Orbi RBK50 with and without USB 2.0

[Coness]

Can anyone explain the differences between the Orbi RBR50 that have USB2.0 port vs ones that do not?  As far as I can tell there is no difference in terms of features and hardware specs.  Only difference I can see is that the ones without the USB are newer. 

Looks like is v1 and v2 out there and I can only see that v1 has Memory: 4GB flash and 512MB RAM where as v2 has Memory: 512MB NAND and 512MB RAM.  Honestly, not sure what that means, so can someone please explain?  Is one better than the other?

[FURRYe38 · Accepted solution]

Memory is mostly for logging and platform for FW load. More room for FW as FW may get larger in size. I guess NG figured that since FW and operations worked with out maxing out v1 memory, that it's cheaper to remove some memory that was probably not being used. It won't effect performance. Most other routers use about the same amount of memory as v2. They are what they are. Nothing changing anytime soon. Orbi AX is next platform. 

[Coness]

Looks like there is v1 and v2.  I can only see that v1 has Memory: 4GB flash and 512MB RAM where as v2 has Memory: 512MB NAND and 512MB RAM.  Honestly, not sure what that means, so can someone please explain?

[tomschmidt]

NAND is a type of Flash memory, so in this case they are refering to the same thing for storage memory.

I have the RBR50 v1 with the USB port.  Going to the http://orbilogin.com/debug.htm page shows that I have 512MB of memory and 4GB of Flash storage (round up from the 495MB number seen on the screen due to some memory reserved for the OS).  Below is a screenshot.  Can someone with an RBR50 v2 go to their debug.htm page and capture the same data?  It seems odd to me that the v2 would have significantly less Flash memory for storage (512MB) than the v1 (4096MB).

[Coness]

Went to big box and bought RBK50 and I think it is v2 because the USB 2.0 port is NOT present.  Flash memory is definitely NOT 4GB!  

Spoiler

Basic Infomation
	CPU Load	46.283%
	Memory Usage(Used/Total)	188MB/484MB
	Flash Usage(Used/Total)	268MB/512MB
	Network Session(Active/Total)	1783/65536

[FURRYe38]

Yes there is a difference in Memory:

https://www.netgear.com/images/datasheet/orbi/RBK50v2.pdf

Yes, there is no USB port available on v2. Same goes for Orbi AX. I believe NG is moving away from USB support on ALL Orbi systems going forward. Probably couldn't make it work well or something they don't want to develop and support. 

[Coness]

Makes sense that they don't want to support USB 2.0 ports, but I don't get the massive reduction in memory. I think i may return v2 and try to get v1 with more memory and USB.  Unless I am missing something in specs or features, but it seems that v1 is better equipped in every way.  What am I missing?

Also, in reviewing the previous post it looks like flash memory ~50% used on both v1 and v2. So at least that is consistent, but I am still confused on true differences between the two.

[FURRYe38]

Other than memory and USB differences, they're the same. Don't expect to use v1 USB for any USB drives. NG doesnt' seem to be supporting this at all. Its not currently working for USB drives. 

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@Coness wrote:

Makes sense that they don't want to support USB 2.0 ports, but I don't get the massive reduction in memory. I think i may return v2 and try to get v1 with more memory and USB.  Unless I am missing something in specs or features, but it seems that v1 is better equipped in every way.  What am I missing?

Also, in reviewing the previous post it looks like flash memory ~50% used on both v1 and v2. So at least that is consistent, but I am still confused on true differences between the two.

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[Coness]

So basically v2 is a downgraded version of v1 in terms of memory and the lack of USB.  That seems like a step backwards IMHO.  How does stripping down the memory not affect the performance of the router?

[FURRYe38 · Accepted solution]

Memory is mostly for logging and platform for FW load. More room for FW as FW may get larger in size. I guess NG figured that since FW and operations worked with out maxing out v1 memory, that it's cheaper to remove some memory that was probably not being used. It won't effect performance. Most other routers use about the same amount of memory as v2. They are what they are. Nothing changing anytime soon. Orbi AX is next platform.