Asustor focus on Intel processors only. They all made with metal case and looks solid. Let’s see if AS-5102T is faster than AS-602T with OSX.
Asustor AS-602T with ADM 2.4.0
AS-5102T uses an Intel Celeron Processor J1900 which is a 2GHz and up to 2.41GHz quad-core processor. It has 2MB L2 cache, Intel 64 Architecture, and supports up to 8GB DDR3.
The test machine comes with 4GB of DDR3 RAM.
I install two Seagate Barracuda Desktop HDD as RAID 1 in it.
ADM 2.4.0 RFU6 for AS-5102T is a 64-bit Linux used in this test. According to following information, I only know the build-in Samba is 4.0.19. Like QNAP TS-119PII, I cannot select smb version in [Services] → [Windows] → [File Service] Tab → [Advanced Options]. After contacting Asustor, I was informed current ADM supports smb 2.0. More related information about Samba and smb may be found in Samba Wiki: Samba3/SMB2.
Mac Mini Late 2012
I have upgrade my Mac mini to 16GB RAM and use a Seagate Laptop SSHD 1 TB which spins at 5400rpm and comes with 8GB MLC cache build-in to replace the slow hard drive.
Test Method
It is detail explained in Prepare Your NAS File Transfer Performance Test with Mac OSX Client. I test both Samba and NFS.
I also add test results from AS-602T, QNAP TS-253 Pro, TS-251, TS-119PII, Thecus N2520, and w5000 with OSX.
- Asustor AS-602T with Mac OSX File Transfer Performance Report
- QNAP TS-119PII with Mac OSX File Transfer Performance Report
- QNAP TS-251 with Mac OSX File Transfer Performance Report
- QNAP TS-253 Pro with Mac OSX File Transfer Performance Report
- Thecus N2520 with Mac OSX File Transfer Performance Report
- Thecus W5000 with Mac OSX File Transfer Performance Report
Performance


Analyze
AS-5102T is faster than AS-602T in most tests especially on writing. AS-602T is 4% faster on NFS reading.
Compared to TS-253 Pro and TS-251 using smb 3.0 but with the same J1900, most are within 10% difference. Only TS-251 with 8GB RAM is 12% slower on NFS writing.
As you see in AS-602T, if you use cifs:// in Finder to mount Samba shared drive, reading is 35% while writing is 23% slower compared to smb://. Therefore, I test with smb:// only.
More Thoughts
The faster J1900 and more RAM in AS-5102T help to improve performance over AS-602T. Besides, the new VirtualBox on App Central should run faster with J1900.
It seems ADM doesn’t have Samba compatibility issue with OSX. The performance is as good as QTS with smb 3.0.
Reference
- Apple: Mac mini (Late 2012) – Technical Specifications
- Apple: OS X
- Apple: Support: Mac Basics: The Finder organizes all of your files
- Asustor
- Asustor ADM
- Asustor AS-602T with Mac OSX File Transfer Performance Report
- Asustor: App Central: VirtualBox
- Asustor: AS-5102T
- Asustor: AS-602T
- Intel
- Intel Atom Processor D2700
- Intel Hyper-Threading Technology
- Intel Celeron Processor J1900 (2M Cache, up to 2.42 GHz)
- Intel: Intel 64 Architecture
- Linux.org
- Prepare Your NAS File Transfer Performance Test with Mac OSX Client
- QNAP TS-119PII
- QNAP TS-119PII with Mac OSX File Transfer Performance Report
- QNAP TS-251
- QNAP TS-251 with Mac OSX File Transfer Performance Report
- QNAP TS-253 Pro
- QNAP TS-253 Pro with Mac OSX File Transfer Performance Report
- QNAP: QTS
- Samba
- Samba Wiki: Samba3/SMB2
- Seagate Barracuda Desktop Datasheet
- Seagate Laptop SSHD Datasheet
- Thecus N2520
- Thecus N2520 with Mac OSX File Transfer Performance Report
- Thecus W5000
- Thecus W5000 with Mac OSX File Transfer Performance Report
- Wiki: Multi-level cell
- Wiki: Network File System
- Wiki: Server Message Block
- Wiki: Standard RAID levels: 2 RAID 1