Need an portable array for travel

[Truckersparks]

Here is a brief back story for context. I'm a cross country truck driver and right now I currently have a 8tb extremal HD using a basic USB 3.0 interface after my last drive DIED and I had to wait till I got home a few months later to recover from back ups.. I store my steam library on it and my downloaded Movies/TV Shows so I can watch using VLC. At Home I have a repurposed computer running Windows and with 2 8tb hard drives in Raid 1 as a personal data/plex server (thinking about running a VM on that computer with Unraid or FreeNas  in the future). But in the truck Im wanting something with some SSD Speed my laptop Supports USB C 3.2 Gen 2 really wish now I got one with Thunderbolt! I would like to get an enclose or something else that is portable that i can run like a few 2.5 in SSD's  in Raid Striped  for Speed and 1 Standard 2.5 HDD mirroring the Striped Raid. Data caps, bandwidth, and dead spots keep me from just streaming my Movies/TV Shows. Key points is has to be portable at the max maybe the size of 2  3.5in externals drives give or take a few inches. Not sure where to go for help so I figured I would give the LTT Forums and shot hope the communality can help.

[PineyCreek]

Not SSD, but dual drive in a variety of capacities and can be configured in RAID0/1: https://shop.westerndigital.com/products/external-drives/wd-my-book-duo-usb-3-1-hdd#WDBFBE0040JBK-NESN

 

Mini-NAS without drives, but 2.5" likely won't work in these cages.  Might have to look at the few options of 3.5" SSDs: https://shop.westerndigital.com/products/external-drives/wd-my-book-duo-usb-3-1-hdd#WDBFBE0040JBK-NESN or https://shop.westerndigital.com/products/network-attached-storage/wd-my-cloud-expert-series-ex2-ultra#WDBVBZ0000NCH-NESN

 

Docking setup that you could probably use with MS Storage Spaces: https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-Drive-Docking-Station-DS-4SSD/dp/B0711L68MS/ref=asc_df_B0711L68MS/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=309807187084&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=17088187946080573385&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9028275&hvtargid=pla-527416318303&psc=1

 

Fanless (radiant cooling) dual dock with RAID options: https://www.amazon.com/MiniPro-Type-C-USB-C-Solid-State/dp/B01GVVC59A?th=1

 

 

[Truckersparks]

13 minutes ago, PineyCreek said:

Docking setup that you could probably use with MS Storage Spaces: https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-Drive-Docking-Station-DS-4SSD/dp/B0711L68MS/ref=asc_df_B0711L68MS/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=309807187084&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=17088187946080573385&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9028275&hvtargid=pla-527416318303&psc=1

 

Fanless (radiant cooling) dual dock with RAID options: https://www.amazon.com/MiniPro-Type-C-USB-C-Solid-State/dp/B01GVVC59A?th=1

 

 

I'm not sure what would be my best choice

 

i'm worried about bottle neck a little from the USB 3.0 interface with the Sabrent dock with 2x  4TB SSD's and then 2 other 4tb HDD as redundancy.

 

So  if I go with  MiniPro Dock I would need 2 SSD's in Raid 1 for redundancy cause I cant find a HDD bigger then 5tb in 2.5in form

https://www.amazon.com/SAMSUNG-870-QVO-SATA-MZ-77Q4T0B/dp/B089C3TZL9/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=2.5%2BSSD%2B4tb&qid=1619407099&sr=8-3&th=1

 

Thankyou for replying I will be researching more of these products in the mean time any other thoughts?

[PineyCreek]

3 hours ago, Truckersparks said:

I'm not sure what would be my best choice

 

i'm worried about bottle neck a little from the USB 3.0 interface with the Sabrent dock with 2x  4TB SSD's and then 2 other 4tb HDD as redundancy.

 

So  if I go with  MiniPro Dock I would need 2 SSD's in Raid 1 for redundancy cause I cant find a HDD bigger then 5tb in 2.5in form

https://www.amazon.com/SAMSUNG-870-QVO-SATA-MZ-77Q4T0B/dp/B089C3TZL9/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=2.5%2BSSD%2B4tb&qid=1619407099&sr=8-3&th=1

 

Thankyou for replying I will be researching more of these products in the mean time any other thoughts?

 

I'd kind of lean towards the minipro myself if you're requiring that speed.  The Sabrent if you're willing to accept some bottlenecks most likely.  If you're not hung up on using SSDs, you get a LOT more options.

 

Other Thunderbolt stuff: 3.5" only: https://www.amazon.com/TerraMaster-Thunderbolt-Storage-External-Enclosure/dp/B08D3GDKVF/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?crid=1CRQYC1PI5VTX&dchild=1&keywords=thunderbolt+raid+enclosure&qid=1619421764&sprefix=thunderbolt+raid%2Caps%2C187&sr=8-2-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEySzE2SllSOFAwQTdFJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMzEzOTUwMjM3Q1Q3MzZaVk40SCZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUExMDQ3Mzc4S0cwNERCMkNLNzNIJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

NVMe M.2 (so limiting options and adding costs potentially): https://www.amazon.com/Thunderbolt-Two-Slot-Enclosure-Support-Compatible/dp/B08L952WCB/ref=sr_1_4?crid=1CRQYC1PI5VTX&dchild=1&keywords=thunderbolt+raid+enclosure&qid=1619421872&sprefix=thunderbolt+raid%2Caps%2C187&sr=8-4

 

Alternatively, you get a larger (more than 2 bay) system or you get two large capacity external drives, mirrored with storage spaces, and accept that extra hassle of multiple unwieldy drives.

 

Here's another weird hybrid...not sure this would be useful: https://www.amazon.com/GLOTRENDS-Enclosure-NVME-SATA-inch/dp/B07XWL5FHM/ref=sr_1_21?crid=2JQXZ5RH150GD&dchild=1&keywords=thunderbolt+raid+enclosure+2.5&qid=1619422328&sprefix=thunderbolt+raid+enclosure%2Caps%2C387&sr=8-21

 

[Truckersparks]

Reason I want ssd speed is cause of steam library to cut load times and data transfers when I get back home and update my libraries on Movies/TV shows for offline viewing. Time is Money. I will have to look at a few of those thunderbolt enclosures to see if they are a 100% Compatible with USB 3.2 Gen 2 since my laptop doesn't have a thunderbolt port, I know some devices will work while a few wont. I might have to think about 3.5 drives but that could make it less portable. Only reason to stripe the ssds was for capacity/price not speed on external..  I've read the Raid Hdd vs ssd post on the forum here and ssd speed would be a benefit.  Thankyou for more ideas you found a few I didn't see when I was researching on my own. Back to the Sabrent enclosure how bad would u think it would be bottle necked on that 5gb USB 3.0 vs the 6gb sata III in a raid array? Remember the only reason I'm thinking about striping the drives vs buying bigger is capacity/price not speed on the ssd. I figured I would of been limited to a USB 3.1 or 3.2 Gen 1 interface.i know in my first post I said striped for speed I was mean speed as in ssd not in raid 1 speed due to overheads of USB interface usb 3.1 Gen 1 is 5gb Gen 2 is 10gb and usb 3.2 Gen 1 is 10gb Gen 2 20gb. In a perfect work an enclosure what I want in usb 3.2 Gen 2 would be perfect then I would get the speed from striping  in theory 

[Truckersparks]

To bad Linus couldn't recommend the micro sd card sata drive cause it was crap but a interesting video I was wondering why they didn't do that to increase capacity in the early days of ssds.