Budget Friendly Storage for Plex?

Wonderstache on 15/08/2025 - 10:38

Hi there, I'm currently running a Plex server off my gaming PC which runs well via LAN and Internet.

I've currently got Plex running media off my secondary 2TB HDD but I noticed it's almost full, due to Steam games and TV shows combined.
Without heading towards a NAS solution what would be a decent, budget-friendly storage solution where I could hoarde a bunch more media on?

My PC doesn't have room for another HDD internally so I'm wondering whether a USB 3 portable HDD in the back of the PC would suffice bandwidth streaming.

Hoping to get something beefy like a 5 or 10TB HDD that would last me a long time without having to worry about upgrading storage for many years.

Any examples or advice would be greatly appreciated! :)

Thanks!

Computing Plex

Comments

  • jaejae69 on 15/08/2025 - 10:45
    +2

    USB 3 bandwidth already exceeds your standard gigabit connection so you wont have any bottlenecks there. Just buy the biggest drive within your budget.

  • SydStrand on 15/08/2025 - 10:52
    +2

    Portable HDDs are slow and noisy. You'll destroy it with your read/writes. If your PC doesn't have another bay, then bite the bullet and get a NAS. Otherwise you'll just face this problem again in a year or two.

    • spackbace on 15/08/2025 - 10:56

      This, you'd be surprised how quickly you'll fill it up, especially if you go down the 4K path

      • Wonderstache on 15/08/2025 - 15:54

        Thanks for this. I wasn't aware portable HDD's die after a certain amount of read/writes.

    • bargaino on 15/08/2025 - 18:26
      +2

      Portable HDDs are slow and noisy. You'll destroy it with your read/writes.

      Oh no! I have had a 5TB external 2.5" HDD hanging off my home server for the last five years now, 24/7, with my Plex/Jellyfin library. Have I been a bad boy?
      (and checking the age, it only cost $99 - why are they still more than double that price now?)

  • pegaxs on 15/08/2025 - 11:02

    NAS with either single bay or 2 or 4 bay for expansion later. Can buy a used NAS off Scumtree or Fartbook and put your fresh own drives in it. And I know I will be scolded for this, but I use the QNAP TS-251+ (and TS433 as an expansion NAS) drives and you can install your Plex server on there and it works pretty flawlessly. I know that Synology also make a probably better NAS than QNAP.

    If you are going to go down the NAS route (and I strongly suggest it, buy once, cry once), I would be looking at getting a model from the official supported NAS list from Plex.

    The other one I set up for a friend was a Dell Optiplex 7060 I got from a sale that was posted on here and it was about $130 delivered and just connected his USB storage drive to it. Setup was pretty easy with all the tutorials online and it was a cheap alternative for his needs.

    • Wonderstache on 15/08/2025 - 16:08

      Hey thanks for this. Is something like the QNAP TS-251+ a beginner friendly, budget friendly model? I've never set up a NAS before and I don't have a huge budget either.

      • dominator293 on 15/08/2025 - 17:49

        See my comment below. I went from a QNAP TS-251 to TrueNAS. My QNAP died after about 8 years (the hardware has a fault that shows its head after a while - the WD NAS drives I had in it were fine and recoverable), so I looked at a bunch of options then remembered I had an old gaming PC I'd retired which was perfect for TrueNAS. The biggest expense is buying NAS drives if you want them to last a long time. I went with Seagate IronWolf NAS drives.

        EDIT - Yes the QNAP is easy to setup, user friendly etc. But I found the interface to be very slow, so I don't know how PLEX would go on it, but definitely for storage it's fine. I wouldn't buy a used one as it probably has the hardware issue I mentioned above, but my TrueNAS option is still cheaper (if you have a spare/old PC already) as the base QNAP is still in the range of $400+

  • peteru on 15/08/2025 - 11:06
    +1

    A dedicated NAS box is a big investment. If you really want to do it on the cheap, you could transplant your PC guts into a larger PC case and buys some second hand HDDs. Many of us have surplus 4TB and 8TB NAS drives in good condition that have been replaced by 20+TB drives, so the second hand availability of cheap HDDs should be good.

    • Wonderstache on 15/08/2025 - 15:56

      Thanks for the advice. My PC is very new so I don't want to change cases for it. I think another user mentioned here to also buy some HDD's and put them in portable cases so that could be an option.

  • McMaferMur on 15/08/2025 - 11:08
    +1

    if dont want NAS then go DAS if not then multiple portable hdd in enclosure

    • Wonderstache on 15/08/2025 - 16:00

      Never heard of DAS before, they seem pretty convienient to what I'm currently looking at. How are they different to NAS?

      • McMaferMur on 15/08/2025 - 23:41

        Das, is nas without the network bit.

  • jv on 15/08/2025 - 11:10
    -5

    Budget Friendly Storage for Plex?

    I just use a cardboard box from Bunnings.

  • Davo1111 on 15/08/2025 - 12:05

    your gaming pc has the ability to hold 2 drives?

    whats your motherboard, and case?

  • carazy on 15/08/2025 - 12:41
    +1

    ICY BOX in the budget end of external storage. Something like the Icy Box IB-3640SU3
    JBOD only, USB3 / ESATA
    https://staticice.com.au/cgi-bin/search.cgi?q=3640SU3&spos=1

    ~$220 delivered (to capital city) https://www.megabuy.com.au/icy-box-ib-3640su3-external-4-bay…
    Add HHD's as budget allows.

    • Wonderstache on 15/08/2025 - 15:57

      Ohh interesting, I've never seen these before. Are these different to NAS?

  • Brotality on 15/08/2025 - 13:20
    +1

    You didn't include a budget. If you want a quick and good enough way to do it without breaking the bank. You can get 4TB for about $120

    PS: Only store things you don't care about on this (shows/moves/etc). If that drive dies, everything is gone forever

    • Wonderstache on 15/08/2025 - 15:59

      Haha sorry about not including a budget. Essentially the cheapest working solution is what I'm currently seeking (if it will hold long term).
      Thanks for the links, it gives me another option to consider. Do you know if it would be cheaper to buy larger HDDs to put in a case or have multiple, smaller ones?

  • dominator293 on 15/08/2025 - 17:37

    If you have an old PC/laptop laying around, look into TrueNAS, it's free and all you'd have to do is buy the amount of drives you're after and suss out a way to connect them to the PC. Provided you have enough SATA ports etc, you're golden and have a cheap/easy NAS solution. You could even buy an ex govvy DELL machine for cheap and turn that into a NAS with TrueNAS. Just make sure you get NAS Drives for longevity, WD Red, Seagate Ironwolf etc.

    • bargaino on 15/08/2025 - 18:47

      TrueNAS is great, but if he just wants a Plex server, it is massive overkill.

  • HulioChavez on 16/08/2025 - 08:21
    +1

    if you are happy with your current setup and your limitation is just sata connectors on the motherboard… if you have a spare pci-e slot, you can buy cheap pci-e cards that add sata connectors to your motherboard. they will cost you about $15 on ebay/amazon. the cables will cost you about $3-$5 and then you can just throw another dedicated movie hard drive in your gaming machine.

  • Grunntt on 16/08/2025 - 08:49
    +2

    For the price of the hardware being recommended to you it's probably easier and cheaper to just buy a new, larger HDD and replace the exisiting one.
    If the setup you have suits you there's no need to change anything other than the drive.

    Pick up something like this for $30-$40 Docking Station place your new large HDD in, copy the contents of your existing drive over then swap the drives over.

    • Wonderstache on 16/08/2025 - 09:38

      Ohh that's a pretty good idea as well! Thanks I'll keep it in mind. :)

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