Opinions about using a mini PC with a HDD enclosure as NAS
Opinions about using a mini PC with a HDD enclosure as NAS
I was thinking on buying a 2-4 bay HDD powered enclosure as a NAS for my mini pc, since I already have that, and buying or building a full-fledged diy NAS seems a bit expensive.
I want to hear some opinions from you guys, since it seems using this method is a mixed area from the selfhosted pros. I would be hoping that by using a powered enclosure, that would alleviate or solve the USB port overcharging issue, which have appeared in my mini pc when trying out an external HDD with a normal sata to usb converter.
Did you have any experiences with a setup like this one?
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It's viable, but when you're buying a DAS for the drives, figure out what the USB chipset is and make sure it's not a flaky piece of crap.
Things have gotten better, but some random manufacturers are still using trash bridge chips and you'll be in for a bad time. (By which I mean your drives will vanish in the middle of a write, and corrupt themselves.)
I've had "trash controllers" in Orico units which rewite the drive details which makes them annoying to work with but I've never heard of
your drives will vanish in the middle of a write, and corrupt themselves
That sounds likes its underpowered and when the draw is up the supply can't handle it, which could happen for internal drives if your supply isn't up to powering enough drives.
Use a reputable brand like TerraMaster and you'll not have those sorts of problems.
Seconded. It's not a bad idea, but it's another point of failure for sure.
To add on - several of those USB controllers implement stuff in non-standard ways, so if your board fails you either need another one of the exact same model and firmware to read the data off those drives again. It's very likely if you just bought another DAS/USB controller that the drives/partitions would be unreadable, and you'd have to start over again.
OP, it's not a bad idea unless you don't have a backup plan. If you are planning on having no backups, then this is much more risky than just an external hard drive, this could very well lead to complete data loss. If you have a solid backup plan, then go for it! If you don't, then for the love of god you aren't ready for it.
Honestly, if you only need a few bays, just look at getting a Synology.
Always have a offside backup for any data you deeply care about it's never worth he risk.
So as a TLDR a DAS really should only be used as an offside backup plan or secondary storage then? I might really have to do a DIY NAS with a desktop PC then. Thank you for the warning!
I mean it's up to you, your decision. In my experience going the usb route though only leads to more cost later, to me it's better to just save your money and go with a solid solution in a couple of months. You don't have to go crazy. An old desktop with some extra sata ports is a fine start