As soon as you are a fan of technology, you will know the term NAS, which stands for Network Attached Storage, and as you may have already guessed, the main difference between a NAS and a DAS is that the latter has a direct connection with the PC, in this case via USB. , while a NAS is accessible via the network. It is true that it is easier to access a NAS “from the outside” than a DAS, even if it can also be configured. However, what we want to cover in this article are all the benefits that a USB DAS can give you on your PC, so let’s get into it.
The great advantages of having a USB DAS on your PC
The first advantage is the most obvious: you can add a large storage capacity additional to the PC, and also to an external device (meaning you won’t have to touch the inside of the PC). The fact that it’s an external device adds an extra benefit, that you don’t need to anchor it to a single PC: always you can take it to another place and plug it into any other device where you need your data.
Another advantage that this type of device offers you is that, if you buy one of sufficient capacity and autonomy, you can benefit from an additional level of security by configuring several hard disks in Raid1 oh RAID5so that even if one of the hard disks housed inside is damaged, you will not lose any data.
Apart from all this, we mentioned earlier that the difference between a DAS and a NAS is that the DAS is connected directly to the PC via USB, which means that not accessible from the outside (Well, there are ways to access it, but it’s much more complicated and, at the very least, you’ll put an extra barrier for anyone outside to access your data). Plus, unlike a hard drive connected directly to your PC, you can always turn off the drive when you don’t need it and be done with it.
Finally, and although they are not cheap devices compared to simply buying an external USB hard drive (plus they usually come without a drive and you will have to buy and install them separately), they are generally less expensive than a NAS because their electronics are much simpler. , and in fact, most of them don’t even need their own operating system or interface to work. This, in turn, also greatly simplifies its use and commissioning.
Is there a recommended SAR?
We can recommend, based on our own experience, two models according to your needs and budget. For starters, we find the Terramaster D5-300C to be an excellent USB DAS, with high-speed (5Gbps) USB 3.1 Type-C connectivity and support for up to 5 drives with RAID 0/ 1/2+3. It’s relatively cheap compared to other DAS models, but its build quality and materials leave a bit to be desired (let’s say we can give this aspect a 6).
Of note, from this same manufacturer you have the D2-310 model which is exactly the same but only supports two disk drives, but although it is a bit cheaper we consider that due to the price difference, it is worth paying a little more and acquiring the which supports 5 hard drives inside.
On the other hand, if you don’t want to complicate your life by buying and installing hard disks yourself (even if that gives you less freedom of choice, and if a disk fails, it will be more difficult for you to replace the faulty one), you have models like the WD My Book Duo with 20TB capacity, DAS which also uses high-speed USB 3.1 and in this case already comes with 2 x 10TB drives pre-installed .
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