Hello, fellow Hoarders,
I have a smallish problem I'd like your advice about:
I got all my hoarded data (mainly video and audio files) stored on a huge array of external drives, fed to the lone PC via a tree of USB hubs.
As management of this turns my old Windows workhorse too slow for my liking as well as cluttering my space, I am looking for a more compact way to store those drives while giving over management to another machine.
So far I've oogled large PC cases (even considered welding my own) for a solution with a regular Windows home license and at least two SATA extension cards - and a smallish rack server with 24 hdd slots.
While the first option seems more along my competence lines as a PC-tinkerer since the early 90s, the server solution looks more efficient in both spacial and energy requirements.
Usecase: One machine for storing data on many hdds to allow access for one other machine on the same LAN.
How would you choose? And please explain why to this middle-aged nerd .