Buying a NAS. down the rabbit hole edition...

[Thorhax]

So I bought a new 2.5in 4tb HDD for my laptop, but learned the drive I got won't fit inside due to the thickness being 15mm. I honestly thought all 2.5in HDD's were the same form factor until today. 

Anyways, instead of returning the drive I've decided I wanna create a NAS but I don't have any hardware on hand to do such in an efficient manner i.e. I have a Raspberry pi 3 b+, a router which supports file sharing but both of these would be limited to usb 2.0.

 

Options I've looked at so far:

1.) Buy a Raspberry pi4 and get a sata add-in board and case.

2.) Buy a new router which supports file sharing on usb 3.0 and then buy a simple enclosure for my HDD.

3.) Buy a NAS which I can simply insert drive into.

 

What I want is to have an SMB server so I can easily connect to the drive as a file server only.

Being able to access the files from outside my home would be a nice bonus if possible.

 

Thoughts/comments/suggestions please.

 

[LIGISTX]

6 minutes ago, Thorhax said:

So I bought a new 2.5in 4tb HDD for my laptop, but learned the drive I got won't fit inside due to the thickness being 15mm. I honestly thought all 2.5in HDD's were the same form factor until today. 

Anyways, instead of returning the drive I've decided I wanna create a NAS but I don't have any hardware on hand to do such in an efficient manner i.e. I have a Raspberry pi 3 b+, a router which supports file sharing but both of these would be limited to usb 2.0.

 

Options I've looked at so far:

1.) Buy a Raspberry pi4 and get a sata add-in board and case.

2.) Buy a new router which supports file sharing on usb 3.0 and then buy a simple enclosure for my HDD.

3.) Buy a NAS which I can simply insert drive into.

 

What I want is to have an SMB server so I can easily connect to the drive as a file server only.

Being able to access the files from outside my home would be a nice bonus if possible.

 

Thoughts/comments/suggestions please.

 

A pi would give you the most flexibility out of your options. You could build a full on NAS/server, but that could be a v2.0 type deal. A pi would be a solid start.