[SOLVED] Is there a way to have high speed external storage of huge capacity (say like 20-30 TB) that can be shared by all the PCs on my House?

[SoumyaRoy]

So basically I have 3 PCs at the moment.. and am currently saving for a 4th (an ambitious 4K Gaming rig). Now I need to access these PCs from time to time and transferring files from 1 PC to another is like one hectic job. Is there a way to have a huge capacity yet fast storage (fast enough to run games) separately... like a server and access that from all for PCs.. so that I can access the same file from every PC?

For budget... I can go as far as 1500 USD for this as it is something I really need. (Please keep in mind I live in India and we also have to pay the duty taxes)

 

[mitch074]

So basically I have 3 PCs at the moment.. and am currently saving for a 4th (an ambitious 4K Gaming rig). Now I need to access these PCs from time to time and transferring files from 1 PC to another is like one hectic job. Is there a way to have a huge capacity yet fast storage (fast enough to run games) separately... like a server and access that from all for PCs.. so that I can access the same file from every PC?

For budget... I can go as far as 1500 USD for this as it is something I really need. (Please keep in mind I live in India and we also have to pay the duty taxes)

Your actual question would be, is a domestic NAS a good idea?
It depends on whether you have a lot of data to share. If you have a large collection of DVDs and BDs and pictures and whatever you want to stream to all machines at will, if you want to do daily backups of your machines, then YES! Definitely.
Otherwise, don't bother - plug a 2 to 4 Tb USB HDD into your DSL box to share the data you need and call it a day.

 

[SoumyaRoy]

Your actual question would be, is a domestic NAS a good idea?
It depends on whether you have a lot of data to share. If you have a large collection of DVDs and BDs and pictures and whatever you want to stream to all machines at will, if you want to do daily backups of your machines, then YES! Definitely.
Otherwise, don't bother - plug a 2 to 4 Tb USB HDD into your DSL box to share the data you need and call it a day.

I actually have very little knowledge about NAS and stuff, can you guide me how to set it up?

 

[kanewolf]

I actually have very little knowledge about NAS and stuff, can you guide me how to set it up?

Running games off a NAS is not practical. The performance compared to a local disk is just not competitive. You would have to upgrade your entire home network to 10GE to be similar to local disk speed.

 

[mitch074]

I actually have very little knowledge about NAS and stuff, can you guide me how to set it up?

Most NAS you can find on Amazon would do the trick and come with user friendly interfaces. I prefer Synology, but Qnap is good too. Most need the drives bought separately.
Then it depends if your priority is cost, speed, data integrity or whatever.
For typical home use, your DSL box should actually be able to behave like a NAS if you plug a USB disk in it.
If you're looking for a bit more features (web server, media server, etc.) and don't care about data integrity or safety, get a single drive NAS. If the drive fails, you lose the data. Change the drive, keep the NAS, start from scratch. Cost of NAS is not to high.
If you want a bit more safety, get a base 2-drive NAS and put 2 desktop-class drives in it, configured as mirror (if one drive fails, you keep all the data; change the failed drive, keep going as before). Rather costly as you need to pay for 2 drives. NAS itself ranges from 150 to 300 bucks depending on features (on the fly media transcoding, home security...)
If you're a bit more paranoid about your data, get a 4-drive (or more) enclosure and fill it with NAS-class drives, in RAID 5 plus hot spare: if a drive fails, the spare automatically replaces it and then you only need to replace the failed drive. VERY costly.

 

[USAFRet]

So basically I have 3 PCs at the moment.. and am currently saving for a 4th (an ambitious 4K Gaming rig). Now I need to access these PCs from time to time and transferring files from 1 PC to another is like one hectic job. Is there a way to have a huge capacity yet fast storage (fast enough to run games) separately... like a server and access that from all for PCs.. so that I can access the same file from every PC?

For budget... I can go as far as 1500 USD for this as it is something I really need. (Please keep in mind I live in India and we also have to pay the duty taxes)

This is specifically what a prebuilt NAS box is for.
I have a QNAP TS-453a. Approx 50TB in or attached to it.

Setup is very easy. It is basically a whole small PC, just with its own OS.


Fast enough to run games? Well...not really. They are accessed over the LAN. Not nearly as fast as an internal drive.
Be a game server? Sure.

 

[mitch074]

Running games off a NAS is not practical. The performance compared to a local disk is just not competitive. You would have to upgrade your entire home network to 10GE to be similar to local disk speed.

and, yes, forget about running a game off a NAS - throughput is far too low. Saving game backups is god, though - no need to re-download the whole thing every time.

 

[USAFRet]

and, yes, forget about running a game off a NAS - throughput is far too low. Saving game backups is god, though - no need to re-download the whole thing every time.

I even tried that once.
Installed a Steam game to a mapped drive letter location on the QNAP.
It 'ran', for various definitions of sloooooow.

 

[mitch074]

I even tried that once.
Installed a Steam game to a mapped drive letter location on the QNAP.
It 'ran', for various definitions of sloooooow.

So did I, on my previous Syno 212j. Slooooow... My newer RAID-5 based with much better CPU was better (as it did saturate my 1Gbit Ethernet link) but still far from comfortable. As for NAS machines having a 10Gbit link, provided you have such a connection on your PC and main switch, and using SSDs in the NAS... Yeah, it could do the trick, but the COST of such a setup... Frankly, forget about it.
A cheap alternative would be a USB SSD plugged into the DSL box, provided it has USB3 ports : throughput limited to 100Mb/sec but with no latency... Some games' loading times might be bearable. How stable would that be, though... Not much, is my guess.

 

[mitch074]

Either you updated your original post or I didn't read it properly...
MAYBE if you get a 10Gbit switch and a single drive NAS with a 10Gbit connection and enough 10Gbit Ethernet cards for all your computers (forget about wifi) and then plugged several 4Tb SSD in said NAS enclosure in striping mode, you'd get the required capacity and performance. Cost would be thrice your budget and you MIGHT get it working fine and proper. The day a single SSD dies, you lose all your data. The moment you use wifi or a standard 1Gbit Ethernet card, you lose most of the performance.

My take: not worth it.

 

[USAFRet]

have a huge capacity yet fast storage (fast enough to run games) separately... like a server and access that from all for PCs.. so that I can access the same file from every PC?

This is multiple different requirements.

"huge capacity yet fast storage"
OK, a NAS

"(fast enough to run games) "
Not really

" like a server and access that from all for PCs"
OK, a NAS

"access the same file from every PC"
OK, a NAS



Serving as a game server, OK
Having the actual game files installed ON the NAS and running from the NAS...no, not without significant expense and infrastructure.