Duo vs. NV+

[pzanga]

I'm wondering which readyNas makes sense for me to purchase - the Duo or NV+.
I'm a home user and the main use would be for storing and streaming my media files to my Netgear EVA9150. I have approximately 1.5 TB of media (video, music and photos) and figure I would use the ReadyNas Duo with 2 x 2TB drives in a X-RAID configuration, additionally backing up to the several external drives I already own. The external drives will be connected to the network via my Netgear WNDR3700 router's USB connection. I suppose I should look towards offsite backup instead, but haven't thought things out that far yet.
My main question is whether this will give me adequate storage as I know I won't have a full 4 TB once drives are configured. I don't anticipate my collection growing significantly in the short term as it's taken 10 years to get to where I am (20 years for the music collection), so if I have a few hundred GB for expansion I think I would be in good shape.
If a 2 x 2 TB set-up with the Duo doesn't seem adequate then I'm thinking I would go with the NV+ with a 4 x 1.5 TB set-up. Obvously that would increase my up front costs a bit, but I am willing to acept that if it will benefit me in the long run.
Any thoughts, suggestions or other feedback is appreciated. And please let me know if you need more info to give me feedback.

And as a little more background, I am a home user with minimal technical savvy in this area (learning a lot more about networking and streaming than I anticipated) who can pick things up pretty quickly as long as initially explained clearly without a lot of jargon.

Thanks

[dbott67]

The Duo and NV+ are essentially the same device, albeit with a different number of drives. The CPU (sparc-based IT3107) and base RAM (256 MB) are the same, as are the features in the firmware (for the most part --- the NV+ does have a couple of extra options for the business user. See the comparison chart for full details: http://www.readynas.com/wp-content/uplo ... arison.pdf).

My advice would be to go for the extra storage capabilities of the NV+. In addition to the 2 extra bays, it gives a few more configuration options, better flexibility when expanding, less space used for redundancy (25 % vs. 50%) and a 5 year warranty vs. 3 year on the Duo.

-Dave

[mdgm]

I suppose I should look towards offsite backup instead, but haven't thought things out that far yet.

You should be able to rotate USB backups off-site.

If a 2 x 2 TB set-up with the Duo doesn't seem adequate then I'm thinking I would go with the NV+ with a 4 x 1.5 TB set-up. Obvously that would increase my up front costs a bit, but I am willing to acept that if it will benefit me in the long run.

I would go with the NV+. You needn't fill all the drive bays just yet. So you could get 2x2TB or 3x1.5TB for now. X-RAID volumes can be expanded so you can always add extra disks later (the ReadyNas will see the capacity of the smallest capacity disk on each disk i.e. if you have 1x500GB and 3x2TB disks, an X-RAID volume will see 500GB on each disk giving a 1.5TB volume, but in that scenario if that 500GB disk is replaced the volume would expand to 6TB).

I'd use drives on the HCL.

[pzanga]

Wow, thanks for the prompt replies. I really have noticed,, as others have said, that these are some great forums. Lots of good advice on my EVA and router already. Now this.

I'll probably go with the NV+ with 3 drives. I think I just needed a little push to go with the NV+. Sounds like I'll be pretty future proof that way.
Thanks.

Any other advice before I make the plunge is still appreciated.

[mdgm]

Well the NVX and Pro would be better if you can afford them, but if you can't the NV+ is the next best thing.

[dbott67]

Well the NVX and Pro would be better if you can afford them

I was going to say the same thing. If you're really concerned about "future proofing" your NAS, then it may be worthwhile looking at the NVX or Pro. These units have 3-4 times the performance of the NV+ and would certainly see you through the next few generations of computers, especially if you work with very large files (video/image editing, CAD, etc.)

Having said that, if media streaming and general file storage is what you need, then the NV+ will do just fine.

[pzanga]

Thanks again. I could afford the higher end models, but can't really justify the expense based on my needs. Appreciate the advice. I'm sure I'll be back with more questions once I get my NAS and start configuring.