NAS vs HDD network share

[Wilderness]

I’m expanding my storage and I wanted to get some input on what the benefits of a NAS would be over just having internal hard drives that are shared over the network. I don’t think there’s a lot of benefit to getting a NAS for my own little set-up, but I might be overlooking or not thinking about something.

Not counting a few tablets and my wife’s chromebook, my household has 2 main computers: an older laptop that is my primary media center (runs my plex server, downloads content for me, attached to our main TV) and my computer that is primarily for playing wow and general web activity. Right now my media resides mostly on the 500GB HDD in the laptop and an attached 1TB external HDD that I’m starting to outgrow.

So I’m looking to add 3-4 TB of additional storage that would serve primarily to house my media, most of which would be accessed/shared through Plex on the laptop. My initial plan is just to get add an internal hard drive to my computer and then share that over the network. That would mean I’d have to leave my computer on so that its always available but I pretty much do that now anyway.

It seems to me that the cost of a NAS enclosure doesn’t really add much value to me – I don’t have a ton of storage, I’m not trying to set up a RAID configuration, nor do I have a whole lot of network traffic or people accessing it. Are there any reasons that I should consider setting up a NAS over just adding an internal HDD and sharing it over the network?

Also, any recommendations for 3 or 4TB drives would be welcome.

[Deleted]

I was in a similar boat like a year ago. Atm 2 pc's plus tablets, media etc. I was outgrowing my 2 WD clouds (2tb external ethernet drives) so i build i little pc. Obviously its not the cheapest solution but its the best long term as you can keep adding drives. You can start with 1-2 3/4tb as you said and go up to 8-10 depending how many the mobo you will purchase can handle. I did also tho add a small ssd for the o/s and got a perma usb stick on it ready with a backup o/s and win on it just in case...

As mentioned i like the WD reds for storage, they are not 7200rpm but they are quiet and build for that purpose exactly, storage. You also get Acronis (back up/recovery software) for free with those reds if you purchase 2tb drives and above (or at least it used to be free).

edit: The build i made/got is:

Intel celeron, 2x4gb ram, gigabyte B85 mobo, 1intel ssd + 2x 2tb reds and a psu with many sata connectors which i cant remember atm, have to open it. That is on a bitfenix micro case. Had cost me around 500-520euro, should cost you less now and will probably make better setup. But i can have 2 pcs and tv doing play back 1080p at the same time, listening to music for it, no problems yet, the only thing i might change at some point get a low power i3 (t).

[Auxora]

It's kind of 6 of one half a dozen of the other with some modest differences. The main one is that it depends how you're using the system you are sharing from. For example, if you're streaming movies from your HDD share out, that's a lot of network traffic and hd activity that will slow that machine down while that's happening. Same for if you're using the disk as a target say for security cam video. If you aren't ever going to use the sharing machine while using it for anything else though, that's not an issue. That's probably the biggest thing. Beyond that, you can raid from a NAS or internal HDD on most motherboards (or bleh do sw raid), but what level of raid you can do and the options for raiding will depend on the features on your motherboard.

[Kagthul]

Depends on what NAS; mine has some substantial benefits. (I have a Qnap 4 bay: http://www.microcenter.com/product/4..._TS-431_Server, often goes on sale for 200$ or less. Picked mine up for 150$)

I can access it from anywhere - even when i'm on the road. It will run a PLEX server for you (and an iTunes server if thats your thing), download things for you (has a torrent client and several other apps, including ftp downloads), transcode the video into a format/container of your choice after it downloads, all sorts of other things. It also uses way less power than even a small computer left on, and has apps for most tablets/phones that you let you access the video or audio or other files from wherever you are in the world securely, and it will automatically transcode the video to make it better for streaming across the web.

For 150$, it was a no-brainer. And adding more storage is super easy, and if you need to remove an old disk, as long as there is enough storage on the other disks still in the unit, you can tell it "im removing drive 1 to replace it" and it will intelligently store all the data on drive 1 on the other disks, and when you put the new disk in, automatically move the data back.

It also has smart RAID features, and features that mimic a raid but arent, all sorts of stuff.

Well worth it, IMO.

[Deleted]

Doesn't that Qnap bottleneck if say 3ppl are accessing it at the same time with its low ram? And by access i mean play video/music etc.

[Lathais]

Depends on what NAS; mine has some substantial benefits. (I have a Qnap 4 bay: http://www.microcenter.com/product/4..._TS-431_Server, often goes on sale for 200$ or less. Picked mine up for 150$)

I can access it from anywhere - even when i'm on the road. It will run a PLEX server for you (and an iTunes server if thats your thing), download things for you (has a torrent client and several other apps, including ftp downloads), transcode the video into a format/container of your choice after it downloads, all sorts of other things. It also uses way less power than even a small computer left on, and has apps for most tablets/phones that you let you access the video or audio or other files from wherever you are in the world securely, and it will automatically transcode the video to make it better for streaming across the web.

For 150$, it was a no-brainer. And adding more storage is super easy, and if you need to remove an old disk, as long as there is enough storage on the other disks still in the unit, you can tell it "im removing drive 1 to replace it" and it will intelligently store all the data on drive 1 on the other disks, and when you put the new disk in, automatically move the data back.

It also has smart RAID features, and features that mimic a raid but arent, all sorts of stuff.

Well worth it, IMO.

Looking at that thing and it looks nice. It doesn't look like it comes with any HDDs though. Nor an OS. Is that correct? So the initial cost to get it set up, even if it's on sale at $200, would still be closer to $400 after OS and a couple HDDs right?

[Vash The Stampede]

You could simply use a router with a USB port and plug in an external USB drive? But if you wanna Plex then a device like the Raspberry Pi 2 might be what you need. Then you just plug in an external USB driver to that instead. You can download Plex for Ubuntu.

[Kagthul]

it has its own OS that it downloads when you fire it up and put a drive in it. Its absolutely free.

I had a few drives to put in it already, but i also bought a 4TB drive to add to it.

[Lathais]

it has its own OS that it downloads when you fire it up and put a drive in it. Its absolutely free.

I had a few drives to put in it already, but i also bought a 4TB drive to add to it.

Ah, that's good. I just saw the part where it said:
System Requirements
Supported Windows Operating Systems

Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8
Supported Macintosh Operating Systems

Mac OS X
Other Supported Operating Systems

Linux, Unix

and thought you would need to provide your own.

[Kagthul]

No, those are the OSes you can access the device's OS with. Though it works fine on my CHromebook too - it runs the NAS OS (a stripped down Linux variant) in a browser window, or you cant set it to mount like a drive if thats your thing. Or both.

[Wilderness]

Thanks for the responses everyone, it confirms that I don't really have a need for a NAS - a shared HDD will work just fine for my purposes.