We Got Served

ASUS’ debut home server offers a small-footprint, highly expandable chassis with original add-ins, but is let down by a lack of user interface polish.

ASUS surprised the home server community last month with an announcement that they would be launching a new home server to the US and European market. The company, famous for its components and mobile PCs, has a limited track record in consumer storage devices – that said, ASUS are building a presence in the category with a number of NAS devices released over the past couple of years under the Eee PC brand.

The product was released in the USA a couple of weeks ago (with the UK to follow in 2010), and I was able to spend a little time with it during a visit this week to the Microsoft campus. So, this may not be a hugely in depth review, but I’m hoping to follow up when we finally receive our review unit from ASUS.

What’s in the Box?

The TS mini comes packed with the usual home server goodies, which include:

• ASUS Home Server TS Mini
• Quick Start Guide
• User Manual
• AC Adaptor
• Power Cord
• Ethernet cable
• Software Installation CD
• Home Server Recovery DVD
• PC Restore CD
• HDD Screws

Under the Hood

The TS Mini is a little conflicted in it’s specification. The hardware specs are relatively humble in terms of power, but ASUS have also packed huge expandability options into the product. The home server is powered by Intel’s popular Atom processor (the single core N280, running at 1.6GHz) and you can purchase the product with 1 or 2GB memory and storage options from a budget 500GB up to 2TB.

The home server has room for two internal hard drives, but external storage options are the highest we’ve seen on any home server to date, with 6 USB and 2 eSATA ports available. In a conversation with ASUS a few weeks ago, the company admitted this was more coincidence due to the motherboard selected for the product than a real intent to max out the storage expansion option. That said, it’s a big plus if you think you’ll need to expand your storage aggressively over time.

Networking is handled via a Gigabit Ethernet socket at the rear of the home server.

Full specs as follows:

The TS Mini does not have externally accessible drive bays – to add drives to the home server, you’ll need to open up the case courtesy of two thumbscrews at the rear of the chassis. The left side of the case will then pull out and you’ll discover a plastic handle which, when lifted (following the removal of another three screws), will reveal the drive bays and motherboard.

The three additional screws are controversial – to be compliant with the Windows Home Server hardware logo specifications, manufacturers should provide “tooless entry” (i.e. no screwdriver etc required) to the drives. Whilst the thumbscrews at the rear of the product are definitely big enough to be classed as thumbscrews, the three screws which hold the inner chassis together are very difficult to remove by hand as they’re quite thin. When you do get into the unit, you’ll notice that the processor is embedded into the motherboard and not upgradeable – memory upgrade is possible, but requires removeal of the motherboard as quirkily, the RAM slots are located on the underside.

The hardware specifications reveal a relatively low to mid end home server, which is likely to compete at the cheaper end of the home server market, between HP’s LX195 MediaSmart Server and Acer’s Aspire easyStore Home Server. That said, it’s well equipped to handle basic home server tasks. The two eSATA ports are a unique feature amongst the current crop of home servers, allowing simultaneous connection of both an eSATA backup drive, and storage enclosure.

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