When comparing Netgear ReadyNAS RN212 vs QNAP TS-451+-2G, the Slant community recommends QNAP TS-451+-2G for most people. In the question“What are the best home NAS units?” QNAP TS-451+-2G is ranked 1st while Netgear ReadyNAS RN212 is ranked 2nd. The most important reason people chose QNAP TS-451+-2G is:
This unit comes with two free surveillance camera licenses that can be used with special surveillance software. If you want to use more than two cameras, you can scale up your surveillance network by purchasing additional camera licenses. Up to 40 IP surveillance cameras can simultaneously stream data to this unit. It supports more than 3000 different kinds of camera.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Good connectivity for fast data transfer
The Netgear ReadyNAS 212 has three USB 3.0 ports and an eSATA port, useful for attaching extra peripheral storage to the device. While USB 3.0 ports are common on NAS units, eSATA ports are somewhat less common. This is an advantage because eSATA based storage devices are both very popular and powerful (eSATA provides faster data transfer speeds than USB 3.0).
Pro Affordably priced quad-core option
This is one of the most affordable quad-core NAS units available. Virtually all other quad-core options are slightly more expensive while only offering little advantage. When compared to Netgear’s corresponding dual-core model, the 212’s media transcoding performance is twice as fast.
Pro Great as a media server
It can stream Full HD multimedia files to your computer, smartphone, tablet or smart TV with ease. It can handle video transcoding as well, unlike less powerful NAS units. The large storage volume (16TB) also ensures that you will have more than enough space for your movie and music collection.
Pro Great for surveillance systems
This unit comes with two free surveillance camera licenses that can be used with special surveillance software. If you want to use more than two cameras, you can scale up your surveillance network by purchasing additional camera licenses. Up to 40 IP surveillance cameras can simultaneously stream data to this unit. It supports more than 3000 different kinds of camera.
Pro Excellent for home entertainment
This NAS unit performs brilliantly in terms of multimedia transcoding. It can stream Full HD videos to multiple client devices simultaneously without any lag.
Pro Saves power when not in use
This unit has a scheduled power management system. Rather than always staying on standby, when the NAS isn’t being used, it will switch to a system sleep mode which only consumes 0.57 W.
Pro Easy to configure by using it as a standalone station
You can hook up a mouse, a keyboard and a display to this unit and use it as a standalone station to setup and configure it. This is possible because it has four USB ports and a HDMI port.
Pro Expandable storage
You can expand the storage potential of this unit up to a 96TB with an eight-bay extension unit. A cheaper five-bay extension unit is also available. You can also expand the RAM from 2GB to 8GB of DDR3 RAM.
Cons
Con Transcoding capabilities are limited
Although it can flawlessly transcode a single Full HD video stream, it cannot do the same with Ultra HD/4K video files. It also cannot transcode to multiple client devices at once.
