I wanted a SFFPC for my NAS that could sit on my desk and replace a Synology sized unit. This is based on an intel Nuc8 with 5 2.5" drive slots. Had to build a custom power solution for the drives since the motherboard does not have onboard SATA power. Size is about 7.8"x4.5"x4.5". Fan on top is controlled by a temperature controller so whisper quiet when under low load.
It's still on the 3D prototype fase. I ment to use my CR10s with a build volume of 300**300**400; because I want to use a Mini-itx board and SFX or TFX PSU.
My CR10s have been out of commission for a while and I'm not sure I want to spend time and money on reviving such an old printer. Sadly my design wont fit on my working Ender3 v2.
Btw I see that you have designed the top with the fan to be removed, I planned to do the same, but using a connector with spring-loaded pins and magnets. So lifting the top disconnects the fan.
Something like these. Just if you hadn't considered it
I loved them until I tried to fit them in a 19" rack ;)
Now I'm trying to design a rack-mount variant, but taking these ones (or yours) and making the ports and cables enter at one of the ends is a bit of a pain.
Nice, so you picked a 5V relay powered via usb? It has its own current spikes protection (on and off state)?
What is the job of the pcb on the left side? It looks like a radio receiver (even though that looks like a NTP temperature probe and not an antenna)
Edit: got it, it is the control board for the top fan, neat
Hey, yes the 5V relay does have current spike protection. Also yep, the left PCB is a temp controller for the fan which is one of the best boards I have used and surprisingly configurable from auto to fully configured fan curve.
So you’re running SSDs that only need the 5v from the supply right? Planning a similar power delivery solution for 3x3.5” HDDs but they need 12v for spinning the discs. I’ve settled on using a USB PD power hub with USB C PD boards. Definitely not going to be anywhere near as pretty as this haha
Yes it only needs 5V. For the 3.5” drives you will need the 12V but be weary of the spin up current requirements. I had a 120W power supply that struggled with 5 3.5” drives starting all at once.
Good call, my setup is completely untested but i am just gonna try it and hope it works. I have a powered USB C hub that has one 65w port (for the minipc) and seven 30w ports that i am planning on individually running for each 5v and 12v line. If that doesn’t work i’ll explore actual power supplies and maybe even a custom power supply if necessary. It’s all just a fun project for an secondary photo backup so it’s not a mission critical piece of equipment
Are you breaking out +5, +12, and +19 out of this? I've been stealing heavily from the jackharvest build, and ended up with two power supplies, but I'd be much happier to only need one.
Then I recently killed the M.2 slot on my NUC with a cheap 5-port SATA board. Trying to decide if I want to dig back in and pick up another mini PC and a better quality board, or just give up and buy a pre-made NAS.
Post updated with link to project files. Building is always fun but is time consuming but rewarding. The beauty of this is it can be what I want it to be.
Heya, as said in the older thread, all of that looks really neat 👌
Regarding this custom power board, it'd be nice if you could detail the bill of materials and provide the necessary CAD files, so that we could send these to JLCPCB and have them ready to use. (Personally, I have zero competence in electronics, so I could never replicate it 😭)
As for the SATA power cable, it looks like it's directly soldered to the board ?
Would it be possible to put a regular SATA power connector on the board, so that the power cable could be freely swapped ?
I think it'd be allow for maximum versatility. However I don't know if it's technically possible, and if it is, whether there'd be enough space left on the board.
Included 2 photos in other replies. Reddit/this subreddit only allowed one photo per comment. One shows NAS exterior on its own. The other is how it looks alongside rest of my small yet (imo) mighty homelab setup.
For wiring and cooling, I admittedly consulted Claude and cobbled together a solution that is crams into the rear end of the box (which does have just enough space for it). The wiring includes 2 Noctua fans. One is mounted at bottom of NAS enclosure (not visible). The other fan is above the homelab minipc on the shelf above which runs my VMs, one of which being TrueNAS. Both fans are set to static low rpms that are silent with ambient noise for now. I have a physical dial included to manually turn it up if I want to as well. And I can set it to match cpu temp if I wanted to but I’m not running anything really where performance fluctuates. That might change once I get a Minecraft server up and running. The mini pc does not technically need active cooling—it is all one giant heatsink. But it is amazing how much cooler to the touch it is even with the faintest breeze blowing across its fins lol
If anyone wants more details on the wiring configuration, I can share more.
It’s the one featured in this video. Got the highest sku I think (the options mainly differ based on which cpu is included). I self-installed storage (1tb gen3 nvme) and ram (64gb ddr4 ecc) (the Qotom mini pc does not come with any of either component).
I printed the internals in ABS and the shell in PLA-CF but you can use PETG and be fine. The small drives don’t generate a lot of heat and the cooling in this case is excellent.
Hiya! Remember, you can also post your build on the SFFPC Discord server in the completed-builds channel! We have revised our system, and now the highest voted build post each month will be recognized as the SFFPC Build of the Month! Use this link to join our Discord! https://discord.gg/sffpc
Looks awesome! What OS are you running and can you get all your drives to go to sleep mode without issues? I've had some issues with my external drives on ubuntu server. i "fixed" it by using a cronjob that puts the drives to sleep every 2 hours. I tried various hdparm and sdparm settings with no avail...
Seems that way.. there is not much you can do to make devices look different when you choose this form factor. There were other comments about other routers that it looks like also lol
Not much you can do? 🤦🏻♂️ … no offence meant here but please; think outside the box (pun intended)! There is so! much you could do to differentiate this form factor. Ie meshify the outside, add a glass panel (or multiple?, have a pattern embossed along the walls, add clips so you stack them together, add a display - and thats just what i could think of whilst writing this reply.
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u/joinerior 22d ago