Is the grass greener with ReadyNAS Ultra 2

Since WD had a number of 3TB drives available, it is best to post the exact model number to make sure they are on the Hardware Compatibility List (HCL).

While two bay units are great for starting small, since the redundancy takes of 50% of the space, I recommend going to a 4 bay if you can. You can start out with two drives only and then double your volume by adding one drive. (One drive is used for redundancy, so in a 2 drive array, 50% is used for redundancy, in a three bay array only 33% is used for redundancy and in a 4 bay array only 25% is used). The four and six bay units also have the front panel message panel that gives you alerts and messages.

The drive I'm looking at is the WD30EZRX. The RS version of this same drive is what is listed in the HCL however that disk is not available at either Newegg or Amazon which leads one to believe it's been replaced - possibly with this other one. The 4 drive Ultra brings my start up cost up an additional $180. Are you saying that if I start out there with 2 x 3TB setup that I can add another 3TB in the form of only one drive at the point that I run out of space? That's an interesting proposition if it is the case.

Yes, you can start with 1 drive and do not have to add any more drives at that moment. The next drive you add can be used for redundancy. After that, each drive you add will extend the capacity. You can find some information about this here.

Thanks, I guess I'll go with the Ultra 4. The price on Amazon jumped $80 overnight. :( I'm going to wait a few days to see what happens.

Thanks for your help.

There must have been some sort of deal on them as the current listed prince ($530) seems about where it normally is. I don't watch the prices that closely as I'm not in the market. That is a little less than what I paid for my two NVX units two years ago, one of which was replaced by the Ultra 4. It is currently about $12 cheaper on Amazon.

There must have been some sort of promo. When I googled Netgear RNDU4000, it came up with a number of stores with prices starting at $467.49, and the one they were showing at that price was Amazon. Clicking on it, took me to the Amazon site with the price displayed at $518.42. Sometimes you stumble into deals and sometimes, you just miss them.

A price history for the Ultra 4 on Amazon can be seen here: http://camelcamelcamel.com/ReadyNAS-diskless-Attached-generation-RNDU4000/product/B003V8AL8O

There's been a general gradual downward trend in the price over time.