External HDD vs NAS vs ITX box

[RoadconeTuning]

So. i'm to a point where i need to keep a backup of my stuff and may be pushing some large files around. I do a lot of photography and have started doing some video recording. I routinely fill a pair of 16gb Compact Flash cards and can easily fill another 32gb SD card up on a gopro... I'm filling up my main drives in my computer at a pretty furious rate because of this. So i've started looking at having a seperate drive for storage of completed images and a backup... My Current thoughts are...

2TB External USB drive... $150~

2-4TB NAS sitting on the network... 250~+

ITX based system with a 1TB Drive to start with and $280~+

I like the NAS idea but its about the same price as just building an Atom/APU based box that is fully functional...

[Circaflex]

build a homeserver or a custom rig to serve as a server. NAS boxes IMO stink... they are slow and some require wierd configurations. I went through this about 7 months ago, and found a cheap windows home server to use and I LOVE IT. Skip over the nas device and build a system, if you can find a cheap HP Mediasmart id pick it up (WHS with Drive Extender, not WHS2011). Otherwise build a box and use freenas or WHS2011(though they removed my favorite feature...drive extender)

[Computurd]

too bad they are axing WHS now. Now i will have to take the time to figure out server 2012 to host my files.

[vpr5703]

For what it is worth, I've got a NAS from Synology. Is the basic 2 drive, but it works very well. Was a little expensive, but the software on it is awesome.

Asus TF300T / Tapatalk 2

[MadMike261]

From personal experience I will say they compare like this:
NAS Box:
- Cheaper
- Slower for same amount of disks
- Less configuration and hassle (setup in an hour, including un-boxing)
- Less management and easier to configure warnings

Self Build:
- more expensive (although cheaper than office / enterprise NAS boxes)
- more work to setup
- more management
- faster
- Generally a better fit to you needs

I am personally running a OpenIndiana + napp it (FreeBSD + FreeNAS alternative) home build machine.
Building , setup and tweaking took me a weekend or something.
Went all the way during setup and made a few auto jobs. Now I don't have to do anything about it. Except press the boot button ofc :)

Specs:
Intel SASUC8I (flashed to HBA firmware) with 6 disk (2TB Samsung F4) ZFS raid Z2 (something like 7.5 TB usable)
i5 2400 (never use more than 1,8 - 2 cores when fully stressed)
8 GB RAM (during BIG copy's to the machine this will fill up)

[itznfb]

Synology ftw