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RN104 - New Setup
Hi, I have a 4 bay with a 2TB-1TB-2TB-3TB disc setup - bay 1 and 3 are Raid 1 bays 2 & 3 are JBOD. The NAS is use as backup for everyday stuff on the raid and multimedia for house access on the J...
whyshouldI wrote:
In the scheme of things in probably makes sense to buy 4 bay rather than 2.
Yes. I'd still consolidate onto two disks, just because the larger drives are more cost effective over the long run, and the price increase is modest. When I checked pricing, 2x8 was cheaper than 3x6.
This also would allow you to rebuild your RN104 and use it as a backup.
whyshouldI wrote:Leading question time - which 4 bay would you recommend - this is for general backups and media streaming - the RN 104 was capable so it does not need to be an expensive purchase.
This is tricky right now. Normally I'd go with the RN214. But there is little ReadyNAS inventory out there, and the prices have skyrocketed. I suspect that's related to production/distribution problems due to the pandemic.
The RN626 and RN628 are the only desktop models that are still around their usual price - and they are far more capable than you need. Since your current NAS is working, you might want to hold off on upgrading until the RN214 prices come back down.
Local prices for you will vary of course, but this what I am seeing on Amazon US for diskless NAS:
Desktop
- RN214: $850
- RN424: $1350
- RN626: $1000
- RN628: $1100
Rackmount
- 2304: $620
- 3138: $900
The RN214 is typically $300-$400, the RN424 is typically $400-$500. They just aren't worth the current prices.
If I had to buy now, I'd personally get the RN628 - actually below it's usual price, and $100 over the RN626 gets you two more bays. But it's much more capable than what you need.
The 2304 is worth a look if you are ok with a rackmount. It should perform about the same as the RN214 and outperform the RN104. It is priced a bit higher than usual (it was $400 a few months ago). The rackmount doesn't need to be in a rack - but it will likely be noisier than a desktop NAS, so you'd need a place for it where the noise doesn't matter.
The 3138 is actually a fair price, but personally I'd go with the RN626 or RN628 instead - significantly higher performance, and similar in price.
A few things to consider with a 2-drive NAS:
In oder to expand beyond the initial drive size, you have to replace both drives, where you only need add an additional drive when there is an open slot.
RAID overhead is the greatest. You lose 50% of the combined size of th drives to redundancy. while 2 x 8TB gives you an 8TB RAID, 3 x 6TB gives you 12, with room for another 6 in a 4-drive chassis.
BUT, recovery from a single drive is often possible with RAID1 where you need at least 2 still undamaged to recover from a 3-drive RAID5 and 3 to recover from a 4-drive RAID5. That can sometimes be of help when the volume gets damaged in some way (not always due to hardware).
In the scheme of things in probably makes sense to buy 4 bay rather than 2.
Leading question time - which 4 bay would you recommend - this is for general backups and media streaming - the RN 104 was capable so it does not need to be an expensive purchase.
Thanks for your help
Simon
whyshouldI wrote:
In the scheme of things in probably makes sense to buy 4 bay rather than 2.
Yes. I'd still consolidate onto two disks, just because the larger drives are more cost effective over the long run, and the price increase is modest. When I checked pricing, 2x8 was cheaper than 3x6.
This also would allow you to rebuild your RN104 and use it as a backup.
whyshouldI wrote:Leading question time - which 4 bay would you recommend - this is for general backups and media streaming - the RN 104 was capable so it does not need to be an expensive purchase.
This is tricky right now. Normally I'd go with the RN214. But there is little ReadyNAS inventory out there, and the prices have skyrocketed. I suspect that's related to production/distribution problems due to the pandemic.
The RN626 and RN628 are the only desktop models that are still around their usual price - and they are far more capable than you need. Since your current NAS is working, you might want to hold off on upgrading until the RN214 prices come back down.
Local prices for you will vary of course, but this what I am seeing on Amazon US for diskless NAS:
Desktop
- RN214: $850
- RN424: $1350
- RN626: $1000
- RN628: $1100
Rackmount
- 2304: $620
- 3138: $900
The RN214 is typically $300-$400, the RN424 is typically $400-$500. They just aren't worth the current prices.
If I had to buy now, I'd personally get the RN628 - actually below it's usual price, and $100 over the RN626 gets you two more bays. But it's much more capable than what you need.
The 2304 is worth a look if you are ok with a rackmount. It should perform about the same as the RN214 and outperform the RN104. It is priced a bit higher than usual (it was $400 a few months ago). The rackmount doesn't need to be in a rack - but it will likely be noisier than a desktop NAS, so you'd need a place for it where the noise doesn't matter.
The 3138 is actually a fair price, but personally I'd go with the RN626 or RN628 instead - significantly higher performance, and similar in price.
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