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frontpageDesertGardener | Staff posted Aug 11, 2025 07:38 PM
Item 1 of 5
Item 1 of 5
frontpageDesertGardener | Staff posted Aug 11, 2025 07:38 PM
ORICO 5-Bay DAS USB 3.0 Hard Drive Enclosure for 3.5" SATA HDDs
+ Free S/H$122
$200
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There's also a much higher overhead with a dedicated NAS, even if you go with an underpowered consumer grade Synology or QNAP.
And even if you did need a NAS, you could get one of these and hook it up to a mini PC, which will outperform anything Synology currently offers.
It also simplifies expansion, as you can just buy a second DAS.
https://www.amazon.com/ORICO-Exte...B0DGD3FB
seems like a better deal with RAID
Most people run a variant of Linux with all the necessary software built into it.
Open Media Vault is free and has a lot of support for different file systems, RAID support, and can also do software parity (ZFS, etc). It can run as both an entire OS or as a container, depending on how much hardware you want to dedicate to it. And more interestingly, it has Docker support, so you can run other software alongside it, just like you would with Synology. The only downsides I've found in using it is that when something goes wrong with the base OS (usually during major updates), you're not going to find a lot of documentation on how to fix issues. They usually just end up being forum posts with no explanation on why doing XYandZ fixes the issue, it just does.
TrueNAS is another free solution and probably the closest competitor to Synology. It natively supports ZFS and it's the most dedicated free NAS OS. Which is good if that's all you want to run, but not so great if it's leaving utility on the table (don't throw more hardware at it than it needs).
On the not so free side, you have unRAID. People love it for its ability to have flexible drive pools (buy another drive and it can be popped right into the pool), on top of being a really fleshed out OS.
And if you're more comfortable with Windows, I'd recommend Stablebit Drive Pool (not free, but it's better than Storage Spaces for most people).
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https://www.amazon.com/ORICO-Exte...B0DGD3FB
seems like a better deal with RAID
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If you're only attaching it to one device, the "N" in NAS isn't really necessary.
There's also a much higher overhead with a dedicated NAS, even if you go with an underpowered consumer grade Synology or QNAP.
And even if you did need a NAS, you could get one of these and hook it up to a mini PC, which will outperform anything Synology currently offers.
It also simplifies expansion, as you can just buy a second DAS.
Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank wherestheanykey
https://www.amazon.com/ORICO-Exte...B0DGD3FB
seems like a better deal with RAID
Hardware RAID on these can be problematic.
You'd have better luck recovering from software RAID, which is compatible with every DAS.
And if I recall, that one might have issues with USB-WAKE from boot, so it might be annoying to use with power outages.
There's also a much higher overhead with a dedicated NAS, even if you go with an underpowered consumer grade Synology or QNAP.
And even if you did need a NAS, you could get one of these and hook it up to a mini PC, which will outperform anything Synology currently offers.
It also simplifies expansion, as you can just buy a second DAS.
Can you recommend a setup tutorial with this and a mini PC? I was interested in Synology but they are so expensive!
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They only state 22TB because that's what was available when it was produced.
It will accept larger drives without issue.
DAS stands for Direct Attached Storage.
It just means you can plug it directly into a computer, usually over USB.
The internal interface for the drives is still standard SATA.
Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank wherestheanykey
It's rather simple once you figure out what OS and file system/features you prefer.
Most people run a variant of Linux with all the necessary software built into it.
Open Media Vault is free and has a lot of support for different file systems, RAID support, and can also do software parity (ZFS, etc). It can run as both an entire OS or as a container, depending on how much hardware you want to dedicate to it. And more interestingly, it has Docker support, so you can run other software alongside it, just like you would with Synology. The only downsides I've found in using it is that when something goes wrong with the base OS (usually during major updates), you're not going to find a lot of documentation on how to fix issues. They usually just end up being forum posts with no explanation on why doing XYandZ fixes the issue, it just does.
TrueNAS is another free solution and probably the closest competitor to Synology. It natively supports ZFS and it's the most dedicated free NAS OS. Which is good if that's all you want to run, but not so great if it's leaving utility on the table (don't throw more hardware at it than it needs).
On the not so free side, you have unRAID. People love it for its ability to have flexible drive pools (buy another drive and it can be popped right into the pool), on top of being a really fleshed out OS.
And if you're more comfortable with Windows, I'd recommend Stablebit Drive Pool (not free, but it's better than Storage Spaces for most people).
Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank MrtimJones
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