NetGear ReadyNAS Ultra 4 (Diskless)

Pros: Works great with PS3 and streaming of music and most videos.

Cons: Poor quality, firmware and workmanship. Terrible tech support. There were heat sinks rattleing around the unit when i got it. READYNAS? Ready for what is the question. Not for any data of value. There are cheaper, better solutions

Summary: Readynas? Well not quite ready for much. I had 2 boxes over that past month. One was dead after a few days. But it took 2 weeks for the techs to figure it out. Instead of paying to ship me an other one I decided to return the defective one back to the reseller. I got a model 2 steps above the last so settled for a Readynas Pro Pioneer edition. This one worked for about a week. Just enough time for me to get it working and tested. I liked it to be honest. It did not convert all the movies I had to work on the playstation, but enough. The music streaming was very nice. Then I did a software update. And it stopped working. No more data. Everything was gone. I called support and they tried to sell me a contract. OK if you buy a car and drive it home to have the wheels fall off in the drive way, it is probally not a good time to suggest a contract. So after a few minutes of explaining my position I got thru to tech support level 2. They could not help me so it got escalated to level 3. Which is in China. Oh and you cannot talk to these guys directly. Even though I speak Mandarin and Cantonese. They told me it would be 24-48 hours before anyone could telnet into the box. Same story I got on the last broken box. OK all my data is now on this unit I have no choice. It is now 4 days and no one has looked at it. I found out last night from a friend of mine in Manilla. (that is where level 1 tech support is) It seems that they have a huge que and lots of broken units. They suspect the latest firmware and xraid2 being the issue. So I would suggest you look to an other vender for a NAS unit. I know the CNET guys like this box. The reason I bought it quite frankly. Oh and gave it a second chance. But when the qnas comes this box is back to the reseller. At the very least do not upgrade your unit. This unit gets a thumbs up when it works. However I would never trust my data to Netgear ever again. If you are looking for stream to a PS3 not bad. Just back your data to a real safe place.

Updated on Jan 10, 2011

After 5 days it still has not been looked at by Netgear. Save your data and look at an other product. Qnas is a good suggestion. With a 3 year extended warrentte from NewEgg not a bad choice. Netgear? don't waste 1's and 0's to even look at it on the web.

Updated on Jan 14, 2011

It took netgear 6 days to call me back. The qnap I got was running already and my old unit was at the reseller. So needless to say I was not happy. QNAP!!! Forget this micky mouse device. Almost the same money and 10 times the features. QNAP you hear it here first. Rememeber the CNET guys test it and send it back. I had 2 units. Both failed in less than aweek.