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The Asustor AS 602T arrives in a plain brown box with a sticker featuring the company name.
The product is well protected between two thick pieces of foam. It is also wrapped inside a clear plastic cover.
As well as the main NAS, there is a peripheral box which contains a power supply (100-240V), regional specific power plug, two LAN cables, a software disc and mounting screws for two hard drives.
The AS 602T is finished in a two tone colour scheme – a bronze metal chassis and plastic front cover featuring the buttons and drive bays. It looks very similar to several QNAP products we have in our offices.
At the side of the chassis are air vents, used to pull in cool air over the components during operation.
The build quality of the unit is exceptionally good, measuring 163.5mm x 108 mm x 230mm (HxWxD). It weighs 2.1 kg.
There is a USB 3.0 port at the bottom. Along the top are several lights which detail activity for network, USB, hard drives and power.
At the back are several Gigabit Ethernet connectors, which support link aggregation and load balancing. There is a single USB 3.0 connector and four USB 2.0 ports as well as a Kensington lock, HDMI output and power connector. A large fan (70mm) is positioned top left and works in an exhaust position, sucking in cool air from the vents at the front of the side panels.
The drive bays are easily removed, by pushing in on the main lever, shown above. These feel really strong and offer tactile feedback thanks to the strong spring positioned behind them.
Each bay is covered with soft felt, to protect against the sensitive drive circuitry underneath. The drives are screwed in from the side. Engineering quality is high, with all the tolerance set perfectly.
With both drives removed, we can see the little SATA daughtercard in all its glory.
Getting a look at the insides isn't difficult, there are simply three screws to remove and the metal chassis can be slid off. The main motherboard is protected underneath a protective cover, so it won't come in direct contact with the metal.
Underneath the cover, is an expansion connector which is in fact an SO-DIMM like you would see in a laptop computer. There is 1GB of DDR3 memory installed on the board, but you can add another 2GB into this slot to cope with more demanding environments. A nice idea.
While it is difficult to see here, the motherboard has an Intel ATOM 2.13 dual core processor onboard.
I really like the look of this NAS system, great product from the new company!
They will have problems selling this – they should have just used the ASUS name. people will think its a different far east company trying to ride on the ASUS section of the name.
Good review and good results – the product is well finished, you can always tell from the trays, belive it or not. if they put in the quality with the springs, felt covers and disengaging mechanisms, they are putting it in elsewhere.