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Chinese mini PC maker AOOSTAR has unveiled another upcoming solution aimed at folks who’d like to build their own network-attached-storage (NAS) system. The company already sells several models with room for 2 hard drives, and recently shared some details about an upcoming model with support for 6 hard drives and 6 NVMe SSDs.
The new AOOSTAR PRO 4 Bay NAS falls in the middle. It’s expected to go up for pre-order in early January, 2024 and comes with a choice of three different processor options.
The computer features a metal chassis and will be available in barebones or fully configured models, with the configured versions shipping with memory, storage, and… Windows 11 Pro, for some reason.
Honestly it would make more sense to load a system that’s clearly designed for mass storage with a purpose-built operating system like TrueNAS or OpenMediaVault, but AOOSTAR seems to be more of a hardware company than a software one.
The company hasn’t announced how much the new AOOSTAR PRO 4-Bay NAS will cost yet, but we do have some information about the specs:
| Intel N100 | Intel N305 | AMD Ryzen 7 5700U | |
| Processor | 4-cores / 4-threads Up to 3.4 GHz6-watts Alder Lake-N architecture | 8-cores / 8-threads Up to 3.8 GHz 15 watts Alder Lake-N architecture | 8-cores / 16-threads 1.8 GHz – 4.3 GHz 12MB cache 15W TDP Zen 2 architecture “Lucienne” family |
| Graphics | Intel UHD 750 MHz 24 eu | Intel UHD 1.25 GHz 32 eu | Radeon Vega 1.9 GHz 8 cores |
| RAM | DDR4-3200 single-channel | DDR4-3200 dual-channel | |
| HDD storage | 4-bays 2.5 or 3.5″ hard drives | ||
| SSD storage | 1 x M.2 NVMe | 2 x M.2 NVMe | |
| Ethernet | 2 x 2.5 GbE | ||
| Wireless | WiFi 6 BT 5.2 | ||
| Video | 1 x HDMI 1 x DisplayPort | ||
| USB | 1 x USB Type-C 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A 2 x USB 2.0 Type-A | ||
More details should be revealed closer to launch.
AOOSTAR – Complete with a built-in back-door for Pooh-Bear.
A toaster oven?
Needs ECC RAM
I confirm
I really like the look of this. I’ve been looking to replace my 10-year old off-the-shelf Synology NAS and I recently replaced it with another Synology. But I really don’t use many of the features (all I need is a few shared folders and a backup target for my other PCs). I think I would get more use out of a device which could serve as both a backup/secondary desktop computer and also provide those basic NAS services, and be much more space and energy efficient than a regular desktop PC. The 2-bay version of this seems ideal for my needs. Off to see if I can find some reviews!
Also, as someone who uses Windows on their main PC I actually see it as a bonus that it comes with Windows 11 Pro. Gives me the option of just using Windows if I want to without extra cost of buying a standalone license.
You can install synology on anything (the OS) using ARC BootLoader by Auxillium
there is reddit sub /r/xpenology
If I got this, I wouldn’t really be interested in installing Synology on it. For me the appeal is more the ability to run a desktop OS so it could serve as both a secondary desktop PC and a file server with drive redundancy.
Is the other shell (silver colored part) made of plastic or aluminium? Is it possible to replace the standard mobo say N100 mobo wirh a standard ITX motherboard?
An ITX motherboard wouldn’t fit in there, not even on the side. A NUC 4×4 board might, but even that’s pushing it.
Dont know why a NAS would need an FPU or graphics processor. Most basic CPU functions would suffice, is that not so?
I mean, sure, the NAS itself isn’t likely to do a lot of work with those, but the available chips come with them built in, and there’d be no value to fusing off those parts just because a NAS won’t likely use them. Besides, gives folks options for stuff like hardware transcoding for media servers, or to do some GUI-based troubleshooting.