Hi,
I've got an always on Mac mini m4 running Plex server with a 128gb SSD attached containing some tv series and movies I watch on Plex on my TV and sometimes on my phone when I am at work via Tailscale. I also have 3 different old 2.5 HDD 500gb each one with photos, one with music and some files/apps and one as backup for my documents folders on Mac mini and MacBook.
I would like to consolidate those several small HDDs into 1 or 2 3.5 HDDs maybe. Wanting to put them in raid so the second drive would always be a copy of the first one in case it fails and will have another one external as a backup for most important files which will only be plugged in once a week as a backup. I mainly need those drives to always be accessible for photos and movies (as storage).
Am I better off with a DAS or just 2 external HDD attached all time to my Mac? Would love Synology but don't really have funds available to spend $AUD500 just for an enclosure right now, but I guess you get what you pay for.