ReadyNas Pro Pioneer/Bus v. QNAP 639

[Semigeek]

Hello Everyone,
I'm wondering if anyone can help with the tie-breaker. I'm a former geek (ECE) who is still computer literate, but no longer as savvy. I have done some studying on the NAS's and have narrowed it down to the ReadyNAS and QNAPs. Here are my considerations:

This is for my home. My wife and I are the only users. We have a MAC and three PCs (XP, Vista, and Windows 7 installed). I also have two DNS-321 NAS drives (totaling 2.5 TB of RAID 1 space) that have been filled.

The NAS I am purchasing will serve as the central repository for all of our files. I would also like it to act as a media server. I have a very large audio (mostly MP3s) and video (H.264 HD) collection and intend to back up all of my CDs and DVDs in lossless format. I have a PS3 attached to the Gigabit switch, but would be willing to buy another media device to interface with the new NAS. It is important to me that the system be able to serve HD quality video to my entertainment center.

I intend to use it in RAID 6 format as I'm always afraid of losing a data (after a bad experience some years back). If I were able to mark a certain subset of the data on the new NAS to be backed up regularly to either one of the DNS-321s or an external USB HDD, that would be great. I have a whole bunch of external USB drives that I will need to figure out what to do with. I will likely put a backup drive in a fireproof safe to protect the most important data (family photos, records, etc.). If it isn't that big a deal to add drives later, I may buy 3-4 2TB drives and add the remaining 2-3 2TB drives at a later date. If it's going to be a big headache, I'll just load it up with 2TB drives now.

I like the idea of accessing at least some of my data remotely, but would need to be confident that the rest of the data is secure. I don't have many security concerns within my home network (i.e., I trust the wife and don't have a lot of strangers using my network ). If it were simple to do so, I would limit access to certain portions of the data to just my wife and I (prevent guests from having access to our records).

A big factor is the time I would need to put in to be able to use the device. As I noted, I used to be a geek, but just don't have the time to keep up anymore. I'm therefore still comfortable, but no longer consider myself all that savvy. I also don't have a lot of time to dedicate to getting the system to work. I will likely have a weekend day to get this up and running. This factor pushed me away from the Thecus systems.

I've researched the NASs and think that either one of the ReadyNAS Pros or the QNAP 639 is the right choice.

I'm not really sure if my needs would make ISCSI that valuable for me, so I've been thinking I would likely choose the ReadyNAS Pro Pioneer over the Pro Business. I could be talked into the Business if you folks thought it would be advantageous. A lot of folks seem to be fans of the QNAP. If there is a consensus that I should go to the QNAP given the factors I've identified, I would do so.

Looking forward to your thoughts.

 

[thiggins]

Either the ReadyNAS or the QNAPs would serve you well. The ReadyNAS gets the edge, however, for backup flexibility. It can back up to and from just about anything to anything (network shares, rsync servers, USB drives).

The downside is that NETGEAR doesn't have eSATA ports on any of its products. But since you have networked and USB drives I guess that's not a factor.

 

[bluesherpa]

I'm also thinking of getting the Netgear ReadyNas Pro Pioneer, but do you think that's the best option for me?

I currently have two "NAS" systems. One is an Intel SS4200 with 4 500GB drives configured with raid 5 for 1.4TB of storage. I've read that I can install a different OS on it, tweak things, and get better performance, but it's generally kicking out about 40MB/s read and 20MB/s write. The other system is an old PC configured with Ubuntu 9.10, an Intel Core 2 6600 @ 2.4GHz, 2 western digital 2TB drives, and a 500gb drive. It's doing about 50MB/s read and about 30MB/s write. I used LVM in Ubuntu to create a single partition from all of the drives.

I have a big mp3 and avi collection (tv shows, movies, etc.) and I currently access everything through my tv using Samsung's BD-3600 blueray player. The blueray player is currently hardwired for connectivity.

I also use my ubuntu box for web development, svn, and general testing.

Faster performance on my NAS would be nice - especially write performance. Samba usually gives me headaches when connecting with my 3600. I have to manually connect every time - whereas, the SS4200 is automatically recognized and easy to use. I'm hoping the ReadyNas would "just work".

Also, I'm thinking of installing ESXi on the box currently running ubuntu, so that I can run multiple instances of ubuntu for ease in testing different programming environments, etc..

I just can't tell if I should upgrade my dev/nas box or move my storage to the ReadyNas. Either way, I'll probably just end up selling the SS4200 through craigslist.

I *might* end up upgrading the dev box even if I get the readynas, but it would just be an issue of upgrading the processor and ram to better support ESXi. I've thought about possibly getting a cheap SATA raid card also - thinking that might be a lot better than using LVM to create a single volume from the different drives. One last thing... I'm wondering how data throughput will be when serving NAS using an OS that runs as an instance in ESXi. I'm guessing that throughput would take a big hit and it might be a big enough hit that I want I wouldn't want to do it.

Any opinions or advice on the best direction to take things?

Thanks