Looking for HW recommendations for DIY NAS/Homelab

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Submitted ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works⁩ to ⁨selfhosted@lemmy.world⁩

Here’s what I currently have:

Ryzen 1700 w/ 16GB RAM
GTX 750 ti
1x SATA SSD - 120GB, currently use <50GB
2x 8TB SATA HDD
runs openSUSE Leap, considering switch to microOS

And main services I run (total disk usage for OS+services - data is :

NextCloud - possibly switch to ownCloud infinite scale
Jellyfin - transcoding is nice to have, but not required
samba
various small services (Unifi Controller, vaultwarden, etc)

And services I plan to run:

CI/CD for Rust projects - infrequent builds
HomeAssistant
maybe speech to text? I’m looking to build an Alexa replacement
Minecraft server - small scale, only like 2-3 players, very few mods

HW wishlist:

16GB RAM - 8GB may be a little low longer term
4x SATA - may add 2 more HDDs
m.2 - replace my SATA SSD; ideally 2x for RAID, but I can do backups; performance isn’t the concern here (1x sata + PCIe would work)
dual NIC - not required, but would simplify router config for private network; could use USB to Eth dongle, this is just for security cameras and whatnot
very small - mini-ITX at the largest; I want to shove this under my bed
very quiet
very low power - my Ryzen 1700 is overkill, this is mostly for the “quiet” req, but also paying less is nice

I’ve heard good things about N100 devices, but I haven’t seen anything w/ 4x SATA or an accessible PCIe for a SATA adapter.

The closest I’ve seen is a ZimaBlade, but I’m worried about:

performance, especially as a CI server
power supply - why couldn’t they just do regular USB-C?
access to extra USB ports - its hidden in the case

I don’t need x86 for anything, ARM would be fine, but I’m having trouble finding anything with >8GB RAM and SATA/PCIe options are a bit… limited.

Anyway, thoughts?

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Comments

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machinin@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I’ve been looking at this for a bit: a.co/d/2FMhmIY

I haven’t checked any reviews, but it might be something to look into.

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- sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  Wow, that’s like… exactly what I was looking for. It’s also from a brand I don’t recognize and reviews say there’s no manual (I ignore those anyway), but if it works it works. And 4 2.5G ethernet? What an odd board!!
  
  Thanks! I’ll definitely be looking to see if I can find out anything more about this board!
  
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  - machinin@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    The are similar (the same?) boards all over Amazon and AliExpress. I would be interested in knowing what you find out. Good luck!
    
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thayer@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I’ve been super happy with my 8th gen Intel NUC i5. I put it in an Akasa Turing fanless case, installed an NVMe for host OS, and an 8TB SSD for data. It’s low power and so quiet that I couldn’t imagine ever using fans again.
I also have a USB 3.2 drive dock for external backup HDDs, but I only turn it on when actively doing a monthly backup.

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MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Dell/HP SFF? 7th-9th gen CPUs, super cheap, quiet, should idle at 10-15W.

Only issue is 4x 3.5" drives for sure won’t fit, you need a pretty unique case to do that in mini-ITX size I think

Not sure which ones have NVMe slots, would have to research that.

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- sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  As long as it has the ports, I can look into options for cases. I only need 2x 3.5" drives for now, the other two are just for upgrade options (e.g. buy two bigger drives, copy from existing array to new array, remove old drives, etc).
  
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JustEnoughDucks@feddit.nl ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
You want a prebuilt NUC. That is pretty much it. A Pi generally doesn’t cut it, plus by the time you get all the accessories to make it usable as a server, you are at the price of a much more powerful small PC.

I run a ryzen 3600 with 32GB RAM in a Node 304 and it is very quiet with 12TB red pro helium drives. 4 HDD capable with a GPU and 6 without. However, it still draws 20-30W idle or 50W with an Arc A380 installed.

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- sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  That’s not bad.
  
  My current setup isn’t that power hungry (like 50W idle w/ GTX 750 ti installed, no GUI; measured at the wall), but I was hoping for something like 10W for everything except the drives. I’m guessing my current CPU + GPU is about 30-35W and is totally overkill.
  
  I’ve looked at NUCs and miniPCs, and the main issue is the lack of PCIe/SATA. The best option seems to be to get a separate USB-C enclosure, but those seem kind of sketchy. That’s why the ZimaBlade looked interesting, but I’m worried it’s a little underpowered. I’d really like the ZimaBlade w/ an N100, another drive port (SATA, eMMC, m.2), and real USB-C. If I could get that for <$200, I’d get it.
  
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JASN_DE@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Define “very quiet”? Because that’s going to be tricky with spinning rust, depending on your noise tolerance.

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- sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  I’m thinking 25DB is the cap, ideally under 20DB.
  
  I think HDDs are typically around 5-10DB, and they should spin down at night. Quieter is better, but I don’t need to go completely fanless. So basically, those tiny pizza box server fans are completely off the table, but larger, slower fans should be fine.
  
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  - JASN_DE@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    
    I’m thinking 25DB is a hard cap, ideally under 20DB.
    
    I think HDDs are typically around 5-10DB,
    
    Um no. More like 20-25db at idle, up to 30 during heavy seek activity, depending on model.
    
    I run 3x 5400rpm drives in my NAS, and the drives are definitely the loudest parts in the whole build, and are definitely noticeable in the office room.
    
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  - narc0tic_bird@lemm.ee ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Is your typical noise floor even under 20 dB? HDDs are also a lot louder than 5-10 dB, and manufacturers usually list dBA in their spec sheets, not dB.
    
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Decronym@lemmy.decronym.xyz ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:

Fewer Letters More Letters

NAS Network-Attached Storage

NUC Next Unit of Computing brand of Intel small computers

SSD Solid State Drive mass storage

[Thread #895 for this sub, first seen 29th Jul 2024, 18:45] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]

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Fewer Letters	More Letters
NAS	Network-Attached Storage
NUC	Next Unit of Computing brand of Intel small computers
SSD	Solid State Drive mass storage