Asustor Flashstor 6 FS6706T - 6 Bay All-SSD NAS Storage, Quad Core 2.0GHz, Six M.2 SSD, Dual 2.5GbE, 4GB RAM DDR4, Network Attached Storage (Diskless)

I have been running a plex server for years on my desktop PC. I got the dreaded message from MS that Windows 10 was dying soon and my PC did not meet the minimum requirements to run Windows 11.I have been looking at NAS solutions like Synology and QNap. While these are definitely an option, I ran across the ASUStor on Amazon and then jumped to YouTube to do some research. Thank you guys over at NASCompares! Great info and guidance.Then I discovered how much SSD prices have fallen and well, decision made! I dove in to this ASUStor Flashstor Pro Gen 2! I chose to go with six 4TB drives in raid 5 to start with. Still have 6 slots that I can expand into for future needs!I chose to go with the ASUStor heat sinks for an additional $29 and 6 TeamGroup MP44 4TB SLC Cache gen 4x4 SSD drives to round out my initial setup.First I have to say, make sure you cross reference the drives you choose, with the ASUStor compatibility guide online. This is critical.Next, the Flashstor 12 Pro Gen 2 was super easy to open up and add the drives and heat sinks to. Took about 10 minutes total and boom, powered on and ready to rock and roll.Quick note here, you may want to log into your router and find the DHCP address assigned to your Flashstor, you will need this so you can connect to the web interface!Setup was super quick with the ASUStor ASM! This software is freaking amazing and very intuitive! It basically walks you through the process to get your drives configured and they have their own App Store! Super easy to find apps you will need. It has everything from Container Software to back up software to streaming media software. Amazing job here ASUStor!Be warned, 24Tb of SSD is a lot, even with the AMD Processor, it is gonna take awhile to complete. Good news though, you can actually start loading the apps you want while it is doing its thing after a certain % complete on the raid! Nice touch there!Again, my plan was to replace my aging PC I stream Plex from. Here is where it gets a little frustrating, the Plex App was difficult to actually get working. So much so, that as I dug in on researching the issue, I discovered that Plex actually generates a ton of bloated traffic on your network! What the heck Plex!? I have a lifetime pass with them, but this really made me second guess my choice of Plex… yep I wound up switching to Jellyfin and the Flashstor had the app available in their store and it was super quick and easy to setup and get running. Again, phenomenal job here on third party apps and availability in your ASM tool!The quality of this hard ware is amazing! It feels pretty well made and they have done a lot to dissipate the heat in a passive system! They have built in monitoring in the ASM and you can track the health of your raid(s) with real time temperature monitors for the SSD and Processor.They offer dual 10gb Ether ports and ECC RAM support. The RAM comes at 16gb (single stick) with the initial device. This is easily expandable to 32gb, and I recommend you jump on that quick! It will really improve streaming performance when you get a few people in your house streaming to their various devices.This thing is super quiet too! Say goodbye to jet engine sounding NAS in your house! This bad boy is so quiet! Benefits of no mechanical drives and massive power requirements!To sum this up, I was very impressed by this device and would recommend to anyone looking to venture out into the world of NAS for backup solutions and/or streaming. A little bit pricey for the initial setup, but you can grow as you go and need because of the expandability this device offers!

This is a great NAS. I have both the Gen 1 and the Gen 2. Like them both. I keep them on 24/7 and they have been a work horse. I have not had any issues with them as far as compatibility etc. Everything I have needed it to do, it has done. These have converted me to M.2 drives. I was a little hesitant because I have had some bad experiences with M.2 drives. So far so good. I did put on the recommended heat sink. After 6 months of use, the thermal paste had not bonded to the drives. Telling me these stay plenty cool. Could probably do without the heat sink on the drives.

Take it from someone that wasted 1,400$ (before tax) on this hunk of junk.I have installed debian, ubuntu, endeavouros, arch (before the easy way was made), and dabbled in virtual machines, docker, and LLMs. I've even installed nvidia drivers with the cuda tool kit.That seems like a back rub and a free milkshake compared to trying to get this POS to do anything. At ALL.out of 12 m.2 ports, 5 are gen3, meaning its terrible. the split between 4x4, 4x1, 4x2, 3x2, 3x3, 3x4, 3x1 makes this an absolute nightmare. NO VIDEO CARD means you have to have half an IT lab and half their budget to get this thing to DISPLAY. Just to get a video output. ATX power supply, spare graphics card, about 4 adapters, JUST TO MAKE SURE IT BOOTS.It says other operating systems are "allowed" much like how you are "allowed" to use a different ink cartridge in an HP printer. TrueNAS only works with an outdated and insecure version with fixes from a random source, only found on obscure internet forums.If you found this product through searching for the right fit, this isn't it. Build it yourself, and it will be easier, more reliable, faster, and more fun. Go to the zoo every week for a year instead of buying this. The lion might do a cool roar.Algorithm words here : terrible value. terrible build quality, frustrating to setup, connectivity is trash, power consumption, noise level.