Free drive offer and ReadyNAS Pro 6

As one who looked at various options years ago, I am glad that I opted for the ReadyNAS NV+ four and half years ago. While I know the offer of a single 3TB drive can make a difference, over the years the reliability and ease of setting up on the ReadyNAS makes it a no brainer for me. My NV+ has now been joined by two NVX units which are a year and a year and a half old. One is the primary and the other the backup target. My trusty old NV+ which has had it's OS updated about four times (but is now again one version older than current) and the drives upgraded twice. It provides the backup of critical files (movies excluded) of the backup unit which is a backup of everything.

I have eyed the Pro for some time my self, but even when the Pro Pioneer and Pro Business were being updated to the Pro 6 and Ultra 6 Plus, I was having a hard time justifying the additional cost of 6 bays over 4. I opted for the NVX because it was half the price of a Pro Business at the time and I still don't have near the data to fill my NVX (currently 2x3TB and 2x1TB drives for a volume of 4.5TB and I am only using about 2TB. Unless you really need the 6 bays, you might want to consider a Pro4.

Well, I was looking at the 6 because I've already got 4x 1TB drives here, and would like to expand as I go along. The heftier CPU was certainly attractive too, for live transcoding of HD media to various media devices, amongst other things. But you might be right.

I was looking for quite a bit at building my own FreeNAS box out of a cheap recycled server - you can pick up an older dual dual core Xeon box with 16GB of RAM for next to nothing nowadays on eBay with the hardware recyclers - but there's something to be said for "it just works", albeit at a bit of a price premium.

I've worked out the drive cost is likely something around £150 (about $240) for reasonably decent drives, which is a bit of a punch in the gut when I realise I've missed out by 22 days.

I miss read your first post. I saw 3x1TB and it registered in my brain as 3TB. Most of the free drive offers in the past have been ONE drive. In the US, they do $ rebates not free drives. If you already have 4x1TB drives and they are on the Hardware Compatibility List (HCL), then you already have a full drive package for a 4 bay unit, although it is a good idea to have one spare on hand.

I would still go with the Pro 6. Install the 4x1TB drives (do note the NAS will need to wipe these so be sure to backup any data you've put on them first) and add more drives later as you need them.

Can someone please explain the earlier comment that the pro6 has a "heftier" cpu? I was looking at a stat spreadsheet comparing the pro2 pro4 and pro6 and I didn't see anything indicating that the pro6 has more or less cpu power than the other pro models.

thanks

http://home.bott.ca/webserver/?p=499 was one reference I pulled up in my searches.

Danke!

Now I'm getting really confused!

When I look on Netgear's website for the difference between RNDP6000-200NAS and RNDP6000-100NAS, I pulled up a page that says RNDP6000-200NAS is being replaced by the Pro6 ? So, I click on that link to go look at the replacement and it is, as best I can tell, the same thing but with disks (which I don't want). SO, here are two questions:

1) What is the diff between RNDP6000-100NAS and the RNDP6000-200NAS ?

and

2) What is the proper model number for the diskless Pro6 ????

Please help clarify this because I also found another Netgear link to an EOL page, which I assume means End of Life for that product? Of course, there is no explanation for what is happening with the RNDP6000 models.

Could you post that link?

The original Pro, only available as a 6 bay model was the RNDP6000-100 (NAS in the North American market, other three letters in other markets). It had the E2160 1.8GHz CPU. When Netgear revamped the lines last fall, the new version 2 of the 6 bay unit in the Pro line is now called the Pro 6 and has the E5300 2.6GHz CPU. The model for the diskless version is now RNDP6000-200xxx (again xxx would be NAS in the North American market.) The Pro 6 is now joined by the Pro 4 (replacing the NVX BE) and Pro 2. The Pro 4 has the Atom 510 1.66 GHz processor and the Pro 2 released later has the Atom 525 1.8Ghz processor.

The Ultra 6 Plus is basically the hardware of the old Pro but does not have the business features and has the 3 year consumer level warranty. It has the E2160 1.8Ghz CPU. The diskless model number is RNDP600U-100xxx.

Some retail websites may have just not updated their listings, and they may also still have old stock of the Pro available. I know that some months back some sites were still listing the NVX (32 bit unit discontinued in favor of the 64bit Ultra series) and for a price higher than they were asking for the newer Ultra series.

eAegis used to have just about the best prices, but they no longer seem to promote Netgear (they still carry them, you just need to enter Netgear in the search box) but Newegg now has better prices. They no longer have the -100NAS but eAegis lists both, but the -200NAS has a higher price. Their price for the -100NAS is only $5 less than Newegg is asking for the newer RNDP6000-200NAS. Almost all my computer items come from Newegg because they keep you informed and they ship quickly. Even with standard shipping my orders rarely take more than 3 business days to my home.

Thanks for that informative summary- I actually stumbled upon a -100nas at a website called simplynas.com so they must be either a liquidator or just have older stock for some reason. I agree with your enthusiasm for Newegg as I too have had good experiences with them, but I'm seeing a superior price on amazon for the -200nas and I'm indifferent between those two sellers (having had very good experiences at both).