I currently have a pretty simple media server. It runs on a desktop made of old parts and has 4 6 TB drives in a raidz1 array. It is used by a lot of friends who add a lot of media, so its been nearly at capacity for a while. The desktop has no more open SATA ports or drive enclosures, so I’m not sure what the best option for adding more drives is.
I know the most obvious answer is buying NAS, but I think it might be a little complex for what I need, because no other devices need any access to this storage. I was considering purchasing a DAS, as it seems like a simple option, but I’ve seen many people say its not worth purchasing a DAS over a NAS. Any opinions would be appreciated.
Edit: Thanks for the suggestions! I’m likely going to go with a new case for some extra drive bays and a PCI-E SAS controller, this seems like the best option for the simplicity and price!
If you’re not worried about the desktop’s age or ability, you can just expand the array by growing the volume with bigger drives.
You don’t want to run raid on a DAS unless it for some reason handles it’s own, and then you might as well just get a NAS.
If you’re simply looking for more disk slots, you could rebuild and transfer your array into another machine, but then you’re probably back to NAS being a cheaper option.