Comparing 5 to 50TB NAS storage boxes

In Store

Netgear ReadyNAS Pro6

ReadyNAS Pro6 by Netgear made itself heard in our lab – in the truest sense of the word. The Pro6 was the loudest device in the test and was still audible even when idle. However, it did include the necessary installers as Linux shell scripts (although they failed to find any of the installed browsers in our tests and thus were very little help.) The ReadyNAS is typically sold pre-installed with disks, ranging from 1 to 3TB. Fitting your own disks is difficult, especially considering the cradles do not have drill holes for 2.5-inch disks. In contrast, extending the functionality is fairly easy because you can simply add disks to the proprietary X-RAID 2 that is configured by default. This was a unique feature in the test field.

Things start to become complicated if you do not want the predefined RAID level but prefer to configure a standard RAID. This involves a factory reset with a bent paper clip for a 10-minute time window, when you can make all your changes. In this case, all possible RAID levels must use all existing disks.

Another thing we noticed about the Netgear NAS is that it uses a full-fledged desktop CPU (Intel Pentium), whereas other competitors tend to use less powerful, but energy-saving Atom CPUs; however, this extra power did not result in significantly better I/O performance.

For the most part, the Netgear ReadyNAS Pro6 does without retroactively installable features. The pre-populated and pre-configured device is easy to use and extensible on the fly, within limits. It is well suited to standard tasks such as file server, backup, or virtualization storage, but it does not win any prizes for versatility.

Conclusion

Ultimately, your choice for a NAS storage device will depend on the price, personal preference, and needs of your network environment.

Table 1

Basic Data

Vendor	QNAP	Synology	Iomega	Thecus	Buffalo	Netgear
<add images>	QNAP.png	images/Synology.pn	@BI:images/Iomega.png	@BI:images/Thecus.png	@BI:images/Buffalo.png	@BI:images/Netgear.png
Model	TS-879 Pro	DS2413+	StorCenter px6-300d	N6850	TeraStation 5800	ReadyNAS Pro6
Manufacturer	QNAP Systems Inc.	Synology	Iomega	Thecus Technology	Buffalo Technology	NETGEAR
Operating System	Embedded Linux	DSM 4.0 (Basis: Linux)	EMC LifeLine	Linux	Linux	RAIDiator OS
Price	~US$ 2,200 (without disks)	~US$ 1,700 (without disks)	Starts at <US$ 800 (without disks)	<US$ 1,000 (without disks)	~US$ 1,600 and up(without disks)	~US$ 1,000 (without disks)
Hardware
Processor	Dual-core Intel core i3-2120 processor 3.3GHz	Intel Atom D2700, 2.13GHz	Intel Atom 1.8GHz	Intel Pentium G620, 2.60GHz	Intel Atom D2700 dual core	Intel e5300 2.6GHz
Memory	2GB DDR3 RAM	2GB DDR3 RAM (extensible to 4GB)	2GB	2GB DDR3 RAM	2GB DDR3 RAM	1GB
Network interfaces	2x gigabit RJ-45Ethernet	2x gigabit RJ-45 Ethernet	2x gigabit RJ-45 Ethernet	2x gigabit RJ-45 Ethernet	2x gigabit RJ-45 Ethernet	2x gigabit RJ-45 Ethernet
Power	100--240V AC, 50/60Hz, 350W	100--240V AC, 50/60Hz	External	300W single power (80plus)	100--240V AC,50/60Hz	120/230V(50/60Hz)
Fans	2	2	2	1	2	2
Disk slots	8x, hot-swappable	12x, hot-swappable	6x, hot swappable	6x, hot swappable	8x , hot swappable	6x, hot swappable
Hard disk types	3.5- or 2.5-inch SATA 6 or 3Gbps	3.5- or 2.5-inch SATA II	3.5- or 2.5-inch SATA II	3.5- or 2.5-inch SATA II	SATA (3Gbps), 3.5 inch	SATA I or SATA II, 3.5 inch
Max. disk size	4TB (single HDD)/16TB (RAID)	4TB	3TB	4TB	4TB	3TB
USB Interfaces	2xUSB 3.0, 4xUSB 2.0	2xUSB 3.0, 4xUSB 2.0	1xUSB 3.0, 2xUSB 2.0	4xUSB 3.0, 4xUSB 2.0	2xUSB 2.0,3xUSB 3.0	3xUSB 2.0
eSATA interfaces	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No
LCD panel	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Form factor	Desktop, 217.5(H)x327(B)x321.2(T) mm	Desktop; 270(H)x 300(B)x340(T) mm	Desktop minitower 270(H)x176(B)x 257(T) mm	Desktop minitower 320(H)x215(B)x 283(T) mm	Desktop, 300(B)x215(H)x230(T) mm	Minitower 285(H)x 170(B)x250(T)

Table 2

Services and Software Features

Feature	QNAP	Synology	Iomega	Thecus	Buffalo	Netgear
IPv4	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
IPv6	Yes, Dual Stack	Yes, tunneled	No	Yes, dual stack	No	Yes
VLAN	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
NFS V3	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
NFS V4	No	No	No	Yes	No	No
CIFS/SMB	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
iSCSI	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
AFP	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
HTTP/HTTPS	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
FTP/FTPS	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
TFTP	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No
SSH	Yes	Yes	After enabling	Yes	No	Yes
DHCP client	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
UPnP/Bonjour	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Software Features
Encryption	Yes	Yes, per shared folders	Yes, AES 256	Yes	No	No
Compression	No	No	No	No	No	No
Deduplication	No	No	No	No	No	No
Replication	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes (Data Guard)	Yes	Yes
Snapshots	Yes (only iSCSI)	In time backup	No	No	No	Yes
Antivirus protection	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No
Backup	Yes, diverse options	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Web GUI	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Logging	Yes	Yes	Selected events	Yes	Yes	Yes
Resource monitor	Yes	Yes	Without performance data	Yes	No	No
SNMP	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
S.M.A.R.T data	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes
Wake-on-LAN	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Internal apps	Yes, e.g., media, file, backup photo server, and much more	Yes, media, file, backup photo server, and much more	Yes	Yes, apps for media, web or DB server, etc.	Yes	Yes
Port trunking/NIC teaming	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No

Table 3

Authentication and Disk Management

Feature	QNAP	Synology	Iomega	Thecus	Buffalo	Netgear
Microsoft Active Directory (AD)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes, for authentication purposes	Yes	Yes
LDAP server	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
LDAP client	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
RAID Level
RAID level	0,1,5,6,10	0,1,5,6,10, Synology Hybrid	0,1,5,6, 10	0,1,5,6,10,50	0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, 51, 60, 61	0, 1, 5, 6, X-RAID2 (proprietary)
Global spare disk	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
File Systems (Internal)
ext3	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	Yes
ext4	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes
XFS	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
ZFS	No	No	No	No	No	No
Btrfs	No	No	No	No	No	No
WAFL	No	No	No	No	–	No