We are digital librarians. Among us are represented the various reasons to keep data -- legal requirements, competitive requirements, uncertainty of permanence of cloud services, distaste for transmitting your data externally (e.g. government or corporate espionage), cultural and familial archivists, internet collapse preppers, and people who do it themselves so they're sure it's done right. Everyone has their reasons for curating the data they have decided to keep (either forever or For A Damn Long Time (tm) ). Along the way we have sought out like-minded individuals to exchange strategies, war stories, and cautionary tales of failures.
Idk about AUS specifically, but you can generally get a 5TB external spinner for $90-$100 that you can Velcro to the top of your NUC. Minimal size and works great, runs direct off USB power. No way would I pay for a 8TB SSD in there.
4TB SSD bottom out around $150 (US again) and would be perfectly good for Plex (don't need quality for that), but again it's a cost issue.
I'd also consider something larger than a 512gb m.2; that's a lot of wasted space and 2TB-4TB m.2 is just as cheap as SSD.
That’s a good idea about getting something bigger in the m.2 slot, I got the SSD for free from a friend and that’s where I’ve installed my OS. How would I go about swapping it out? I wouldn’t want to reinstall everything. Thanks in advance
Use any good disk cloning/imaging software, I recommend Macrium reflect free which though now discontinued is still good enough for general usage in typical scenarios. In fact if a good deal comes on Black Friday then it is one of the rare windows software that is worth buying.
7mm don't go past 2TB. You'll be lucky to find a 4TB at 9.5mm most are 15mm.
Your best bet is definitely an SSD. I'd opt for Samsung personally.