NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
Help! Ultra 6 or Pro 6
Hi. Welcome some honest advice.
I have a Sparc NV which has saved me amazingly well - currently loaded with 4x WD Green drives. Just starting to feel a bit slow when loading up 5gb HD movie files. So looking to upgrade to new NAS.
I use it for really only one purpose - as a fileserver for storing my iTunes library which consists of music and blu ray ripped HD movies in iTunes format. iTunes runs on my Mac Pro which acts as the iTunes server to 6 Apple TV's around the house. I also have 5 Sonos zones that access the music files NAS directly.
I do have a small partition on the NAS that I backup photos and documents to nightly from a backup drive I have in the Mac pro that backs itself up from the main Mac Pro drive. I do this because a) I want a proper backup for these (I can always rerip music and movies!) and b) because using Aperture with the library on the NAS was impossibly slow so have to have it on the Mac Pro (as I am typing wondering if that will be necessary when I upgrade..??)
I think therefore I may have no need for all the various DLNA add ons, video transcoding etc on the NAS itself. I also don't backup the NAS to anywhere else as the only critical data I have is backed up twice per above already. (Ok I don't (yet) have an offsite solution. So don't think I need rsync stuff or snapshots (don't even know what they are!)
But to the nub of the question. I can get the Readynas Ultra 6 for £569 from Kikatek, the Ultra 6+ for £712 from pixmania or the Pro 6 for £760 from play.com. Given the price differential between the Ultra 6+ and the Pro 6 I am discounting the Ultra 6+ as for £48 quid I would go with the Pro. The real question though is whether I want to pay £191 extra for the Pro 6 over the Ultra?
Remember all I am doing is really streaming HD movies, and rarely to more than 2 or max 3 of the ATV's at any one time. I don't think I need NIC teaming for this (and don't want to splash another £100 quid on a compatible switch) although will use the dual NIC on the Ultra or the Pro to have a separate network for my Mac Pro - I think I can do that. I also don't want to have a noisier, hotter and higher power use device if I am not going to use the extra CPU power - I already do that in my BMW 650ci which I just tootle round town in grimacing at the 12 mpg I get out of it!!
So leaning towards the bargain Ultra but would hate to pull the trigger and then have somebody say - ah but you didn't realise xyz and you really really should have got the Pro.
So any helpful ideas welcome. Read some other threads and default answer seems to be to get the Pro, but I thought if I explained exactly what I use it for I could get a specific view.
Appreciate any comments in advance.
Thanks
TW
I have a Sparc NV which has saved me amazingly well - currently loaded with 4x WD Green drives. Just starting to feel a bit slow when loading up 5gb HD movie files. So looking to upgrade to new NAS.
I use it for really only one purpose - as a fileserver for storing my iTunes library which consists of music and blu ray ripped HD movies in iTunes format. iTunes runs on my Mac Pro which acts as the iTunes server to 6 Apple TV's around the house. I also have 5 Sonos zones that access the music files NAS directly.
I do have a small partition on the NAS that I backup photos and documents to nightly from a backup drive I have in the Mac pro that backs itself up from the main Mac Pro drive. I do this because a) I want a proper backup for these (I can always rerip music and movies!) and b) because using Aperture with the library on the NAS was impossibly slow so have to have it on the Mac Pro (as I am typing wondering if that will be necessary when I upgrade..??)
I think therefore I may have no need for all the various DLNA add ons, video transcoding etc on the NAS itself. I also don't backup the NAS to anywhere else as the only critical data I have is backed up twice per above already. (Ok I don't (yet) have an offsite solution. So don't think I need rsync stuff or snapshots (don't even know what they are!)
But to the nub of the question. I can get the Readynas Ultra 6 for £569 from Kikatek, the Ultra 6+ for £712 from pixmania or the Pro 6 for £760 from play.com. Given the price differential between the Ultra 6+ and the Pro 6 I am discounting the Ultra 6+ as for £48 quid I would go with the Pro. The real question though is whether I want to pay £191 extra for the Pro 6 over the Ultra?
Remember all I am doing is really streaming HD movies, and rarely to more than 2 or max 3 of the ATV's at any one time. I don't think I need NIC teaming for this (and don't want to splash another £100 quid on a compatible switch) although will use the dual NIC on the Ultra or the Pro to have a separate network for my Mac Pro - I think I can do that. I also don't want to have a noisier, hotter and higher power use device if I am not going to use the extra CPU power - I already do that in my BMW 650ci which I just tootle round town in grimacing at the 12 mpg I get out of it!!
So leaning towards the bargain Ultra but would hate to pull the trigger and then have somebody say - ah but you didn't realise xyz and you really really should have got the Pro.
So any helpful ideas welcome. Read some other threads and default answer seems to be to get the Pro, but I thought if I explained exactly what I use it for I could get a specific view.
Appreciate any comments in advance.
Thanks
TW
15 Replies
Replies have been turned off for this discussion
- Duplicate post in error.
- While some are wishing for a Pro 8, that would be a radical departure for the ReadyNAS which has never produced an 8 bay desktop unit. The vibration from 8 rotating disks could be a problem, it is in the 12 bay rack mount enterprise models. That is why only drives with Rotational Vibration Safeguard are approved for use, and they are typically at least twice the price of consumer grade drives. Heat dissipation could also become a problem which would lead to a noisy unit.
Well there is nothing wrong with "settling" for an Ultra 6.TransientWolf wrote: Pulled the trigger on the Ultra 6 - head very happy, heart a bit disappointed, but ever the optimist thinks a future Pro 8 will be the way to go and the Ultra can work well in the meantime :D :lol:
Though I am not so good at guessing Netgear's future product directions, so I generally don't try.- Must say, this active community alone encourages me to go with the readynas line of products. So I've decided on the Ultra 6 Plus, because majority of content will be 720p. I'll be pulling the trigger in 2 or 3 weeks and plan to watch prices in between. If they'er close enough, I might just go with Pro 6.
Thanks all..will chime in on my experience later on. - I think you will be very happy with it.
This is a very active forum and there are three very experienced individuals who have IT experience (not me, I a retired Accountant) who are willing to share their experience and knowledge with the rest of us. All that I have learned about the ReadyNAS, I have basically learned from these forums.
NETGEAR Academy
Boost your skills with the Netgear Academy - Get trained, certified and stay ahead with the latest Netgear technology!
Join Us!
