Most switches particularly NetGear switches should work fine. I would try with what you have. If you have issues contact NetGear tech support for assistance.
A managed switch would be nice but is mainly of benefit if you have a business ReadyNAS (e.g. Pro 6) where you can use LACP rather than a home unit (e.g. Ultra 6+) which doesn't have NIC teaming.
The RNDP600U-200 is the Ultra 6 Plus, has 3 year warranty and lacks business features. Also take a look at the Pro 6 which has a faster CPU (CPU Specs of the ReadyNAS), 5 year warranty and business features such as NIC Teaming. The Pro 6 is a better NAS that can do everything the Ultra 6 Plus can plus more. I reckon it's well worth the extra couple of hundred dollars just for the extra warranty.
Obviously the Pro comes with 2 years more warranty. I assume the pro also takes the 3TB drives like the Ultra 6 Plus does (with the latest firmware of course).
I'm curious to know the other advantages of the Pro of the Ultra 6 Plus series, and thank you for your help 🙂
The Pro ships with enterprise drives. You could buy diskless and choose your own drives.
They are fairly similar. The HCL lists the compatible drives.
Business features include Rsync over SSH, snapshot (useful if data is going to be changing during backup and recommended for use with e.g. ReadyNAS Replicate), NIC Teaming (http://www.readynas.com/bonding_en-us), VLAN support, AD (Windows Domain) integration etc. If you're a home user you may not need many of these features (if any).
As for the CPU, if transcoding (converting on the fly to stream) video e.g. to an iPad, the Pro 6 can handle 1080p video whereas the Ultra 6 Plus can only handle 720p video.
The Ultra 6 Plus could well be right for you. I'm just wanting to make sure you're aware of the option of the Pro 6 and what it provides.
Thanks for that. The Pro 6 costs a bit less than $300 extra here in Australia, which is not bad even for the home user to get the extra 2 years Warranty.
You are correct, for my use at home, most of the business features of the Pro 6 would go to waste. I basically want to use the ReadyNAS device as my centralised storage of:
- My home web development business data - My compete iTunes library, for streaming to a future Sonos system - My complete Movie & TV Show collection, which is forever growing.
I currently stream from a smaller server in my den to a Boxee Box in the theatre room. That works fine, so I'm not sure bout the 1080p vs 720p transcoding requirements, as the Boxee Box does all of that, it just streams the content from the network, no matter what the file type.
I'm going to buy diskless, and have already chosen a Seagate drive (http://bit.ly/rFNeKJ) from the HCL, which I can buy from an online store in the USA for about half what the cost her in Australia. So I can buy 6 x 3TB drives for the cost of 3 here in Australia. I've also already got a compatible APC UPS Back-UPS Pro to match it with.
What are all your thoughts on that?
Also, I what is the difference in the CPU between the two of them, I could not see a difference in the specs.
Sounds like a good setup. I would go with the Pro 6.
Transcoding is useful for converting video for streaming to devices that can't handle (e.g. due to bandwidth limitations or limitations with the device) high quality video. It sounds like you're not doing any of that.
You could still find it's of benefit sometimes. It probably helps with things like resync times. As a more powerful NAS it is more future proof as your needs grow. Both units are good choices and in my view the best models from the desktop ReadyNAS line.
