Need 1st NAS why Asustor over Synology?

[bravopapa]

Dear all,

Decided to invest in a NAS to centralise backups and allow digital house to streamline and grow. multiple forums later Synology seem to be the default of choice. Mature OS, apps and hardware, was about to purchase a DS213+ then realised the market has some new tech namely the atom CE5300 SoC.

Not really knowing if I need transcoding and no current movies stored I am not sure if I need the video but can see the appeal and would like to stream around the house. So thought I would hold out for a new gen device.

Synology are dragging badly on any form of statement on the release of the DS214play and now may even be a Armarda XP after all. So wanting the x86 "berryville" (think plex will port and support SoC better due to x86 architecture) my options are Thecus or Asustor and I must say Asustor looks mighty impressive with great heritage is Asus (huge fan of the company). I had never heard of Asustor before googling the CE5335 but am really surprised with how polished it looks compared with time in market, they are flying.

So I have a AS-302T in my amazon basket with 2 x WD REg 3TB drives.

4 paragraphs of amble first but my question really is, what will i miss? DSPhoto, proprietary video player (transcoding apparently) surveillance center, amazon glacier support (big one for me as want this badly).

I think I am gaining:

amazing value - £250ish for hardware and 4 IP cam licences is amazing
Asus support, seems to have got on board some decent 3rd party devs in the 2 years will this continue?
HDMI port saves on a streamed media device (Roku 3 etc).

What is the general view of the community in terms of development speed. When (if they are not already) will asustor be considered a real rival of Synology. And finally anyone on here from synology that never looks bock or regrets the decision.

Thank you in advance for taking the time to read my long winded "are they any good compared to synology" question.

[sys]

from my perspective, the development speed is quite fast. ADM 2.0, Searchlight, SoundsGood, FTP Explorer, iTune server local playback, SoundsGood local playback, Boxee or XBMC playback, all the mobile apps such as Aimaster, Aidata, Aidownload etc..

These are to some degree satisfying to me. Now for me, only the photo app is missing. (But I am used to Plex anyway.) The speed of AS-604T or AS-304T is top notch, which I love dearly.

But instead, I hope Asustor can hold steps steady and reduce the little glitches.

[bravopapa]

Thank you sys for the speedy reply.

You have highlighted a major concern and that is general stability of an OS that is very young compared with DSM.

I see from the forums that is has bugs but that is to be expected especially on v2.0 its the time to fix and deploy that I am concerned with and if any bugs are serious enough like total lockup or data loss..

good to hear most apps are there and am sure a photo is in the works. I should have added I am an android user so sure all supported.

[clinton.hall]

Just to add a few comments here

I myself have not run a Synology system, but know many people who do. The thing to know here is that Synology will do what you want if you know how to use it (i.e. If you are an experienced. Linux users who knows how to customize things). I have spent a lot of time on couchpota.to forums trying to figure out how to change user permissions to make Apps compatible... From my point this is a major limitation (my opinion).

Clearly I would favour Asustor (I'm on these forums ) but as a maintainer of many Apps here, I can say that one of my considerations (and I believe this is true of most Devs/maintainers on here) is to ensure that Apps are compatible with each other and are easy to setup and use via web UI without the need for ssh.

Yes, Asustor are young, and yes there are "bugs". These bugs are being addressed.... Take a look at Synology, QNAP, Thecus, etc... They all have bugs regardless of how "mature" they are. The difference here is that they all have older bugs that haven't yet been addressed.

I think all current manufacturers have some good features and some good products. I myself enjoy working on my Asustor and spend some time on this forum to try and help (in my limited capacity) the brand grow. This is an exciting brand to work with and I expect great things

[braaam]

I have been using the AS-302T for about a week now and I'm very impressed with how solid it is software-wise. I did not expect the experience to be this good, taking into account the short development time and young age of ADM 2.

They're not slowed down by a legacy of supporting older platforms and software. I think it's great that they distribute the same software package for all their NAS-es and provide updates to the complete series. Another plus is that their NAS-es seem to be using the same basic hardware components, which will make it easier to provide good support in drivers, etc. This will probably mean they'll be able to provide good long time support for all models.

As you can see on these forums they are quick to provide support when users bump into serious issues and they're doing it in the open, without hiding the specifics.

About hardware transcoding support: you should not expect that to work, since intel doesn't seem to provide linux support for the CE5300 chips. The CPU itself is capable of transcoding low bitrate 720p material (i've done some tests). You won't need transcoding if you're using the HDMI port with something like XBMC though.

[Allen@AST]

Hi Rhialto,

We will always continue to update ADM with new features for our users as we strive to bring the best user experience possible. All our hardware will remain compatible with ADM unless we run into some sort of hardware limitation in the future. However, as our current hardware is quite powerful, this is not likely to happen in the near future.

Thanks,

Allen

[bravopapa]

Thanks to everyone for the response, think I am sold on the AS-302T and looking forward to it. Although Amazon UK now out of stock at the £256 for 1 to 2 months!!! I believe Asustor offers a better value proposition even if it is a slightly beta product (as will the synology in terms of SoC video support). One thing that is missed in these discussions is the cost of camara licences for synology. Asustor comes with 4 vs Syn's 1 if like me you plan to run 3 cameras that is a good saving.

All i want now is a good photo app, Amazon Glacier app and some anti virus and I will be v happy.