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Forum Discussion
OS6: Upgrade Ultra 2 plus or buy new quad core ARM?
I have been a very happy Ultra 2 plus user for a few years now. Recently I found out about the snapshots feature of OS6 so I am very interested to get that incorporated into my raid. I have read about it being possible to upgrade my Ultra 2 Plus to OS6 and I may do that, or I may just buy a new unit and sell this one. The newer units come with OS6, but they are also slower ARM processors. I know there is a new line out now with quad core ARMS. Does anyone have any idea about whether the new quad core ARM 2 and 4 bay units will perform on par with the intel version I ahve been using for several years now?
My needs at present:
- Plex video and music streaming
- Crashplan
- Sickbeard and sabnzbd
- SMB and AFP server
- FTP
- Time Machine Server
- sonos streaming
- other stuff I can't remember heh.
Plex and Crashplan for sure can push the cpu a bit, particularly Crashplan. Most of the time I'm not transcoding from Plex though, and frankly even my Ultra 2 plus is pretty slow for that when I've tried it. But anyway, I got the Ultra 2 plus originally because I wanted the fastest affordable consumer level readynas I could find at the time and that was it. I'd like to move to the new OS and probably move also to 4 bay with Raid1+0, but I'm not sure whether I should get a Ultra 4 Plus and try to install OS6 on it, which is not officially supported, but I believe basically works. Or should I just get one of the new quad core ARM units that comes with supported OS6? I believe the new ones are only 1.4ghz ARM, but quad core. My ultra 2 plus is 1.8 dual core intel.
thoughts?
4 Replies
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Hi Dewdman42,
ReadyNAS Ultra 2 or 4 Plus units can run the latest OS6 firmware and should run the same features and services that you are currently using. The same will also work on a new RN210 unit (202 or 204). Kindly check this product data sheet and list of apps that are currently supported by the new OS 6 NAS series.
Let me know if you have further questions.
Kind regards,
BrianL
NETGEAR Community Team- My question is how cpu performance of the new quad core arm cpu will compare to the Intel 1.8 dual core on the ultra plus
Keep the intel imho. I believe Plex, for exemple, is single thread bound, so a good old atom 1.8 should be better.
If you want to upgrade, go to the x86 products imo. But in the end, it's a budget issue. You know, you can upgrade your "old" unit to OS6, and see how it goes first.
Thanks for that advice, that is what my hunch has been also. Then last night I also read that there is not much chance at all of making Crashplan work on ARM, which kind of cinched it for me as I have paid already for 4 years of Crashplan service, which is working perfectly fine on my Ultra 2 plus.
Now the question becomes, what is an affordable 4 bay intel box out there, since the Ultra 4 Plus is no longer even sold. Would be an RN314? If I get a new one like the RN314, then OS6 would be completely supported. It appears I can run OS6 on my Ultra 2, but only 2 bays...and I'm not sure 2 bays will be enough, especially with snapshots turned on, which is the main reason for wanting OS6. I also hope to get some performance gains out of RAID1+0.
I've started investigating Synology and Qnap also as they seem to have some highly regarded 4 bay intel boxes. Seems like around $500-600 I ought to be able to get a decent 4 bay intel box from one these three companies that will handle Plex at least as good as my Ultra 2 plus, handle crashplan, handle snapshots, handle Time Machine. and the rest of what I do is pretty standard stuff I think. I guess I can probably sell my Ultra 2 plus for a few hundred bucks, so its not a bad trade up...
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