact that most people who buy a NAS will be arriving with an existing collection of software in their daily workflow (Office 365 for docs, Gmail for their email, Plex for their media, Chromebook for their commute, Skype/Whatsapp for their communication, TB3 for their editing, etc) and it has to be said that QNAP keeps a more open platform to adapt a NAS into this mix than Synology โ€“ occasionally less intuitively and not without a little setup-friction, but certainly to more customizable results. Unsurprisingly, I am going to tell you that both Synology and QNAP NAS are good NAS brands and have earned their place at the top of the industry (whilst both making their own respective moves to integrate into the next tier โ€“ ie SaaS providers, Hyperscale environments and Boundless cloud storage), but there is no denying that no one brand has managed to do EVERYTHING to perfection. So, if in double, below is how I would recommend QNAP and Synology NAS to you, for each user case scenario and I hope this guide and my recommendations help you with your next big data storage purchase.

Why Choose Synology NAS?

Better Surveillance Software

More Intuative and User-Friendly Design

EXCELLENT 1st Party Alternative Apps to Existing 3rd Party Tools

(including Synology Chat, Mail, Office, Drive, Calendar and more)

Greater Support/Migration with VMware & Hyper-V

Better Redundant System Options (SHA)

Greater Support on Amazon Home Hardware

Synology Hybrid RAID for flexibility in Media Upgrades

BTRFS on Most systems

Longer Warranty Available on More Systems

First Party SSD and HDDs Available

Typically Quieter Operation

Why Choose QNAP NAS?

Better 1st Party/Hosting Virtual Machines

Better Plex Media Server NAS

More Adaptable and Customizable

Wider Support of Surveillance using AI Recognition

EXCELLENT KVM Support

More Camera Licenses

ZFS or EXT4 File System Choice on many systems now

2.5Gbe Network Interfaces at 1Gbe Cost

Allows NVMe SSD Storage Pools and Volumes

Support of QTier for intelligent Data storage for Access

Greater 1st and 3rd Party Hardware Upgrade Compatibility

(including Graphics Cards, WiFi 6 and Thunderbolt)


LATEST PRICE LIST

HS-264591.69 GBP599 USD
FS2500129.95 GBP140 USD
AS5402T369 GBP379.15 USD
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