3 ms·

I also run a home NAS in a Node 304. I went with a supermicro mainboard for ECC support which means I had to swap the three fans that come with the case because

I also run a home NAS in a Node 304. I went with a supermicro mainboard for ECC support which means I had to swap the three fans that come with the case because the mainboard only supports PWM fans. Non-PWM fans would only spin at full speed otherwise. Regarding the SLOG device, you probably don't need it for a file server, but if you do you can definitely free a drive bay for an HDD by just using double sided tape somewhere like on the PSU. I'm sure it's also possible to put three more HDDs above the CPU, right in front of the exhaust fan. If I had a 3D printer I would try to build something bringing the total to nine HDDs. If you need more SATA ports but are running out of PCIe slots, you may be able to reuse an empty M.2 slot. An M.2 with two lanes of PCIe 3 gives you 5 SATA ports with an adapter[0]. [0] https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004223466933.html https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004223466933.html

mrslave 4y ago
I occasionally look at the PCIe-to-SATA market and find it confusing. It appears polarized into either cards from a reputable brand and very expensive, even with few SATA ports, or cards from an unknown brand and relatively affordable. What's your experience with this and what can you recommend (2-port or 4-port)? Are the cheap cards safe & reliable or are they to be avoided?
- magicalhippo 4y ago
  I've been running older SAS cards for years and it's been doing just fine. They go for cheap on eBay. Each SAS port serve four SATA drives, using SAS-to-SATA cables. Just make sure to get one that runs in IT mode or you have to mess with the firmware.
  - vladvasiliu 4y ago
    > Just make sure to get one that runs in IT mode or you have to mess with the firmware. In case some people wonder what "IT mode" is, as I used to some years ago, what you basically want is a card that will expose the drives directly to the OS, as opposed to "volumes". In other terms, if the card is a RAID controller, it may insist on you creating arrays and only expose those. You can circumvent it by creating single-drive arrays, but it's a pain. Some cards can do both, but it's usually not advertised. Non-RAID cards also tend to be cheaper. Others (usually LSI) can be flashed with a non-RAID firmware, but again, it's less of a hassle to not have to do it.
- kalleboo 4y ago
  Basically: they can be buggy. Either they work fine for you, or you hit an edge case and have trouble. They can also have worse performance as they only have one SATA controller and split it amongst the drives. The fancier more expensive ones are typically referred to as HBAs instead of "SATA cards" https://unraid-guides.com/2020/12/07/dont-ever-use-cheap-pci-e-sata-expansion-cards-with-unraid/ https://unraid-guides.com/2020/12/07/dont-ever-use-cheap-pci... If you're doing this at home, you can get used enterprise gear on eBay (like an LSI SAS HBA) for the same price or cheaper than brand-new consumer gear, and it will probably still be more reliable (I built a 130 TB NAS for my friend's video production business and literally everything aside from the drives and the cables was bought used on online auction, and it's been humming along fine for a while now - the only part that was bad was one stick of RAM, but the ECC errors told me that before I even got around to running my tests on the sticks)

mrslave 4y ago

I occasionally look at the PCIe-to-SATA market and find it confusing. It appears polarized into either cards from a reputable brand and very expensive, even with few SATA ports, or cards from an unknown brand and relatively affordable. What's your experience with this and what can you recommend (2-port or 4-port)? Are the cheap cards safe & reliable or are they to be avoided?

magicalhippo 4y ago
I've been running older SAS cards for years and it's been doing just fine. They go for cheap on eBay. Each SAS port serve four SATA drives, using SAS-to-SATA cables. Just make sure to get one that runs in IT mode or you have to mess with the firmware.
- vladvasiliu 4y ago
  > Just make sure to get one that runs in IT mode or you have to mess with the firmware. In case some people wonder what "IT mode" is, as I used to some years ago, what you basically want is a card that will expose the drives directly to the OS, as opposed to "volumes". In other terms, if the card is a RAID controller, it may insist on you creating arrays and only expose those. You can circumvent it by creating single-drive arrays, but it's a pain. Some cards can do both, but it's usually not advertised. Non-RAID cards also tend to be cheaper. Others (usually LSI) can be flashed with a non-RAID firmware, but again, it's less of a hassle to not have to do it.
kalleboo 4y ago
Basically: they can be buggy. Either they work fine for you, or you hit an edge case and have trouble. They can also have worse performance as they only have one SATA controller and split it amongst the drives. The fancier more expensive ones are typically referred to as HBAs instead of "SATA cards" https://unraid-guides.com/2020/12/07/dont-ever-use-cheap-pci-e-sata-expansion-cards-with-unraid/ https://unraid-guides.com/2020/12/07/dont-ever-use-cheap-pci... If you're doing this at home, you can get used enterprise gear on eBay (like an LSI SAS HBA) for the same price or cheaper than brand-new consumer gear, and it will probably still be more reliable (I built a 130 TB NAS for my friend's video production business and literally everything aside from the drives and the cables was bought used on online auction, and it's been humming along fine for a while now - the only part that was bad was one stick of RAM, but the ECC errors told me that before I even got around to running my tests on the sticks)