Finally decided what NAS to buy....anyone got...
#1
Scooby Regular
Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Liverpool
Posts: 3,229
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Finally decided what NAS to buy....anyone got...
one of these?
Netgear 4-bay ReadyNAS
£350 with no drives is a little expensive but after doing a lot of reading on several forums this one appears to be very highly rated.
An added bonus is you can upgrade the memory for very little cost.
Might take the plunge tomorrow
Netgear 4-bay ReadyNAS
£350 with no drives is a little expensive but after doing a lot of reading on several forums this one appears to be very highly rated.
An added bonus is you can upgrade the memory for very little cost.
Might take the plunge tomorrow
Last edited by Hanley; 16 February 2010 at 07:47 PM.
#2
one of these?
Netgear 4-bay ReadyNAS
£350 with no drives is a little expensive but after doing a lot of reading on several forums this one appears to be very highly rated.
An added bonus is you can upgrade the memory for very little cost.
Might take the plunge tomorrow
Netgear 4-bay ReadyNAS
£350 with no drives is a little expensive but after doing a lot of reading on several forums this one appears to be very highly rated.
An added bonus is you can upgrade the memory for very little cost.
Might take the plunge tomorrow
BTW your link doesn't work. looks like you've got an extra HTTP://
#4
Scooby Regular
Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Liverpool
Posts: 3,229
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
That's made my mind up I think.
I read reviews on the Buffalo and the transfer speeds were shocking and at least 50% of people posting had complete failures.
Cemented my opinion that Buffalo make cheap, unreliable products and the Netgear ReadyNAS seems to be a far superior product.
I'll sleep on it.
I read reviews on the Buffalo and the transfer speeds were shocking and at least 50% of people posting had complete failures.
Cemented my opinion that Buffalo make cheap, unreliable products and the Netgear ReadyNAS seems to be a far superior product.
I'll sleep on it.
#6
Scooby Regular
Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Liverpool
Posts: 3,229
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Spending that kind of money I'd rather go for the NetGear I think.
That's not saying I don't think the Drobo looks good but I've read excellent reviews on the Netgear, in fact I've struggled to find a negative one, and more importantly, the Netgear supports AFP which is a key requirement for me.
#7
Scooby Regular
iTrader: (2)
I'd opt for the Qnap TS410, better product in my opinion and marginally cheaper too.
QNAP TS-410 Turbo All-in-one NAS Server with iSCSI: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo
QNAP TS-410 Turbo All-in-one NAS Server with iSCSI: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo
Trending Topics
#8
Scooby Senior
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: West Midlands
Posts: 5,763
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I like the idea that you can add different (larger) sized disks in future without any problems.
No connections with Drobo, but been seriously thinking about getting one for quite a while (and i fancy the pants off Cali )
mb
p.s. that last sentence might translate badly!
#9
Scooby Regular
Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Liverpool
Posts: 3,229
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I'd opt for the Qnap TS410, better product in my opinion and marginally cheaper too.
QNAP TS-410 Turbo All-in-one NAS Server with iSCSI: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo
QNAP TS-410 Turbo All-in-one NAS Server with iSCSI: Amazon.co.uk: Electronics & Photo
There's only 2 reasons why I'm prepared to pay the extra £50 for the Netgear:
The Netgear supports drives of *ANY* capacity - there's a very comprehensive HCL on their site
NetGear continue the warranty after you've performed a memory upgrade - QNAP consider the warranty invalid after an upgrade.
Both great products, very similar in spec and performance, in fact both manufacturers have a very comprehensive support site / FAQ and community forum which is very useful.
Netgear just edges it for me I think, just need to tell the boss (wife) now.
#10
Scooby Regular
Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Liverpool
Posts: 3,229
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I've ordered the Netgear ReadyNAS NV+ from Amazon for £346 including free delivery.
The reasons above swung it for me, also it comes with a 5 year warranty with 24x7 support.
Just a waiting game now till it arrives
The reasons above swung it for me, also it comes with a 5 year warranty with 24x7 support.
Just a waiting game now till it arrives
#11
Scooby Regular
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: High Wycombe
Posts: 3,763
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
The DROBO's performance is shocking.
ReadyNAS or the QNAP are the way to go.
I opted for an internal array in the end - much cheaper.
The Perc 6/i Raid 5 "budget" project.
ReadyNAS or the QNAP are the way to go.
I opted for an internal array in the end - much cheaper.
The Perc 6/i Raid 5 "budget" project.
#12
Scooby Regular
Join Date: Mar 1999
Location: The Great White North
Posts: 25,080
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Hanley, once again you are a b'stard! I'll look over that NG and see if it tempts me. I have been looking at the aforementioned TS410 though, a very nice bit of kit.
You mention the NG can use drives of any size, do you know if the QNAP is limited in this respect, I don't recall seeing this mentioned, but I'm not overly observant.
I've been stuck in bed for the past week (widsom teeth were extracted, lots of groovy drugs and swelling of the cheeks) and figured out how to stream media from my xbox to my AppleTV upstairs. I setup uPnP on the xbox and shared out the media folder I have on it and configured a source via uPnP on the ATV, worked really well with little or no lag.
I still want the media separate to either of those devices though, so a NAS will appear at some point.
You mention the NG can use drives of any size, do you know if the QNAP is limited in this respect, I don't recall seeing this mentioned, but I'm not overly observant.
I've been stuck in bed for the past week (widsom teeth were extracted, lots of groovy drugs and swelling of the cheeks) and figured out how to stream media from my xbox to my AppleTV upstairs. I setup uPnP on the xbox and shared out the media folder I have on it and configured a source via uPnP on the ATV, worked really well with little or no lag.
I still want the media separate to either of those devices though, so a NAS will appear at some point.
Last edited by Markus; 17 February 2010 at 11:57 AM.
#13
Scooby Regular
Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Liverpool
Posts: 3,229
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Hanley, once again you are a b'stard! I'll look over that NG and see if it tempts me. I have been looking at the aforementioned TS410 though, a very nice bit of kit.
You mention the NG can use drives of any size, do you know if the QNAP is limited in this respect, I don't recall seeing this mentioned, but I'm not overly observant.
I've been stuck in bed for the past week (widsom teeth were extracted, lots of groovy drugs and swelling of the cheeks) and figured out how to stream media from my xbox to my AppleTV upstairs. I setup uPnP on the xbox and shared out the media folder I have on it and configured a source via uPnP on the ATV, worked really well with little or no lag.
I still want the media separate to either of those devices though, so a NAS will appear at some point.
You mention the NG can use drives of any size, do you know if the QNAP is limited in this respect, I don't recall seeing this mentioned, but I'm not overly observant.
I've been stuck in bed for the past week (widsom teeth were extracted, lots of groovy drugs and swelling of the cheeks) and figured out how to stream media from my xbox to my AppleTV upstairs. I setup uPnP on the xbox and shared out the media folder I have on it and configured a source via uPnP on the ATV, worked really well with little or no lag.
I still want the media separate to either of those devices though, so a NAS will appear at some point.
Thought you'd been a little quiet, hope you're not suffering too much in bed watching DVDs
The QNAP TS-410 can support up to 2TB in each slot, look here for a detailed spec sheet.
Here are the specs for the Netgear I've ordered this morning.
I like the idea that I can upgrade the 256MB RAM in the Netgear to 1Gb without invalidating the warranty, the QNAP TS-410 comes with 256MB but you invalidate the warranty if you upgrade the RAM.
Overall they're probably as good as each other, although I'm not sure if you get the 5 year warranty with the QNAP like you do with the Netgear.
It should be here in a few days but I'm in Reading all next week enjoying MS hospitality so it'll be a couple of weeks before I have it all set-up.
I'll let you know how it is.
#14
Scooby Regular
Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Liverpool
Posts: 3,229
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Memory chip to replace the supplied 256MB with 1GB - £38.76 inc VAT
CT12864X335 - 1GB, 200-pin SODIMM , DDR PC2700 from Crucial.com
CT12864X335 - 1GB, 200-pin SODIMM , DDR PC2700 from Crucial.com
#15
The problem with NAS boxes at the minute, for large storage, is price, probably due to them not really being in the public domain.
The route I had to take (due to image filing all my DVDs and CDs) and the massive storage requirements I needed and because I managed to source them second hand, was these..
Buy edgestore das801 8 bay esata das raid hard drive enclosure (without drives) - hard drives - desktop - package includes:-das801 enclosur - UK buy online from www.aprmedia.co.uk media shop - APR Media Ltd
Connected to an old IBM server, the way round it is to transfer files to my Popcorn Hour to wach on 'big screen'
The route I had to take (due to image filing all my DVDs and CDs) and the massive storage requirements I needed and because I managed to source them second hand, was these..
Buy edgestore das801 8 bay esata das raid hard drive enclosure (without drives) - hard drives - desktop - package includes:-das801 enclosur - UK buy online from www.aprmedia.co.uk media shop - APR Media Ltd
Connected to an old IBM server, the way round it is to transfer files to my Popcorn Hour to wach on 'big screen'
#16
Scooby Regular
Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Liverpool
Posts: 3,229
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Do you mean 'transfer' or 'stream' to your Popcorn?
I stream my entire digitised DVD collection to my Popcorn and my AppleTV, although this is from a PC in the garage at the moment.
I'll just do the same from the NAS.
I couldn't be bothered moving files around the network onto my Popcorn.
I stream my entire digitised DVD collection to my Popcorn and my AppleTV, although this is from a PC in the garage at the moment.
I'll just do the same from the NAS.
I couldn't be bothered moving files around the network onto my Popcorn.
#17
Both really, I don't keep them on all the time because they cane the energy, normally just put what I want to watch on Popcorn and turn them off, not ideal I know.
Storage is expensive, 4TB hard disks out next year though.
Storage is expensive, 4TB hard disks out next year though.
#18
Scooby Regular
Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Liverpool
Posts: 3,229
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Exactly why I started looking for a NAS, reported power consumption of 60W with 4 disks running (granted, disks were stated as 250GB but I don't see much of an increase with 1 or 2TB disks)
I have an energy monitor at home so I'll be testing it.
I have an energy monitor at home so I'll be testing it.
#21
Scooby Senior
Join Date: Feb 2000
Location: West Midlands
Posts: 5,763
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Do ya have any benchmarkey type thingumyfigures to confirm/compare that?
I am after reliable, big capacity, upgradeable storage - not calculating weather forecasts, so as long as it can splurge up an HD movie (and at the moment my PC isn't actually powerful enough to display one even from a local disk) i'll be happy!
mb
I am after reliable, big capacity, upgradeable storage - not calculating weather forecasts, so as long as it can splurge up an HD movie (and at the moment my PC isn't actually powerful enough to display one even from a local disk) i'll be happy!
mb
#22
Scooby Regular
Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2002
Location: Liverpool
Posts: 3,229
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
A quick Google on the Drobo performance seems to be fairly conclusive, they all read similar to this one:
Reality check — reliability
When the goal is reliability, it’s a self-defeating approach to mix and match hard drives. A flaky drive might be tolerated by the Drobo, but then again there might be a problem. It all gets back to how cheap new hard drives are, new hard drives matched in capacity and speed.
The Drobo is a real busybody, and even when you are not using the drive, the Drobo often continues doing whatever housekeeping it needs to do: this puts extra stress onto drives, including extra heat stress. And it’s annoying when things ought to be quiet.
If you’re after reliability, get new enterprise-grade drives (here’s one good choice), and get a quality enclosure that also offers high performance, such as the OWC QX2.
Reality check — performance
The performance of the Drobo stinks.
I’ve never seen a slower Firewire 800 enclosure, and that’s using the Drobo with the fastest SATA drives I’ve yet tested, the 2TB Hitachi 7K2000. You can do better with a good USB thumb drive! It’s not unfair to say performance is pathetic.
Here’s kicker: when a drive fails, Drobo performance is cut by another 60-80%, down as low as 7-8MB/sec in my testing. That means a single Canon 5D Mark II RAW file might take ~3 seconds just to read on the Drobo eg 6 seconds to duplicate. Not usable.
Performance — a new low
I didn’t have a week to let my usually DiskTester fill-volume test run. That’s about how long it would have taken with four 2TB drives installed.
Using Firewire 800 on a MacBook Pro 2.93GHz with Snow Leopard 10.6.1, the Drobo writes at 19-22MB/sec and reads at a leisurely 29-32MB/sec. Some USB thumb drives do better than that!
Just about any other Firewire 800 enclosure (including the OWC QX2) will write at least twice as fast, and read at least twice as fast. Firewire 800 is relatively slow to begin with, but the Drobo finds a way to degrade it to USB speed
Backup
Data Robotics tells its customers that the Drobo protects their data (it does), but the Drobo can fail too, and backups are mandatory. Yet the Drobo is so slow that backing up is infeasible once you pass 500GB or so.
With a high-capacity Drobo; think in terms of days just to read the data, let alone write it to a backup drive. That’s assuming there are no glitches and you can continue using the Drobo while backing it up. Restoring a lot of data to a Drobo? How many hours or days are you willing to wait for you business to be down?
And you had better have a backup; the Drobo can fail like anything else. The Drobo is not a backup solution, it’s a reliability solution. Use a simple and cost-effective backup strategy.
A device that can’t be backed-up or restored in a reasonable amount of time is a recipe for disaster.
Drobo marketing literature suggest keeping whole sets of drives from the Drobo for backup, which implies you need two Drobos: one main unit and another backup. But only one backup is negligence for professionals, two backups, stored offsite, should be considered an absolute minimum, and three or more, rotated regularly, are strongly advised.
Re-read the performance section for how infeasible Drobo backups are (with any substantial amount of data). Not to mention a lot of money wasted when far cheaper and faster alternatives exist that don’t require multiple drives for a backup set.
Data recovery if a Drobo fails might run into the 5 figure (yes five figures) at a place like Drive Savers, so save your pennies. I don’t see any data recovery discussion on the Drobo web site. Be sure to ask, and compare to what a vendor like OWC offers for their enterprise solutions
When the goal is reliability, it’s a self-defeating approach to mix and match hard drives. A flaky drive might be tolerated by the Drobo, but then again there might be a problem. It all gets back to how cheap new hard drives are, new hard drives matched in capacity and speed.
The Drobo is a real busybody, and even when you are not using the drive, the Drobo often continues doing whatever housekeeping it needs to do: this puts extra stress onto drives, including extra heat stress. And it’s annoying when things ought to be quiet.
If you’re after reliability, get new enterprise-grade drives (here’s one good choice), and get a quality enclosure that also offers high performance, such as the OWC QX2.
Reality check — performance
The performance of the Drobo stinks.
I’ve never seen a slower Firewire 800 enclosure, and that’s using the Drobo with the fastest SATA drives I’ve yet tested, the 2TB Hitachi 7K2000. You can do better with a good USB thumb drive! It’s not unfair to say performance is pathetic.
Here’s kicker: when a drive fails, Drobo performance is cut by another 60-80%, down as low as 7-8MB/sec in my testing. That means a single Canon 5D Mark II RAW file might take ~3 seconds just to read on the Drobo eg 6 seconds to duplicate. Not usable.
Performance — a new low
I didn’t have a week to let my usually DiskTester fill-volume test run. That’s about how long it would have taken with four 2TB drives installed.
Using Firewire 800 on a MacBook Pro 2.93GHz with Snow Leopard 10.6.1, the Drobo writes at 19-22MB/sec and reads at a leisurely 29-32MB/sec. Some USB thumb drives do better than that!
Just about any other Firewire 800 enclosure (including the OWC QX2) will write at least twice as fast, and read at least twice as fast. Firewire 800 is relatively slow to begin with, but the Drobo finds a way to degrade it to USB speed
Backup
Data Robotics tells its customers that the Drobo protects their data (it does), but the Drobo can fail too, and backups are mandatory. Yet the Drobo is so slow that backing up is infeasible once you pass 500GB or so.
With a high-capacity Drobo; think in terms of days just to read the data, let alone write it to a backup drive. That’s assuming there are no glitches and you can continue using the Drobo while backing it up. Restoring a lot of data to a Drobo? How many hours or days are you willing to wait for you business to be down?
And you had better have a backup; the Drobo can fail like anything else. The Drobo is not a backup solution, it’s a reliability solution. Use a simple and cost-effective backup strategy.
A device that can’t be backed-up or restored in a reasonable amount of time is a recipe for disaster.
Drobo marketing literature suggest keeping whole sets of drives from the Drobo for backup, which implies you need two Drobos: one main unit and another backup. But only one backup is negligence for professionals, two backups, stored offsite, should be considered an absolute minimum, and three or more, rotated regularly, are strongly advised.
Re-read the performance section for how infeasible Drobo backups are (with any substantial amount of data). Not to mention a lot of money wasted when far cheaper and faster alternatives exist that don’t require multiple drives for a backup set.
Data recovery if a Drobo fails might run into the 5 figure (yes five figures) at a place like Drive Savers, so save your pennies. I don’t see any data recovery discussion on the Drobo web site. Be sure to ask, and compare to what a vendor like OWC offers for their enterprise solutions
#23
I've just stuffed a Thecus N8800 in our rack at work. Quality seems good, though it's got a dire rack mount kit (which assumes you can get access to both sides of the rack - grrr!)
#24
Scooby Regular
iTrader: (19)
Wish I hadnt read that bit about the Drobo now
Anyway got a test unit for free from one of our suppliers so all good
Just got one (the Drobo 2nd gen) with two WD Green drives 2TB in it and attached via Droboshare
Using it for my main storage for the soon to be installed Mac Mini Media center I am installing this weekend.
Stay tuned
Anyway got a test unit for free from one of our suppliers so all good
Just got one (the Drobo 2nd gen) with two WD Green drives 2TB in it and attached via Droboshare
Using it for my main storage for the soon to be installed Mac Mini Media center I am installing this weekend.
Stay tuned
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post