Netgear's Marvell Based ReadyNAS NV+ v2 Review
by Ganesh T S on November 9, 2011 8:30 AM EST- Posted in
- IT Computing
- NAS
- NetGear
The introduction of the ReadyNAS Duo v2 and NV+ v2 shows that Netgear is still interested in catering to the economical prosumer segment of the NAS market. While players like Synology and QNAP also provide offerings with similar hardware specifications, they often carry a premium due to advanced firmware features that many consumers don't end up using.
The benchmarks indicate that the ReadyNAS lineup members based on the Marvell Kirkwood 6282 perform almost on par with those from Synology and QNAP. By sacrificing some features such as NFS and iSCSI and cutting back on the DRAM, Netgear has managed to deliver the members at half the price of the competition's offerings. In such a situation, it is hard to not give Netgear our seal of approval for the ReadyNAS NV+ v2 and Duo v2 units.
Our seal of approval doesn't mean that Netgear can rest on its laurels. The ReadyNAS Vault cloud backup service is slated to be available in the Duo v2 / NV+ v2 firmware sometime in the beginning of next year only. Unlike QNAP units, I don't expect out-of-the-box support for backup to storage services such as the Amazon S3. But, that is perfectly acceptable (It is conceivable that some add-on could be created for this purpose).
There is still lot of work that needs to be done with respect to the add-ons. While the redesigned FrontView interface is a pleasure to use, some of the key options (such as setting up of the FTP service) are not placed in a prominent manner. The RAIDiator 5.x interface is much improved, but it still needs some tweaks. However, these drawbacks don't take away the fact that the Duo v2 and NV+ v2 offer the best value for money for a majority of the consumers in this market.
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JHBoricua - Wednesday, November 9, 2011 - link
I'm pretty sure the difference in the power supply draw of the Ready NAS and the HP Microserver is not that much when fully loaded. And somehow, I doubt the support from Netgear is anything to talk about, having dealt with them before.LeftSide - Wednesday, November 9, 2011 - link
My HP Proliant Microserver with a dual core 1.3Ghz with 8Gb ECC DDR3 ram running Solais 11 express idles at 15 watts. I've added 2 hitachi 3 tb drives, and have not measured power yet, but 15 watts is pretty good.nasuser - Thursday, November 10, 2011 - link
"but many SMBs / SOHOs don't have time to build or maintain a NAS themselves."And more to the point many don't WANT to or have the expertise.
Whatever the criticisms of various consumer NAS, unbox -> plug in -> turn on and you're ready to go in a few minutes.
No OS to install, or hooking up to a display etc. And if/when they fail - getting back to a factory default status is as easy as a reset button press.
If all you need is basic network storage, I think devices like these can save alot of time & effort and at a reasonable price point.
alanh - Wednesday, November 9, 2011 - link
I have a mixed environment at home and am looking for something like this that I can use to do automated backups of Macs via Time Machine and PCs via [whatever other method]. Does this work for the former on Lion and does it include software for the latter?beginner99 - Thursday, November 10, 2011 - link
I've been considering such a device too lately but for now I just keep the stuff in my desktop. Those consumer NAS have the advantage, that they are very small. A DIY build will easily be double the size unless you go for an expensive special case (Chenboro...) and then it won't be any cheaper. You will also be very restricted with the motherboard (mini-itx with enough sata ports).dj christian - Thursday, November 10, 2011 - link
IDY?JHBoricua - Thursday, November 10, 2011 - link
" A DIY build will easily be double the size unless you go for an expensive special case"Not necessarily. As I pointed out earlier, for the same price of the diskless NV+, you can get a HP Proliant Microserver with 8 times more RAM than the default NV+ config, a better CPU and without hardly a difference in power draw. And you don't have to sacrifice on the size either.
Here's a size comparison.
ReadyNAS NV+ dimensions: 7.9 H x 5.2 W x 8.7 D in
HP Proliant Microserver dimensions: 10.5 H x 8.3 W x 10.2 D in
You get 6 SATA connections (5 internal, 1 eSATA), one internal USB port mounted on the motherboard (that could boot your Os), 1 half height PCIe x16 and 1 half height PCIe x1 open slots for future expansion and can be expanded with up to 8GB of RAM (8 times the NV+ maximum).
It's a much better deal for the DIY'er and offers better flexibility.
Evadman - Thursday, May 16, 2013 - link
An HP Microserver is 2.5 times bigger than an NV (you even posted the dimensions) 360 cubic inches vs 890 cubic inches. Comparision picture: http://www.avforums.com/forums/networking-nas/1634...The ReadyNas is much more of a plug and play system than the HP is. Plug it in, throw drives in it, and it works. The HP is an actual server, so you need to do an order of magnitude more configuration and setup, not to mention continual maintenance. The ReadyNas handles all that in the software to a much higher degree than the HP. If you are looking for pure performance and configuration options, the HP may be a better solution. If you want easy, the Readynas may be a better solution. Both have their own niche, so it depends on the skills the user has and how much effort they want to expend.
Full disclosure/experience/whatever: I have three NV+'s along with a server with a 50TB RAID 60 array running Server 2008R2 on an Adaptec 52445 along with other NAS type devices from other companies.
jleach1 - Saturday, November 12, 2011 - link
Someone explain how a MSRP of $399 is cheaper than the current NV+?I see em going for between 250-350?