HDD external raid enclosures/bays for makeshift NAS setups?
reddit / selfhosted

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frillyseal · 2023-12-28 16:36

I'm on a pretty strict budget of around $150 and most prebuilt NAS
systems are out of my price range. I have an underused laptop thats
relatively beefy that I've been using as a project NAS and wanna know
if anyone has any reccomendations for exteral HDD bays that would work
well for TrueNAS or other software? This NAS would be pretty much
exclusively basic data storage and Plex/Jellyfin streaming for a few
people with sub gigabit setups

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justahobby20 · 2023-12-28 19:16

For a laptop w/ an nvme slot and zero care for the form factor, you
could get very hacky and go nvme->pcie->hba card (on IT mode) w/ a
separate psu to power the drives and throw in a hdd cage.

Or look for deals on "DAS" (direct attached storage) instead of NAS.
You should be able to get a good 4 bay DAS around $150.

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frillyseal · 2023-12-28 20:51

And I would be able to mount the discs in said DAS on a server OS? Or
are you reffering to DAS as a total alternative?
Thanks a ton for the advice!

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justahobby20 · 2023-12-28 21:12

Your "server OS" with the connected DAS would make a NAS. You would
mount the DAS into the OS, but the trade off with DAS and any other
USB option is that you will be talking to a usb controller instead of
the disks directly. So, loss of functionality and speed traded for
convenience.

Also, some DASs have hardware raid built in, but software raid (btrfs,
zfs, etc) are the current preference since you gain the advantage of
easily moving the disks to a new machine, whereas hardware raid would
basically require the same exact hardware and possibly even firmware
version to get the raid back up and running.

There's nothing wrong with playing with a couple 3.5" sata to usb on
the laptop while you get a handle on all the moving parts. You'll want
to upgrade as you learn more, anyway. I started with an external 4tb
connected to an old laptop running Open Media Vault.

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frillyseal · 2023-12-29 18:23

Thanks a ton man, your help means a lot!

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justahobby20 · 2023-12-29 18:57

You got it, brother. Just keep backups of the important data on a
platform you're already comfortable with and you'll be good.