Will something like this be a good fit for storing music files?
I’m looking to decouple the core machine from the storage (as part of a move to try a different computer as the core).
It’s not a NAS, but a network drive for home use.
Has anyone had experience with it? pros and cons?
Thanks!
Units like this do not have redundancy. In other words, a NAS can be configured as RAID so that when 1 of the physical harddrives malfunctions, other harddrives will take over giving you the possibillity of adding a new drive without data loss. You’re option will work, but remember making a backup copy of your music to other drives or cloud storage an accept that rebuilding your library in case of hardware problems will take you a very long time. Also with a RAID configured NAS I allways advice to make a backup copy in a cloud or USB drive stored elsewhere.
I think it is best couple music storage to the Roon server. Why? Because the UI feels snappier and there is a lot less data transferred over the LAN. I also think local storage of music file is less problematic.
I hate NAS units with Roon.
I wouldn’t go for WD, I know you are after local storage but they are having major cloud trauma recently so their offering is a bit…
Thanks everyone for your replies!
Looks like having an external HD connected via USB is still the better option and will allow me some level of decoupling.
If we’re on the subject - has anyone tried connecting an external USB HDD to their router directly? I think my router (Asus RT-AX88U) supports it but I have no idea how it works exactly and I think I read somewhere here that it’s not great because serving files is not a router’s forte.
I would leave storage local to the core it’s faster, less prone to issues and it will auto update when you add music instantly, moving to network device does not as they don’t always send updates out that files have changed. I gave up using my Nas years ago due to this and happier with local storage.
I would not get this one. While the “Duo” model at least have mirroring so can survive a single drive failure, looking at the manual there does not even appear to be a way to access files without using the app. It’s some kind of self-contained server appliance for… I am not really sure what the real purpose of this thing would be.
If you want something for general network storage, also usable by Roon, get a real NAS box (ideally with 4+ bays). If you want external storage for Roon only, a USB3 external drive (or RAID enclosure) would be best IMO.
This would work, in a sense that it will serve files over the network, in some standards-compliant way (unlike this WD box) but it would be a very basic server setup, and puts extra load on the router.
Thanks @Boris_Molodyi!
Again, the Roon server operates best (snappiest with least amount of issues) with locally attached storage. Also, anything you can do to decrease network traffic is a good thing for networks Roon is on. Especially if WiFi is involved.
Using NAS on home network is usually an unnecessary complicated mess. RAID is for high availability (and sometimes for speed) and not for backing up data. Most home users don’t need high availability…at least not in the sense businesses do. Backups are far more important than high availability. Backing up a NAS is often skipped by the home user because they don’t always understand the difference between RAID and a backup.
Why would you want to do this? A router should be used as a router. Attaching the music storage to the router does nothing positive. You create extra network traffic and decrease the speed at which the Roon core can access the data which affects how snappy the Roon UI feels.
That is incorrect. WD My Cloud devices serve SMB shares. Standard stuff.
AJ
Correct. My thought was I’m considering using a laptop as the core instead of the old desktop I’m using now with internal storage. I thought why not separate the processing power from the storage, for easier future upgrades / changes . Of course it has drawbacks, but wasn’t sure how much of an actual effect it would have
I am using an external USB RAID enclosure connected to an old laptop, which shares the disk. This works as a NAS and can also run the core.
Funny that neither the manual nor the datasheet mention it. Digging through support docs, it is possible, but you have to turn it on through some multi-step process. At that point it just becomes a rather mediocre NAS though, with rather strict limits on simultaneous connections.
You’re welcome.
So apparently, it is possible to turn this particular box into a NAS that would be usable from Roon, but it would not really be particularly good.