HDD Dock or NAS Expansion Unit

[sleepy_dobe]

Hi,

I'm currently using the Asustor AS5202T, on your recommendation, with 2 unequal capacity HDD with no RAID, and a third HDD connected to one of the USB port behind via an external HDD enclosure. Everything works fine at the moment, though I had a scare when I removed one of the HDD from the bays and then placed it back in and the NAS couldn't read any of the original data. One of Asustor's engineer helped me out with that issue, a long complicated process that I didn't understand technically, but it worked nevertheless and he was really helpful, working over a long weekend holiday with me on it.

Anyway, now I've decided to do some form of backup or RAID by "expanding" the number of bays I have. The question I have is, should I get another NAS, use the Asustor AS6004U expansion unit, or get an external 4-bay HDD docking station and use the savings instead on the new HDDs I'll need?

I've already got my eyes on 2 units of Seagate's EXOS 16TB drives. By the way, the AS5202T is the first time I've ever used a NAS. It was just to serve as a data server for my home network so multiple computers can access the data.

Thanks in advance for any helpful advice.

[ed]

Getting a new NAS with more bays is a future-proof option, as many users choose to do. Expansion via an AS6004U unit is viable, but some people are concerned about potential bottlenecks through the expansion cable. It's important to note that a USB dock is suitable for backups, but it's not ideal for general storage expansion due to slower data transfer rates compared to internal bays.

[sleepy_dobe]

Getting a new NAS with more bays is a future-proof option, as many users choose to do. Expansion via an AS6004U unit is viable, but some people are concerned about potential bottlenecks through the expansion cable. It's important to note that a USB dock is suitable for backups, but it's not ideal for general storage expansion due to slower data transfer rates compared to internal bays.

Thanks for the advice. Looks like the AS6004U is the way to go for me. A new 4 or more bay NAS is out of my budget for me, and since the AS6004U's USB port gives up to 5Gbps transfer speeds, I think that's pretty fast enough. Besides, the NAS only has a 2.5gigabit connection to my router, so the USB connection between the NAS and the AS6004U is already faster than between the NAS and the router.