Cheapest 4-bay HDD enclosure or alternatives...

[GeorgeO]

I've found that copying from USB is significantly faster, but I've run into permissions issues-I cannot delete those files unless I go through Raider. I'm sure there is a way around it,but I havent found it yet. But either way, be warned, copying large amounts of data the first time is pretty time consuming.

 

[GeorgeO]

Also even though I have a GbE network, I havent got really high speeds for either read or write.

 

[Staxxx]

Thanks. I tried my first bit of copying last night. I was able to copy about 1.8 TB from the HDD to the internal drive in about 14 hours. I connected the HDD to the NAS via a USB 3.0 cable and gave the command to copy and paste from the PC.
But I must have that wrong as the transfer rate (if I calculated right) was almost 275 Mbps?!

 

[mgdelhi]

Thanks. I tried my first bit of copying last night. I was able to copy about 1.8 TB from the HDD to the internal drive in about 14 hours. I connected the HDD to the NAS via a USB 3.0 cable and gave the command to copy and paste from the PC.
But I must have that wrong as the transfer rate (if I calculated right) was almost 275 Mbps?!

Even I was getting similar speed while copying from USB 3.0. But when I copied from my Desktop PC through Gigabit LAN, speed was almost double.

 

[saketb]

I had been thinking on buying a NAS enclosure with 4 bay from the past month, but was not able to decide on the same. Then I came across this Netgear ReadyNAS 104 and it looked pretty decent in looks and pricing. So, thought of digging in for more information...

Then I contacted George and spoke with him on phone, and he explained me about the product and other things. I am really thankful to George for his valuable time and detailed explanation on this matter.

I see a few of them purchasing this product here, congratulations!! and before I commit, I would like to have responses from other owners as well. I plan on using Seagate 4x4TB hard drives with this NAS box and my main usage will be for streaming movies (720p & 1080P) and music (flacs)/music videos. I am mainly concerned for...

1. DLNA streaming of 1080p media, any stuttering or skipping?
2. DLNA FLAC streaming, any issues?
3. Overall performance of the hardware like hard drive transfer rates from PC->NAS, NAS->PC, Ext USB 3.0->NAS and vice versa, handling of files, etc?
4. Integrating with XBMC from a PC, any issues?
5. What file-system is best suited for this NAS?

Staxxx, could I know at what price did you buy it and from where in Bangalore?

Thanks to everyone.

 

[Staxxx]

Believe it or not, almost all the usual importers/dealers were quoting the new US Dollar price of around Rs. 22,000. None of them offered any help with setting it up - just were willing to sell it to me. I bought mine through Flipkart which was offering it (new and sealed) for Rs, 16,500. It arrived in two days. I suggest don't delay at this price (in my opinion only) as when dealers exhaust their stock they will have to import them at the higher US Dollar value. I then called Netgear support who were more than clear and helpful in assisting a newbie like me to set it up. I mean the hardware and software works fine - but there is a lot to learn on how to use it to its fullest extent, especially with regards to remote access etc.

 

[ukjeyaraj]

I ordered mine on saturday night at flipkart. It got delivered today. But I wont be able to use it for next 10 or 15 days. Will need to configure only after that.

 

[mgdelhi]

I think Netgear should give me a free unit for promoting this RN104 on he forum.

BTW, I bought it at 15225/- (14500 + 5% vat) from a Nehru Place dealer (mentioned on netgear's website) by giving other dealers' name and their (imaginary) quotes.

But I still feel that Flipkart deal is better as far is ease of getting it at home and paying by credit card. :thumbsup:

To be honest, I even didn't know that Flipkart is selling it before I bought it. May be because they have put it in wrong category AND I was searching for RN10400 and not RN104.

 

[Staxxx]

Yes they have it listed as an External Drive!

 

[saketb]

Believe it or not, almost all the usual importers/dealers were quoting the new US Dollar price of around Rs. 22,000. None of them offered any help with setting it up - just were willing to sell it to me. I bought mine through Flipkart which was offering it (new and sealed) for Rs, 16,500. It arrived in two days. I suggest don't delay at this price (in my opinion only) as when dealers exhaust their stock they will have to import them at the higher US Dollar value. I then called Netgear support who were more than clear and helpful in assisting a newbie like me to set it up. I mean the hardware and software works fine - but there is a lot to learn on how to use it to its fullest extent, especially with regards to remote access etc.

I ordered mine on saturday night at flipkart. It got delivered today. But I wont be able to use it for next 10 or 15 days. Will need to configure only after that.

I think Netgear should give me a free unit for promoting this RN104 on he forum.

BTW, I bought it at 15225/- (14500 + 5% vat) from a Nehru Place dealer (mentioned on netgear's website) by giving other dealers' name and their (imaginary) quotes.

But I still feel that Flipkart deal is better as far is ease of getting it at home and paying by credit card. :thumbsup:

To be honest, I even didn't know that Flipkart is selling it before I bought it. May be because they have put it in wrong category AND I was searching for RN10400 and not RN104.

Thanks everyone for replying.

@Staxxx, I guess you are right, as the current US pricing for this NAS box is not less than US$315.00 which works out more or less INR 20,000 + shipping + duty, which will be somewhere around 22000/-, I think I will go for it at the current available price here in Bangalore.

@ukjeyaraj, that's superfast delivery made by flipkart. Will be waiting for your review and opinion once you have configured it.

@mgdelhi, I envy that price...

I was thinking of buying a Seagate 4TB (ST4000DM000) hard drive along with the NAS box, but after reading a review on amazon.com regarding this drive not being compatible I'm skeptical on buying. It is mentioned "as compatible" on the Netgear ReadyNAS hard drive compatibility website - http://www.readynas.com/app/hcl_disk.

Well heading out now to my local dealer here in SP Road, Bangalore to find out more on this with the distributor, and if he confirms (exchanging to a 3TB if it does not work) I shall bring those toys home today.

Shall post an update by late evening.

On a side note (in my opinion) --- this thread should be re-named to "Netgear ReadyNAS Owners Thread".

 

[mgdelhi]

I was thinking of buying a Seagate 4TB (ST4000DM000) hard drive along with the NAS box, but after reading a review on amazon.com regarding this drive not being compatible I'm skeptical on buying. It is mentioned "as compatible" on the Netgear ReadyNAS hard drive compatibility website - http://www.readynas.com/app/hcl_disk.

About compatibility, I think the list mentioned on the link given by you is more of a list of tested HDDs with a particular model.

I have installed Western Digital WD30EZRX, 2 x WD20EARS and a Seagate ST32000542AS. None of these is mentioned in the list but they all are working fine.

Edit: I think, 3TB HDDs gives you better price per TB as of today, so consider that unless you don't want to have anything less than 16TB in your NAS.

 

[GeorgeO]

Mukesh

I agree on pricing of 3TB-BUT if the intention is to scale up gradually, the trends in HDD pricing are encouragingly downward sloping. Why not plan for the fullest capacity of 16TB instead of settling for less? In my case I bought my 3TB drives about a year and a half ago, and inserted all four drives fairly quickly. I understand that's not SaketB's plan.

 

[saketb]

Finally, bought the Netgear ReadyNAS RN104 with 1x Seagate 4TB HDD. (more drives at a later stage)

NAS 4 Bay Unit - Rs. 17,000.00
Seagate 4TB - Rs. 12,800.00

Flipkart is cheaper by 500, but wanted to check it physically and take it (peace of mind). Got a great deal on the hard drive.

Setup took sometime as there was a firmware upgrade and then the NAS was up and running. I was surprised when I saw the volume was created and was ready in just 10 minutes.
Now copying files into the NAS HDD from windows explorer and getting about 60-70MB/s.

Will update on the features as well as other things as I come across them.
Thanks everyone.

 

[mgdelhi]

Finally, bought the Netgear ReadyNAS RN104 with 1x Seagate 4TB HDD. (more drives at a later stage)

Congrats. :clapping:

I also get 60-70 mBps while copying from Desktop-PC to NAS. That's acceptable speed. I filled my 8-9 TB earlier than I had thought.

Please share your experience once you explore it.

 

[jsmithe]

What's the power consumption on this device? The specs on Netgear's website indicate 45W which is rather good, but does the power comsumption go up with additional HDD's?

Also, there are quite a few reviews on Amazon.com indicating that the Plex app does not transcode HD video well (CPU not able to keep up) and so on, plus reports of drives going missing after some time. Any feedback from FM's who have had this thing a while?

One last question, the box does look rather large in the pictures but the dimensions on the Netgear site indicate a rather svelte unit. Pictures with a reference scale would be much appreciated.

 

[manniraj]

Yes online reviews on amazon and newegg does not look good for this unit. May be George who I think is using this unit for a long time to give the feedback how does this perform and any of the issues that he may have come across as reported by some users on these sites.

Thanks

 

[ranjeetrain]

What's the power consumption on this device? The specs on Netgear's website indicate 45W which is rather good, but does the power comsumption go up with additional HDD's?

45W should be fully loaded. It would be too high a power consumption if only NAS box needed that much.

Also, there are quite a few reviews on Amazon.com indicating that the Plex app does not transcode HD video well (CPU not able to keep up) and so on, plus reports of drives going missing after some time. Any feedback from FM's who have had this thing a while?

There are bad reports about virtually every NAS product out there. When I was taking my plunge, I went with Buffalo based on real experience of talking to their sales rep (who sounded knowledgeable about their product) and less number of complaints on Internet.

A NAS box can sometimes be a miss or hit. Specially once you start using all of it's promised functions. As a simple cloud storage most NASs work without glitches though. Drives going missing would be too bad, specially for not-so-tech-savvy users. Despite all my care, I have lost some data while swapping drives (my own carelessness). So this is definitely something worrisome. But in the end all NAS products have their share of negative reports on Internet. Pick your poison.

The rate at which the said NAS box is available right now, I'd say grab it while it lasts. I couldn't find similar price in other markets.

PS: Some Netgear NAS can have their RAM upgraded, which helps with tasks such as downloading, media streaming. With default amount of RAM, not much should be expected.

 

[GeorgeO]

BY and large I am a happy user. I've been using ReadyNAS units for the past 5-6 years, initially a Duo( very happy user experience) and then upgraded to the NV+ V.2 4 Bay unit last year. The only area where I seem to have a problem-it may be something that is wrong at my network, not a NAS problem is read write speeds. I upgraded both the NAS and my network to GbE in the hope of having higher speds, but since I transfer data(huge amounts) across different floors in my house perhaps that may be the cause. Anyway I will do some diagnostics when I get the time to rectify this problem.

 

[GeorgeO]

I did notice on surprising thing though-I connected a 3TB external drive to the USB port and it was unable to recognize it( unlike the 3TB internal drives) until it was partitioned into two smaller partitions. The firmware is updated so this is a bit surprising.

 

[Staxxx]

Hi George: I connected a 3 TB single-volume external drive only yesterday and it recognized it fine and copied the contents over several hours. I checked the OS on RAIDar.

@jSmithe: It is indeed a rather small box and is hardly larger than the four drives with casings. I don't find the box intrutive although the blue light on the front (for power) is rather bright.

One thing I wanted to mention (as I learnt the hard way)...depending on the configuration that you want to have do think about how many drives you put in initially and how you set it up right from the start. My data is backed up externally on HDDs. So I wanted to set the volumes up as individual volumes in FLEXRAID. I thought I would be able to add HDDs as I needed, but being a newbie, I did not know that to configure the NAS drives in JBOD you need to have the total set of drives populated (if that is the way you intend to use the NAS). On the other hand if you do want redundancy for your data - which is probably the most common way of configuring the NAS - then the default xRAID2 is very useful.

@Saketb: If you leave the default XRAID2 then the second disc you add will automatically copy the contents of the first drive for data protection. Then the third and fourth added become storage drives. The good thing about the single-volume architecture of XRAID2 is that it allows you to add additional drives without reformatting your drives and having to move your data somewhere else. You can continue to use the NAS while you do the needful to increase your volume capacity.