N7700 vs. Ready NAS Pro vs. TS-639 Advice Please

[linkup]

Like others here, I have done a lot of research and have narrowed down my choices to a few NAS systems. I wanted something with more than 4 drives and narrowed down the options to a few choices:

These following choices are arranged in a formula I came up with, bay vs. price. The systems I am comparing appear to be fairly similar from a hardware standpoint and since I haven't used any of their OS's, I am missing on your experience there, as well as support and life expectancy for the companies.

1. N7700 - $136/bay, 7 bays

2. ReadyNAS Pro Pioneer - $166/bay, 6 bays, currently has a $200 rebate. Don't know the value of the left off features on the pioneer version? The only model in my list without an eSATA?? What do you do for backup without an eSATA?

3. TS-639 Pro - $174/bay, 6 bays, two eSATA ports.

According to the performance charts, the Netgear is 72.7, the Thecus is 69.9, and the QNAP is 68.9, so there is negligible performance difference between the three models.

What else should I be considering? I want reliability foremost, support 2nd, and performance 3rd. Since performance seems to be equal, buying a reliable product with the best support is probably more important than the box, however I am concerned about the lack of eSATA on the Netgear.

Like most people, I am using the NAS to backup my PCs, stream movies, and store and display my photos. Would also like to hook up one or more cameras. All of my computers are Windows based.

The Netgear rebate ends the 31st so there is little time to pull the trigger if that is the choice.

I wanted to include the DS509+ in my choices, but it hasn't been reviewed and the DS508 that was reviewed was much poorer on performance than the others listed above and is now obsolete.

Thanks and Merry Christmas!

Lew

 

[GeekMan]

I'm in a similar boat as you, only I removed Thecus from my list based solely on the lack of any significant online community for Thecus' products and the far less than user friendly interface of their products. Which left me with Synology, QNap and Netgear. Since you didn't mention Synology I'll forgo mentioning them again except to note that if you wish, you can test drive the QNap interface online here and the Synology interface from this page. Netgear used to have an online demo, but I can't find it anymore. I will say that the Netgear interface isn't as flashy as the others, but it is very easy to use and simple to navigate. I've used it for years and have found it to do everything I need it to do without getting in the way, which is all I want my NAS interface to do.

The reliability and support of QNap and Netgear products seem to be nearly equal, they both have busy communities and responsive online support, so although Netgear has a longer track record they are both considered very reliable.

For me, what the choice is coming down to is hardware support. Specifically, hard drive support. Netgear has been very slow to approve hard drives, which may mean better support for the few they approve, but it also means far fewer choices, especially in the 1.5TB range. If you're ok with a lack of hard drive choices then I believe the Netgear beats the QNap due to it's longer track record and larger community.

Hope this helps!

 

[linkup]

Would love to have a 7-bay system at their very competitive price, but the review of it scared me away together with your comments.

Synology was actually at the top of my list but I began to get concerned about the lack of a review for the new system and the fact they are still running a proprietary processor, which might not be a big deal, but is a factor for me.

They seem to have an active community, a US presence, but are lagging a bit on their migration to a new hardware platform.

Am glad to hear you have a high confidence factor in QNAP. I probably haven't checked them out as throroughly as you have.

My concern about the Netgear box is price and the lack of a eSATA port. I saw a complaint that another box only had one eSATA, having none is even worse.

The other thing that doesn't max sense is the warranty on Netgear. I have seen three different warranty promises on the pro. 3 year, 5 year, and lifetime. In fact I saw lifetime and 5 year on the same PDF file for the same systems???

I have written their sales dept. with some questions about their rebates and am waiting for a response.

I am also trying to find out the difference between the Pioneer and the Biz series. I saw the list of things missing on the Pioneer, but I don't know what those missing things might mean to me. I found a new price on the bottom biz box that together with the rebate and being able to sell the drives I would pull from it makes the price close to the Pioneer price. That should mean getting the additional features and further assurance of getting the 5 year warranty. That might be enough of a plus to swing me to the Netgear box as the QNAP is only 1 year warranty.

Thanks for your feedback!

Lew

 

[thiggins]

Synology was actually at the top of my list but I began to get concerned about the lack of a review for the new system and the fact they are still running a proprietary processor, which might not be a big deal, but is a factor for me.

What proprietary processor are you referring to? Only NETGEAR used to use a proprietary processor. But the ReadyNAS Pros are all Intel based. Synology uses either Marvell or Freescale CPUs.

The ReadyNAS comparison chart is here. The key features deleted from the Pioneer are snapshot and iSCSI. If you don't know the value of them, then you probably don't need them.

As far as lack of review for the Synology, I wouldn't let that hold you back. The 509 Pro uses the same Freescale MPC8533 @ 1.06 GHz processor as the DS409+. So think of the 509 Pro as a five drive version of the 409+.

 

[linkup]

Dear Mr. Tim,

I am honored you chose to reply to my questions.

I referred to the proprietary processor in the sentence in which I was discussing the Synology line, not Netgear. Even if the Marvell or Freescale processors are considered "mainstream" to some, they aren't to me. I prefer Intel-based processors for a variety of reasons.

I know what Snapshot is having studies these NAS boxes quite extensively recently. It was more the other differences I was referring to. One difference that may not matter a whole lot is the 3yr vs. 5yr warranty. However, the rebate form from Netgear lists both 5yr and* lifetime warranty for the Pioneer so there is mass confusion on that topic at this point.

Since I have now eliminated the Thecus it is down to the QNAP and the Netgear. The two main things that I see that differentiate the two boxes is the 5year Netgear warranty vs. the 1 year QNAP warranty. Likewise, the QNAP has two eSATA ports vs. none on the Netgear box.

Not having used either boxes GUI nor having done a feature by feature comparison, those two differences jump out at me. Whether it is the processor or other reasons, the QNAP is slightly better on the performance chart. I am still searching for a reason to consider one the winner over the other.

As an aside, I have further confusion regarding the performance chart.

When you view the chart without checking any boxes the QNAP leads the pack. For grins I checked Gigabit LAN, jumbo frame, and media server. For some reason that put the NVX and Pro at the top of the chart and moved the 639 and other QNAP boxes below it??

If the QNAP doesn't have those features, shouldn't they have been removed from the list? If all of the boxes in the list have those features, shouldn't they have stayed in the same sort/performance sequence they were originally in? I guess I am misunderstanding something or the qualifiers don't work as expected?

Thanks Sir!

Lew

 

[thiggins]

I referred to the proprietary processor in the sentence in which I was discussing the Synology line, not Netgear. Even if the Marvell or Freescale processors are considered "mainstream" to some, they aren't to me. I prefer Intel-based processors for a variety of reasons.

I understand that you were referring to Synology. I was pointing out that only one of the vendors that you are considering used to use a proprietary processor. "Proprietary" is quite different from "preferred", which is how you feel about Intel.

I know what Snapshot is having studies these NAS boxes quite extensively recently. It was more the other differences I was referring to. One difference that may not matter a whole lot is the 3yr vs. 5yr warranty. However, the rebate form from Netgear lists both 5yr and* lifetime warranty for the Pioneer so there is mass confusion on that topic at this point.

Warranty length is just a matter of preference, which only you can decide.

When you view the chart without checking any boxes the QNAP leads the pack. For grins I checked Gigabit LAN, jumbo frame, and media server. For some reason that put the NVX and Pro at the top of the chart and moved the 639 and other QNAP boxes below it??

The products are maintaining their relative rankings. The products that don't support jumbo frames (the QNAP TS-809 and TS-509 Pro) are being filtered out when jumbo frames are selected. And the TS-639 Pro and other QNAPs are remaining below the ReadyNAS NVX and Pro, as they are when the jumbo frames filter is unchecked.

 

[linkup]

The products are maintaining their relative rankings. The products that don't support jumbo frames (the QNAP TS-809 and TS-509 Pro) are being filtered out when jumbo frames are selected. And the TS-639 Pro and other QNAPs are remaining below the ReadyNAS NVX and Pro, as they are when the jumbo frames filter is unchecked.

I apologize...it appears I misread the charts or didn't have something checked I thought I did. The 639 didn't show up after checking something and it threw me off.

I am "stuck" on my decision. I talked to a corporate IT friend of mine. He has a corporate mindset that tells him only to buy "big name". He would buy a box made by Seagate, Cisco, Linksys, etc... (and their subsidiaries). He wouldn't buy a QNAP, Thecus, or Synology, but maybe a Netgear. He would give more preference to Netgear for their potential longevity than a smaller, newer company that might not be here tomorrow.

His decision wasn't based on performance or feature, just based on why you would buy brand x vs. y. I see his point and it is yet another variable to use when making a choice. I am more performance and feature oriented, he is more concerned about buying 20 of something and having the support go away in six months or a year.

Thanks!

 

[thiggins]

Support and vendor stability are definitely considerations when you are talking about spending close to $1000 on something. Good luck with your decision.

 

[linkup]

Was hoping a QNAP 639 person would come along and tell me why to buy a QNAP instead of a Netgear Pro, or the other way around.

I am really bugged by the lack of eSATA support on the Pro, same with the lack of a VGA port to attach a monitor to.

Basically these boxes are servers with some special software on each one to support that vendor's features. I am wondering why they go out of the way to strip the box, yet not strip the price.

Why don't we get a bus to add more cards to, more memory slots, etc? The Thecus gives you one card slot, one of the boxes gives you one more memory slot, but seemed to only accept 1GB modules.

It seems all these vendors strive for greenness instead of power. Smallness instead of features.

In the best of all worlds a person could build a standard PC with a modern processor, bus, etc. Then a company like Netgear, QNAP, Thecus, Synology would let you drop their combination OS/software on top of it.

I know that would add wrinkles to the support process, but how different is it than making Linux and Windows to run on so many boxes?

I suspect these companies could offer a "real" PC enclosure/motherboard at a lower cost point then these miniature boxes with proprietary components.

I haven't bought a PC in ages, building all of my own boxes with my own components as I can pick and choose the components I want at the price point I want.

In this case I am comparing OS/features from a variety of vendors but am not happy with any of the boxes they are offering. Seems they could offer a small, proprietary mini-box for those wanting a few less watts and don't care about expansion or being able to go to the local PC store for a replacement PS. For the same price point they could offer a mini-tower or tower with the same or greater number of bays, a DVD drive, lots of ports, etc. and do it for the same price as standard hardware costs less than the special stuff they are using.

Guess I just don't get it, and so I am sitting here in a dilemma about how to proceed when none of the options are very satisfactory. Like an election, not liking any of the people I get to vote for.

Thanks again,

Lew

 

[thiggins]

You seem to have summarized the key points pretty well, Lew.

NAS makers are in the business to make $. They can't do that by selling their OSes, which are generally built on open source code anyway.

They can make money by offering a combination of features, performance, convenience, support and price that is attractive to a wide audience.

 

[bobcov]

Which to buy...

Was hoping a QNAP 639 person would come along and tell me why to buy a QNAP instead of a Netgear Pro, or the other way around.

I am really bugged by the lack of eSATA support on the Pro, same with the lack of a VGA port to attach a monitor to.

Basically these boxes are servers with some special software on each one to support that vendor's features. I am wondering why they go out of the way to strip the box, yet not strip the price.

Why don't we get a bus to add more cards to, more memory slots, etc? The Thecus gives you one card slot, one of the boxes gives you one more memory slot, but seemed to only accept 1GB modules.

It seems all these vendors strive for greenness instead of power. Smallness instead of features.

In the best of all worlds a person could build a standard PC with a modern processor, bus, etc. Then a company like Netgear, QNAP, Thecus, Synology would let you drop their combination OS/software on top of it.

I know that would add wrinkles to the support process, but how different is it than making Linux and Windows to run on so many boxes?

I suspect these companies could offer a "real" PC enclosure/motherboard at a lower cost point then these miniature boxes with proprietary components.

I haven't bought a PC in ages, building all of my own boxes with my own components as I can pick and choose the components I want at the price point I want.

In this case I am comparing OS/features from a variety of vendors but am not happy with any of the boxes they are offering. Seems they could offer a small, proprietary mini-box for those wanting a few less watts and don't care about expansion or being able to go to the local PC store for a replacement PS. For the same price point they could offer a mini-tower or tower with the same or greater number of bays, a DVD drive, lots of ports, etc. and do it for the same price as standard hardware costs less than the special stuff they are using.

Guess I just don't get it, and so I am sitting here in a dilemma about how to proceed when none of the options are very satisfactory. Like an election, not liking any of the people I get to vote for.

Thanks again,

Lew

Well, I can tell you that I've been struggling for days to get the 639 to show me jumbo frame love and I have not succeeded. I don't know if it is the QNAP though. I suspect it might be the Marvell Yukon express card. Having some very odd issues trying to get unfragmented ping response from the QNAP.

Bob

 

[linkup]

Thanks for the reply. I have ordered a Netgear ReadyNAS Pro Biz edition which should arrive Thursday and I hope the drives arrive by then as well, in addition to extra RAM.