1mo ago

Homelab upgrade! - Looking for suggestions on new setup :)

Hi there good folks!

I am going to be upgrading my server within the next couple of months and am trying to do some prior planning. My current setup is as follows:

Case: Fractal Define R5
Mothberboard: Gigabyte Z170X-Designare-CF
CPU: i7-6700K CPU @ 4.00GHz
Memory: 32 GiB DDR4
Storage: 15TB spread across 4 HDDs (10x2x2x1) + 1HDD at 10TB for Parity.
OS: Unraid 🧡

While this setup as served me well, I am completely hooked on these mini-racks(Rackmate T1) and am thinking of getting one eventually. Fortunately I'll be getting my hands on my first mini-pc soon, an ASUS ExpertCenter PN52. This little badboy has the following specs:

CPU: AMD Ryzen™ 9 5900HX
Memory: 32 GiB DDR4
Storage: Comes with one NVMe SSD 1TB

From my little cpu knowledege this one is superior in almost all ways, so it feels like an easy choice to swith out the old one. I need an enclosing for my 5 HDDs that connects to this minipc. This leads me to my questions:

What are your suggestions for enclosings?
Whats the best way to connect an enclosing like this to the mini-pc?

Any pinpointers, opinions and suggestions appriciated!

edit: im getting the mini-pc for free actually, so feel like its a no brainer to upgrade.

9 comments

We had a topic about external drive enclosure DIY here: https://slrpnk.net/post/7880502
But in general I feel like your current setup is still more than fine and there is no need to upgrade, but you do you 👍
- forgot to mention im getting the mini-pc for free 😅
  thanks for the link!

How do you connect the drives? Looking at specs there’s only one sata port (which I don’t actually see anywhere, but it says it is there, although using it slows the second nvme lane)
USB connected drives in a raid array are not ideal. USB connectivity is not as solid as a direct sata connection and a drive suddenly disappearing from your area, especially parity, is quite a headache
No pci slot so you can’t add an hba for more sata lanes either. You could do one of those nvme to sata things but I’ve heard bad things about the reliability of those.
If it’s free though I def think it’s worth finding a way to make it work. The specs are more than enough for unraid and usually those tiny pcs are pretty power efficient, which is nice. But that’s the issue to work around, connecting the hard drives reliably.
WRT what to put them in it could be anything really. You could get a cheap broken 1 or 2u server case where someone’s pulled the motherboard and powersupply, rig something in there to hold them all. Should be more than enough space for 5 drives and will probably have cages for at least 2-3, maybe all 5 if you get lucky. Might even have hot swap ones. Dunno if this would fit though, that rack looks small and I couldn’t get the specs to load, is it full sized or a tiny one?
Could also see if there’s some kind of 3d print thing. There’s probably a 3d print thing to rack mount that mini pc.
- No idea how I would connect the drivers, was hoping there would be an easy solution for this but seems there might not be? Guess I'll have to look into something that has data as you say as I wouldn't want to slow down speeds or make it unreliable.
  The rack I linked isn't one I want on specific, but generally in that direction. It's a small one for sure, though they have larger ones too:
  S: https://deskpi.com/products/deskpi-rackmate-t1-2
  
  Oh I didn’t mean larger like that, I meant width wise. Standard rack width is 19 inches so if it’s one of those specialty racks that’s narrower that thing I said about repurposing an old 1u/2u is pointless because it won’t fit. Doesn’t mean you can’t or shouldn’t use this rack, just that that idea is no good.
  4u is fine unless you want to expand down the line. Networking gear and stuff. However if it’s a narrow rack I don’t think there will be much to put in it for those purposes? Depends on your goals. I have a larger rack but I also have my whole networking stack in it, switch, poe switch, ups, router, nas, etc.
  I would consider posting on the unraid forums. There may be someone who has used similar hardware and can give guidance on how they approached the setup. The benefit of unraid is ultimately that the support community is very solid

Personally I avoid external enclosures for data - they can be finicky in many scenarios.
Are you looking to only have one machine, or is it an option to keep the one you have as well? You could put the more intensive stuff on the new machine, and keep the existing as the data store (and maybe lightweight service stuff, like DNS or homepage or whatever).

I think before anyone suggests anything, you need to state your use case. Is it just going to be a NAS? Maybe nextcloud? Or an *arr servarr? Other services? For how many users? Etc. I think that's relevant.
- My apologies, It is mostly a media server (Jellyfinn+arr stack), but also for many random projects i like such as Mealie, Freshrss, linkding, memos etc...

I don't have a recommendation but I have been looking for similar products. I am considering an esata setup to add my secondary array or a hotswap housing for switching backup drives. There are some pcie to esata adapters, you then just need power. Keeping it sata helps mitigate the risks of usb DAS connections with respect to corruption allegedly.

9 comments