OS6: Upgrade Ultra 2 plus or buy new quad core ARM?

[Dewdman42]

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:

1. Plex video and music streaming
2. Crashplan
3. Sickbeard and sabnzbd
4. SMB and AFP server
5. FTP
6. Time Machine Server
7. sonos streaming
8. 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?

[BrianL2]

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

[Dewdman42]

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

[Rootax]

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.

[Dewdman42]

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...