INTRODUCTION

   With most people out in the market looking to find a cost-effective NAS server for home/office use (media playback, downloading and IP surveillance are the three primary reasons most people want them for) we naturally tend to do our best to get entry/mid-end solutions on our test bench mostly. However from time to time we also have to cater to the needs of the more demanding consumers and enterprise users who are after high-end models packing enough punch and features for a variety of heavy uses. ASUSTOR may just be around for roughly 2 years but through their very good products so far they've made it quite clear that they are here to stay so it was just a matter of time before people started to ask from us to test their top NAS Servers. Well we obviously listened and so today we will be taking a very thorough look on their latest 8-bay NAS Server the AS-608T.

   Founded in 2011, ASUSTOR Inc. is a leading innovator and provider of private cloud storage (network attached storage) and video surveillance (network video recorder) solutions. We are devoted to providing the world with unparalleled user experiences and the most complete set of network storage solutions possible.

     The AS-304T which we reviewed a couple of weeks ago is a very good NAS server but the AS-608T simply blows it away both in terms of firepower and available features (as expected since we are talking about a higher end line). As a matter of fact the AS-608T is amongst the most advanced NAS Servers to have ever landed on our test bench so that alone is quite impressive. So aside the very fast Intel ATOM 2.13GHz Dual-Core CPU (D2701 model combined with the Intel GMA3600 based on the PowerVR SGX 545 IGP) the AS-608T comes with 1GB DDR3 RAM (by A-DATA in our sample) which this time over is expandable to 3GB (unlike the RAM in the AS-304T which is soldered to the motherboard and can't be extended). On top of that add the front LCD panel, 6 USB ports (4xUSB 2.0/2x USB 3.0), two Gigabit Ethernet ports, HDMI version 1.3a port and 8 SATAII/III bays compatible with both 2.5/3.5" drives and you've got yourself one very powerful NAS Server. Since our AS-304T review ASUSTOR has also performed some updates to their ADM software suite so we expect even better things this time so without further delay let's see what the AS-608T can do.