NAS or DAS?

dannyjo22

dannyjo22

dannyjo22

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I’m going away from my current pc set up with multiple internal drives backing up and changing to a Mac mini. All I really want to back up if a few documents and then my pictures and lightroom catalogs.

I already have the drives and I’m looking for a storage solution for this one Mac, where I can keep my photos on one drive and auto back up mirror to another. I’m guessing I don’t need a NAS as I have no interest in having it on my network and don’t have a cable set up to connect it. I think I’d rather DAS.

Can anyone suggest a good DAS set up, most of the ones I’m looking at come with drives fitted and I’d rather use the ones I have. I’d also like it to auto back up if possible. Or is the best option to try and get it connected to the network and use a NAS?

Or do I just buy an external HDD enclosure and run software on the Mac to clone and back up?
 
If it were me, Just buy a nas enclosure, put the 2 drives in and run as a mirror pair, then you instantly have your data copied across 2 drives.

Sit the nas next to your broadband hub and plug a short Ethernet cable from the nas into the back of the hub and it’ll be fully available to any machine including mobile devices. (Which can be useful sometimes)

That method would mean you clear your desk of clutter, which is the point of going to a Mac mini.
 
Thanks for those thoughts, my issue is my router is in my hallway and my pc upstairs so might have to look at doing a lot of rework to get the network cable where it needs to be. if the DAS option isn’t a good one I might have to just manually use external HDDs until I can get cable run.
 
DAS isn't actually bad in itself; it's just that a NAS offers so much more flexibility. I looked seriously at the Terramaster D5 (5-drive DAS) at one point but decided my NAS was better for my use. I did get lucky as I was able to run a couple of cables from hall to back bedroom when we had the kitchen ceiling replaced so everything except mobile devices are wired.
 
dannyjo22 said:
Thanks for those thoughts, my issue is my router is in my hallway and my pc upstairs so might have to look at doing a lot of rework to get the network cable where it needs to be. if the DAS option isn’t a good one I might have to just manually use external HDDs until I can get cable run.
Click to expand...

But you dont need to route a cable to the room where your PC is.

You already connect to the router hub using wifi yes ? So that is you connection already made. You sit the NAS box physically next to the router in the hallway. You then take an ethernet cable and plug it between the NAS box and the router in the hall. ( i.e. a very short cable ). Your router will then see the NAS and let all other devices on the wifi network ( i.e. your PC ) see it as well.

No mess, no fuss.
Admittedly, the wifi connection speed will be less than a wired connection, but still usable.
 
Yes - maybe.

I have a NAS/CCTV system running in an old Dell rack server case. One of the drives in the system is a 2.5" data SSD which is fitted in an adapter which fills the unused dvd drive slot at the front of the case.

I had the drive configured as a cache drive so that any writes to the NAS would go to the SSD cache for best speed. Trouble arose though when I tried to do a full backup to the NAS (600Gb of data). The SSD cache threw an error cause the drive was getting too hot due to the sustained writes. Sat in the adapter, it wasn't getting any cool air past it.

( For the rest of the time though, it ran without any issue. )

So going back to you question ... it is possible the SSD's would benefit from some form of cooling ... or at least air flow in some way past them.
 
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