Looking for some advice on my journey to expand my local storage. Currently, I have a mini PC running my Arr setup with Plex and I have an external enclosure with a HDD connected through USB. I can reliably push 4K to my Android TV. This is the system’s only use and purpose.
I need to continue to be able to Hardlink files so that I can seed back while Arr programs are sorting and renaming for Plex.
I’m not too concerned with a file backup solution or relying on this setup for sharing important files across my home network.
Would a DAS be sufficient for this? Is there any reason I should avoid this and invest in a NAS solution?
Depends on what you’re running on your current solution I suppose. There’s no real appreciable difference between either. A NAS is just an OS with a storage array, and hooking a disk array up to your current solution is essentially the same thing. One benefit of a productized NAS would be simplicity for managing storage and apps made for the device, and I guess community. Rolling your own is just that difference. Plenty of FOSS solutions for building your NAS to simplify that as well.
I may go down the DAS path then. I was eyeing a QNAP 4-Bay DAS. Perhaps a NAS later on if I’m in need of a home network storage solution that is a bit cleaner and user friendly.
Why QNAP over Synology?
No reason other than price. Everything I see listed for Synology is a NAS setup.