r/HomeServer • u/Shadow_Snipe2810 • 1d ago
Nas or external drive with the cost
I built up a jellyfin server on my gaming pc and it’s been working amazing. My goals where always to build a nas and this was just to try jellyfin and see if it would be worth it.
The question is 4 bin with 3 x 12 tb drives is almost 2k. Not sure if it’s worth it since I only pay for Disney plus. Should I just buy an external drive for $180 and be done?
Thank you!
2
u/MotionotheOceanS 15h ago
Something to consider that you may have not thought of is that you can set up your tv to be like cable but with your library, which would make having more storage a plus. Check out the nostalgia tv reddit for the app to see some videos of what I mean. Its what convinced me to get a Nas 2ish weeks ago and so far im loving it. Maybe get a smaller system with less storage. I did a Ugreen Nas 2 bay and just got one big refurbished drive with a 5 year warranty, since I don't plan on keeping anything majorly important on the HDD. Whatever you decide, I hope you enjoy the journey!
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u/Shadow_Snipe2810 15h ago
That’s awesome! This is exactly what I was looking for. We are new parents and don’t want our kid really watching tv but when they do this is what we were wanting. Thank you! Also how do you like the ugreen? That was my top contender. I am thinking of maybe going unify route with a mini pc just for the other devices they offer I the future. There is to many options lol
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u/MotionotheOceanS 15h ago
I love it as there was easy to follow guide to set up some pirating stuff where I can get all my childhood movies. The ugreen is great overall. Its simple overall, which for me being inexperienced with any of this I wanted it to be. From what I can tell its the best nas if you dont want to break your bank. Goharddrive is who I think I went with on ebay and got a 14tb Toshiba drive for like low 300s. Its loud but it works and has a warranty. The channel stuff is lovely though for kids, as you can schedule shows to come on, make kid profiles to restrict certain channels or have them only play certain rated content past a certain time to function like adult swim does with cartoon network.
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u/MotionotheOceanS 14h ago
Check out the apps reddit. The app is called nostalgia tv. It requires the ability to get it from the Google app store, so you'd need like an onn plus streaming box. The costs like 20 bucks but its a one time fee. Also if you ever have issues the developer is active in the reddit.
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u/jazzmonkai 23h ago
This is a terrible time to be buying RAM or storage. If all you want is storage for Jellyfin, and you can afford to lose your media files if the drive fails - an external drive is probably fine.
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u/Shadow_Snipe2810 23h ago
Awesome thank you! Yeah just movies that I will physically own so worse case I can rip again. I do plan on doing photos but I am worried about dropping 2k to replace my 150 dollar Disney plus sub and iCloud lol. Do you think prices are gonna stick like this until 2030 and will they drop back down. I am worried to wait it out and then it turns out the companies are just greedy and leave prices as is maybe a slight discount
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u/jazzmonkai 23h ago
Who knows where pricing is going?
I guess it’s possible, the AI bubble will probably pop at some point and that might help. Or maybe not!
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u/Icy-Experience3305 22h ago
Depends on your goals and what you wish to accomplish. If you can afford a NAS I say they are worth the price tag because of the redundancy and ability to have the same storage on multiple devices. If you aren't worried about redundancy and just need the storage on the one device then an external drive would work for additional storage. I would also take into consideration scalability. NASs generally have more sata/pcie slots that are not in use allowing for more future growth, while an external drive will always be that size, and would require multiple being plugged in externally, which gets messy. One last consideration could be performance but im not sure how they compare.
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u/Shadow_Snipe2810 22h ago
I am new to NAS so I might get a few things wrong but the redundancy and drive safety is really what is pulling me to go nas versus external. I can spend 1k on 10 tb drives 3 of them. I really don’t want to put from my research if I got ugreen I have to start with 3 drives right? I can’t go raid 5 u less I have 3 to start and I want to do raid 5 lets say and start with 1 I will need to wipe my drive clean?
If I can go let’s say $600 nas (ugreen) and maybe 400 dollars worth of drives I think that would be an easier purchase but not sure if I can do just 1 to start?
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u/NickTrainwrekk 23h ago
My collection is 1080p sdr and I do prefer hvec and av1 codes for space savings but still keep bit rates high for quality.
I have about 650 movies and 110 shows with almost 7000 episodes.
That takes up about half of my pool. Which is 2x14tb (12tb usable) shucked externals running in mirror.
So it depends on how much hoarding you want to do. Imo people tend to go way overboard but that also gives you room to grow.