Asustor Launches Flashstor NAS: Up To 12 M.2 Slots & 10GbE Connectivity
by Zhiye Liu on April 24, 2023 4:00 PM EST
Asustor, one of the more popular NAS manufacturers, has announced the company's new Flashtor series. The Flashtor lineup, which currently consists of the Flashtor 6 (FS6706T) and Flashtor 12 Pro (FS6712X), caters to content creators and enthusiasts, offering a rich feature set that includes the capacity to house up to 12 PCIe 3.0 M.2 slots for NVMe SSDs, fast 10GbE connectivity and HDMI 2.0b port that supports 4K displays at 60 Hz. It's the first time the brand has launched a NAS featuring all-M.2 NVMe SSD storage.
The Flashtor series arrives with a black and very console-looking exterior. The aesthetics may be a refreshing departure from the typical NAS look for some. The Flashtor 6 and Flashtor 12 Pro have identical dimensions. Both measure 12.1 x 7.6 x 1.9 inches (308.26 x 193 x 48.3 mm). The weight varies slightly, though. The Flashtor 6 weighs 2.98 pounds (1.35 kilograms), while the Flashtor 12 Pro checks in at 3 pounds (1.37 kilograms).
The Flashtor 6 and Flashtor 12 Pro leverages Intel's Celeron N5105 (Jasper Lake) processor. The 10nm chip features four Tremont cores without Hyper-Threading that operate with a 2 GHz base clock and 2.9 GHz boost clock. The 10W processor doesn't have demanding cooling requirements, making it a common choice among NAS vendors. Asustor pairs the Celeron N5105 with a 4 GB SO-DIMM DDR4-2933 memory module. Regardless of the model, the Flashtor devices come with two SO-DIMM DDR4 memory slots and allow up to 16 GB (2 x 8 GB), the maximum capacity supported on the Celeron N5105. Asustor's NAS also has 8 GB of onboard eMMC storage.
| Asustor Flashtor NAS Specifications | |||
| Component | Flashtor 6 | Flashtor 12 Pro | |
| CPU | Intel Celeron N5105 | Intel Celeron N5105 | |
| RAM | 4 GB DDR4-2933 SO-DIMM | 4 GB DDR4-2933 SO-DIMM | |
| Flash Memory | 8 GB eMMC | 8 GB eMMC | |
| Storage | 6 x PCIe 3.0 M.2 Slots | 12 x PCIe 3.0 M.2 Slots | |
| Networking | 2 x 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet | 1 x 10 Gigabit Ethernet | |
| I/O | 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2x1 2 x USB 2.0 1 x HDMI 2.0b 1 x S/PDIF |
2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2x1 2 x USB 2.0 1 x HDMI 2.0b 1 x S/PDIF |
|
| Power Adapter | 65 W | 90 W | |
| Power Consumption | 18.2 W | 26 W | |
| Noise Level | 18.7 dB | 18.7 dB | |
| Dimensions (inches) | 12.1 x 7.6 x 1.9 | 12.1 x 7.6 x 1.9 | |
| Weight | 2.98 lbs (1.35 kg) | 3.0 lbs (1.37 kg) | |
| Starting Price (USD) | $449 | $799 | |
The Flashtor 6 and Flashtor 12 Pro differs in storage capacity and connectivity options. The former has six PCIe 3.0 M.2 slots for M.2 2280 drives, whereas the latter has 12. The NAS supports RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, and 10 arrays. In addition, Asustor designed specific air ducts and a small 80 mm cooling fan to keep the drives cool. The included M.2 heatsinks help with heat dissipation. While the Flashtor series are based on NVMe storage, consumers can still utilize hard drives when they need vast amounts of raw storage. However, consumers will need to employ the help of the AS6004U, a four-bay NAS storage capacity expander from Asustor that retails for $329. The AS6004U connects to the Flashtor devices through a standard USB 3 port.
Asustor equipped the Flashtor 6 with two 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet ports with read and write speeds up to 590 MB/s and 583 MB/s, respectively, in an SMB multichannel (RAID 5) environment. In contrast, the Flashtor 12 Pro only has a 10 Gigabit Ethernet port but flaunts read and write speeds up to 1,181 MB/s and 1,027 MB/s, respectively, in Windows with a RAID 5 array. It's important to highlight that Asustor achieved these performance numbers in the company's lab with avant-garde systems and optimized network settings. The consumer mileage will vary.
Only the Flashtor 6 supports Wake on LAN (WoL) and Wake on WAN (WoW) since the Flashtor 12 Pro only supports the former. In addition, the Flashtor series provides consumers with two USB 3.2 Gen 2x1 ports and two USB 2.0 ports for connecting external devices. As for multimedia, the NAS devices supply one HDMI 2.0b port for video and one S/PDIF output for lossless audio.
Asustor bundles a 65 W power adapter with the Flashtor 6 and a 90 W unit with the Flashtor 12 Pro. According to the brand, the Flashtor 6 pulls around 18.2 W during operation, and the Flashtor 12 Pro consumes around 26 W. The noise levels aren't outrageous, either. Asustor rates the Flashtor series with a noise level of 18.7 dB.
The Flashtor 6 and Flashtor 12 Pro retail for $449 and $799, respectively. Asustor backs the Flashtor series with a three-year warranty.
Source: Asustor
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Smudgeous - Saturday, April 29, 2023 - link
My 12x model just arrived.While I'm waiting on the actual drives I'll be using to populate it fully, I did take a look at a single drive in the first slot using a 1TB Intel 670P.
Sequential 1M Q8T1:
<= Read: 766 MB/s, 766 IO/s
=> Write: 774 MB/s, 774 IO/s
Sequential 128K Q32T1:
<= Read: 683 MB/s, 5470 IO/s
=> Write: 628 MB/s, 5025 IO/s
Random 4K Q32T16:
<= Read: 454 MB/s, 116272 IO/s
=> Write: 199 MB/s, 51113 IO/s
Random 4K Q1T1:
<= Read: 2 MB/s, 754 IO/s
=> Write: 92 MB/s, 23581 IO/s
Smudgeous - Saturday, April 29, 2023 - link
I'm new to the Asustor Data Master software and couldn't seem to find any method of native benchmarking, so I wound up installing docker, pulling https://hub.docker.com/r/e7db/diskmark, and running "sudo docker run -it --rm -e PROFILE=nvme -v /volume1:/disk e7db/diskmark".Smudgeous - Saturday, April 29, 2023 - link
I realize I copy/pasted the wrong data in my first post, which was actually from a 512GB Solidigm P41 Plus NVMe 4.0 drive.----------------
Single 1TB 670P:
----------------
Sequential 1M Q8T1:
<= Read: 773 MB/s, 773 IO/s
=> Write: 817 MB/s, 817 IO/s
Sequential 128K Q32T1:
<= Read: 748 MB/s, 5991 IO/s
=> Write: 811 MB/s, 6495 IO/s
Random 4K Q32T16:
<= Read: 507 MB/s, 129865 IO/s
=> Write: 207 MB/s, 53091 IO/s
Random 4K Q1T1:
<= Read: 52 MB/s, 13359 IO/s
=> Write: 89 MB/s, 23024 IO/s
-----------------------
Two 1TB 670P in RAID-0:
-----------------------
Sequential 1M Q8T1:
<= Read: 878 MB/s, 878 IO/s
=> Write: 1602 MB/s, 1602 IO/s
Sequential 128K Q32T1:
<= Read: 825 MB/s, 6600 IO/s
=> Write: 1601 MB/s, 12812 IO/s
Random 4K Q32T16:
<= Read: 1081 MB/s, 276843 IO/s
=> Write: 211 MB/s, 54250 IO/s
Random 4K Q1T1:
<= Read: 19 MB/s, 4964 IO/s
=> Write: 24 MB/s, 6219 IO/s
Elann-Morin-Tedronai - Sunday, April 30, 2023 - link
The 4K Random QD1 dropped by like 75% in reads and around 50% in writes with the IOPS dropping to a similar level. It's odd to see this effect caused by RAID0? Isn't it? Now that you've had it longer have you tested it with more drives or other RAID configurations?Smudgeous - Sunday, April 30, 2023 - link
I just ran those tests last night, won't really have any updates until all 12 of the 2tb ones I ordered show up, unfortunately.I will say that despite each drive being limited due to the processor's paltry 8 PCIe lanes, it's still likely going to be more performant and over 3x smaller for 3 additional bays beyond what I was able to cram inside a Silverstone CS280 loaded with 2TB SATA 2.5" SSDs. Even though I used a cheap Topton NAS motherboard with an integrated Intel J6413 CPU, the price is pretty similar as well once you add the case/mobo/RAM/OS drive/cables/PCIe card & hot swap bay adapter as well.
Smudgeous - Friday, May 5, 2023 - link
The last of my drives just arrived.Re-running with 12 x 2TB 670P in a RAID 6 on ext4:
Sequential 1M Q8T1:
<= Read: 3154 MB/s, 3154 IO/s
=> Write: 879 MB/s, 879 IO/s
Sequential 128K Q32T1:
<= Read: 3148 MB/s, 25190 IO/s
=> Write: 778 MB/s, 6230 IO/s
Random 4K Q32T16:
<= Read: 1596 MB/s, 408670 IO/s
=> Write: 108 MB/s, 27701 IO/s
Random 4K Q1T1:
<= Read: 36 MB/s, 9444 IO/s
=> Write: (I've run the test twice, cancelling the first one after ~10 minutes of waiting for it to finish. The 2nd run still hasn't finished after 20+ minutes and counting)
I'm assuming some of the oddities with speeds are due to the fact the CPU has a total of 8 PCI-e lanes to begin with so it has to use its ASMedia chips to mux all of the consumers (NIC, SSDs, etc).
Smudgeous - Friday, May 5, 2023 - link
...and the write finally finished:=> Write: 0 MB/s, 21 IO/s
AnandHIanand - Thursday, June 8, 2023 - link
Thank you Smudgeous, for sharing your finding. I am a pro home user, do not have enough space in the Mac Studio left. I am looking for SSD NAS or even DAS solution. My needs are not much, I am only using for storage purpose and my son will use his Mac Mini with M2 pro chip to save his projects from school. I was being attracted to his hardware for this can be put near the Network router, TV (as Plex server, currently Mac Studio (external drive) ), I have a 10 Gbps ethernet to access. Could you please share how loud does it get? How hot does it get? As I understand from your post, do you recommend a 6 bay version? If I do not need more than 6 TB space. Please recommend another DAS solution as well. Thank you!