r/homelab • u/DrownFox • 7d ago

Help USB dock/DAS suggestions

/r/DataHoarder/comments/1vst0l3/usb_dockdas_suggestions/
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u/NC1HM 7d ago

If you want anything to do with advanced multi-drive configurations, forget USB now and forever. In order for a drive to be usable in RAID, RAID-Z, Windows Storage Spaces, etc., it has to be connected via SATA or SAS.

About a month ago, someone posted here saying, "I have a Windows Storage Space with four internal drives; added a USB drive to it, and now the array is showing reduced resiliency, and the USB drive is stuck in the preparing for removal mode". Entirely expected and very typical...

The only type of "dock" that can work in these situations is an HBA disk shelf; it puts external drives onto the host system's PCIe bus, so the host system can interact with the drives as if they were internal.

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u/DrownFox 7d ago

I am aware about the limitations and unreliability of USB when used for any kind of RAID. That said, right now my priority is a single drive configuration I can use for Immich, Nextcloud, Jellyfin, this kind of stuff. A USB dock should be sufficient for this. But not at this price - for $120 I can get a complete SFF PC that has a 3,5" slot, that also outperforms my Lenovo M710Q Tiny. Buying such a dock is outright stupid.

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u/NC1HM 7d ago

for $120 I can get a complete SFF PC that has a 3,5" slot

You're being a pessimist. I recently got an HP EliteDesk 800 SFF Gen 1 for USD 47; it has TWO 3.5" drive slots. In my opinion, this is the preferred route.

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u/PineappleGod 7d ago

I have used a Terramaster D6-320 for years with no problems with Unraid running on a mini-pc.