Asustor Flashstor 6 FS6706T review: A NAS for NVMe Drives

Value When Reviewed

$479

Greatest Costs At this time: Asustor Flashstor 6 FS6706T

Have you ever observed the dramatic drop within the value of flash drives not too long ago? Drives and capacities that after price a major quantity are actually extremely inexpensive, and there appears little to arrest the worth drops because the spot price of NAND flash.

The reason being that new wafer densities are coming delivering better capacities, and that’s pushing down the worth of present wafers within the gross sales channel.

An fascinating affect of the worth discount is that M.2 NVMe drives that had been as soon as virtually solely for desktop PC and server caching use are being utilised purely for his or her storage capacities.

Up up to now, we’ve seen NAS packing containers that use standard exhausting drives and SATA SSDs for storage, but when they do settle for NVMe drives, it’s usually for caching standard drives.

Proof we’ve reached a tipping level with the usage of these modules comes with two new merchandise from Asustor. The Asustor Flashstor 12 Professional FS6712X and the Flashstor 6 FS6706T, which I’ll be masking on this overview.

Basically, these are the identical machine with the exception that the FS6712X can take 12 M.2 NVMe drives and the FS6706T six. And the larger Flashstor has a single 10GbE LAN port, whereas the six-drive FS6706T has twin 2.5GbE ports.

In all different respects, like processor, reminiscence and expandability, these are brothers from the identical mom. The apparent query here’s what putting in NVMe drives in a NAS can obtain, and is it something you may want?

Design & Construct

Given how small NVMe drives are, Asustor let its engineers go a bit wild with the FS67 collection, and so they got here up with this oddly angled field made fully of dust-attracting black plastic.

This design received’t mount to a rack, nevertheless it won’t look misplaced subsequent to an Xbox or PS5, ought to you have got both of these video games consoles.

What barely mystified me initially is that the facility button is hidden underneath the facet with an overhang. When powered, it lights up that facet of the NAS, though anybody above or to the left received’t see these visuals because of the angle.

The entrance facia is generally for styling aside from a single USB 3.2 Gen 2 port. All the opposite ports that embrace extra USB, LAN, S/PDIF optical out and HDMI are all on the again.

Entry to the storage bay is thru an entry panel on the underside to the suitable, and 4 screws launch that to disclose 4 M.2 NVMe slots.

These are made particularly for 2280 type issue modules, and holes have been reduce within the board to permit most airflow round them. The one downside right here is that the dimensions of these air flow holes makes utilizing 2230 modules a problem with out an adapter, and that is prone to turn into a extra well-liked type issue sooner or later.

Booting this NAS requires a minimal of 1 NVMe drive, and in my testing, I used two Essential P3 collection modules.

If you wish to see the opposite facet of this motherboard, two screws could be faraway from the rear, releasing the highest. It comes away to disclose two SoDIMM RAM slots, with one occupied with a 4GB DDR4-2933 module.

The utmost quantity of RAM that the Intel Celeron N5105 can deal with is 16GB. This chip does help twin channel mode, so you could possibly add one other 4GB to the pre-installed module, or you could possibly take that out and put two 8GB sticks. It may also be attainable to place an 8GB module in and get 12GB whole in single-channel mode, however I didn’t check that chance.

Curiously, the larger FS6712X mannequin comes with the identical quantity of RAM, hinting that with the velocity of the NVMe storage, having additional reminiscence doesn’t affect file-serving efficiency dramatically.

It’s good to have choices, and for people who prefer to load up on purposes, 16GB gives loads of working house.

With an NVMe module put in and all of the panels again in place, the FS6706T is not any totally different from every other Asustor NAS. As soon as powered up, the Asustor management centre software can be utilized to put in ADM 4.2 working system and put together the NAS for service.

Specs & Options

A fast go searching on-line retailers reveals that the biggest NVMe drives are typically obtainable at 8TB. These embrace the Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus and Corsair MP600 Professional (and Professional XT).

Extra makers will likely be creating bigger drives since SK Hynix has began producing its new 238-layer 3D NAND wafers to compete with each YMTC and Micron 232-layer chips that can quickly be launched.

Utilizing any of those, the FS6706T has the potential for 48TB of whole capability and 40TB in a RAID 5 resilient pack.

The ADM working permits the dynamic enlargement of a quantity, so it might be attainable to begin small, with a single 1TB drive, after which broaden with subsequent installations. Although if you wish to use RAID 5, I’d advocate you begin with at the very least three drives of the identical capability.

Community specs for this unit are twin 2.5GbE LAN ports, one thing that the majority PC motherboards are actually coming with as customary. With two 2.5GbE ports, this {hardware} may very well be used as a firewall, or these strains could be bonded collectively for extra community bandwidth with an acceptable 2.5GbE swap. These ports will routinely downgrade to 1GbE and even 100Mbit if the community infrastructure doesn’t help the total velocity.

One potential community configuration is that you simply plug your pc straight into one of many ports and the opposite into the community. That provides you the total uninterrupted bandwidth to add information to the NAS, but additionally for others to entry the contents from the community.

Even mixed, two 2.5GbE don’t add as much as the bandwidth of the only 10GbE that the FS6712X will get, however realistically 2.5GbE switches are far more inexpensive than 10GbE ones. For house customers, 2.5GbE supplies a major bump up from gigabit Ethernet and is quickly turning into the de facto customary for house and SOHO customers.

There are some potentialities of accelerating the community bandwidth additional by repurposing the USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports with 2.5GbE and even 5GbE adapters, however the economics of that will counsel that purchasing the FS6712X could be a greater possibility.

The USB 2.0 ports on this NAS are primarily there for anybody that desires to make use of it as a pc. It’s fully attainable to attach a display screen through HDMI, mouse, keyboard, after which set up workplace purposes or use web-based workplace instruments.

They will also be used to attach printers and different low-bandwidth peripherals to be accessed over the community.

Whereas some NAS makers embrace HDMI however don’t make a lot use of it, Asustor has a graphical interface for HDMI that enables it to be a easy menu answer for Plex, streaming companies or hyperlinks to the online interface.

This performance, though fundamental, makes this NAS preferrred for media displays, and the inclusion of a S/PDIF optical output is a helpful function for these wanting to make use of the FS6706T as a media server with audio being redirected to a Dolby sound system.

There may be one last function of this design I’d prefer to name out for being extremely considerate, and that’s a strap Asustor included that holds the facility twine in place. With this connected, it’s unimaginable to by accident pull the facility cable from the PSU out of the again of the NAS, which might corrupt the drives in the event that they’re writing knowledge on the time.

I solely want extra NAS makers thought concerning the foolish issues customers can do and the way they is likely to be prevented.

The missed alternative right here is that there’s loads of house inside this case for a few SATA 2.5in bays, and that may have made this {hardware} an ideal stepping stone between the world of standard drives and NVMe.

With the ability to cheaply combine a few 4TB 2.5in HDDs with 4 1TB NVMe modules would have supplied a lot the identical community speeds however with better capability for much less outlay.

Efficiency

Neglect the NVMe drives and how briskly they are often. The essential issue within the velocity of the FS6706T is the twin 2.5GbE LAN ports for many eventualities.

As a result of except the applying getting used on the Flashstor is engaged on knowledge saved on the system, precisely how a lot can come and go is dictated by the LAN ports and the way they speak to the shoppers throughout the community.

Usually, a single consumer on a 2.5GbE Ethernet port can shift at the very least 250Mbps switch from the NAS, assuming they’re the one ones connecting. Through the use of a swap with channel bonding help, the bandwidth could be cut up between two shoppers, one on every port.

However, the FS6706T contains beta help for SMB Multichannel, permitting a single consumer to get all of the bandwidth in the event that they’re linked with two 2.5GbE ports or a single 5GbE/10GbE line. The quoted velocity for that situation is 590MB/s reads, and 583MB/s writes, or barely higher than a domestically linked SATA SSD.

Over a single 2.5GbE port, I managed 275MB/s studying and writing, greater than double what I’d count on from gigabit Ethernet.

In concept, the USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports may very well be used with 2.5GbE adapters connected, doubling throughput to the identical degree as the only 10GbE line on the Flashstor 12. Nonetheless, we didn’t have these gadgets to check compatibility with ADM 4.2 or if these might implement SMB Multichannel.

There are a couple of USB to 5GbE adapters obtainable, however the price of these gadgets makes the financial justification for the Flashstor 12 to get a 10GbE LAN connection.

For these doing native NAS processing, it’s price noting that the NVMe drives received’t be working at full velocity. The Intel Celeron N5105 solely has eight PCIe lanes, and a few are taken up with USB and LAN ports. The restricted obtainable lanes would infer that, at finest, a single PCIe 3.0 lane is allotted to every NVMe drive.

This lane distribution is a greater situation within the Flashstor 6 than the 12, as in that mannequin, there may be solely a single lane of PCIe 2.0 for every drive, and PCIe lane switches are required to take advantage of use of the obtainable bandwidth.

Getting probably the most out of the Flashstor 6 requires at the very least a 2.5GbE swap, ideally with help for channel bonding or SMB Multichannel, and shoppers linked by pairs of two.5GbE LAN ports.

However, the interior efficiency of the unit received’t be considerably impacted by the velocity of the NVMe drives used, as they’ll be working properly under their potential. We’d advocate buying these which are each low-cost and have a very good TBW worth over something exceptionally quick, and it’s completely pointless placing PCIe Gen 4 drives in there.

Value & Availability

The Asustor Flashstor 6 FS6706T has a value of $479/£449 on Amazon and Amazon UK. That’s for a unit with 4GB of RAM pre-installed however no NVMe modules.

Its greater brother, the Asustor Flashstor 12 Professional FS6712X, has an MSRP of $799/£789, however is often promoting for round $825 with the identical quantity of RAM pre-installed. European pricing roughly equates US {dollars} to Euros in most nations.

Contemplating a typical beginning set up, say three 2TB NVMe drive to offer 4TB of house with a single parity drive for resilience can price as little as $85/£65 a drive or round $250/£200 for the three. That makes a completely 2TB populated FS6706T near $1,000/£1,000 for a NAS with 10TB of usable house.

That compares badly with standard exhausting drives, however NVMe drives will get bigger and cheaper.

Solely QNAP and Asustor have gone all-in with NVMe NAS at this level.

QNAP has an NVMe NAS, however the TBS-464 has solely 4 NVMe slots. It additionally comes with 8GB of RAM and twin 2.5GbE LAN ports, promoting for round $599/£625. This unit additionally could be upgraded through a PCIe card to 10GbE networking.

These anticipating competitors from Synology ought to contemplate that that firm typically solely helps its personal M.2 branded drives in these NAS that may take them.

Synology NVMe drives have a most capability of 800GB and are solely meant for caching. An 800GB Synology M.2 SNV3400 prices an eye-watering $350/£300 and has an underwhelming TBW of 1022TB. Subsequently, except Synology makes a reversal in product technique, it received’t be releasing an NVMe NAS.

See extra choices in our greatest NAS drive chart and our greatest SSD chart for drives to fill it with.

Verdict

My preliminary response to the FS6706T and its FS6712X brother, these merchandise didn’t make an enormous quantity of sense. As a result of the interior bandwidth of those gadgets isn’t sufficient to use a number of NVMe drives of any velocity, and positively not the quicker varieties.

Once you mix that concern with the shortcoming to use that inside bandwidth over the community, it’s tempting to surprise what the purpose of the Flashstor NAS is likely to be?

However in hindsight, that considering misses the purpose considerably as a result of what an NVMe drive represents to a desktop system isn’t what it’s to the Flashstor.

In a desktop system, the essential benefit that NVMe gives is efficiency, however within the Flashstor 6 (and 12) it’s merely storage in a handy bundle.

And, as 8TB and 16TB drives seem, the dimensions of that storage will turn into important for these that may afford to fill their Flashstor with modules.

With 16TB NVMe modules utilizing a RAID 5 configuration, the FS6706T might have 80TB of resilient house, and the FS6712X double that.

Filling the FS6712X with 2TB modules would price near $1,000/£1,000 and provide 10TB of resilient capability with a parity drive. Which may appear an costly possibility In comparison with a traditional NAS operating exhausting drives. However a 12 months in the past, the price of modules alone would have been twice as a lot, and a 12 months from now, it would possible be a lot lower than now.

Going ahead, except NVMe drives cease being a factor, filling up the Flashstor will solely get cheaper. And, with the efficiency it may ship on this context, it’s a lot quicker to rebuild these packs with new bigger modules than it might be with exhausting drives.

An analogous product is already right here from QNAP, and I’m positive TerraMaster has an NVMe exploiting NAS in improvement.

Briefly, the FS6706T doesn’t have the interior PCIe bandwidth to use six NVMe drives totally. And it can also’t push the restricted bandwidth it has out over two 2.5GbE ports, however for the aim of this train, that may not matter.

And it received’t till we’re all operating NAS with 400GbE or quicker networks, ought to that ever occur.

Specs

CPU: Intel Celeron N5105
GPU: Intel UHD Graphics
RAM: 4GB DDR4 (upgradable to 16GB)
Storage: 6 x M.2 NVMe PCIe 3.0 drives.
USB: 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2, 2x USB 2.0
Outputs: 1x HDMI 2.0 port appropriate with 4K 60 Hz resolutions, 1x S/PDIF
Raid Sorts: RAID 0/1 /5 /6 /10, Single, JBOD
Weight: 3.6 kg
Dimensions: 227 x 225x 136 mm
Networking: 2x 2.5-GbE Ethernet (100/1000/2500)
OS: ADM 4.2
Inner File Techniques: Btrfs, EXT4
Exterior File Techniques: EXT4, NTFS, FAT32, HFS+, ExFAT
OS Languages: English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Magyar, Chinese language, Japanese, Korean, Turkish, Portuguese and Russian