An entry-level storage solution for all of your home’s data, the Asustor Drivestor 2 AS1102T ($169.99) is a reasonably priced two-bay network-attached storage (NAS) device that offers a handful of features typically found on more expensive NAS products. It’s not often you see multi-gig LAN ports or 4K video transcoding capabilities in this price category. The AS1102T is also a solid performer that is easy to install, and it comes with a generous selection of apps. It’s our new Editors’ Choice pick for affordable two-bay NAS devices.

Quad-Core CPU Transcodes 4K Video

The AS1102T uses the same black enclosure as the AS3102T v2 and the AS3203T Asustor models that we reviewed several years ago. It measures 6.5 by 4 by 8.6 inches (HWD) and does not require tools to access the internal drive bays. The front panel sports a diamond-check design and a gold-hue Asustor logo, as well a USB 3.2 port and LED indicators for power, status, LAN connectivity, and disk activity. The rear panel contains a 2.5-gigabit (2.5Gbps) LAN port, a second USB 3.2 port, a reset button, a power button, and a power jack. You won’t find the secondary LAN, WAN, and HDMI video ports that you get with the AS3102T.

The AS1102T is powered by a 1.4GHz quad-core CPU, 1GB of DDR4 RAM, and 8GB of flash memory. A 70mm fan keeps all these components cool. The device supports 4K video transcoding and will accommodate 2.5- and 3.5-inch drives (not included) for a total raw capacity of 36TB. Adding an expansion-bay module ups the potential total raw capacity to 180TB. This NAS supports RAID 0, RAID 1, Single, and JBOD volume types, along with the EXT4 file system. 

You manage the AS1102T using Asustor’s ADM 4.0 operating system, which offers a handful of features not found on previous versions. An improved search engine, updated OpenSSL connectivity, and user-friendly web server tools make management tasks a bit easier than on previous Asustor devices. The web-based ADM console offers a Windows-like user interface that makes it easy to create and share folders, back up data, configure drives, and download apps. You can also use a series of Asustor mobile apps to control certain NAS functions, though the app lacks the complete functionality of the ADM console.

When you first open ADM, you’ll see a desktop with 14 tiles including Storage Manager, Access Control, App Central, File Explorer, Activity Monitor, Online Help, and Settings. The Activity Monitor allows you to view CPU, memory, and network activity. You can also monitor drive-usage statistics here in a colorful pie chart format.

Tap the Access Control tile to create shared folders and user groups, as well as to assign app privileges. The Storage Manager is where you go to create and manage data volumes, view drive health statistics, scan for bad blocks and other disk errors, and view Self Monitoring Analysis and Report Technology (S.M.A.R.T.) drive information.

With the File Explorer you can browse and manage files stored on the NAS, assign folder permissions, and share links to files. Use the Backup & Restore tile to configure the AS1102T for remote syncing and to set up cloud-based backups and create backup schedules.

App Central, meanwhile, is where you go to access and download more than 100 Asustor and third-party apps. App categories include Home/Personal Applications, Business Applications, Security, Backup and Sync, Web Hosting, Office Productivity, and Bulletin Board, to name just a few.

To edit network settings, configure fan speed, and manage system error notifications, use the Settings tile. Here, you can also configure ADM Defender to protect the NAS from malware and enable Media Mode, which reserves a portion of the NAS’s memory to help improve transcoding and media streaming performance.

Testing the AS1102T: Easy Setup, Speedy Performance

The AS1102T is a cinch to set up. After installing two Seagate 10TB IronWolf drives into the bays, I connected the NAS to my router and opened a browser on my desktop PC, which was also connected to the same router. I typed acc.asustor.com in the address bar and downloaded and installed the Asustor Control Center software, which immediately recognized the NAS. I tapped the Uninitialized button and configured my time and date settings, as well as my network settings (DHCP or manual). Then, I selected RAID 1 for a total capacity of 9.09TB.

The initialization process took a few minutes in total, but the software needed around 20 hours to sync the drives before the NAS was ready for testing.

The AS1102T turned in speedy scores on our file transfer tests, in which we use a 4.9GB folder containing a mix of music, video, photo, and office document files to measure NAS read and write performance. (See more about how we test NAS and hard drives).

Its write speed of 89MBps was faster than the QNAP TS-230 (75MBps), the TerraMaster F2-210 (70MBps) and the Synology DS220j (87MBps). It also managed 89MBps on the read test, besting the QNAP TS-230 and the TerraMaster F2-210, both of which scored 77MBps. The Synology DS220j was just a tad faster at 90MBps.

The Best Affordable Two-Bay NAS

If you’re looking for a two-bay network attached storage device with multi-gig LAN but don’t want to spend a bundle, look no further than the Asustor Deskstor AS1102T. 

This reasonably priced entry-level NAS may not offer the multiple network and video ports that you get with more expensive models, but it does give you a single 2.5Gbps LAN port and provides hardware-based 4K video transcoding. It uses a tool-free enclosure and is managed using Asustor’s user-friendly ADM software, and it comes with a nice selection of apps that let you use the NAS in any number of ways. All this, taken together, earns the AS1102T our Editors’ Choice award for low-cost two-bay NAS devices.