The Asustor Flashstor 6 and Flashstor 12 Pro NVMe NAS

Last updated on 03 May 2023 📧 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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      29 thoughts on “The Asustor Flashstor 6 and Flashstor 12 Pro NVMe NAS”

      3. 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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      5. I bought the 12 bay version recently and found the CPU was overheating. Got to 80-85 degrees centigrade while pretty much at idle. I also found the USB transfer speed to my Samsung T7 underwhelming. When I transferred a large UHD Blu Ray rip, it was maxing out at maybe 200MBps at best. Similar speeds were observed when transferring from one internal volume to another on a different SSD. Can you guys test this out at your end for the hardware review please?

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      6. 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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      9. 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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      11. 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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      13. 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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      14. 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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      17. 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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      19. 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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      20. 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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      21. 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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      22. 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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      24. 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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      28. 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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