expired Posted by phoinix | Staff • Nov 21, 2024
Nov 21, 2024 11:43 PM
Item 1 of 3
Item 1 of 3
expired Posted by phoinix | Staff • Nov 21, 2024
Nov 21, 2024 11:43 PM
QNAP TR-004 4-Bay USB 3.2 Gen 1 RAID Expansion Enclosure
+ Free Shipping$174
$219
20% offAmazon
Visit AmazonGood Deal
Bad Deal
Save
Share
Leave a Comment
Top Comments
79 Comments
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
If you want it to be network available, your host system will need to run services like SAMBA.
Look into OpenMediaVault if you want something that's easy to manage.
Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank iWant2BLikeMike
A lot of people run unRAID just so they don't have to tinker too much, but I think enabling autoexpand on the zPool when you create it might be enough.
The real question now though is whether it makes more sense to just buy a case that can house more drives internally, especially since we have 22TB per disk drives.
So as far as a DAS goes its good, I can recommend it, but is it still relevant in 2025? I'm not so sure.
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
The one I linked is better than USB because it provides 6Gb/s to each drive. PCIe Gen 3 X8 is capable of 64Gb/s much faster than 20Gb/s.
My personal preference is to put the money in a good NAS case, say 8 bay, and fill it with older hardware lying around that works perfectly well for serving up media, but not new enough for other tasks.
The one I linked is better than USB because it provides 6Gb/s to each drive. PCIe Gen 3 X8 is capable of 64Gb/s much faster than 20Gb/s.
It's capped at PCIe Gen 3 x2: https://www.qnap.com/en-us/produc...s/hardware
So while SAS can address each drive separately, the total bus bandwidth is still limited to 16Gbps.
However, let's stay grounded and acknowledge that you're going to have a hard time saturating the bus with even the fastest mechanical drives.
In that regard, 16Gbps is probably enough. And if 16Gbps is enough, then the 20Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 provides is more than enough, and USB 4 is just overkill.
Wasn't your original comment about wanting a DAS you could use with any system?
My personal preference is to put the money in a good NAS case, say 8 bay, and fill it with older hardware lying around that works perfectly well for serving up media, but not new enough for other tasks.
In your scenario, there's a lot of initial upfront investment and planning. And once the case is full, your only recourse is to buy larger drives.
With a DAS, you're only limited by the number of available USB ports.
Not to mention a lot of people are pairing these with mini PCs, which use smaller DC-DC power supplies.
If you want it to be network available, your host system will need to run services like SAMBA.
Look into OpenMediaVault if you want something that's easy to manage.
Solid state can do it, but the TB/$ isn't quite there yet for the kind of files most of us are dealing with.
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
My personal preference is to put the money in a good NAS case, say 8 bay, and fill it with older hardware lying around that works perfectly well for serving up media, but not new enough for other tasks.
"Honda Civics are bad because the Mercedes exists".
Not everyone wants a Mercedes, even if it is in their budget.
Leave a Comment