I see questions like this from time to time but none that directly address my interest.
I like all the prosumer capabilities in the Ultra 6 (Tivo, Memeo, etc.) but the Pro 6 has the 5 year warranty and the promise of better performance from the faster processor.
When you look at the feature sets of both you see two totally different target audiences and the features of the Pro 6 seem to NOT include the features of Ultra 6 I want.
Is this a correct read and if so, is there way to outfit the Pro 6 to more Ultra-like?
The Pro 6 can do everything the Ultra 6 Plus can plus more. However I don't think the Pro 6 includes the Memeo backup software but rather a free trial of Acronis.
I see questions like this from time to time but none that directly address my interest.
I like all the prosumer capabilities in the Ultra 6 (Tivo, Memeo, etc.) but the Pro 6 has the 5 year warranty and the promise of better performance from the faster processor.
When you look at the feature sets of both you see two totally different target audiences and the features of the Pro 6 seem to NOT include the features of Ultra 6 I want.
Is this a correct read and if so, is there way to outfit the Pro 6 to more Ultra-like?
Thanks, Jonathan
mgdm is correct - the pro includes dlna, etc. but does not have Memeo backup. Since I already was running Acronis, that didn't matter to me, so I went with the Pro 6.
BTW, I am seeing some postings here from folks having trouble with the Tivo functionality, so that might be worth following up on.
I need to make this decision myself this week. Can someone outline what the Pro does that the Ultra does not?
Also are there any test results available that show how much faster at serving data the Pro would be over the Ultra Plus? We're primarily be using ours for photo storage and with the speed increase compared to our NV+ I'm hoping we can edit wedding photos (80 GB to a folder) directly off the NAS (over AFP).
Obviously the Pro will be faster, but will it be $130 faster (or is most of the cost for the extra "business" features)? 😄
I need to make this decision myself this week. Can someone outline what the Pro does that the Ultra does not?
Also are there any test results available that show how much faster at serving data the Pro would be over the Ultra Plus? We're primarily be using ours for photo storage and with the speed increase compared to our NV+ I'm hoping we can edit wedding photos (80 GB to a folder) directly off the NAS (over AFP).
Obviously the Pro will be faster, but will it be $130 faster (or is most of the cost for the extra "business" features)? 😄
If you're going to be using the ReadyNAS just for backup or sharing, you won't see a difference between the Ultra 6 and the Pro 6. However, if you will be utilizing an add-on that does transcoding or will be doing incremental backups (i.e. with Remote Replicate option available only on the Pro) straight from the ReadyNAS, the extra horsepower from the Pro 6 can make things go faster. Also, the Pro 6 has a 5-yr warranty vs. 3 years for the Ultra 6. My recommendation for businesses (and high-end prosumers) is to go with the Pro 6.
BTW, you can go to the product pages on readynas.com for the respective systems and get performance data. You won't see much difference with sequential data as both systems are more than capable of saturating the gigE bandwidth.
Will multiple people be connecting their client machines to the NAS at once?
If you have a managed switch you can setup 802.3ad LACP teaming with the Pro 6 for improved performance. One user could be doing a large file transfer to the NAS and the other users could still access the NAS most likely with little noticeable difference to normal.
Thank you for the replies yoh-dah, mdgm and Sylvia. I knew those performance charts were hiding somewhere!
Our new NAS will strictly be used for storing photos. It won't be streaming media or anything else. It'll usually only be one person at a time, but at most would be two, browsing the 80 GB folders full of images with Photo Mechanic (kinda like Adobe Bridge). Opening them in Photoshop then saving them back. (My wife is a wedding photographer).
The NV+ is almost unbearable to work off. It is OK for smaller folders (like portrait sessions) but it is almost less frustrating for weddings to just spend the time to copy the whole folder to the local machine before editing and then copy it back. My wife is really looking forward to the updated horsepower, and available space, of a new NAS.
My only other quandary is which 3TB drives to get...
The $130 difference between the two on Amazon had me unsure. However after seeing the Pro 6 for only $908 at Newegg, just $30 more than the Ultra 6 Plus, we pulled the trigger.
Darn, too bad I don't have longer to wait. It has sat at $992 at Amazon for a while now and was higher than that at Newegg last time I looked (before just now when I ordered). DocumentIO only has the older model Pro in stock right now.
Darn, too bad I don't have longer to wait. It has sat at $992 at Amazon for a while now and was higher than that at Newegg last time I looked (before just now when I ordered). DocumentIO only has the older model Pro in stock right now.
The Pro I bought at DocumentIO was RNDP6000-200NAS (Intel 2.6), so that was the 2nd gen as far as I know.
This thread was useful..I'm on the same boat. Not a business user but will be doing streaming/transcoding of HD content. Seems like the general opinion is to go with Pro 6 for the additional CPU power? This is more than I expected to pay but definitely does all I want it to do for the devices I have at home.
I would go with the Pro 6 personally but it's up to you. For streaming alone no need for the Pro 6 CPU but if you need to transcode (convert video on the fly to a format your device can playback) video to stream it to your device then the Pro 6 is the way to go.
This thread was useful..I'm on the same boat. Not a business user but will be doing streaming/transcoding of HD content. Seems like the general opinion is to go with Pro 6 for the additional CPU power? This is more than I expected to pay but definitely does all I want it to do for the devices I have at home.
It looks like you should definitely shop around on price. When I bought mine the price at Newegg was only $30 different between the Ultra 6 Plus and the Pro 6. Just a few weeks later they've both gone up and the Pro 6 is now $92 more expensive than I paid.
If you're not in a rush I'd start checking prices everyday and be ready to pounce if you see a good deal.
Thanks Flash, exactly what I plan to do. Hoping to pay no more than $850 if possible.
I was happy to snag my Pro 6 for $908 at Newegg a few weeks back. Of course I waited until we were up against a storage crunch and couldn't afford the time to shop around very much! :nashammer:
Well with hard drive prices so high at the moment that does push the budget for many. Funds are not unlimited. Before the floods I'd been hoping for drive prices to fall further before buying more ReadyNAS units. Now I'm waiting for prices to come back down. Even upgrading existing units is expensive. Would need to spend about $800 AUD to add 4x3TB drives to my Ultra 6 to expand it. Also as my SeaGate 1.5TB drives (not a very reliable drive, I know, but I've only had one failure so far and that was in a NV+ unit) are not supported in the Pro 6 I can't simply buy a Pro 6 and move the drives across. I'd need to buy a new set of drives.
Edit: That's interesting. Looks like my drives are now listed on the compatibility list for the Pro 6. Maybe I just missed that and hadn't noticed it before or noticed it and forgot about it.
Well with hard drive prices so high at the moment that does push the budget for many. Funds are not unlimited. Before the floods I'd been hoping for drive prices to fall further before buying more ReadyNAS units. Now I'm waiting for prices to come back down. Even upgrading existing units is expensive. Would need to spend about $800 AUD to add 4x3TB drives to my Ultra 6 to expand it.
Exactly. The fact that newer cheaper drives aren't on the HCL doesn't help this issue at all. Money spent on hard drives is just less money going to Netgear...
So, thought I should update this thread after my experience with a ReadyNAS device. I pulled the trigger on a lower model and that was clearly the wrong choice. I've owned the Ultra 4 Plus (RNDP400U) for about 3 weeks now, installed PLEX and tested it with my PS3, Roku, Tivo, Media player, etc. I am returning it back to the vendor, mostly because of the poor CPU performance and also because the Tivo support is quiet limited, it only transfers shows without some sort of DRM (hasn't transferred very many).
I am still not willing to spend $900 for the Ultra or Pro 6, doesn't make any IMO and quiet frankly don't need the 6 bays. So I'll be placing an order for the Synology DS412+, which comes with a slightly better CPU, supports PLEX, and is compatible with the drives I already purchased.
Thanks everyone who helped me with this..I still think ReadyNAS is a great product and would consider/recommend it for other things.
