Aditional Storage

[pmcjury]

I am looking to add some additional storage space to my comp. I am out of bays to add an aditional HD to the case, so I was wondering would an external had enclosure be my best bet, or I have been seeing alot about NAS. Would a NAS provide better preformance. If so How difficult would it be to set up. I have very lmited linux knowledge

 

[samir_nayanajaad]

well with a nas your going through your network so your speed is going to be limited to 100mb 1000mb or what ever speed your home network is running at.

Some advantages to a nas are that it is on your network like another computer almost and so any pc or laptop on your network can be set up to access the storage space on the nas. Also most nas can be set up in a RAID configuration so, depending on what raid you set up, you can get a back up or some performance out of the nas.

A downside to the nas would be the extra cost put into it, both in more than one hdd (if you want to raid), and the "case" that holds the hdd's are usually not on an extremely cheap side.

with an external hdd you are hooked up directly to the pc via usb or external sata, firewire, ect. Also you can set up any hdd in a pc to be shared on your home network (if you need that). And the real good thing is you can get an external enclosure very cheap now.

So for you I would recommend an external enclosure because its the cheapest way to add storage space (well except for just adding a hdd into the pc but you cant do that )

 

[pmcjury]

I appreciate the response. Having the storage availible to any pc would be convient. I am also worried becuase all I have is USB ports, atleast for the time being. I am looking at building a new comp. Would there be a big performance hit compared to over the network

 

[dandee2005]

Hi pmc, I currently looking into the same issue as you; trying to expand HD storage. You can check my thread a few below yours:

http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/tower-multiple-IDE-large-capacity-hard-drives-ftopict214154.html

It seems getting an external enclosure tower would probably be simpler and cheaper than setting up a NAS system but I'm still looking into possibilities.

 

[g-paw]

I appreciate the response. Having the storage availible to any pc would be convient. I am also worried becuase all I have is USB ports, atleast for the time being. I am looking at building a new comp. Would there be a big performance hit compared to over the network

I'd suggest you build the external enclosure, which is as easy as installing one. You'll save money and can choose the hd and enclosure you want. I'd suggest an enclosure like this.

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16817106097

Will take a SATA dirve, has external USB so you'll be able to connect it to any computer, and has an eSATA connection that is faster than USB or firewire. It comes with an eSATA card. I'd put the eSATA connector in the computer that you'll use the hard drive on the most.