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Does anyone have any recommendations for a CM carrier board that has ethernet and ~4 sata ports that I can attach external drives to? I'd quite like to build my

Does anyone have any recommendations for a CM carrier board that has ethernet and ~4 sata ports that I can attach external drives to? I'd quite like to build my own NAS but I don't know what board to use

oynqr 2y ago
Odroid H4+. Four SATA ports, 2x 2.5gig Ethernet, IBECC. Not a compute module/carrier board combination though. Also x86_64.
- voidUpdate 2y ago
  Yeah, I've been considering just going for an x86 thing, though finding a mini pc with 4 satas might be tough, and there's the whole raspi ecosystem that would help with troubleshooting. I'll add that to the potential list though =)
  - rvense 2y ago
    If you go with x86 you've got a bunch of people doing it under the "homelab" banner, so you'll hardly be alone.
  - babarjaana 2y ago
    The easiest way might be getting an ITX board with N100/150 from CWWK or Topton. They usually come with 4-6 SATA ports and the CPU soldered on. Then you just buy your favorite case and plug in your drives. Excluding the cost of the drives you might end up spending about $250, depending on your case and PSU selection. The problem with using SBCs or mini PCs that way is that you need an enclosure to hold, power, and cool down your disks, and even that is assuming that you can actually connect them via a SATA/SAS connection which may not be easily available from within your case.
  - sorenjan 2y ago
    Check out Hardware Haven on Youtube, he tests a bunch of different small form factor NAS computers and similar. I find the whole "raspi ecosystem" a bit overrated, for the most part it's Linux you're working with regardless of hardware.
geerlingguy 2y ago
The best one for that (IMHO, though I should note this company sent me one to test, and it's been running my NVR for months now) is the Axzez Interceptor: https://www.axzez.com/product-page/interceptor-carrier-board https://www.axzez.com/product-page/interceptor-carrier-board It's purpose-built for that, and they even have a rackmount chassis for it, though you could design your own too. Power for the drives requires a separate power supply though. The other option right now is the Radxa Taco (https://radxa.com/products/io-board/taco/ https://radxa.com/products/io-board/taco/), but availability has been scarce. I've ordered one and will hopefully test it again soon, with the CM5! (That is, if you're wanting to go down the Pi NAS route—there are certainly other options out there!)
- voidUpdate 2y ago
  Those both look good, though I might have to save up a bit to afford them haha. I'd probably end up printing my own case, so that's not really an issue. Looking forward to your testing of the CM5 Taco =)
- jnsaff2 2y ago
  I have the Taco and was about to ask whether you have tested it with the CM5 yet. For some reason I thought that Radxa is about to deprecate the Taco but I might be mistaken. The one issue I found that without a heat-sink, fan and any drives just idling on a 12V supply the board got really hot. So I have my questions about the efficiency of the board. I've been thinking about testing the power usage of it so maybe a good time to follow through on it.
- Palomides 2y ago
  I have one of these (the axzez board) with two hard drives in a cheap supermicro 1U case, works fine
exar0815 2y ago
In all honesty, and considering that everything you build with a SBC is not that powerful and a cabling mess, I would recommend to go for a refurbished ThinkCenter Tiny or similar + an external HDD Rack. Atleast thats the route I went, and I am vastly less annoyed about it.
- voidUpdate 2y ago
  I got a small thinkcenter a while back that I currently run some docker stuff on (homeassistant, pihole, some custom stuff), and I am pretty happy with it. Do they have a spare pcie or something to attach all the drives to, though? I don't remember seeing anything like that when I was inside mine, though that was a while back, so my memory may be wrong
  - exar0815 2y ago
    In theory you can use the WiFi-One, though I don't know if that one is BIOS-locked. I just use it with USB3 and a 4 Bay Enclosure, which probably someone is gonna explain to me is the worst idea since leaded gasoline, but I have absolutely no Issues with my ZFS NAS for 5 years that way.
    - rvense 2y ago
      Which enclosure? I've got an upgrade on the horizon and like this solution.
      - exar0815 2y ago
        A 4-Bay one from Amazon, Icy-Box. Pretty Cheap. I decided on external Backup over Enterprise-Hardware. YMMV though. https://www.amazon.de/ICY-BOX-Externes-Festplatten-Aluminium/dp/B07G6X524P https://www.amazon.de/ICY-BOX-Externes-Festplatten-Aluminium...
    - voidUpdate 2y ago
      Ah, good point, I hadn't considered a USB solution. I might look into that, though I'll have to see if there's a good way to keep all the cables looking tidy and not have a cable coming out the front and then disappearing back inside again haha
poulpy123 2y ago
These are raspberry hats that allow that, like the radxa penta sata hat or the geekworm x1009. I don't know how good they are though

oynqr 2y ago

Odroid H4+. Four SATA ports, 2x 2.5gig Ethernet, IBECC. Not a compute module/carrier board combination though. Also x86_64.

voidUpdate 2y ago
Yeah, I've been considering just going for an x86 thing, though finding a mini pc with 4 satas might be tough, and there's the whole raspi ecosystem that would help with troubleshooting. I'll add that to the potential list though =)
- rvense 2y ago
  If you go with x86 you've got a bunch of people doing it under the "homelab" banner, so you'll hardly be alone.
- babarjaana 2y ago
  The easiest way might be getting an ITX board with N100/150 from CWWK or Topton. They usually come with 4-6 SATA ports and the CPU soldered on. Then you just buy your favorite case and plug in your drives. Excluding the cost of the drives you might end up spending about $250, depending on your case and PSU selection. The problem with using SBCs or mini PCs that way is that you need an enclosure to hold, power, and cool down your disks, and even that is assuming that you can actually connect them via a SATA/SAS connection which may not be easily available from within your case.
- sorenjan 2y ago
  Check out Hardware Haven on Youtube, he tests a bunch of different small form factor NAS computers and similar. I find the whole "raspi ecosystem" a bit overrated, for the most part it's Linux you're working with regardless of hardware.

geerlingguy 2y ago

The best one for that (IMHO, though I should note this company sent me one to test, and it's been running my NVR for months now) is the Axzez Interceptor: https://www.axzez.com/product-page/interceptor-carrier-board https://www.axzez.com/product-page/interceptor-carrier-board It's purpose-built for that, and they even have a rackmount chassis for it, though you could design your own too. Power for the drives requires a separate power supply though. The other option right now is the Radxa Taco (https://radxa.com/products/io-board/taco/ https://radxa.com/products/io-board/taco/), but availability has been scarce. I've ordered one and will hopefully test it again soon, with the CM5! (That is, if you're wanting to go down the Pi NAS route—there are certainly other options out there!)

voidUpdate 2y ago
Those both look good, though I might have to save up a bit to afford them haha. I'd probably end up printing my own case, so that's not really an issue. Looking forward to your testing of the CM5 Taco =)
jnsaff2 2y ago
I have the Taco and was about to ask whether you have tested it with the CM5 yet. For some reason I thought that Radxa is about to deprecate the Taco but I might be mistaken. The one issue I found that without a heat-sink, fan and any drives just idling on a 12V supply the board got really hot. So I have my questions about the efficiency of the board. I've been thinking about testing the power usage of it so maybe a good time to follow through on it.
Palomides 2y ago
I have one of these (the axzez board) with two hard drives in a cheap supermicro 1U case, works fine

exar0815 2y ago

In all honesty, and considering that everything you build with a SBC is not that powerful and a cabling mess, I would recommend to go for a refurbished ThinkCenter Tiny or similar + an external HDD Rack. Atleast thats the route I went, and I am vastly less annoyed about it.

voidUpdate 2y ago
I got a small thinkcenter a while back that I currently run some docker stuff on (homeassistant, pihole, some custom stuff), and I am pretty happy with it. Do they have a spare pcie or something to attach all the drives to, though? I don't remember seeing anything like that when I was inside mine, though that was a while back, so my memory may be wrong
- exar0815 2y ago
  In theory you can use the WiFi-One, though I don't know if that one is BIOS-locked. I just use it with USB3 and a 4 Bay Enclosure, which probably someone is gonna explain to me is the worst idea since leaded gasoline, but I have absolutely no Issues with my ZFS NAS for 5 years that way.
  - rvense 2y ago
    Which enclosure? I've got an upgrade on the horizon and like this solution.
    - exar0815 2y ago
      A 4-Bay one from Amazon, Icy-Box. Pretty Cheap. I decided on external Backup over Enterprise-Hardware. YMMV though. https://www.amazon.de/ICY-BOX-Externes-Festplatten-Aluminium/dp/B07G6X524P https://www.amazon.de/ICY-BOX-Externes-Festplatten-Aluminium...
  - voidUpdate 2y ago
    Ah, good point, I hadn't considered a USB solution. I might look into that, though I'll have to see if there's a good way to keep all the cables looking tidy and not have a cable coming out the front and then disappearing back inside again haha

poulpy123 2y ago

These are raspberry hats that allow that, like the radxa penta sata hat or the geekworm x1009. I don't know how good they are though