The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/MericaFTWs on 2024-10-13 17:04:05.

I currently have a 2 bay NAS with a total of 10 Tb of usable space and about 4 Tb free at the moment. The 2 drives are a 4tb and 8tb WD red.

I currently make a copy of all the data from the NAS to a 10 Tb WD red in a separate PC that’s on most of the time.

I want to expand my Plex server since I’m no longer wanting to spend time and resources using handbrake to compress files. The mkv files are much larger in size but SO much faster and easier to do.

I have a 4tb WD red in an external harddrive bay connected via USB to my miniPC that is completely free of data.

My question is… since I’ve made the switch from handbraking everything to raw mkv, my storage is filling up fast and by my estimations it will be full by the end of the month. Since my MiniPC has the plex server it can detect external drives nicely.

Should I buy a 4 bay DAS and continue from there since it’s cheaper than a NAS or break the bank and get a NAS (It’s about a 700 dollar difference from the ones I want, not including drives).

As for backup i was going to buy some cheap seagate or WD blues at 8tb a piece.

Thanks for any and all recommendations. This community is amazing.