I’m putting together a small NAS for local backups in my apartment here in Portland, and I’m stuck on the drive side of the decision. I have an old ITX board and a spare case, and I plan to run a lightweight setup with a mirror, mostly for photos and documents rather than media streaming. What I keep going back and forth on is whether to buy two NAS-rated drives at the same time or start with one and add the second later, since prices seem to shift a lot and my budget is tight. I’m also unsure whether the vibration and workload ratings actually matter in a two-bay setup, or if that’s just marketing for bigger arrays. Power draw is another concern because the machine will run all day. Has anyone here built something similar on a tight budget, and how did you decide on drives without overspending?
Back when I started with a NAS, I was in a similar situation… I opted for a single NAS-specific drive and later expanded.
I do now kinda regret not going for a 4-bay model instead of 2-bay though, because it makes later expansion a lot harder. I’m currently still ok with my leftover space, but that’ll mean I need to get a new unit.