Five Routers Recommended for NAS Users

In this era of information explosion, everyone produces a lot of data every day, and people’s demand for data storage is growing. Especially for some audio-visual enthusiasts, in order to meet the storage of massive high-definition videos and pictures, more and more people began to choose NAS.

The full name of NAS is Network Attached Storage. To put it simply, NAS is equivalent to a computer with K-ability, which is cheap and does not consume much electricity. As long as you connect to the Internet, you can build your own private cloud disk, and you can access your photos, videos and various files stored on it anytime and anywhere.

However, although NAS looks beautiful, it actually has certain requirements for the home network environment, such as the most basic router. Because NAS devices have high requirements on the transmission speed of the internal network, and many NAS devices are equipped with 2.5G network ports at present, routers connected with NAS also need to have 2.5G network ports.

Therefore, this time, I would like to recommend several routers suitable for NAS users with high praise rate and popularity among users.

01 TP-LINK 5480

XDR5480 is a product recommended by many netizens recently. As long as someone asks for the recommendation of a router around 500 yuan on the Internet, it is always indispensable in the following comments, and it is even directly called "500-price goalkeeper" in some grass-planting articles. In the evaluation of goods in JD.COM, this product achieved 97% favorable rate with a sales volume of 20,000+,and some users even commented that they would consider starting another one.

In terms of configuration, according to the current online disassembly, XDR5480 adopts Qualcomm IPQ5018 dual-core CPU with the main frequency of 1GHz. In fact, there is nothing to say about performance. It supports 160Hz bandwidth and 4K QAM modulation. The dual-band six-channel wireless rate is as high as 5400Mbps, which is 20% higher than the peak rate of ordinary WiFi6. Built-in 6 high-power independent FEM, one-button Turbo can enhance the signal.

Netizens generally reflect that the signal and firmware of this router are stable, and there is no disconnection. Even through the wall, it can have a good 5GHz signal performance. Coupled with its price in 500 yuan, it is not difficult to understand why many netizens have recommended it as a goalkeeper at the price of 500 yuan.

However, this product is not perfect. First of all, it is equipped with a 2.5G custom network port, which requires users to purchase a 2.5G electrical port module for installation. Even a third-party module with a slightly cheaper price will make the overall cost come above 600 yuan. In addition, TP-LINK’s consistent 16MB small memory is a little stingy before a group of competing products, and its playability is reduced. In addition, according to the reaction of most buyers, this router is slightly larger in appearance, which is slightly discounted from the aesthetic point of view.

02 Xiaomi AX6000

Since XDR5480 is mentioned, we have to say that its direct competitor Xiaomi AX6000. As an upgraded version of Xiaomi AX3600, AX6000 has increased the support for large bandwidth of 160MHz, improved the problem of weak signal penetration through walls, and is equipped with the world’s first Qualcomm SoC scheme of 4QAM technology, an independent AIoT antenna and, most importantly, a 2.5G network port. This has caused it to be snapped up by many netizens since its release. Coupled with the impact of chip shortage, this new product, which was only listed at the beginning of this year, has been out of stock for a long time.

But it is this 2.5G network port that has brought many questions to Xiaomi AX6000, which looks almost perfect. According to the publicity materials on the page, we can see that this 2.5G network port shares the transmission bandwidth of 1Gbps with other LAN ports, which leads to the problem that this 2.5G network port cannot run at full network speed in actual use.

However, there is also a solution to this problem, which requires users to connect another 2.5G port switch to meet the high-speed transmission demand of multi-device intranet.

On the other hand, in the face of excellent signals and performance and Xiaomi’s excellent ecosystem, this shortcoming can be regarded as a flaw. After all, this is one of the few routers with its own 2.5G network port that can be bought at the current price of 500 yuan. In addition, the shortage of this product has also improved recently, and it is no longer so difficult to buy.

03 Zhongxing AX5400Pro

AX5400Pro is the latest Wi-Fi 6 router launched by ZTE. Its selling point is that it is equipped with a 12-core chip developed by ZTE and a true ·2.5G network port. The price is also set at an attractive 549 yuan.

This 12-core chip adopts the combination of 4-core 1.1Ghz CPU+8 and 8-core NPU, and its bidirectional data throughput can reach 20Gbps. Just looking at the parameters is still very attractive.

Because this new product has just been on the market, the feedback from the first batch of users is not too much. Although the current disassembly shows that the router is sincere in workmanship and materials, the specific performance needs time to verify. However, as far as the real ·2.5G network port is concerned, it can meet the intranet transmission needs of NAS users. Users who want to adopt early adopters or support domestic brands may wish to give it a bold try.

04 Asus RT-AX86U

In the latest survey on the satisfaction of American home routers in 2021, ASUS ranked first in customer satisfaction with 859 points. RT-AX86U is the main high-end flagship product of ASUS. This route is equipped with Broadcom quad-core 1.8GHz processor, 1GB RAM memory and 256MB storage, supporting 2.4GHz/5GHz+5GHz dual-band wireless, and the dual-band concurrent transmission rate is as high as 5700Mbps.

Especially in terms of interface, the AX86U is a giant.

In addition, ASUS’s AiMesh and brush functions have always been its characteristics, plus the flagship configuration and materials, which are very suitable for geek players who like to toss.

05 Asus ROG GT-AX6000

Users who are familiar with ASUS brand will certainly be familiar with ROG. As the representative of the ultimate performance of ASUS, ROG series products will never disappoint in performance, and of course, the price will not. However, don’t skip it yet. In front of the above products, this GT-AX6000 will make you really feel the old saying "You get what you pay for".

Aside from a series of parameters such as configuration, transceiver rate, antenna, etc., GT-AX6000 is equipped with two in one go, even 2000M optical fiber. This time, whether you are a fever person or a local tyrant, you can have a good time.

Moreover, as ROG series products, the classic "eye of the prodigal" and RGB lights are not absent on this router, and the huge Logo is directly placed on the top of the route, which is very cool.

The above is the router recommendation for NAS users. Although there are not many routers equipped with 2.5G network ports on the market so far, I believe that with the popularity of NAS, more and more manufacturers will notice this demand and introduce more products suitable for consumers.