CONCLUSION

   The AS3102T is actually the 7^th NAS server we’ve received from ASUSTOR and I have to admit that it doesn’t have much to be jealous of its more high-end brothers something which is also evident from the results recorded in our charts. The available features are plenty especially for home and office use (anything larger than that and we wouldn’t’ recommend it) and in terms of specifications (“horsepower”) it leaves little to be desired. It goes without saying really that we’d welcome a quad-core CPU with a higher amount of RAM but it’s quite clear that the AS3102T wasn’t designed with heavy workplaces in mind (for example the lack of a virtualization app for this line is really not coincidental). It would also be nice if the end user could upgrade the amount of RAM inside the AS3102T but again for a home and small office NAS 2GB should suffice. Now I would like to see an easier way of mounting a drive or drives inside the AS3102T since opening up the entire housing seems like a waste of time but chances are that you will not be doing that much either way. Placing the power button at the rear also seems a bit strange and if you decide position the AS3102T somewhere high with its back on the wall you may not be able to turn it on and off just as easily as you would had the power button been at the front just like with the majority of NAS servers out in the market.

   Perhaps the best news about the AS3102T NAS server by ASUSTOR is that its price took a somewhat serious “dive” recently so currently it can be found for just USD248.41 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 299Euros inside the EU (Amazon.co.uk). Just two months ago the AS3102T was priced next to the TS-251+ by QNAP which as some of you may know offers a much more powerful quad-core CPU, front drive loading trays and a remote control for use with QNAPs TV apps. Back then it would had been really hard not to recommend the TS-251+ but now with the new aggressive pricing the AS3102T is a very tempting and complete NAS server model for home and small office use and that’s why it gets our Golden Award.

PROS

- Intel Celeron N3050 Dual-Core CPU
- Very Good Performance
- Features
- Power Consumption
- 3 USB 3.0 Ports
- HDMI v1.4b Output
- Single, JBOD & RAID 0/1 Modes
- SATA III (6Gb/s)
- ADM v2.6 Beta OS
- Price (For Some)

CONS

- Internal Drive Mounts
- Rear On/Off Power Button
- Fixed RAM Size