At a glance
Product	NETGEAR ReadyNAS 626X (RN626X)   [Website]
Summary	Six bay Intel Quad Core (Broadwell) Xeon NAS with revamped OS based on BTRFS with built-in antivirus
Pros	• Two built-in Standard 10GbE ports • Built-in antivirus • Expandable to 11-bays via expansion unit • BTRFS Filesystem (unlimited volume snapshots)
Cons	• No lock on disks or drive bay door

Typical Price: $1331  Buy From Amazon

Introduction

Updated 10/25/16 - Component corrections

As we've noted in many reviews, many of today's NASes can be limited by the bandwidth of a single Gigabit Ethernet connection when transferring large sequential files That's why you'll see many of the file copy read and file copy performance numbers clustered around 110 Mbps. Aggregating multiple ports can increase total throughput, but usually only for multiple users accessing the same NAS via aggregated links between the NAS ans network switch.

Today, the simplest way to increase throughput above 1 Gbps is to use 10 GbE. But this can be a costly proposition, since you need 10Gbe on client, switch and NAS. Still, some higher-end NASes are beginning to either offer 10GbE as an option, or build it in. Such is the case with NETGEAR's ReadyNAS RN626X that I'm reviewing today.

The RN626X is a 6-bay NAS powered by an Intel Xeon server-class processor. The "X" in the product name indicates that it's a family of NASes. It's available in diskless (RN626X00), 18TB (RN626XE3 - 6X3TB), 24TB (RN626XE4 - 6X4TB), and 36TB (RN626XE6 - 6X6TB) configurations. Also listed on the NETGEAR website as "coming soon" is the 12 TB RN626XE2 (6X2TB) model. Total capacity based on 10TB disks is 60TB. An expansion unit, the EDA500 can add five more bays for additional capacity.

I'll be comparing the ReadyNAS 626X with the NETGEAR ReadyNAS 716X and Thecus N7770-10G NASes. All three have built-in 10 Gigabit Ethernet as well as two Gigabit Ethernet ports. Both of the ReadyNASes have two 10 GbE ports while the Thecus has only one. The chart below, generated from the NAS feature chart, shows the important part of the comparisons between the three products. Both of the ReadyNASes are six-bay NASes, the Thecus N7770-10G is a seven-bay NAS.

ReadyNAS 626X, ReadyNAS 716 and Thecus N7770-10G product comparison

The callouts below shows the front panel and rear panel callouts. With the drive bay door closed, you can view the LCD status screen and navigate through the menu options. With the drive bay door open, the six bays are exposed as well as a USB 3.0 port, disk indicator LEDs, and a power button.

The table below summarizes the status indicators.

Table 1: NETGEAR RN626X Status Indicators

Four Western Digital Red 1 TB (WD10EFRX) drives (SNB supplied) were used for testing. Total power consumption with all drives spun up was 55 W (drives active) and 37 W (power save). Fan and drive noise was rated low. We found the RN626X much easier to take apart than previous products. The rear panel comes off with 2 screws and the PCB is mounted on a plate and removes with four screws.

Inside

Updated 10/25/16

The image below shows the component side of the main board. Referring back to the photo of the RN 716X board, there are similarities, but the boards are different designs. The PCI-e slot at the top of the photo has a removable rear panel to support access to connectors on an expansion card.

NETGEAR ReadyNAS 626X board

Below is a shot of the bottom of the RN626X PCB. Note the beefy mounting bracket for the heatsink which most likely adds stability and additional heatsinking.

Update - A sharp-eyed reader pointed out the M.2 slot at photo bottom left and wondered if it could be used to support a future SSD cache drive.

NETGEAR ReadyNAS 626X board - bottom view

The key components are summarized in Table 2 showing the ReadyNAS 626X, ReadyNAS 716X and Thecus N7770-10G for comparison.

Introduction, Inside Performance, 10GbE, Closing

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