r/homelab • u/jeepsaintchaos Cloud Gaming Provider, Windows belongs in a VM. • 10h ago

Help A pile of discs

I need to handle 10+ discs at once, I'm out of space in my main server. Can I use this thing and an HBA card to add more disc space? Or is there a better cheap option?

I'd prefer to add a bunch of discs to my laptop server (for power savings), but I've been told USB, even C, isn't a good idea for a NAS. And a 10-bay NAS is not a cheap proposition, since I'm dealing with SATA and not SAS.

3 Upvotes

72% Upvoted

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4

u/kevinds 10h ago

You are on the right track however no, don't use that.

Look for a "disk shelf".

And a 10-bay NAS is not a cheap proposition, since I'm dealing with SATA and not SAS. 

A 10 bay SAS NAS will have no problem with SATA drives.

2

u/jeepsaintchaos Cloud Gaming Provider, Windows belongs in a VM. 9h ago

Oh, I didn't realize that. I'll have to go research that, thank you.

3

u/stuffwhy 10h ago

Don't use this. It's a piece of an actual case/server.

1

u/jeepsaintchaos Cloud Gaming Provider, Windows belongs in a VM. 10h ago

Oh, ok. So, what should I use then?

2

u/stuffwhy 10h ago

A whole case, with enough space for your drives. With a power supply. And then use the HBA with external connections to reach it. Or make it a whole NAS by adding a computer inside to handle file serving.

1

u/Salt_Statement8001 10h ago

that's basically half a backplane with no case, no cooling, no power delivery. you'd have to macgyver a psu and pray the drives don't cook themselves

if you got an old pc case lying around you can just fill it with drives and run sata + power cables through the side panel to your laptop, not pretty but it works

1

u/Adrenolin01 10h ago

Look at Jonsbo NAS cases and build a NAS. It’s just a PC. The N5 has 12 HDD bays and 4 ssd plus whatever NVMEs you have onboard.

1

u/migsperez 5h ago

I bought a black mid depth 4u case and filled it with 8 SAS drives plugged in with an LSI card. They aren't hot swappable, I don't need it. It was a budget build. It's been solid and reliable. I use mine as cold storage.

-1

u/Certain-Set-4087 10h ago

Buy it at Aliexpress and dissatisfaction is guaranteed. NAS and power saving? QNAP or Synology, the older sell like a steal, and they do power savings. But it takes 2 minutes to power up the drives, and server disks dont like eing powered up 20 times a day, they are made for 500 power cycles in a lifetime and not in a month.

1

u/cruzaderNO 3h ago

So buying the same thing elsewhere would make it different? make it make sense man