Crazy 48TB SSD NAS and Cheap 6TB Version Asustor Flashstor FS67

We take a look at the 48TB Asustor Flashstor 12 Pro and Flashstor 6 all-flash NAS units and see how they are made. The Asustor Flashstor FS6712X 10GbE NAS we fitted with 12x Crucial P3 Plus 4TB M.2 NVMe SSDs for 48TB total. The Asustor Flashstor FS6706T 2.5GbE NAS we fitted with 6x Crucial P3 Plus 1TB M.2 NVMe SSDs as a cheap option. These units are crazy.

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Where to Find The Unit We Purchased
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Timestamps
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00:00 Introduction
02:39 External Hardware Overview FS6706T and FS6712X
04:48 Internal Hardware Overview FS6706T and FS6712X
08:56 Performance
11:38 Power Consumption and Noise
15:12 Key Lessons Learned
19:04 Wrap-up

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Other STH Content Mentioned in this Video
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[chumbawumba]

We need Asustor and Synology to have a baby! Need the tech innovation of the Asustor and the DSM UI and package features of the Synology with all of apps. Memo to Synology: Pay attention and catch up :)

[pincombe]

Not sure if you’ve spoken to asustor but a rep told me that low noise was one of their top goals. Their intention for the product is to be used for media consumption and expect it to sit connected to a tv in someone’s media center which is why it has the angled sides. It’s a weird one because although it’s quacks like a NAS it’s really aimed at the android media box market.

[chuck]

I got the 12 drive version of this and like it. (loaded with 4x 4TB drives was not cheap though) I wanted something that was more portable and was light and fit well into a suitcase. This fits the bill perfectly. I am a travelling nomad and want to bring my media collection with me.

[SeaJay_Oceans]

I LOVE the angled look of the Asustor Flashstor, in a room full of cases and boxes and equipment - they stand out from all the plain black or grey rectangles ! :-)

[antonzadorozhniy]

I wish for something like this (maybe even smaller, like 3-4 m.2 connectors), but with bios and ability to install OS of choice, with ZFS. Would be a great low power and quiet NAS for those who don’t need a lot of storage.

[alanpaone]

I love the idea of these, I've been using a DS620slim for awhile because my office is also my bedroom, so having no hard drives clicking away all night is really nice, having 2 gigabit connections is totally fine for home use, even if I'd love a little more. There's plenty of gigantic 12 core, 24-bay NVME dual 100gig all flash NAS options, but surprisingly few small and silent all-flash products. the 12 bay option would give me the option of using whatever cheap 1-2TB NVME drives i can get my hands on, without needing to hunt down good deals on cutting edge high-capacity drives (seriously, 4tb 2.5" drives are a nightmare right now), or losing a bunch of space for redundancy. these are a softball right over the plate for me.

[CareyHolzman]

Thank you! I had no idea these existed. Very thorough review! Thank you!

[ericneo]

Thank you so much for covering the 10GbE!

[junkmail]

I got the 12 drive one. It became clear very quickly it was nowhere near as legit as my QNAP but it grew on me pretty quickly once I begun to appreciate what it was and stopped trying to compare it to other things. I have since decided to use it as the low power central hub for my media center data, apps, and related docker containers. For that specific purpose It's pretty damn slick and multiple Plex 4K playback is smooth even with the CPU pegged; doesn't matter, it stays responsive. Its whisper quit and small, so it disappears in my entertainment rack. The UI and the apps are not as diverse as QNAPs or as apple-y as Synology but it's experience overall is very serviceable.

For a power user needing to host VMs and manage a diverse set of workloads this won't work; it can't even support multiple VLANs on the same NIC. VirtualBox feels like its trapped in the 90s. But for basic use or even modernly advanced needs, I would recommend this.

[cmoullasnet]

I just switched my home TrueNAS from spinning rust to 7.68TB U.2 Kioxia CD6 drives off Ebay using a PCIe x16 bifurcation card. Was just tired of slow spinning rust drives. I only have 10GbE as well and the drives are super limited by both ZFS and 10GbE networking but honestly SSDs have nearly reached the point where you can buy them and throw away the performance as bulk storage. It's just a nice big quality of life improvement - less noise, less power and consistent performance for all your file shares. So I definitely get the concept from this perspective.

[StephanWahlen]

I did the spiritual predecessor to this id like to think: A Synology DS620*slim* loaded with 6x 8TB Samsung 2.5" SATA SSDs.
It's similar by volume to the Asustor Units and has a similar-ish processor (J425) and 8GB RAM (i upgraded it).
The result is a silent, small NAS with decent enough performance for all kind of home-uses that can be tucked away anywhere and will never cause issues with anything mechanical.

I just wish there was an option for 10gbe on my synology, but it's just too old for that (2019). You can add a 2.5gbe via USB3 though and it works well.

[geoffsmith]

Looking forward to when I can get a device that has 20Tb of NVME storage, 10gb ethernet, fanless and able to run a few basic VM's all for $500 in a decent case. Probably a few years away yet, but these devices show we are getting closer!

[feejus]

Thanx Patric! Truly amazing devices. I hope we see more manufacture come out with these. I got an old Thecus NAS I want to migrate across to new NAS.

[Evan-lgxp]

This is an excellent time to release this. The price of NANA flash is so crazy right now. The price of SSD's has gone down so much in the last month and now the M.2 drives are dirt cheap. We're finally at a point where something like this makes sense to buy.

[steverogers]

Funny I was just thinking about a SSD NAS yesterday. From pricing it looks like going with regular ol' SATA SSD are cheaper on the per Terabyte compared to their M.2 equivalent size, though not by a gigantic amount. Obviously that means they are bigger and slower but realistically that doesn't matter for what I would use it for. Or really what the vast bulk of home users what use it for. Though since the market is clearly all in on M.2 I expect by the time we see more of these M.2 NAS units from the likes of Synology the pricing on them will probably be better than the old SATA style.

[starwarrior]

I'm actually considering this for my mobile office/camper build. With its low power draw a single solar panel with a small battery could run it indefinitely. I could also see this being used to run my steam library off of with the 10Gbe being enough for this.

[craigyounkins]

Strange conclusion "So overall, do I think these things are great? Absolutely... not" but overall you seemed happy with it and the complaint that immediately followed was about the form factor and seemed pretty minor.

[pixelwash]

I love it, a sort of reasonably priced solid state NAS for camping. Never thought I'd see such a thing discussed by an corporate enterprise IT Pro, lol, but intriguing possibilities definitely come to mind for personal media libraries.

[antonnym]

I just found you, and sir, you are awesome! I subscribed immediately. All good wishes and thanks for such hyperinteresting content!

[abelgerli]

Actually usb c power supply would be perfect for travel. I got a two 100w GaN usbc psu so travelling with a big nas would be perfect. And no one need that bend walls on a nas. Make it fancy and stylish for a nas that just has to vanish. Server rack bracket mounts would be nice though 😊.