Reviewing the RNDX400E was difficult from start to finish, not least because we were sent the RNDX4210 instead first. It’s an easy mistake to make though, since both the RNDX400 and RNDX4000 (notice the extra zero) series share pretty much identical hardware. Netgear RNDX400E Netgear's driveless ReadyNas NVX Pioneer Edition …

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Thursday 11th February 2010 14:57 GMT Annihilator

NAS crazy

I struggle to understand the cost of even the most basic 4-disk NAS. So much so, I've just put together my own DIY 4-bay NAS based on the Atom and an ITX form case. Total cost - £200 inc VAT + delivery with a copy of FreeNAS. Not to mention it includes all the features this ReadyNAS is missing. Performs better, too.

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1. Thursday 11th February 2010 20:46 GMT Steven Raith
  
  @annihilator
  
  I tend to agree, and would certainly rather cannabilise an old machine and slap some disk in with OpenFiler or FreeNAS for myself, but if you wokr in a small business, and you're not a terribly techy type, that simply isn't an option - you *need* proper support, you need a warranty, etc.
  
  I'd never buy one of these for myself, but I did buy the six disk ReadyNAS Pro Business edition for a previous employed, and it worked a treat for all sorts of tasks, without the headaches of having to techy-debug/built it myself/etc.
  
  Steven R
  
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2. Friday 12th February 2010 11:31 GMT Mark 65
  
  Cost
  
  I struggle with the cost of this unit when I can get a superior QNAP TS-439 Pro for similar or less money with all of it's features. Such a device has a lot going for it, is ready to go out of the box and is simple enough for anyone to understand. Low power consumption as well.
  
  You need to remember that these are designed for minimum fuss, and have hot swappable drives etc. I doubt that a £200 DIY device would have equal capability with the QNAP although I'm willing for you to list it's spec and prices and prove me wrong.
  
  I used to run an old tower as my file server etc using Ubuntu, webmin etc but got the arse with it's noise and power consumption although speed and uptime were never an issue. I wouldn't give up my QNAP for any DIY box though.
  
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Thursday 11th February 2010 20:49 GMT jberger

Great NAS, too bad it gives you Bloody Knuckles

I've been bitten by the NVX as well, it's hard to imagine how stamped fan guard made it into production. It's nice that they included a handle, but why add the cheese grater style metal exactly in center of the handle.

We got a number of the NVX units in production with very good results. ReadyNAS builds a top quality product, but it is priced above most of it's competition. A low street price and less flesh hungry design would be a nice change.

To all those who compare these units with DIY JBOD units are missing the point. These units just work, are well supported and very well built business class devices.

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Friday 12th February 2010 11:31 GMT Christian Berger

It's storage

It's storage, therefore it must be expensive.

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Friday 12th February 2010 11:32 GMT Tim Bergel

NetGear ReadyNAS support

I was amused to read about all the initial setup issues you had - seems typical of user's experiences with the ReadyNAS systems.

But the real issue is NetGear's support. There doesn't appear to be any - though I note that jberger seems happy with it - maybe I've been going to the wrong places. All I could find was a user forum with endless problem reports and nearly all support coming from other users - very little visible activity from NetGear people at all.

So unless other users can say 'you get great support by going to xxxxx' I would advise against having anything to do with ReadyNAS systems at all.

Jberger - how and where did you get support?

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