Asustor Fs6712x NAS Review and Features Overview

The Asustor FS6712X NAS is a powerful storage solution that's designed to meet the needs of home users and small businesses alike. It features a Quad-core processor with 2GB of RAM, making it capable of handling demanding tasks.

One of the standout features of the FS6712X is its expandable storage capacity, with support for up to 72TB of storage. This makes it an ideal solution for users who need to store large amounts of data.

With the Asustor FS6712X, you can easily access and manage your stored data from anywhere using the intuitive web-based interface. This interface is also where you'll find the device's built-in media server, which allows you to stream your stored content to devices on your network.

The Asustor FS6712X has a unique design, with a rhombus cross-section that brings some visual interest to the otherwise plain enclosure.

The glossy black plastic used for the enclosure obscures the reliefs and shapes that the surface was given.

You can easily access the first six M.2 slots on the underside by removing four screws, and an 80mm fan is also part of this panel.

The Asustor Flashstor 12 Pro FS6712X has a unique design, with a rhombus cross-section that adds visual interest to an otherwise plain enclosure.

It's a bit of a shame that the glossy black plastic used obscures the reliefs and shapes on the surface.

The underside of the unit provides access to the first six M.2 slots via four screws, and it's great that an 80mm fan is included and connected to the system with a repurposed USB-A plug and receptacle.

The drives are held in place with a plastic clip, making it easy to install them, although it's worth noting that only 2280-size modules are accepted.

You'll need to remove the lower panel to install more than six drives or upgrade the RAM, which requires three additional screws.

It's worth considering adding drives with heatsinks to dissipate heat better, as there's plenty of space above the M.2 slots.

The Asustor Flashstor 12 Pro FS6712X is a powerful NAS that supports USB 3.2 Gen 2, which enables transfers to or from external SSDs at speeds of up to 1000MB/s.

The 10GbE port is a significant feature, but it's worth noting that it takes up one lane, leaving limited bandwidth for other components. The dual USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports take another lane, leaving six lanes for the M.2 slots.

Each of the M.2 slots gets a single PCIe 2.0 slot or half a PCIe 3.0 allocation of bandwidth, which might not be sufficient for performance NVMe drives. This could result in speeds of up to 2,000MB/s, but that's unlikely.

The network bottleneck is another issue, as the single 10GbE LAN port has a maximum speed of around 1200MB/s. This can easily be satisfied by a single NVMe drive, making performance-enhancing RAID layouts unnecessary.

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Asustor PhotoGallery 3 is a powerful tool for managing and displaying your photos. It offers a simplified interface for organizing your photos and features like custom folder selection, timelines, intelligent albums, deduplication, and new photo modes.

The interface is improved, making it easier to navigate and find what you're looking for. You can easily enlarge photos up to twice their original size, and even listen to music while browsing through your photo albums.

Asustor PhotoGallery 3 also offers enhanced performance and customizable sharing links, making it a great tool for sharing your photos with others. The app is designed to be user-friendly and efficient, allowing you to focus on enjoying your photos rather than struggling with complicated software.

The app also includes features like album intelligence, which automatically organizes your photos into albums based on their metadata. This feature is especially useful for large collections of photos, making it easier to find and view specific photos.

With Asustor PhotoGallery 3, you can also create custom timelines and view your photos in a variety of ways, including as a slideshow or a grid. This feature is perfect for creating beautiful presentations or sharing your photos with others.

The Asustor FS6712X is a powerhouse, delivering exceptional performance and capabilities. It features a quad-core Intel Celeron J4125 processor, providing a solid foundation for demanding tasks.

With 8 GB of DDR4 memory, the FS6712X can handle multiple tasks simultaneously, making it perfect for heavy users. This means you can have multiple apps open at the same time without experiencing any lag.

The Asustor FS6712X also boasts a 2.5GbE LAN port, ensuring fast and reliable connectivity to your network. This is a significant upgrade from traditional 1GbE ports, providing a more seamless experience.

The Asustor Flashstor 12 Pro FS6712X is a game-changer in the world of NAS devices, ushering in a new era of ultra-high performance storage.

This device is built around the Intel Celeron N5105 processor and has 4GB of DDR4-2933MHz RAM that can be expanded to 16GB.

It's got a whopping 12 slots of M.2 NVMe storage, each capable of accepting 2280 PCIe M.2 NVMe modules.

You can fit at least 48TB of storage in this thing, and with 8TB modules on the horizon, that number could easily double.

The unit runs the Asustor NAS operating system ADM 4.2, which offers a suite of apps for media distribution and presentation.

The FS6712X can directly output 4K video through its HDMI port and features high-quality digital audio through a S/PDIF optical outlet.

Transfers on and off the system are handled by a single 10GbE LAN port that supports 5GgE, 2.5GbE, and 1GbE, depending on your network infrastructure.

The Intel Celeron N5105 processor supports a maximum of 8 lanes, which is less than a whole PCIe 3.0 lane per potential M.2 slot.

The performance of a system is crucial for its overall efficiency.

A system with a high clock speed can perform tasks up to 50% faster than one with a lower clock speed, as seen in the comparison between Intel Core i9 and Intel Core i5 processors.

In terms of memory, a system with 16 GB of RAM can handle multiple tasks simultaneously without slowing down, whereas a system with 8 GB of RAM may experience lag when running multiple programs at once.

A system with a dedicated graphics card can perform graphics-intensive tasks up to 5 times faster than a system with integrated graphics, making it ideal for gaming and video editing.

In real-world scenarios, a system with a high-performance CPU can handle complex tasks such as video editing and 3D modeling, which can take hours to complete on a lower-performance system.

The performance of a system also depends on its storage, with a system equipped with an SSD (solid-state drive) loading programs up to 5 times faster than one with a traditional hard drive.

The Asustor FS6712X is a powerful tool for video management and viewing. Asustor's native application LooksGood does a great job, but we prefer Jellyfin for its extended features, complete format support, and ability to create user profiles.

For video management and viewing, the FS6712X is a solid choice. It's compact and lightweight, making it perfect for creatives on-the-go. With its high-performance capabilities, it can handle simultaneous reads and writes from multimedia libraries, even with high-resolution projects.

The FS6712X is also great for remote work or travel. With its portability, you can easily take it with you and use it to create new albums or share old ones with family and friends. Its keyboard, mouse, and remote control support make it easy to use in different environments.

The FS6712X also supports iSCSI protocol, which offers exceptional transfer speeds. This protocol is commonly used in data centers for virtualization and can be used to present resources as local disks. With a 10Gb Ethernet switch, you can unlock the full potential of this feature and even launch games directly from the NAS.

The Asustor FS6712X has a single USB 3 port on the front, which is mostly for external storage, and it's not possible to use it for other interfaces.

This NAS unit has a rear panel with typical NAS features like base power, USB, and so forth, as well as some desktop-like features like HDMI and S/PDIF.

The FS6712X has a 10Gbase-T port, which is a big difference compared to the FS6706T we reviewed previously.

At the bottom of the chassis, you'll find the same four large rubber feet and cooling fan design as the Flashstor 6 FS6706T.

The system's internal design involves a lot of Asmedia components, which play a crucial role in making this NAS unit work.

The topology of the FS6712X is quite complex, with 12 drives connected to an Intel N5105 processor, and an 8GB eMMC device for the OS boot onboard.

Each of the three ASMedia ASM2806 devices has four drives attached, which is a key part of the system's design.

For comparison, the 6-slot version of the NAS unit doesn't have PCIe switches.

The screenshots of the topology diagrams were taken with non-standard memory configurations, including 2x 8GB installed on the FS6712X and a single 32GB SODIMM installed on the FS6706T, which was not stable.

The Asustor FS6712X has a few drawbacks to consider. The power on button can be tricky to find, as it's located on the right side and can be hard to spot from above.

The device also has some limitations when it comes to its ports and lanes. It only has a few PCIe lanes, which can be a bottleneck, and the 10GbE LAN port can also be a limiting factor.

Here are some of the key cons of the Asustor FS6712X:

The Asustor FS6712X also received a report card with the following grades:

Some brands now make NVMe specifically for NAS use, but it's unclear how that differs from modules using identical NAND sold for desktop computers.

The product has some design features that might be considered nice, such as removable panels and a loving design element - a rhombus.

Most of the ports are located on the rear of the product, which might be a bit inconvenient for some users.

Finding the power on button was initially a challenge due to its placement on the right side, where it's easily obscured from view.

The product is short on PCIe Lanes, which could impact its performance.

Using NVMe drives in a NAS box can cause a bottleneck, especially with 10GbE.

The Asustor Flashstor 12 Pro FS6712X has its strengths and weaknesses. It's a great value for a twelve-drive NAS, with a price that's hard to beat.

Its design is a bit unconventional, but it's easy to upgrade the internal components. The internal access is a major plus.

One of the standout features is the twelve M.2 slots, which are perfect for storing a large number of NVMe drives. You can also upgrade the memory with dual DDR4 SODIMM slots.

However, the Intel Celeron processor doesn't have enough PCIe lanes to support more LAN bandwidth. This means that the 10GbE LAN port is the bottleneck in delivering performance to network users.

Here's a summary of the report card:

Overall, the FS6712X is a solid choice if you have a collection of unused NVMe drives, but don't expect to experience their combined speed on the other side of the network.

The Asustor FS6712X is available now and can be found at larger online retailers in most regions.

It has an MSRP of $799, which might seem high but is actually in line with what a twelve-drive NAS SATA device might cost.

If you're on a tighter budget, Asustor also offers the Flashstor 6 with half as many slots and dual 2.5GbE LAN ports for $449.

Here's a quick comparison of the two models:

You'll need to add M.2 NVMe drives to the FS6712X before powering it up, which requires disassembling the device to install them.

The Flashstor 12 Pro FS6712X arrived in a compact, eco-friendly packaging that's roughly the size of two A4 sheets of paper.

The NAS itself is lightweight and easy to transport, thanks to its plastic casing.

Asustor's packaging is always meticulous, and this time, the NAS is protected by sturdy cardboard and a dense foam plate.

The contents include the NAS, a LAN cable, a power adapter, and a quick installation guide.

For our test, we used Crucial by Micron's excellent M.2 SSD NVMe PCIe Gen4 P5 Plus drives, which are officially compatible with the FS6712X Pro.

The FS6712X offers a maximum capacity of 4096 users and 512 groups, making it an excellent choice for growing activities.

The NAS has a minimalist design with only 5 LEDs, which illuminate the compact case.

The test equipment for this review is quite impressive. The Asustor Flashstor 12 Pro FS6712X arrived in a compact package weighing only 2.33 kg, which is roughly the size of two A4 sheets of paper stacked together.

The packaging is very thoughtful, with a sturdy cardboard box protecting the device on the sides and a dense foam plate on top. This attention to detail is consistent with Asustor's packaging standards.

The device itself is made of high-quality plastic and weighs very little, making it easy to transport. The NAS FS6712X is accompanied by a few essential accessories, including a LAN cable, a power adapter, and a power cable.

We chose the excellent Crucial by Micron M.2 SSD NVMe PCIe Gen4 P5 Plus for our test, which features a low-profile heat sink and a capacity of 2TB. This drive is officially compatible with the FS6712X Pro.

The test equipment also includes a power supply unit (PSU) from Delta, which is a reliable brand in the industry. The PSU is compact and efficient, making it a great choice for this NAS device.

The FlashStor 12 Pro AS6712X is a unique NAS model with a reduced footprint, making it ideal for small spaces. Its compact design doesn't compromise on features.

With a complete multimedia connectivity and 10 Gb Ethernet, this NAS is perfect for media enthusiasts and professionals. It can handle demanding tasks with ease.

The Intel quad-core processor and support for up to 16 GB of RAM make it a powerful device. This allows for smooth performance and multitasking.

The device has access to a vast library of 276 applications, available for download from App Central. These applications are categorized into 20 domains, making it easy to find the right tool for the job.

You can even use the NAS as an iSCSI initiator to mount it as a local drive on a PC.

The Asustor FS6712X is a powerful NAS device that also offers transcodation capabilities.

It can transcode 4K video files in real-time, allowing for smoother playback and easier sharing of content.

This feature is particularly useful for users who want to stream their media files to devices that may not support 4K playback natively.

The device also supports multiple formats, including H.264 and H.265, making it a versatile option for various media needs.

In terms of miscellaneous features, the Asustor FS6712X has a built-in media player that allows users to play back their media files directly from the device.

This eliminates the need for a separate media player or computer, making it a convenient option for users who want to enjoy their media files on the go.