I need a storage solution!

[BCreation]

Basically I want to run dual 512gb SSDs in raid 0 and I don't know weather I should use many external hard drives for storage(each drive holding different files), a NAS setup, or a home server. The problem with building a home server is that I would be the only one who uses it. Which is why I don't know if I should invest in one. If it's worth it then I might consider, but I'd rather not. I feel that with external drives I would be extremely organized since I could label each drive with whatever it holds such as movies, photos, and backup.

[Whaler_99]

First, why two SSD's in RAID0? That won't really give you a noticable performance boost. One SSD would be fine. For storage, an external NAS box would be easiest. Like a two bay unit, running RAID1. A home server makes sense if you have old gear around you can use. Lots of free solutions and cheap ones. I use unRAID.

[BCreation]

I'm not putting my SSDs in RAID 0 for performance. I just want the extra space two SSDs give me. The RAID 0 is just there because I can.

Running a NAS box might be the solution I go with..Although I might get some Backup pluses just because I love they idea of having multiple of them and acting like each is a book of data.

Thank you for your suggestion.

[bill]

I am a firm believer in the NAS or Server setup. Now not only is your data all in the same place but it is also accessible from your entire network. I use the WHS 2011 and have loved that I can stream my media over the built in website and retrieve any file on my server I need from the internet. WHS also manages all of my client backups for me. Even though I'm the only person in my house that signs on to the server it benefits everyone, they just don't know it.

[The Game]

Having them in Raid 0 is a soft of a good idea. It will have considerable performance increase since you are running them in two individual sata connections. However you will not have any reliability at all. One drive fails you lose everything. Most importantly SSD's degrade over writes so the life of ssd's will be not more than 3 or 4 years for low cost ssd's.

If you still prefer it then go for the vertex 4's they have the lowest failure rates and are the best of the lot.

I am a strong Nas believer as you bill. if you dont have the money to invest or an old garbage pc then buy 3 or 4 hard drives and a pretty above average raid card and configure them in raid 6 ( i love raid 6) in your main pc itself that should finish the job and its way faster than nas's since you have the files in the pc itself.

You have the backup reliability and blazing speeds.

[VictorB]

A cheap solution is:

a simple used 64 bits dual core (which support usb boot) with 4gb mem and 8gb mem support. And gbit onboard or with a pci-e card. And 3x 2or3tb disk. + a usb stick.

You install nas4free on the usb stick and put the 3 disks in raidz1 so with 3x 2tb disk you get a array of 4tb and 1 disk can fail. So no expensive raid card because ZFS will do the raid.

Thes cost will be 100 euro/dollar for an used desktop computer. and 3 new disks 200 to 350 euro/dollar. You don´t have to buy a license because nas4free is free software. and you don't need to buy a expensive raid controller. You can always put more money in the system if you need more space or want a new hardware.