The Sundarban
Published Jan 23, 2026, 11:15 AM EST
Arol is a tech journalist who currently works as a contributor at How-To Geek since 2022. He first began writing on-line for the short-lived portal of Spanish-language gaming forum Emudesc in 2013. Years later, in 2017, he obtained his lawful start in tech journalism working for a small Google-focused dwelling called Pixel Location. He transitioned to a news and feature author role at XDA Developers that same year, where he worked until 2021 before making the leap to various web sites.
Arol brings nearly a decade of writing expertise, and the occasional scorching take, to his writings. Whereas he is a technology lover at heart, he holds laptop hardware and smartphones particularly shut to heart. You are going to normally salvage him covering news, although he has also written the occasional deal, purchaser’s information, how-to put up, and spherical-up. He is also written for Android Police and MakeUseOf. He is also a Political Science student. When he is no longer writing, you will probably salvage him hitting the fitness center, attempting to ace a contemporary passion, reading his textbooks, or traveling. You can reach him at me@arolwright.com.
NASes are no longer for all and sundry. They can be dear, and oftentimes, they provide features that, frankly, a lot of people don’t need. A NAS is what you accept whenever you happen to want your maintain cloud storage of varieties, but whenever you happen to don’t need the cloud part, a DAS can be a better option.
Here are some reasons why.
What’s a DAS?
Credit rating:
Jerome Thomas / How-To Geek
As you have got probably guessed by now, the term DAS has a similar origin to the term DAS. Whereas NAS stands for Community-Attached Storage, DAS means Divulge-Attached Storage. At its core, a DAS is a storage tool that connects instantly to a host laptop with out passing thru a network switch or router. Whereas a standard portable external hard drive technically falls beneath this category, the term is most repeatedly feeble to relate multi-bay enclosures that dwelling multiple hard drives or stable-state drives. Basically, enclosures that are similar to a DAS, excluding way easier.
Now not like a Community Attached Storage (NAS) machine, which functions as a standalone server with its maintain operating machine, processor, and RAM, a DAS is functionally passive. It depends totally on the processing power and file machine management of the computer to which it is tethered.
These devices typically exercise high-race protocols such as USB-C, Thunderbolt, or eSATA to establish a link with your laptop. Because there is no intermediary network hardware, the computer sees the DAS exactly as it would glance an internal drive; it appears as a local volume ready for immediate read and write operations. This architecture allows for a variety of drive configurations managed both by a hardware controller contained within the enclosure or via software on the host laptop. Users can normally configure the drives as a “Just a Bunch of Disks” (JBOD), where each drive mounts individually, or in a RAID array to mix performance and redundancy. This simplicity in architecture means the tool does no longer require an IP address, network configuration, or ongoing firmware management to remain accessible, making it a pure extension of the host machine’s native storage capabilities rather than a separate networked entity.
TERRAMASTER D2-320 RAID Enclosure
Bustle
As much as 10Gbps
Portable
No
The TERRAMASTER D2-320 helps up to 44TB of storage and provides 10GbE data transmission. Now not like some various DAS enclosures, this unit has several constructed-in RAID settings.
What are its advantages?
Credit rating: Patrick Campanale / How-To Geek
Probably the most stable reason why it is top to accept a DAS is its simplicity. NASes are no longer inherently complicated, but DASes are as straightforward as they accept and are probably the most effective alternative for most people. Because the tool connects instantly to the computer via high-bandwidth interfaces like Thunderbolt 3 or USB 4, the data transfer rates are significantly larger than what is typically achievable over a standard dwelling network. A typical Gigabit Ethernet connection on a NAS caps out at around 110 megabytes per second, whereas a Thunderbolt-linked DAS can theoretically reach accelerates to 40 gigabits per second. This means a DAS may actually be a better option for some bandwidth-intensive tasks such as editing high-decision 4K or 8K video footage, rendering complicated 3D assets, or managing massive photography libraries where latency and throughput are critical to the workflow.
Furthermore, the absence of network layers eliminates the most normal bottlenecks associated with data management. There are no routers to configure, no network switches to upgrade, and no potential for Wi-Fi interference to degrade transfer speeds. This “plug-and-play” nature translates to a individual expertise that is drastically easier than managing a NAS. A NAS requires the individual to act as a machine administrator—managing customers, permissions, security patches, and network protocols. In contrast, a DAS requires almost zero maintenance. Once plugged in, the operating machine handles the file structure, permissions, and mounting processes automatically.
For certain, you don’t have a network aspect to your DAS, but for many people, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.
May serene I accept one?
Credit rating: Patrick Campanale / How-To Geek
Whether or no longer this is a apt idea for you is dependent on your remark workflow requirements and how you plan to access your data. For these who are a solo creative professional, a video editor, or a gamer taking a glance to expand your Steam library, a DAS is likely the most logical and cost-effective investment. The price per terabyte is generally decrease than a NAS because you are paying strictly for the enclosure and the drives, rather than for a specialized motherboard, CPU, and proprietary software license.
For these that work primarily from a single desktop or laptop and need the fastest conceivable access to large files with out the latency introduced by a local area network, the teach connection provides a seamless expertise that feels fair like utilizing an internal drive.
