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Opinions about using a mini PC with a HDD enclosure as NAS (sopuli.xyz)

submitted 2 years ago by PrivateNoob@sopuli.xyz to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world

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I was thinking on buying a 2-4 bay HDD powered enclosure as a NAS for my mini pc, since I already have that, and buying or building a full-fledged diy NAS seems a bit expensive.

I want to hear some opinions from you guys, since it seems using this method is a mixed area from the selfhosted pros. I would be hoping that by using a powered enclosure, that would alleviate or solve the USB port overcharging issue, which have appeared in my mini pc when trying out an external HDD with a normal sata to usb converter.

Did you have any experiences with a setup like this one?

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[–] badlotus@discuss.online 2 points 2 years ago (3 children)

You may not be able to do RAID or other redundant/performant arrays with USB. You can definitely achieve a big JBOD array but it will be less resilient and slower than a RAID array. Enclosures often don’t cool as well so heat may degrade your disks faster as well. I did this for a while with some old disks and some $30 HDD toasters. I only put data on there I could afford to lose. I wish there was a standalone hardware RAID solution… like a NAS without the network. That would have a huge draw for hobbyists that don’t want to buy an expensive NAS. I’ve searched for this but haven’t found anything. Message me if you know of such a product! Maybe consider building your own NAS with an old PC. Way cheaper than a prebuilt and fun to build! I had an old Dell Optiplex 990 that is now a 32 TB NAS. Had to get a new case but it’s a decent backup to my Synology.

[–] frazorth@feddit.uk 3 points 2 years ago

This is completely untrue.

You can get plently of performant arrays over USB. You do know how much USB 3.1 or 4 can transmit?

Enclosures often don’t cool as well so heat may degrade your disks faster as well.

DAS enclosures can do a great job of cooling by separating and not sharing the air inside a single case.

[–] PrivateNoob@sopuli.xyz 2 points 2 years ago

Yeah a DIY NAS PC sounds like a fun choice, it's just too bad that this mini PC was a waste of cash if talking about storage. I do have an old PC, but it's a 3770K which is mighty beast for sure, but definitely a more power hungry device.

[–] Shimitar@feddit.it 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

That's why you should always use them as jbod and setup Linux software raid (or zfs raid? Not familiar) directly.

Never go without a raid... Not a good idea in any case.

As for heat, I used jbod enclosures with fan, anything with more than 2 drives should have one, or don't bother.

I wouldn't go with single drive enclosures (even if I did for 10 years) as better not to cheap out on this matter. A 4 x 10€ cheap enclosure might be tempting, but shilling out 100€ for a nice actively cooled 4-disk jbod is a much better choice. Then go sw raid on top of it.