Considering the AS5404T

[rv13]

Hi everyone

I’m considering the AS5404T. My main uses are:
- Media server (Plex or Asustor video). How is the download and video app? Is this model a good choice as a media server?
- Backup / archival of files and photos from smartphones
- Surveillance cameras x 10 across 3 different brands. I would like mobile access to it and I noticed most of my cameras are not natively supported so it’ll have to be ONVIF

I’ll be using 4 Samsung SSD drives.

I’ve been a long time Synology user and the Asustor UI seems very similar.

Would appreciate any thoughts or comments!

[EvilHomerClone]

Regarding Plex... are you looking to simple streaming to your end points or using the NAS as a transcoder? Given the hardware on this nas, transcoding may become problematic if you have a lot of high quality 4k content.

When researching for my purchase of the AS6810T, I was looking into the "mobile apps" and given my long standing relationship with Asus software apps... I would not count on the reliability of their mobile apps. From what I have gathered over these past few months.. Synology is much more polished on this side of a NAS. If this is a main requirement for you... expect a "step down" in quality when compared to Synology. (i have never used Synology before and only speaking on what I have ascertained from reviews and forum posts.) I am still in the early stages of playing around with these mobile apps for my Asustor.

The cool thing is that if the native apps are not reliable... there are many other 3rd party apps that can fill in those gaps, like PhotoSync.

It looks like the Asustor's Surveillance Center app only supports 4 cameras out of the box, so if you want to use the native app, you will need to purchase additional licenses for all of your cameras.

As a work around, the NAS does support virtualization/docker... so you could in theory run another application on the NAS to be your camera hub at which point you would be looking to upgrade your ram as I don't think 4gb is going to cut it. (and with ram prices today.. good luck!)

[rv13]

Thanks for the reply! I used the Synology DS416Play and would have gone with the DS425 in a heartbeat except that it's incompatible with Plex! And the Video Station can't handle most of the formats other than x264 and nominal x265. The BeeStation Plus has complete compatibility with Plex but it has a different app ecosystem and comes with a slow 4TB drive built-in. Totally disappointed with Synology!

Regarding the AS5404T, I have confirmed that this model does support hardware-level transcoding for Plex. I checked up on your AS6810T and you're right, it can't support hardware transcoding.

Noted on the mobile apps...I guess I'll have to manage my expectations if I pull the trigger. I am avoiding dockers because it sounds like more effort to maintain the instance...

[Parsec]

Check the Surveillance Center section in these forums, there's actually a lot of cameras you can't get working with ONVIF. So you'll need to check the supported list for your cameras. I ended up getting a TP-Link NVR for my cameras because of the ONVIF problem, a 16 channel one is cheaper then what you will pay for camera licences. And I am impressed with it for it's price.

I have an AS5404T with 4x8TB drives and 2x2TB NVME's. Make sure you get at least one NVME as this is where the AS5404T will put it's system software and all the apps. Leaves your HD's simply for storage etc. (You can also get another 2 NVME's (raid) and use them for caching)

I tried Plex, but found emby to be better/more to my liking. There is also a Jellyfin app for a media server.

If you are into Linux, the Linux Center app turns your AS5404T into a complete Debian desktop linux server as well (bring your own mouse/keyboard/monitor). This is the exact reason I chose the AS5404T as my NAS.

Also you can easily expand it's memory, 2x8GB Sodimm's are really cheap, I paid around $50AUS ea for 2 Team Elite 8GB PC4-25600 (3200MHz) DDR4 SODIMM (Model: TED48G3200C22-S01)

[rv13]

Thanks for the great advice!

Will a 1TB NVME suffice and did you install a heatsink?

[Parsec]

A 1TB NVME will suffice. I didn't use heatsinks on them. They don't need to be the latest/fastest NVME's. It's just so the OS and apps have a place to live independent of the raid/media files.

I just bought the 2 of the cheapest 2TB NVME's I could find. And I made them Raid1 in the setup process. (Didn't really need too) Anyway now I keep my HD's for media/video/images etc and I have a share folder or 2 on the NVME's that I use for software, bits and pieces, docs, etc etc that I have shared to my Windoze machine. Still have 1.4TB of the 2TB space left on that NVME raid.

[snapshot]

Thanks for the great advice!

Will a 1TB NVME suffice and did you install a heatsink?

There's no room for a heatsink if it's wider than the SSD as there's very little space between the slots. In my opinion this is a design failure as the daughterboard that the NVMe SSDs go on could easily have been made a few mm wider. The same board is used in the 54xxm, 67xx and 68xx ranges which is a pain as the 68xx range can benefit from faster SSDs which would need heatsinks.

As parsec says, don't waste money on the latest SSDs as the slots are only NVMe 3x1. I always use WD Red SN700 which were good to buy direct until the prices started rocketing and the offers dried up.