I think i've bought the wrong NAS - ReadyNAS DUO

[sirchunk]

Hey guys,
After reading through all the information on SNB (fantastic site BTW Tim) i've finally brought a Netgear ReadyNAS Duo with 2x1TB hard drives - http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/2TB-Netgear-RND2210-Readynas-Duo-2-BAY-(2x1TB)-Drive

But after accepting delivery today, i have a niggly feeling that maybe i should of gone for one of the other 2 considerations - QNAP TS-219P (most up to date spec NAS) or the Synolgy DS210j (a nice budget NAS).

I know they are all completely different in spec, but i needed to purchase something as it was coming to my end of year in the UK, and I needed to buy something to claim on my expenses.

The 219P was being considered purely because it had all the mod cons - Hot swappable HD, eSATA ports, high spec CPU and RAM.... etc (£50 more)

DS210j was being considered because it would have probably done the job. (£100 less)

ReadyNAS DUO was brought as it looked like a half way compromise (but later realise that performance is lacking greatly compared to the other 2), also support seemed better.

The job in hand would of been a new toy for me to pay with , but mainly for a central place for all my music & photos to be streamed to my PS3 and other devices in the future, access to clients work locally and over the internet (maybe with multiple logins with different rights), download of bit torrent files, and eventually backup to an attached device either through the USB or eSATA on the 219P. All the rest like web hosting, print serving etc are a bonus but not necessary.

Now what do you reckon I should do? do you think i should return the ReadyNAS (i have 7 days here in the UK) and get one of the other devices, or just stick with it as the ReadyNAS would be perfectly fine.
I will be nice to hear other peoples views.

Thanks in advance
Paul

P.S. I have also upgraded my network to gigabit

 

[thiggins]

The ReadyNAS is the most flexible when it comes to backup. It can back up to and from most anything to anything (USB drive, local shares, network shares, rsync servers). It doesn't have an eSATA port, though, which will limit backup speed.

It's also, as you said, slower than the other options. This won't be a problem for streaming, but will get you mainly when you backup / move large files.

Otherwise the ReadyNAS should do fine for your other needs.

 

[sirchunk]

The ReadyNAS is the most flexible when it comes to backup. It can back up to and from most anything to anything (USB drive, local shares, network shares, rsync servers). It doesn't have an eSATA port, though, which will limit backup speed.

I thought this is was case, and something i should have put in my original post. Thanks for re-clarifying this.

It's also, as you said, slower than the other options. This won't be a problem for streaming, but will get you mainly when you backup / move large files.

When you say large files, how large are we talking? Does it make much difference for lots of small files say 3/5Mb?


Also, based on your knowledge, would you say Netgear has the 'better' support, especially for the UK?

 

[thiggins]

When you say large files, how large are we talking?

Does it make much difference for lots of small files say 3/5Mb?[/quote]Media files 100's of MBytes to Gigabytes

Also, based on your knowledge, would you say Netgear has the 'better' support, especially for the UK?

I don't use support from any of the companies. So I can't say.
All three have active forums. You need to check their websites to see if they have phone support in the UK.

 

[sirchunk]

Thanks Tim for your answers.

I've been doing alittle more reading, and have read up on ReadyNAS Vault, which seem perfect for my backup situation (even tho a little pricey). I've tried looking on QNAP and Synology's website to see if they offer something similar (integrated) but it doesn't look like it. Can anyone confirm this?

Paul

[EDIT] I've seen that Synology support amazon S3 services through DSM 2.3, but this looks like complete backups and not 'On-Demand' with version control.

 

[claykin]

Thanks Tim for your answers.

I've been doing alittle more reading, and have read up on ReadyNAS Vault, which seem perfect for my backup situation (even tho a little pricey). I've tried looking on QNAP and Synology's website to see if they offer something similar (integrated) but it doesn't look like it. Can anyone confirm this?

Paul

[EDIT] I've seen that Synology support amazon S3 services through DSM 2.3, but this looks like complete backups and not 'On-Demand' with version control.

Both Synology and Qnap support Amazon S3.

Readynas supports Vault (Elephant Drive).

With Vault you can backup entire shares but cannot get granular within a share. Also, if the Recycle bin is active, it will copy that as well. Think cost $$$ or in your case £££. Netgear claims a soon to be released update to Vault will allow more granular control of backups. Watch the forums on www.readynas.com for more details.

Not sure if Synology or Qnap's S3 solution is any better than Vault but its definitely cheaper.

I choose to use Jungledisk through a Windows desktop. I can granularly control what I want to backup and Jungledisk supports delta file copy, deduplication and compression. Wish Jungledisk did a NAS plugin, but I'm OK with pulling through a desktop. I run the backups during the night and they run quickly.