I've been happily using my ReadyNAS Duo .v1 for the past three years (cost £235), but I have also been tempted by the current offer on the ReadyNAS NV+.v2 (£160).I use my ReadyNAS Duo for streaming music to my Squeezebox Touch & Classic, and movies to my Mac Mini HTPC.However, I am hesitating in my purchasing decision by the existence of the HP Proliant Microserver N40L - which, with cashback, will cost around £160.From the manufacturer's perspective, why should I buy another ReadyNAS over the HP Microserver. That is, what are the unique selling points of the ReadyNAS over the Microserver for a home user such as myself?

With the ReadyNAS there are firmware updates etc. built for you. With a HP server, installing an OS, updating it etc. fixing things if they go wrong would require more work on your part. It really depends a lot on your skills.I'd recommend keeping the Duo v1 for additional storage or for backing up the new NAS whichever you go with.Do note the NV+ v2 is charcoal in colour. The v1 is silver in colour. Don't confuse the two. See How to tell whether I have a Duo v1 or Duo v2 or NV+ v1 or NV+ v2

You'll also get the benefit of being able to back up one NAS straight to the other with Replicate. I've never used it, or looked into it's features, but If the marketing blurb is to be believed, it should be a doddle to back up your new NAS to your old one and use the old one as a backup store. Obviously, if you get an NV+ and fully populate it, you'd get to a point (perhaps) where you have more data than the the backup NAS can store, but that is further on down the line.Also, having two systems by two different manufacturers means you are duplicating your requirements for support. The HP N40L looks like a nice piece of kit, but will it be supported by HP for the length of time the ReadyNAS line has been supported by Netgear? I have my doubts.If I were in your shoes, i'd go with the ReadyNAS NV+ V2.[EDIT]: looks like Replicate is x86/ARM only from the add-ons page. However backing up from one ReadyNAS to another should still be a lot simpler than with two different products by different manufacturers. I'd still go with the NV+ V2 considering they are both the same price from the support viewpoint.

Replicate only works with Intel ReadyNAS devices, and not ARM enabled devices such as the NV+.v2.http://www.readynas.com/?p=4853

spinaltap wrote:Replicate only works with Intel ReadyNAS devices, and not ARM enabled devices such as the NV+.v2.http://www.readynas.com/?p=4853No its available for ARM devices its just not listed on the addons page, if you go into frontview and look at available addons its there just click the get button and it downloads and installs.

What is the full list of additional 'add-on's for the NV+v2 that are not listed on the 'add-on's' page?Even so, as 'Replicate' isn't available on my existing ReadyNAS Duo v1, the Replicate software doesn't help in transferring existing files over to a new ReadyNAS.

Why should I buy another ReadyNAS?

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spinaltap1
Aspirant
Aug 13, 2012
In the end I chose the NV+.v2, as it was too tempting at £159 - and it's really worked out well, especially with both PLEX an ITunes Server for ARM add-on's emerging.

Moreover, the speed differential between my old Duo.v1 and my new NV+.v2 is perceptibly like comparing the speed of a shopping trolly to a Ferrari (but probably not in reality)

Also, economics came into it. After cashback the HP Microserver would have cost the same as the NV+.v2. However, for me, there was the added cost of WHS 2011 (£40) plus iHome Server (£20), plus extra RAM (£40). Then, although the Microserver has four drive bays, one is taken up with the OS, leaving three vacant (which are not hot-swappable). These only work in RAID 1 or 0. Anything like X-Raid is just fantasy. While additional disk installation was possible by using the space taken-up by not installing the optional optical drive in the end it didn't seem worth all the extra effort.

I was seduced by the possibility of accessing all my stored movies on the Microserver by my AppleTV3 - but I'm sure in due course that FireCore will successfully jailbreak the ATV3 (like they have with the AppleTV2) to enable NAS access.

Transferring data between my Duo.v1 and the NV+.2 via my Mac Mini initially was a pain - with 150Mb of music files taking 9 hours (!). I cannot imagine what went wrong there. A direct connection between the two devices made the process a lot quicker. To experiment, I took the same files directly from my Mac Mini and transferred them to the NV+.v2 in just 10 minutes!.

My only unresolved issue is in what extra drives to buy. I currently have a Seagate 500Gb ST3500320AS drive and a Seagate 2Tb ST32000542AS drive (from my old Duo.v1). I would ordinarily stay with Seagate (as there are some really good deals on 2/3Tb drives in the UK currently), but I'm tempted by the WD Red's too.

spinaltap1

Aspirant

Aug 13, 2012

spinaltap wrote:
In the end I chose the NV+.v2, as it was too tempting at £159 - and it's really worked out well, especially with both PLEX an ITunes Server for ARM add-on's emerging.

Moreover, the speed differential between my old Duo.v1 and my new NV+.v2 is perceptibly like comparing the speed of a shopping trolly to a Ferrari (but probably not in reality)

Also, economics came into it. After cashback the HP Microserver would have cost the same as the NV+.v2. However, for me, there was the added cost of WHS 2011 (£40) plus iHome Server (£20), plus extra RAM (£40). Then, although the Microserver has four drive bays, one is taken up with the OS, leaving three vacant (which are not hot-swappable). These only work in RAID 1 or 0. Anything like X-Raid is just fantasy. While additional disk installation was possible by using the space taken-up by not installing the optional optical drive in the end it didn't seem worth all the extra effort.

I was seduced by the possibility of accessing all my stored movies on the Microserver by my AppleTV3 - but I'm sure in due course that FireCore will successfully jailbreak the ATV3 (like they have with the AppleTV2) to enable NAS access.

Transferring data between my Duo.v1 and the NV+.2 via my Mac Mini initially was a pain - with 150Mb of music files taking 9 hours (!). I cannot imagine what went wrong there. A direct connection between the two devices made the process a lot quicker. To experiment, I took the same files directly from my Mac Mini and transferred them to the NV+.v2 in just 10 minutes!.

My only unresolved issue is in what extra drives to buy. I currently have a Seagate 500Gb ST3500320AS drive - I do have an unused second 500Gb with bad sectors - and a Seagate 2Tb ST32000542AS drive (from my old Duo.v1). I would ordinarily stay with Seagate (as there are some really good deals on 2/3Tb drives in the UK currently), but I'm tempted by the WD Red's too.

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Why should I buy another ReadyNAS?

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