Netgear ReadyNAS Duo vs QNAP TS-219P

[spookyneo]

Hello everyone

I'm currently in the market for a NAS. I'm looking for a 2 drives bay. There are plenty of options so I thought I might ask what the people think.

Here's what I'm looking for:

• RAID 1
• Possibility to use only 1 drive and then put a second drive later to enable RAID 1
• Possibility to increase the capacity of the NAS in the future (ie. replace one drive at a time)
• Hard Drives tray to be able to replace easily the drives while the unit is turned on
• Can support 2TB hard drives
• Probably gonna be 3.5" hd
• BitTorrent/FTP/HTTP download management
• Gigabit card
• DLNA certified
• Some kind of power management feature to turn it off during the night
• Possibly, but not mandatory, a Wake On Lan feature to awake the NAS

I've been looking for the past days and did come out with 2 models that I really like :

1. Netgear ReadyNAS Duo
2. QNAP TS-219P

Now I don't know if we could say that these 2 NAS are in the same range. The QNAP is much more expensive here in Canada, but according to the charts on SNB, it is 2 times faster than the Netgear. I was looking at the QNAP features yesterday and I know I would be paying for some features that I would never use. I don't need to be able to record from a wireless camera...

Anyway, the NAS I want to get will be used for 2 things only. Download stuff remotely (FTP/HTTP and BitTorrent) and stream videos to my PS3. I might use it for a webserver one day, but it is not a requirement for the NAS. The maximum users that might be connected to the NAS is 3 (including the PS3). At the moment, there would be less than 1TB on the NAS. I will always use RAID 1, and I currently already own 1TB drive so I would just need another one to enable the RAID 1. But at the beginning, the NAS might be running on only 1 drive until I buy the other one.

I looked at Synology, which are very great NAS. I guess you could compare them to QNAP. However, all Synology in my price range do not have hard drive trays. This means that I would have to open the NAS to replace a drive, which means shutting it down. I don't want that. So Synology is gone from my list.

I want something reliable, with a good software. I want to be able to let the NAS do its stuff when it is setup, without having to worry about it and make sure that the RAID is working. I don't mind paying extra bucks for the QNAP if it is more "future proof" and might last me longer.

Which one would you recommend between the 2 models I wrote above ? I know the Netgear would do the job, it is not intensive work that is done on my network. Hell, I was able to stream a DivX to my PS3 using a USB hard drive on my router that reads 5MB/s ! However I want the NAS to be fast and available when I need it.

I also thought about the Buffalo Linkstation Duo. It seems to be a very great product, however one feature let me down from it : It's not a BYOD NAS. I've read that the hard drives contains part of the NAS OS and I don't like it at all. If all the HDs fail in NAS, what happens then? I know the QNAP isn't like that, but what about the Netgear ?

I'm just trying to get some pros and cons for each from the community. Reviews are nice, but hearing from people that owns them for some time is always useful. I'm thinking of getting the NAS during the next month, so no rush. But I like to plan ahead !

Thanks !

Neo.

 

[claykin]

Welcome to the forum.

The Qnap or Readynas are two good choices for your use. The Qnap will have better performance so check the NS charts on SNB for more details.

Netgear will be releasing a new 2 bay NAS called the Ultra 2 in October. The Ultra 2 will use an Intel Atom CPU and have much better performance than the Duo.

Visit www.netgear.com/ultra to learn more.

Regarding RAID 1 disk failures, all NAS products load their OS to the system disk(s). They do however keep an image of the OS in a flash rom on their motherboard. Any dual disk failure is going to lead to total data loss. This goes for any RAID1 array!! Please keep in mind that RAID is not backup, therefore you should plan to backup your irreplaceable NAS data to an external source, such as a USB disk, and/or offsite storage (rsync, cloud, etc.).

Last, whichever NAS you choose please be certain to visit the vendors website and look at the hardisk compatibility lists. Only use disks that have been tested and proven to be compatible.

 

[spookyneo]

Welcome to the forum.

The Qnap or Readynas are two good choices for your use. The Qnap will have better performance so check the NS charts on SNB for more details.

Netgear will be releasing a new 2 bay NAS called the Ultra 2 in October. The Ultra 2 will use an Intel Atom CPU and have much better performance than the Duo.

Visit www.netgear.com/ultra to learn more.

Regarding RAID 1 disk failures, all NAS products load their OS to the system disk(s). They do however keep an image of the OS in a flash rom on their motherboard. Any dual disk failure is going to lead to total data loss. This goes for any RAID1 array!! Please keep in mind that RAID is not backup, therefore you should plan to backup your irreplaceable NAS data to an external source, such as a USB disk, and/or offsite storage (rsync, cloud, etc.).

Last, whichever NAS you choose please be certain to visit the vendors website and look at the hardisk compatibility lists. Only use disks that have been tested and proven to be compatible.

Thanks for the Ultra 2 information. I will have a look at this for sure. The Atom CPU seemed very promising. If I am correct, the TS-239P from QNAP uses the Atom and it is a very very good unit.

As for the RAID1, I know I would loose all data. I'm used to RAID technology However, what I was asking is what happens to the NAS OS if all drives fails ? Will it be loaded next time on the new drives ? I might not have understand properly BYOD ...

Good call about the compatibility list. If I wanna use my current 1TB hard drive, I should have a look there, thanks.

I do have another question. Since the QNAP and the Netgear uses Linux and have SSH enabled, would it be possible to virtually install any applications of the Linux world ? As exemple, the Netgear does not have a webserver and MySQL...could I install Apache and MySQL using ssh and apt-get ? The QNAP is pretty much loaded with features but I would like to install Transmission BT on it since.

 

[claykin]

Thanks for the Ultra 2 information. I will have a look at this for sure. The Atom CPU seemed very promising. If I am correct, the TS-239P from QNAP uses the Atom and it is a very very good unit.

TS239P uses Atom N270 and 239P II uses D410. D410 should yield about 10% performance improvement over N270 but the bigger difference is that the D410 supports Intel 64 bit instructions. Supporting 64 bit instructions should allow for individual files >2TB in size and iSCSI LUNs >2TB. Check QNAP for more as I'm not sure how they are supporting 64 bit.

NOTE: I don't want to confuse you with the 2TB file limit. This is for individual files, not total volume size. 32 bit NAS units running EXT4 should support up to 16TB volumes so you'll have no trouble (in theory) using a 32 bit NAS with 3-4TB disks when they eventually hit the market.

As far as the Ultra2 is concerned, Netgear has not confirmed whether it will use the same D410 CPU, but many are speculating that it will. We will learn more as October nears...

As for the RAID1, I know I would loose all data. I'm used to RAID technology However, what I was asking is what happens to the NAS OS if all drives fails ? Will it be loaded next time on the new drives ? I might not have understand properly BYOD ...

Yes, OS image is stored in flash rom. Will load to new disks when installed. NAS vendors also offer a recovery option where the OS can be loaded via USB key.

Good call about the compatibility list. If I wanna use my current 1TB hard drive, I should have a look there, thanks.

Definitely have a look there regardless. Please stick with approved disks. many people spend a lot of time troubleshooting stupid issues that would never creep up if approved disks were used.

I do have another question. Since the QNAP and the Netgear uses Linux and have SSH enabled, would it be possible to virtually install any applications of the Linux world ? As exemple, the Netgear does not have a webserver and MySQL...could I install Apache and MySQL using ssh and apt-get ? The QNAP is pretty much loaded with features but I would like to install Transmission BT on it since.

Netgear doesn't make it as easy as QNAP, but they have a host of community addons. See here:

http://www.readynas.com/?cat=16

http://www.readynas.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=48