Netgear ReadyNAS Ultra 4? QNAP 419PII? 459 Pro+? Synology DS411+II? DS412+?

[daveedtx]

Hi everyone,

I've been scouring the site & forum for over a week and finally feel like I can make an educated post with some serious questions. Let us begin.

The Need: This will be for a SOHO/SMB. My wife is a professional photographer and needs a beefy backup & redundancy plan. She uses 500GB-1Tb/yr. I also have tons of music and media (500GB-1TB) that I'd love to serve up first over DLNA to devices, but eventually just as a share to a HTPC/Media Center. This box will handle client backups (TimeMachine), media streaming (potentially up to 2x1080p streams plus 1-2 local and/or Internet music streams), & bitTorrent download.

The Backup Plan:

1. RAID 1 (as suggested here and used by stevech), probably 2TB photography, 2TB other media, each duped, for 8TB total
2. Workstations backup via USB to attached external HDD using TimeMachine
3. Workstations backup via GBit to NAS using TimeMachine
4. NAS backup via eSATA/USB2.0/USB3.0 to attached HDD (swap offsite weekly/monthly)
5. NAS backup (mission critical) via Internet to service (maybe)

Solutions: I'm looking at a Classic RAID (per the SNB Buyer's Guide), mainly for overall size, scalability, and features.

Price: Ideally, $1000, total with drives

The Players:

1. QNAP TS-419PII-US ($499): ARM processor, best price
2. Synology DS412+ ($649): Perfect in every way, worth the $150 extra
3. NETGEAR ReadyNAS Ultra 4 (Plus) ($525/575): No eSATA, no USB 3.0, no link aggregation (?), Single-core or dual-core?
4. Synology DS411+II ($600): No hot-swap, no USB 3.0, no dual Gigabit
5. QNAP TS-459 Pro+ ($649): Same price as 412+, no USB 3.0

Questions:

1. Marvell Kirkwood or Intel Dual-Core?
   
   The QNAP TS-419PII-US at $499 has just about all the features I can think I'd want except it has the Marvell chip and 512MB RAM. I'm worried about the performance (writing hundreds of 1MB files, large Photoshop files, streaming media, downloading, multitasking). We often use it at the same time, except we can run backups overnight. Read threads on Qnap forum suggesting the 459 over 419 for these cases.
   
   Also, I believe I read there might be issues with scalability, no?
   
   
2. USB 2.0? eSATA? USB 3.0?
   
   The Netgear Ultra 4 seems to be a great box and a fave on this forum, but the USB 2.0 really detracts me. Granted, I'll probably run backups overnights, so what's 6 hours versus 3 hours, but I figure eSATA is a nicety. USB 3.0 futureproofs me a bit as well.
   
   
3. Link Aggregation via dual Gigabit ports? Hot-swap?
   
   Probably overkill for a home office, but why not, right?
   
   
4. Interface? Addons?
   
   How often will I realistically need to interact with this thing? That said, most people seem to prefer Synology, then Qnap, then Netgear, right? I know they're all improving all the time. Synology winner? Netgear totally suck? Or just a little? I do plan to run a bitTorrent downloader, maybe iTunes server, DLNA.
   
   
5. Reliability?
   
   Again, mixed bag. Seems like all of them have some problems with some users. Which seems most robust for professional photography? Not planning to work off the server, but to copy up to 1000, 1MB files to it. Synology and Qnap, here? You guys seem to like the Netgear and I've heard good, but mostly bad. Has the DS412+ been our long enough to prove itself like the DS411+II?
   
   
6. Support?
   
   Synology good? Qnap pretty good? Netgear sucks, but has a good forum?
   

Hopefully, I'm considering the right things and also not leaving something out. When it comes to purchases like this, I tend to buy "up" just to be safe. What's $200 more when you're spending $1000, but that's all money that can go somewhere else.

Thanks for reading this far, I tried to write it so it would be easy to skim.

Thanks in advance,
Dave

 

[claykin]

You are on the right track.

LAG, not really important if the throughput doesn't exceed GigE. I don't believe any of these 4 bay units exceeds 100MB/s so don't worry about LAG.

Consider warranty and how OEM handles repairs. Netgear is likely best, followed by Syno and last Qnap.

Yes, some Netgear support staff is horrible. I tell peeps to hang up and call back. Often second call has better rep. Sometimes it takes 3 calls. Its not as if the others are significantly better with phone support...

Netgear OS is most robust if you want my opinion. Features released work and don't come with huge caveats like some others...

Ultra 4Plus is x86 dual core. See here: http://www.readynas.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/ReadyNAS_Comparison_Home.pdf

Consider Netgear Pro4 if you need Active Directory/Domain support, LAG or a 5 year warranty.

I 100% agree with you about lack of USB3 and eSata on all current Netgear 4 bay devices.

Finally, if you are buying 4 bay, I recommend sticking with x86.

 

[daveedtx]

Thanks. I was looking at the Ultra 4 or Ultra 4 Plus, but couldn't decide if needed single or dual-core. Don't need Pro. Netgear does have a 3 yr warranty, the rest 1 or 2. Thanks for the link, I've reference a few times already. Seems like the benefits are there, just depends on how badly I want eSATA or USB 3.0. Thanks again for the reply.

 

[stevech]

I had a netgear NAS. I now have a Synology DS212 w/USB3 & SD card. I weighted heavily the feature set in the operating software, and a non-proprietary disk partitioning/file system format, to enable the drives to be read on a generic PC if need be.
'Nuff said.

Try the on-line demos for Synology and QNAP.

 

[daveedtx]

Thanks. I did just try the Synology interface and like it quite a bit. Seems pretty easy. Mainly, I'm concerned with how easy it is to implement Vertical and Horizontal Expansion. Might start with 2 x 2TB then grow to 4 x 4TB eventually.

Can you say more about the file system? Are you saying you didn't like Netgear because of the XRAID?

 

[daveedtx]

I've narrowed it down to QNAP 459 Pro+, Synology DS412+, and Thecus N4800. See my new post on this.