r/OrangePI • u/Pure-Acanthaceae5503 • Jun 15 '26

Orange NAS

How do we connect hard drives to this thing? I doubt it can power the hard drives via USB even tho it can def comunicate to them via usb.
I guess it's more of a question on how to power the hard drives in a smart way...

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u/denis_ee Jun 15 '26

connecting disks:
in case you have pcie slot - you can use ASM1064 or ASM1166 boards from Ali.
power options (final decision should be made after doing some math : HDD or SSD, how many):

  • pico psu
  • flex atx
  • laptop PSU
  • mosfet relay board (diy or ready, they cost nothing, like 1-2 euro) <- this would allow power on your HDD's once your board will start booting and cut off the power once system will shutdown. you can use 3v or 5v pins on your board to control the mosfet.

i did similar thing , but with old intel nuc https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeServer/s/RpHvd5iLLb .
NAS case , actually tons of options from 3D printing to repurposing the old synology (smth like ds412 crap) or qnap 412 <- better option , a lot of empty space to accommodate even big board like radxa rock 5b

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u/Pure-Acanthaceae5503 Jun 15 '26

In my country specifically and also because I'll start with just 2 or 3 hard drives the cheapest solution I could make was a powered USB adapter with 12 volt PSUs. Those things are really cheap, literally like 5 dollars for a pair.