DIY Budget NAS for Plex

Ympker · October 24

So, I have been happily rocking Plex on a refurbished Futro S740 and have been quite happy with the performance and setup. However, right now I have a single 2TB external Hard Drive plugged in to it, and another (not plugged in) for backup. With BF approaching I was wondering what the best approach would be to go to a 2 or even 4 bay NAS in a budget friendly way.

Option 1:

Buy 3 more external hard drives, and plug them into the remaining usb-ports, or get a cheap usb-hub for like 10-15€ with 4 USB 3.0 ports like e.g. https://sabrent.com/products/hb-um43

The question here would be if that hub/the Futro would have enough watt to power 4 external drives on that hub, or even on the Futro's USB ports. I can also imagine that performance may suffer from 4 external drives plugged into one small usb-hub. That said, technically, that's what these hubs are also for, right?

Option 2: Get a 2 or 4 bay independently powered USB Hub/Dock like (again) Sabrent Docking Stations and attach that to the Futro S740

https://sabrent.com/collections/docking-station/products/ds-u3b4 - roughly 99€

https://sabrent.com/collections/docking-station/products/ds-4ssd (with fan; and closure; roughly 90€)

https://sabrent.com/products/ds-sc4b (150€+ 2/4 bay trayless dock)

A rather silent setup is preferred, since this is in the living room. Futro S740 is silent, and as roughly 10W TDP, which is nice

Option 3 : Get an actual Entry Level NAS. Pros: Lots of apps, and handy ecosystem (Synology, QNAP, Asustor Drivestor..). Cons: probably more pricey, possibly be unhappy with performance, stop receiving updates for vendor-locked OS (Synology, QNAP..).. if it breaks down need to buy a whole new (expensive) NAS. If Futro breaks down, just replace with another used Futro-like mini for 50-100€. Recycle Drives and Docks and go.

Any advice or experience you can share?

vish · October 24

I have gone through this myself recently and in the end for me it came down to what makes me the happiest. I'm a cheap bastard low end connoisseur and so cheap was the first priority followed by low TDP.

Ympker · October 24

@vish said:
I have gone through this myself recently and in the end for me it came down to what makes me the happiest. I'm a cheap bastard low end connoisseur and so cheap was the first priority followed by low TDP.

So this would mean option 1? Keeping the futro s740 and max out its usb ports until an usb hub is needed, and then extend to a bigger (powered) usb dock when needed? The Futro is silent, performs well and has low TDP, so quite nice actually

bikegremlin · October 24

I don't think Synology or Qnap would be very silent with decent quality drives inside.
So, that's another reason to stick with what works.
Not that I've had much luck with USB external drives, nor do I trust them even for a second backup (they're OK for transporting data via pigeons though).

Ympker · October 24

@bikegremlin said:
I don't think Synology or Qnap would be very silent with decent quality drives inside.
So, that's another reason to stick with what works.
Not that I've had much luck with USB external drives, nor do I trust them even for a second backup (they're OK for transporting data via pigeons though).

Fair enough, will probably continue using the Futro then and just upgrade when needed. In case of external USB drives, could also buy internal ones with external case. Sometimes they tend to be more durable. Also if that plug breaks you can't use the external drive anymore, but with an internal drive + external usb case, you can just get another case.

teamacc · October 24

@Ympker said:

@vish said:
I have gone through this myself recently and in the end for me it came down to what makes me the happiest. I'm a cheap bastard low end connoisseur and so cheap was the first priority followed by low TDP.

So this would mean option 1? Keeping the futro s740 and max out its usb ports until an usb hub is needed, and then extend to a bigger (powered) usb dock when needed? The Futro is silent, performs well and has low TDP, so quite nice actually

Depends. Most 3.5" drive enclosures come with their own power brick and barely draw anything from the USB port. 2.5" tend to rely on it a whole lot more though.

root · October 24

I have Raspberry Pi 3B+ and a few days ago I was thinking of using one as NAS, since I want no fans. Problem is obviously power over USB for the external HDDs.

Solution: some cheap powered USB hub (like this) which in theory should provide enough power to the USB drives, as well as the Pi itself.

The bottleneck would be the USB transfer (300Mbps maximum in theory), but it should be enough for my needs.

Now I just need to wait for Black Friday at Amazon. If anyone knows some high quality and powerful USB hub, please share.

beanman109 · October 25

Could look into a Odroid-HC4 if you don't mind working with an ARM CPU
https://www.hardkernel.com/shop/odroid-hc4/

havoc · October 25

There are a bunch of solutions around the N100

...many of them fanless. Though beware you won't get full nvme speed on them. So might make more sense to go sata

Aliexpress is full of variations...one of them is bound to suit.

https://www.fanlesstech.com/2024/04/the-worlds-smallest-nas.html

https://www.newegg.com/p/296-006H-00003

https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/N100DC-ITX/

https://www.amazon.com.au/CWWK-Network-PCI-ex8-Compatible-5600MHz-Barebone/dp/B0CQVJ7Q8C?th=1

...do keep in mind power and case could push price up. And keep in mind that many of these contraptions have limited power budget on USB. I'd also stalk ebay a bit for older NAS...I've seen some good deals on there for 2nd hand

cpsd · October 25

Hi Ympker, as I do already have a Synology I don't like this kind of solutions. These days I was thinking the same than you and I found also this mini pc which has nvme bays HP ELITEDESK 800 G3 INTEL CORE I5-6500 8GB. In case I prepare one machine, I should use nvme. We are in 2024! You can get 1TB for around 70 euros.

DIY Budget NAS for Plex

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