Dedicated NAS vs HDD USB on Router

[Noyu]

Hey guys! I'm trying to setup a media server of sorts for my home.

 

I'm currently considering either a (1) dedicated NAS, or an (2) external HDD plugged (USB3.0) to a Router

A last-resort option would be running my PC 24/7 and remote sharing my media to the home network.

 

The plan is that I'll download *wink wink* my media to my PC and transfer it to the NAS or the eHD through the network.

Not sure yet but most probably my PC will be plugged in to the network through gigabit ethernet.

 

This will just be a simple media server for everyone to access wirelessly. I really don't need redundancies/backup.

I'm just looking to save a few bucks by just getting what I really need.

 

Aside from the PC, 2 Mi Boxes (Android TV) will be accessing the server wirelessly using Kodi.

From my understanding sort of remote share like FTP which can be done on options 1, and 2.

 

I'm really leaning towards 2nd option since I already have 2TB USB 3.0 external HD.

Now I just need to find a router with USB 3.0

 

On the other hand, I'm currently looking at an offer for a used QNAP TS-201 for ≈100$ INCLUDING 2x1TB drives.

 

Thoughts?

[You_are_a_cunt]

I'd go for the NAS

[Noyu]

4 minutes ago, revsilverspine said:

I'd go for the NAS

care to explain why?

[You_are_a_cunt]

1 minute ago, Noyu said:

care to explain why?

Higher flexibility, can be upgraded later on, provides better support and compatibility with various devices. You can also plop the 2x2tb drives into the NAS via usb ports and boom. 4tb of storage.

Plus, external hdds via router doesn't always work as intended. Tried that to watch movies on a ps3 via network and I never got it to show up as a network drive or share (although my PC could see and access it)

[AshleyAshes]

I gotta be honest, if all you want is the TWO drives, you might as well just plug'em into the router.  You already OWN the router and assuming it's firmware works correctly, it should have no issue doing what you want it to do.  So the investment is minimal.  Secondly, you can always upgrade later, you can crack open those external drives and install them into a NAS in the future should you opt to do so.  So the router seems like an acceptable 'baby step' to see if you even NEED a NAS or if the Router will do a good enough job.

 

However to be warned, some routers can cause issues.  For a brief time I was using a 32GB USB key installed in my AC66U to serve image files to the screen savers on other machines.  I don't know if it was the router, the USB key or the fact that it had 5 000+ images on there in a single folder but it'd start corrupting images.  I had hoped for it to act as a solid state universally available screensaver image cache that'd run even when my NAS was down but no joy.  I moved the files to he NAS and it worked fine.  Though I've never read about other AC66U owners having file corruption issues with USB drives like I did, so I think it was a unique combination of issues.

[Noyu]

11 hours ago, revsilverspine said:

Plus, external hdds via router doesn't always work as intended.

This is actually one of my dilemmas. Because I'm not entirely sure how a router reads/writes to an HDD through USB.

11 hours ago, AshleyAshes said:

You already OWN the router

Actually, I don't. At least not yet. My choice for the router will be dependent on which option I take.

If I go the NAS route, I won't need the USB capability and might concentrate on finding one with decent WiFi signal and Gigabit Ethernet.

If I go the USB route, I would be looking for one with USB3.0. And I would still have to research one which doesn't have the USB3.0 x 2.4GHz interference issue.

[Axinex]

12 hours ago, AshleyAshes said:

Secondly, you can always upgrade later, you can crack open those external drives and install them into a NAS in the future should you opt to do so.

Not always necessarily. I'd check around to see if your model of external HDD uses a standard SATA connector inside of the enclosure, or if it's a proprietary connector on the drive. I've seen a number of newer Seagate and WD external drives use a custom PCB soldered directly to the drive instead of a standard SATA->USB controller type of setup.

 

Of course, YMMV.

[jj9987]

I'd let router do what it is meant to do - route packets and handle networking. That's all. Get a NAS, they aren't that expensive and will give you much better experience along with additional features (that is in addition to what others have said already).

[Noyu]

7 hours ago, jj9987 said:

I'd let router do what it is meant to do - route packets and handle networking. That's all. Get a NAS

I have a question. are NASes required to employ RAID?

 

e.g. I might buy that old used QNAP TS-201 with 2x1TB drives. I read the specs and it can only do RAID0 and RAID1

 

Is it possible for the drives to show up as 2 separate drives without RAID0?

That way I can maybe use one drive for TV Shows and then the other for Movies. something like that.

[SCHISCHKA]

the only issue i have with USB drive on router is that routers get terrible software update support and it is likely they will be running an older version of samba with a ton of publicly known exploits.

[Tamesh16]

the one main thing i see is the ability to run hard drive monitoring and ability to do raid setups so you can hot swap drives, idk i feel that would be great to have in the NAs that is 

[ChalkChalkson]

Well, the NAS gives you lots of additional features (eg Plex), but the HDD is cheaper, so it comes down to your budged, and whether you care about redundancy, expandability, servers setups like Plex or OpenVPN and general utility.

[dpt456]

Wow, this a huge topic of debate, so please bare with the long answer. The question of "Dedicated NAS vs Router with  USB HDD" is extremely complicated and nuanced"

 

These are the key questions:

 

How much  money do you want to spend?

A 2 bay nas cost $150. 2 x 4 TB hard drives will cost you $200. $450 total. 

You already have an external hard drive, so buying an external 8 TB hard drive cost $150.  Three times cheaper. 

 

What level of reliability do you want? 

The NAS can be set up as RAID 1 for better reliability. It's been said many time before, but RAID 1 is not a replacement for off site back up! Common causes of losing data:

1. Accidentally deleting/formatting/corrupting everything

2. Total hardware failure due to random events. Dropping it on the floor, overheating, any parts in the NAS or HDD  goes bad.

3. Burglary or Fire. 

You  must have  off site back up  if you want to protect from these major sources of data loss. RAID 1 will only protect you from a fraction of the catastrophe, but offsite back up protects you from nearly everything. 

 

What is your tech savvy level?

The NAS will guide you through everything. If you use a router with USB, you are mostly on your own. You will need to set a FTP client to back  up and access your data. If you don't know what this means, prepare to spend a lot of time researching and troubleshooting. Being your own IT is not as easy  as you think it is. There is a reason why  services such as OneDrive, Dropbox, Carbonite, etc exist. Offsite back up is time consuming and difficult when you try it on your own. 

 

Do you have friends or family who you are willing to share files and hardware with?

Doing your own offsite back up is much cheaper and  easier if  you  have  a person you can trust to store your  files, and hardware. I have a close family member who has my data backed up on their FTP server. We back each other's data on each other's server. We back up every month. The only way to lose data is if both of us experience a catastrophe at the same time. (One catastrophe could be family betrayal haha)

 

Do you intend to use MAC, windows, android, IOs or a combination? 

You will need to do a lot of research on file system formats and FTP servers/clients. I did a lot of research, and I ended up  using: 

ExFat formatted USB hard drive running of Router with built in FTP Server. This sever will serve clients across all platforms. 

Windows 10 client backing up with ExFat hard drive using WinSCP

Max OS client backing using Cyberduck with MAC formatted hard drive.

Android phone using Turbo Client to access data. 

 

Do you require media streaming capability, or just back up and restore?

The NAS will have far more advanced features for streaming. The Router with USB  will only be able to do FTP file server. 

 

What  level of performance do you want?

The number  one  limiting factor is internet upload speed. This will dictate how fast your files can be sent out. (This is for remote internet WAN performance)

If you use a paid service such as Dropbox,  you will get  much better internet WAN performance. The  Dropbox servers can feed out data much faster than your home internet. 

Second biggest  factor is router performance. The CPU and the WIFI chip will greatly affect performance. The client WIFI chip also makes a big difference. (This is for local access performance within your LAN network)

Lastly, hard drive speed will be a small factor. Most HDD will be about 100 MB/s and SSD will be around 500 MB/s. This is a minor point because the speed of  the hard drive is usually not a limiting  factor compared the the other two.