powered hub or multi hard disc enclosure

[victoriabears]

My apologies for being off forum but anyone know if the job these two things do is the same, I appreciate one is for internal hard drives and the other is for portable hard drives but I can go either way for video storage streaming, I do not want a NAS for this purpose.

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00CH94GMK/ref=ox_sc_sfl_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A1OQ5B5VHVHCUX

or

https://www.amazon.ca/Cable-Matters-10-Port-SuperSpeed-USB/dp/B00DRLZFPE/ref=sr_1_85?s...sb+powered+hub

Thanks

[lingyi]

My $0.02, get a Mediasonic 4 bay Probox https://www.amazon.ca/Mediasonic-ProBox-HF2-SU3S2-Drive-Enclosure/dp/B003X26VV4/ref=sr...eywords=probox and load it with internal drives. My first one (I currently have four) ran 24/7 for over a year and the only issue is that I had to replace the fan after ~2 years. Plus it's cheaper than the unit you linked to. No RAID, but you won't get that with a USB hub and individual drives anyway.

As for using muliple eternal drives (either portable or powered desktop) and a USB hub, I started with that and like so many others have posted, the USB interface typically gives up way quicker than the drive inside the case. Of the dozens of portable and external HDDs I've owned over the years, I currently only have one that I haven't decased (and that's because I rarely use it).

Also, my experience is that even with external powered HDDs, even a powered USB hub can handle only about 4 HDDs before the connection starts to become iffy. Understandable since even if the hub is powered, the 12V (USB 3.0) or 5V (USB 2.0) is shared across all ports.

[drjtech]

I second the Mediasonic Probox. I have one loaded with 4 4TB WD Red Drives connected to my HTPC. I have a second identical unit I use to backup the first.

It's not a RAID box, so the HTPC sees four separate drives. I've always known this configuration as a JBOD.

[Baldrick]

I'm moving you to our computer section.

[victoriabears]

Thank you for putting me in the right section Baldrick and thank you fellow helpers for the guidance, also the 4 disc enclosure is tidier , thanks again.

[awgie]

I have been using external drives and powered hubs for over 10 years without any of the problems like lingyi mentioned, but I know everyone's experiences are a little different. Of the 20 drives I currently use (14 portable drives and 6 powered desktop drives) - some of which are well over 10 years old - only one of them has been a little temperamental, so I only use it for non-essential data. I'm getting ready to replace the older ones on general principle just because of their age. I have, however, had a couple USB hubs that have failed on me - one of them because the input cable got bumped and broke the port, rendering the whole thing useless. As for internal drives, I've had to replace three laptop drives in the last year.

Having said that, if you don't need the drives to be portable, I would certainly third the above recommendation to go with the Mediasonic Probox. Internal drives are more secure, better cooled with the internal fan, and less susceptible to shock than external drives. You also have only one power cord and one data cable to deal with.