Looking for HW recommendations for DIY NAS/Homelab - eviltoast

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?

  • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
    11·
    4 months ago

    Really? I currently sit like 3’ from my current PC NAS, and while I can hear it, the fan noise seems louder (stock AMD heatsink and fan). This YouTube looks at very similar drives to what I have (my drives are WD 8TB NAS Plus 5400RPM, video is 8TB NAS Pro 7200), and the measurement is something like 10-15DB per drive. Mine should be quieter than the video, so I think it’ll be fine.

    I’ll probably need to replace my drives soon since I got them 5 years ago (though they were off 80% of the time), so I may consider SSDs if the pricing looks reasonable (I’m only using 2-4TB right now, but I expect that to double or triple in the next couple years).

    Anyway, this is a somewhat temporary situation. Quiet gives me options. If it’s too loud, I can keep it on my desktop. I’m more looking for lower power (currently use 50W-ish idle for whole system) and smaller form factor (current one is a massive ATX tower).

    • vividspecter@lemm.eeEnglish
      2·
      4 months ago

      and the measurement is something like 10-15DB per drive

      It seems to be a relative measurement, and so the values look to be 10-15dB above ambient, not the absolute dB of the drives. You can see he subtracts the background dB from the spl meter calibration early in the video.