Introduction

Updated 5/15/2014: U.S. Support added

Almost a year and a half ago, Tim reviewed ASUSTOR's top-end AS-604T four bay NAS. Since then, the ASUS-backed NAS maker has expanded its offerings with two other families.

The AS-30XT series is aimed at Home to Power User market with a two (AS-302T) and four bay (AS-304T) models powered by Intel Atom CE5335 processors. The AS-20X "Personal To Home" series has two 2-bay models (AS-202T and AS-202TE) and two 4 bay models (AS-204T and AS-204TE). The "T" models in the 2 series lack the entertainment features (IR receiver, HDMI output and 3.5 mm Audio jack) found on the "TE" models. All are powered by Intel Atom CE5310's.

(The AS-60X series, including the AS-604T that Tim reviewed, is aimed at power users and businesses and a powered by Intel's Atom D2700 processor.)

In this review, we'll be focusing on the AS-202TE and AS-204TE. All of the 2 series share a common processor, memory, form factor, etc. The differences are limited to the features found on the "T" and "TE" models, and the differences of available RAID configurations based on the number of drives. The comparison chart below, generated from the ASUSTOR web site, shows these differences.

ASUSTOR AS-202/AS-204 product comparison

ASUSTOR's own published performance benchmarks show increasing performance as you move up from the 2 series to the 3 series and finally to the 6 series products.

ASUSTOR's published benchmarks show increasing performance as you move up in the product series

Both the ASUSTOR AS-202TE and AS-204TE, hereafter referred to collectively as AS-20XTE, use disk trays that accept 2.5" or 3.5" drives. You'll find a list of compatible hard disks here. After mounting the disks in the tray, you just insert the drive into a bay and push down on the drive bay lever to secure the drive in place. If you plan to start with just a single drive and expand your storage later, you need to install the single drive in the left most bay.

The Quick Installation Guide and the User Guide is common to all "2" series products. The callouts on the two images below indicate the features supported on each series. The front panel contains LEDs for each hard disk, and individual LEDs for power, system status, network and USB. As compared to the "6" series, the AS-20XTE products do not have an LCD information panel. In addition to the indicators, one of the device's two USB 3.0 ports is located in the lower left corner.

ASUSTOR front panel callouts

The power supply for the AS-20XTE are built in. The rear panel has a socket for an AC power cord, Audio Jack, reset button, second USB 3.0 port, HDMI port, Gigabit Ethernet port, USB 2.0 ports (x2), system fan and a security lock hole.

ASUSTOR rear panel callouts