# Cheapest NAS RAID5 solution



## Prima.Vera (Jul 19, 2018)

Hi all,
I would like to purchase a cheap enclosure for a NAS with RAID5 setup (4xHDD drives) for backup and storage purposes, however I was checking online and the prices are beyound retardness. 
For example Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_nr_...raid+5&ie=UTF8&qid=1531962920&rnid=2941120011

I mean I want to buy just the enclosure, not necessarly with the 4 drives included, and USB3.0 only it's also OK. I just need RAID for redundancy in case 1 of the drives fails...

Any good tips for some good cheap sollutions?

Thank you in advance.


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## Jetster (Jul 19, 2018)

Your talking about a drive enclosure and a RAID managed by the motherboard. It would have to be SATA as with USB there is no RAID option. (that I know of)
It's what a NAS cost. Its basically a PC.  Maybe pick up a Used Synology. Or better yet build a FreeNAS or UnRAID using some old hardware

And reduntcy is not a back up. Redundancy just provides reliability. For years i just used drives and back the stuff up in case a drive fails. Eventually I have to much stuff for one motherboard and it was starting to get buggy so I bought a DS216 and ran RAID 0 still backing it up. Now I have a FreeNAS in RAID6 and its still being backed up


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## Prima.Vera (Jul 20, 2018)

Yeah, I was thinking more as an external enclosure that has integrated RAID5 capabilities, just like those:

https://www.wdc.com/solutions/raid.html
But the prices seems to crazy for my taste....


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## Jetster (Jul 20, 2018)

I did a review on Western Digital Cloud Home Duo. They are really new to the NAS market. They run a little cheaper but they don't have enough ram and minimal apps

If you can get a hold of a Intel Pentium or i3 and 8 Gb ram you can build one. 4 drives + USB thumb drive for the OS
I have some 3 Tb drives laying around I'll sell cheap. That's how I got started

A NAS takes the overhead off you system. I had all my drives were in my HTPC and it was stating to get a little buggy. Hanging and weird hesitations. After getting a NAS all that stopped

Even though a RAID 5 has one redundant drive its not the best solution. Really its obsolete with large drives. If a drives fails by the time it rebuild you could lose another drive. RAID 6, RAID 10 and RAID 50, 60 are better

UnRaid is a really unique set up. Its not a RAID as the name implies. But it does have redundancy and the ability to add drives of any size to a pool. Without rebuilding your pool. It's also one of the easiest to set up


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## newtekie1 (Jul 20, 2018)

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816322004

There you go.



Jetster said:


> Even though a RAID 5 has one redundant drive its not the best solution. Really its obsolete with large drives. If a drives fails by the time it rebuild you could lose another drive.



This largely untrue and I wish people would stop saying it.  Yes, RAID6 is better with large drives, but RAID5 is not obsolete, it works well.  Rebuild times are a concern, but not really any worse than they were a decade ago.  The drives haven't just gotten bigger, they've gotten faster.  The controllers and hardware have gotten faster too.  When I started with RAID I had 3 320GB hard drives, the rebuild time was almost 2 days.  Now with 3x6TB hard drives, the rebuid time is about a day.

The real place you should be using RAID6 is with a large number of drives.  That is where RAID5 is obsolete.



Jetster said:


> RAID 6, RAID 10 and RAID 50, 60 are better



RAID10 and RAID50 both still rely on a single drive for redundancy, so no, they aren't any better than plain RAID5 other than for speed.


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## Jetster (Jul 20, 2018)

https://www.zdnet.com/article/why-raid-5-stops-working-in-2009/

https://www.zdnet.com/article/why-raid-5-still-works-usually/


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## Prima.Vera (Aug 3, 2018)

Thank you all. That's the device I was looking for. Not sure if I can find it here though....


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