Ello everyone
Looking to convert my old PC into a home NAS - any recommendations for a home NAS?
Key points are:
Specs: 1660, R5 3600, 16gb RAM
Looking for something quiet with lots of hard drive sleds.
I've previously looked athe Define 7XL with the solid case sides. It'd absolutely choke the computer but hoping the foam would reduce some of the noise.
The priority is aboslute silence vs performance:noise ratio.
Cheers!
Small apartment doesn't allow me to do that, but great idea for your usecase!
Best cheap case I found (that still can be purchased brand new) is: Thermaltake H24/H25, or Antec VSK 4000, as it can store a lot of HDDs, and DVD cage can be transfered to Hot swapable if required.
I guess it won't suit your need as either is not noise damped.
Interesting project. I've thought of doing a freenas or unraid server project but never went through with it. I ended up just slapping 4 old drives in an old computer that became my media server pc connected to the tv and used stablebit Drivepool a non redundant storage solution to jbod the disks together.
1660 video card might be useful if you have to transcode video in Plex? or is that done more on the cpu level? but not sure how else that video card gets used and might be a bit of overkill.
Curious - what type of controller and power supply will you be using to connect all the drives? the Define 7XL is a beast of a case for drive storage. The only thing that might test 18 drives is a proper server rack storage.
Haven't thought through the controller yet, but I'm sure someone on reddit would give me a good idea.
Honestly the main thing I want to do is store an absolute shitton of videos and photos on it and move on/off quite regularly.
if its just a NAS you can get rid of the graphics card and go for an itx form factor depending on how many drives you want. majority of the noise will be from fans so you can just choose something appropriate or just throw some noctuas on there. if its small enough you can throw it in a cabinet as long as theres some airflow, they dont get too hot otherwise
I'd be keen on ITX but for two problems:
(1) Increased cost vs ATX and I'm not hurting for space in my place; and
(2) Not enough space for ~150TB of hard drives haha
I use a Fractal Define XLR2 with all sleds full plus adapters mounted in the 5.25 bays for more drives, so not the same case but thermal loads should be similar.
Overall case temps are fine (this is an old intel 2500k, using integrated graphics and a raid card [just for the sata ports].
The HDD's do require lots of cooling in order to maintain the temps I prefer in summer, however the case is not the restriction (Its the fact they are packed so close together, need the airflow to get the heat out)
The solution I found was to use the original fans in the front, and behind the drive bays mount more fans in a pull config (so the HDDS are sandwiched in a push pull configuration). I just use velcro strips to stick them on
This keeps the drives at a respectable temperature, and I would assume the same could be done with the define 7. Obviously the ideal would be a case with better front fans, but I couldn't find one either and this works fine.
Great, thanks for the heads up!
ohh and running 10+ HDD wont be silent nomatter what you do.
I cant hear the fans but the rumble of HDD is constant (because it is raid they never spin down)
Fractal Design Define 7 XL with more fans is what I'd go with.
I have the fractal design node 804 - can fit 10 drives easy…
https://www.fractal-design.com/products/cases/node/node-804/…
It looks like a photocopier not a pc…..maybe thats the bad thing about it.
How many drives are we talking? are you a member of https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder
I started with a PC case, then a NAS and then a RPC-4224
So really the Fractal Define 7xl can mount up to 18x 3.5inch Harddrives? or is that 18x 2.5ich Harddrives or combinationof both sizes?, I've got the S2 and surprised how well the case dampens the fans sounds within
Do you have a budget? also, since you want lots of drives/data, it almost sounds like you're on the verge of expanding into a homelab type setup. Would you consider rack-mountable chassis?
Don't have the space for a rack unfortunately which kills that idea. Also once I go down the rack route there's no going back and I prefer using consumer products.
welp, looks like ur only real consumer options are the fractals(maybe silverstones), prolly the large fractal towers or the node 304.
If you go with a 304,150tb will pretty much max out the 304 immediately, i'd also recommend getting slimline sata cables, sata power 4in1 splitters and an SFF psu with a ATX converter, prolly the corsair sff psu's to increase cable working space in the 304(also since theyre modular). I've had one and only had 2 drives in the 304 rail system and could already tell its a clusterF at max capacity, the HDD's are very close together and will put strain on linked sata ribbons. also, with the 304, if ur using an sff psu u might need a 24pin extension cable to reach around to the mobo.
Much appreciated!
I've looked at this before. Super-large fans (200mm) help, but nothing stops clicks of a HDD. There are a lot of YT vids you prob watched, but will post a few for others:
I am using a old Deepcool Tesseract case as my nas, it is quite noisy while HDDs all spinning, but I don't care as it's in the corner of my garage where my NBN terminal and router is.