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Forum Discussion
How much does a drives RPM make a difference?
I have two ReadyNAS NV+ units that I use in a home environment. One of the NV+ units is used to back up some (but not all) of the data from the primary NV+ unit. I have 5 Macs, two AppleTVs, two TiVos, and two Sling Cathers in my home. All but one of those devices (a 2.8 GHz iMac) connect to the NV+ via WiFi (802.11n). (The primary NV+ is connected to via a Gigabit Airport Extreme Base Station.) At any given time, probably no more than 2-3 of those devices access the primary NV+. I use the NV+ to store all of my photos, all of my iTunes library (video and audio files), and a few critical Word, Excel, and Quicken documents. In addition, I have copied/ripped all of my DVDs to the primary NV+ (the Video_TS folders are all stored on the NV+) and would like to be able to stream the DVD files to my TV through my TiVo and/or AppleTV.
I currently have both NV+ units decked out with 1.5TB 7200 RPM Seagate drives (Seagate ST31500341AS). I'm starting to run out of space on the primary unit and considering upgrading it to four 2TB units. However, I know whether it is worth the extra money to go with 7200 units as opposed to the less-expensive 5900/5400 units. Right now NewEgg has a Seagate Barracuda Green ST2000DL003 2TB 5900 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive for $69.99 and also has a SAMSUNG EcoGreen F4 HD204UI 2TB 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s (which I assume is 5400 RPM). In contrast, 7200 RPM drives seem to start at $119. Thus, if I go with the 5400/5900 RPM drives, I can save roughly $200 ($50 per drive x 4 drives), which is pretty substantial dough. On the other hand, I don't want to cheap out if the lower speed drives won't do what I need them to do.
So, with all this in mind, I would appreciate any advice you can offer with respect to not only whether, given what I am using the NV+ for, I will notice a difference if I go with a 5900/5400 RPM drive instead of a 7200 RPM drive. Please don't hesitate to also chime in with recommendations for 2TB drives that will fit my needs without causing me to spend more than necessary.
Thanks!
I currently have both NV+ units decked out with 1.5TB 7200 RPM Seagate drives (Seagate ST31500341AS). I'm starting to run out of space on the primary unit and considering upgrading it to four 2TB units. However, I know whether it is worth the extra money to go with 7200 units as opposed to the less-expensive 5900/5400 units. Right now NewEgg has a Seagate Barracuda Green ST2000DL003 2TB 5900 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive for $69.99 and also has a SAMSUNG EcoGreen F4 HD204UI 2TB 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s (which I assume is 5400 RPM). In contrast, 7200 RPM drives seem to start at $119. Thus, if I go with the 5400/5900 RPM drives, I can save roughly $200 ($50 per drive x 4 drives), which is pretty substantial dough. On the other hand, I don't want to cheap out if the lower speed drives won't do what I need them to do.
So, with all this in mind, I would appreciate any advice you can offer with respect to not only whether, given what I am using the NV+ for, I will notice a difference if I go with a 5900/5400 RPM drive instead of a 7200 RPM drive. Please don't hesitate to also chime in with recommendations for 2TB drives that will fit my needs without causing me to spend more than necessary.
Thanks!
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- The NVX is a discontinued product. The NVX (not Pioneer) has business features and a 5 year warranty. The NVX Pioneer and the Ultra have a 3 year warranty and don't have business features. I would go with the Pro 4 over the NVX, the NVX over the Ultra 4 Plus, The Ultra 4 Plus over the Ultra 4 and the Ultra 4 over the NVX Pioneer.
However do note that the NVX is 32-bit, whereas the Ultra and Pro are 64-bit. If happy with the 3 year warranty of the Ultra 4 and lack of business features (AD, NIC Bonding/Teaming, Rsync over SSH etc.) then the Ultra 4 is definitely better choice than the NVX. The Pro Series devices (not the discontinued Pro Pioneer) give the best of both, 64-bit CPU, business features and 5 year warranty.
Regarding Plex take a look at (http://www.readynas.com/plex). If you want to do transcoding to an iPad, I would strongly recommend the Pro 6 (RNDP6000-200). The Pro 6 has a fast CPU that can transcoding 1080p to the iPad. The Ultra 6 Plus (RNDP600U-200) can do 720p transcoding. Take a look at CPU Specs of the ReadyNAS - As much as I like my NVX ReadyNASs, I could not recommend them unless they were cost effective when compared to the Ultras. When you look at the faster processor in the Ultra and the fact that it is a 64 bit processor compared to a 32 bit processor in the NVX just points out the performance advantage of the Ultra. Why several retailers are still selling them for more than the Ultras disappoints me. In fact, on Newegg the Pro 4 (RNDP4000-100NAS) diskless is $700, only $44 more than Amazon wants for the discontinued NVX, and the Pro 4 is the highest performance 4 bay NAS Netgear has ever produced.
Comparing Prices on the Ultra 4 Plus, Amazon is $632 while Newegg is $550. Prices for the Pro 4 are Amazon $659, Newegg is $700 and eAegis is $624. It certainly pays to compare prices, and those three vendors all have a very good reputation. If you are going to buy disks at the same time, you may want to spend some time on the eAegis website. I have not dealt with them personally as I only found out about them after I bought my last NVX (a Business Edition). They will install, configure and burn in for 48 hours certain disk/ReadyNAS combinations for less than you can buy the unit at eAegis and the disks on either Amazon or Newegg. Their prices for disks alone are generally higher than the other two, but when they combine the disks they are extremely cost competitive.
When I bought my second NVX (Business Edition) it was $40 more than the Pioneer, and I figured $40 for the extra two years of warranty coverage was a good cost. Whether the cost difference of $74 (eAegis Pro 4 at $624 versus a Newegg Ultra 4 Plus at $550) is worth the 2 years extra warranty and possible use of business features is worth it to you. Both units have the same hardware so should be of equal performance. - Hi, All. I'm sorry I fell out of the discussion for awhile (summer vacations and work and all).
Back when this discussion was active, I actually put an Ultra 4 in my Amazon cart. At the time, the price was $530. Today, I noticed the price had dropped to $506 so it renewed my interest in this. I re-read this thread and now am trying to figure out the difference between the Ultra and the Ultra Plus. As best as I can tell the only difference is that the Ultra Plus has a dual core processor whereas the Ultra has a single core processor? Am I correct?
By way of comparison, today the Ultra 4 Plus is $597 on Amazon and $600 on New Egg (New Egg has the Ultra 4 for $530). It seems to me that having dual core is not worth the extra $95 or so; however, if I could find an Ultra 4 Plus for $550 (the price New Egg had offered back in June, according to PapaBear), the Ultra 4 Plus would be a better buy than the Ultra. Thoughts? - Provantage has it listed for less, but by the time you add their shipping charge, you are up to $595. The units have been creeping upward. At one time Newegg had the NV+ for around $290, now it up to $310. When I purchased my first Hitachi HDS5C3030ALA630 3TB drives they were $130, now they are $150 a month later. It would seem that we are experiencing some inflation in our components.
- Bad timing on my part, I guess. Makes me wish I had pulled the trigger back in June. :-(
Am I correct that the only difference between the Ultra and the Ultra Plus is that the Plus has a dual core processor? Assuming I'm correct, how much difference does the dual core process make in real life? Is it enough to justify the nearly $100 price differential? iProb8 wrote: Am I correct that the only difference between the Ultra and the Ultra Plus is that the Plus has a dual core processor?
As far as I know, yes. All other specs are the same.Ultra4 – 1.66 GHz Atom D410 (single core)
Ultra4 Plus – 1.66 GHz Atom D510 (dual core)
ReadyNAS Ultra 4
Physical Specifications
Intel® Atom Single-core CPU (Ultra 4)
Intel® Atom Dual-core CPU (Ultra 4 Plus)
1GB DDR2 SODIMM
Four (4) Serial ATA II channels
Hot swappable and lockable trays
Two (2) 10/100/1000 Ethernet ports
LCD Display
Three (3) USB 2.0 ports
Embedded 128 MB Flash Memory for OS
Kensington Lock security hole
Software controlled 92 mm chassis cooling fan
Dimension (H x W x D): 134 x 205 x 223 mm (5.28 x 8.07 x 8.78 in)
Weight: 4.70 kg (10.35 lb), without hard disks
According to the performance specs (http://www.readynas.com/?page_id=3962#Performance), the big advantage is in write speeds (10-30 MB/s, depending on protocol and/or jumbo frames), although you'll see a slight increase in read speeds as well (2-3 MB/s).
- Thanks, dbott67. I wonder how much 18 MBps really matters in every day usage. It seems like a big difference in terms of raw numbers.
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