NAS or DAS?

[dannyjo22]

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?

 

[dannyjo22]

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.

 

[dannyjo22]

So a further question on storage options. If I populate a nas or das with SSD's that I have spare instead of mechanical drives do they still require the cooling fan?