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Asustor Flashstor 6 Gen2 FS6806X: 30-second review
Asustor was among the first NAS builders to offer an entirely M.2 device with the Flashstor 12 Pro FS6712X and the Flashstor 6 FS6706T.
Two years later, a second generation of those products is now available with the Flashstor 6 Gen 2 FS6806X and Flashstor Pro Gen2 FS6812X.
The cheaper of the two is the Flashstor 6 Gen 2 FS6806X, a product that this review covers in detail.
What’s important to understand about the FS6806X is that while it might look like its predecessor from the outside, this is an entirely new design with a completely different platform and enhanced feature set.
The upgrades it offers don’t come cheaply, and the asking price for this model is literally double that of its previous incarnation. For that outlay, you get a better and more power-efficient processor, double the network bandwidth with 10GbE LAN, USB 4.0 ports in addition to the USB 3.2 of the original, and double the standard RAM. And, there is dramatically more internal bandwidth to make more of the six M.2 2280 NVMe drives you can install inside.
But, Asustor gives with one hand and takes away with the other. Where the previous machine had both HDMI and optical audio out, neither of those features is in the FS6806X.
Also, with the price increase and the ability to handle up to six drives up to a capacity of 8TB (total capacity 48GB), the outlay for a fully populated system could be considerable.
While it rates as one of the most impressive solid-state NAS options, the dramatic price hike on this series could put some potential customers off.
However, it is destined for our best NAS devices, based on the limited selection of M.2 NAS available.
Asustor Flashstor 6 Gen2 FS6806X: Price and availability
- How much does it cost? $899/£979/€1,146.95
- When is it out? Available globally
- Where can you get it? Via online retailers like Amazon
When the Asustor Flashstor 6 FS6706T first launched, it cost $479 on Amazon and through most online retailers; nowadays, it costs $449.
It’s therefore shocking that the price of the Flashstor 6 Gen 2 FS6806X i s double its predecessor, being $899, or $100 more than Asustor asked for the Asustor Flashstor 12 Pro FS6712X when it became available.
Those wondering if this is the result of tariffs should consider that the price is also massively inflated in Europe, where tariffs aren’t a factor.
For those who want to extend the M.2 NVMe module’s life, Asustor recommends putting heatsinks on each drive, though it charges another $39 for these in packs of six.
Admittedly, this hardware has tons of new features and comes with double the standard RAM of its predecessor. But it’s also lost a few features, so the price hike looks hard to justify.
The obvious competitor for this hardware is the Ugreen NASync DXP480T Plus, a four-drive offering that costs the same. It has a more powerful CPU, an HDMI 2.0 port, Thunderbolt ports, built-in WiFi, and an SD card reader, and it is built with a metal exterior.
That leaves the only hardware advantage of the FS6806X being the six-drive capacity. But for $700, TerraMaster has the F8 Plus, an eight-bay M.2 NAS with 10GbE LAN port and 16GB of DDR5 RAM.
However, the biggest competitor to the FS6806X is undoubtedly the older FS6706T, which is still available and includes the HDMI port that Asustor left out of the replacement.
Overall, the FS6806X isn’t the excellent value for money that its Gen1 brother still represents.
Asustor Flashstor 6 Gen2 FS6806X: Specs
|
CPU |
AMD Ryzen V3C14 |
|
GPU |
N/A |
|
RAM |
8GB DDR5-4800 SO-DIMM (upgradable to 64GB) |
|
Storage |
6 x M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 or 3.0 drives. 1x PCIe 4.0 x43x PCIe 4.0 x22x PCIe 4.0 x1 |
|
USB |
3 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) Type-A; 2x USB4 ports (20Gbps per channel, 40Gbps per port) |
|
Raid Types |
RAID 0/1 /5 /6 /10, Single, JBOD |
|
Weight |
1.4 kg |
|
Dimensions |
48.3 (H) x 308.26 (W) x 193 (D) mm |
|
Networking |
1x 10GbE Ethernet (100/1000/2500/10000) |
|
OS |
ADM 5.0.0.RHJ12 |
|
Internal File Systems |
Btrfs, EXT4 |
|
External File Systems |
EXT4, NTFS, FAT32, HFS+, ExFAT |
|
OS Languages |
English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Magyar, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Turkish, Portuguese and Russian |
Asustor FS6806X: Design
- Same wedge shape
- Upgrade access
- Missing features
The case of the FS6806X is remarkably similar to that of the Gen1 machines, repeating the slightly odd trapezium box design that appears to have no purpose in its shape.
In retrospect, it looks like a games console from the 1990s that was only popular in Japan, and never came to the other regional markets.
Whatever design aesthetic inspired Asustor engineers, this is the same concept as the Gen1 hardware, with a token USB 3.0 Type-A port on the front and all the other inputs and outputs on the rear. The power button on the side with the overhang was a mystery the first time around, and it’s an enduring one in this hardware.
One change that’s visible externally is that in the original FS67XX models, the only cooling fan was under the M.2 storage bays, but now there is active cooling under the processor also. Both draw air from the underside and push it out through slots at either end.
Despite the extra cooling, this is a singularly quiet machine that borders on silent even when it’s being worked hard.
To install the M.2 modules, a panel housing an 80mm fan needs to be removed, necessitating the removal of four screws. Asustor doesn’t provide a screwdriver or replacement screws, so you will need to find your own and make sure not to misplace the screws.
Once this panel is out of the way, and it cleverly avoids connecting wires by repurposing a USB connector to wire the fan, there are six M.2 2280 bays available to fill with whatever storage you are inclined to use.
When I first intended to review this hardware, there was a minor issue that my M.2 NVMe modules weren’t on the Asustor compatibility list. However, the Gen 4 drives I used for testing all worked fine, at least over my review timescales.
One problem noticed with the Gen 1 design that wasn’t corrected is that the M.2 drives it will accept must be 2280 sized. There are no mount points to handle 2230, 2242 or 2260 drives.
I suspect the reason for this limitation is that the space under the drive where those mounting points would typically sit is open to allow for airflow. On the six-bay FS6806X, that’s probably not necessary, but on the twelve-bay FS6812X, other modules are mounted on the underside that don’t have a fan blowing directly onto them.
The Asustor documentation recommends attaching heatsinks to the drives, and Asustor will even sell you ones designed for the purpose. However, given the high price of this hardware and the sub-dollar cost of these accessories to the company, the fact that none were included seems excessively tight-fisted. The penny-pinching in this design is something I’ll be returning to elsewhere.
Further screws need to be removed to access the memory slots. A single 8GB DDR5 SODIMM is supplied, and a spare slot is available to expand the memory.
It’s disappointing that, since the original designs, no engineer at Asustor was assigned to make the memory accessible via the same hole as the storage, but obviously that would involve a cost that wasn’t budgeted.
Returning to the ports, this is where some of the most significant changes have occurred from the FS67XX series. The first change is that the Gen 1 machine had dual 2.5GbE LAN ports, which have been replaced by a single 10GbE port.
That effectively doubles the network bandwidth in a stroke and removes the fail-over capability and SMB multi-channel. Thankfully, other additions offer at least the possibility of addressing those limitations via USB 4 ports. The two USB 4 ports each get 20 Gbps of bandwidth, and using LAN adapters, these could add another two LAN ports, potentially boosting the network throughput from 10 GbE up to 30 GbE or more.
Given that this unit uses Gen 4 NVMe drives and could easily deliver more than 30 GbE if asked for, this seems a reasonable choice. It also offers a bonus feature, as it is possible to network directly over USB 4 to a computer with that port.
That creates an optimal scenario in which the 10GbE LAN port is used to distribute data created and administered by a computer connected via a 20 Gbps USB 4 link.
Many NAS brands are now exploring this feature, which allows many customers’ NAS to operate both as local storage and as an NAS service.
While features like this go some small way to justify the increased cost of this device over the Gen 1 hardware, one significant feature was removed entirely. Both FS67XX machines had HDMI and optical audio out ports while neither Gen 2 machine is blessed with them.
Since the original hardware was popular with those wanting to edit and distribute video, this system doesn’t have a GPU or a means to show video directly, making it distinctly less attractive to that specific sector.
From the perspective of Asustor, there isn’t an intention to remove the Gen 1 machines from the market and replace them with the Gen 2 hardware, but some customers would like the extra performance and USB 4 in this hardware but with a GPU capability.
Asustor Flashstor 6 Gen2 FS6806X: Features
- AMD Ryzen V3C14
- Weird PCIe allocations
- Cheap memory
The Gen 1 models used the Intel Celeron N5105, popular with some NAS makers but hardly the cutting-edge embedded processor.
Moving away from Intel, the Gen 2 designs use the AMD Ryzen V3C14, a dramatically more powerful platform that was designed for embedded applications.
A four-core processor with hyperthreading on each core, enabling it to process eight threads simultaneously with a clock frequency of 2.3GHz.
Compared to the N5105, which used DDR4 memory, not DDR5, the AMD Ryzen V3C14 is a significant improvement that is more suitable for running VMs and Docker containers and can address much more memory.
However, the critical feature of the V3C14 is how many PCIe lanes it supports since it needs those for the M.2 slots, the LAN, and the USB ports.
Whereas the Celeron N5105 had just eight PCIe 3.0 lanes, the Ryzen V3C14 has twenty lanes of Gen 4, equivalent to forty lanes on the N5105. That was a limitation that left each M.2 slot with about a single lane of bandwidth in the Flashstor 6 FS6706T and even less in its twelve-slot brother.
Those lanes have allowed the FS6806X to offer the 10GbE LAN, dual USB ports and M.2 slots, all Gen 4, with a single Gen 4×4, three Gen 4×2 and two Gen 4×1.
I’ll be honest and say that they didn’t just go with Gen 4×2 across the board, which is something I can’t follow since drives combined from different speed slots aren’t something that I would consider optimal.
Adding up the lanes used, in theory, the M.2 slots use twelve, but I suspect that there are some PCIe switches in this scheme to enable plenty of bandwidth for the 10GbE LAN and dual USB 4 ports, along with the three USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports.
It might matter more if this machine had four 10GbE LAN ports or 40GbE, but as most of the bandwidth is for internal processing and consumption, and is a massive overkill for the network requirements, it’s probably more of a semantic issue that triggers my technical OCD.
The only downside to the Ryzen V3C14 is that it has no integrated GPU, as I mentioned already.
That was chosen for other virtues, like that it only consumes a 15W TDP, but other choices made by Asustor make me less inclined to consider both sides.
On paper, this machine can support up to 64GB of RAM, although that will by definition involve replacing the 8GB module with 32GB.
However, the devil in these details is only exposed when the specification of the FS6812X model is compared to the FS6806X. The larger model gets 16GB of RAM by default, but the module included is ECC, whereas the FS6806X only gets standard DDR5.
I’m sure you are curious about the price difference between a standard module and ECC. It’s approximately $5$ for retail customers and probably $3 for Asustor.
On a NAS costing $900, that saving seems an excessive cost control.
Asustor Flashstor 6 Gen2 FS6806X: Performance
There are so many ways to slice and dice different M.2 slots with various NVMe modules and RAID layouts that I decided it was best to answer some basic questions about connection saturation on this unit.
The worst-case scenario is an M.2 NVMe Gen4 drive on one of the 4×1 slots, giving a throughput of around 2000Mb/s. But that easily saturates the approximately 1200Mb/s peak of a 10GbE LAN port.
It hits its limits if you connect a PC directly using USB 4, as the bandwidth matches the 20 Gbps on that channel, and it will transfer more data per second over that link than over a 10GbE LAN.
But, moving the same drive to a 4×2 slot negates that and releases enough bandwidth for it to support the USB 4 connection and the 10GbE LAN port at the same time. Using the single 4×4 slot would enable enough bandwidth for two computers to connect over USB 4 and a third over the 10GbE LAN with saturation on all ports.
I didn’t have the time to explore unlocking additional bandwidth by using RAID configurations or the number of free NVMe drives needed.
I’m sure others will break down all the variations of drive, slot, RAID modes and the use of SMB multi-channel via LAN adapters, but my life is finite.
The only scenario where it might not hit its bandwidth targets is a single Gen 4×1 slot installed with a Gen 3 drive. But Gen 4 drives are cheap, so that’s a choice you make.
I’m happy to accept that my performance analysis isn’t definitive, but I can also say that there aren’t any performance holes with either internal or external bandwidth that are worthy of note. For those needing a NAS to saturate a 10GbE network or multiple networks with adapters, the FS6806X is more than up to the task.
Asustor Flashstor 6 Gen2 FS6806X: Final verdict
It’s mildly disappointing that there are things wrong with the FS6806X that were previously in the Gen1 version, and with more than two years of development, these weren’t fixed. Specifically, this hardware only accepts M.2 2280-sized modules. Yes, I accept that it is possible to use adapters to fit a 2242 stick into the slot for 2280, but this machine should, at the very least, take 2242 and 2230 modules with a minor alteration in the board design.
There are other issues with the uneven distribution of the PCIe lanes, and the hardware that’s almost ideal for video editing has disturbingly lost its HDMI out.
However, these aren’t subtle problems that are overshadowed by the biggest concern: how a similar design sits alongside a prior product with a 100% price increase. That’s something I might expect from a tone-deaf brand like Nvidia, but Asustor?
I’m not really buying the idea that Gen 2 isn’t a Gen 1 replacement since most customers won’t see it that way.
It feels like Asustor took what Ugreen asked for the NASync DXP480T Plus as a new norm and decided that with six M.2 slots, it could ask for the same.
Whatever the truth, Asustor came up with this pricing that firmly pushes this product out of the prosumer space into the enterprise market, where prices are less of an issue.
This masterplan might unravel because cheaper M.2 NAS are starting to appear, and you can buy a Mini PC with four M.2 bays, 32GB of RAM, Windows 11 and Thunderbolt ports for less cash than this device.
If the FS6806X had been $550 or even $650, it might have been acceptable, but more expensive than the twelve-bay Flashstor 12 Pro FS6712X, which is still available, is patently silly.
Hopefully, market forces will make Asustor reconsider its pricing because, at the right price, this is a product that has many desirable features.
Should you buy a Asustor Flashstor 6 Gen2 FS6806X?
|
Value |
Double the cost of its predecessor |
3 / 5 |
|
Design |
A plastic case that’s almost identical to the Gen1 but with more cooling |
4 / 5 |
|
Features |
10GbE LAN, better processor, USB 4.0 ports, but the HDMI port was removed |
4 / 5 |
|
Performance |
Great performance over 10GbE and USB 4 |
5 / 5 |
|
Overall |
Some improvements, removed features at twice the price |
4 / 5 |
Buy it if…
Don’t Buy it if…
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