Just got all the hardware set up and working today, super stoked!
In the pic:
- Raspberry Pi 5
- Radxa Penta SATA hat for Pi
- 5x WD Blue 8TB HDD
- Noctua 140mm fan
- 12V -> 5V buck convertor
- 12V (red), 5V (white), and GND (black) distribution blocks
I went with the Raspberry Pi to save some money and keep my power consumption low. I’m planning to use the NAS for streaming TV shows and movies (probably with Jellyfin), replacing my google photos account (probably with Immich), and maybe steaming music (not sure what I might use for that yet). The Pi is running Raspberry Pi Desktop OS, might switch to the server version. I’ve got all 5 drives set up and I’ve tested out streaming some stuff locally including some 4K movies, so far so good!
For those wondering, I added the 5V buck convertor because some people online said the SATA hat doesn’t do a great job of supplying power to the Pi if you’re only providing 12V to the barrel jack, so I’m going to run a USB C cable to the Pi. Also using it to send 5V to the PWM pin on the fan. Might add some LEDs too, fuck it.
Next steps:
- Set up
RAID 5ZFS RAIDz1? - 3D print an enclosure with panel mount connectors
Any tips/suggestions are welcome! Will post again once I get the enclosure set up.
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The fan is good, but the orientation seems like it would struggle pushing air between the drives. Maybe a push-pull setup with a second fan?
I’d at least flip the drive on the right so it’s underside is closer to the fan, as that side gets hotter in my experience, so it would have more effective cooling.
Printing an enclosure now that will significantly improve the airflow
Nice I love it!!
I also have a “messy” setup like this, looking forward to 3D printing a case and then creating a cooling solution for it
Dust is going to be a problem (well, maybe not that much electrically, but it maks it a pita to keep clean) after some months, especially for the Raspberry Pi.
Consider getting (or, even better, 3D printing) an enclosure for it at least (maybe the HDDs will be fine as they are since the fan keeps the air moving and dust probably can’t actually settle down on it).
I’ve got that covered. I got a filter for the big intake fan. Printing the first batch of enclosure parts now.
RAIDZ1. RAID 5 is historically plagued by issues and just not a reliable bet.
RAID 5 is fine, as part of a storage and data management plan. I run it on an older NAS, though It can do RAID 6.
No RAID is reliable in the sense of “it’ll never fail” - fault tolerance has been added to it over the years but it’S still a storage pool from multiple drives.
ZFS adds to it’s fault resistance, but you still better have proper backups/redundancy.
Yolo it and mergerFS all the disks into one!
Then encrypt the drive(s), and auto run a split command that ensures the data is stored all over. Your launcher can have a built in cat command to ensure it takes longer to start the files, but this way we know when one drive dies, that data is straight fucked
Sitting on a chair with a hammer suspended above your nutsack and having a friend cut the rope at a random time will provide the same effect and surprise with much less effort.
PLA warps over time even at low heat. that said, as long as you have good airflow it shouldn’t be a problem to use it for housing, but anything directly contacting the drives might warp.
I thought about doing this myself and was leaning towards reusing drive sleds from existing hardware. it’ll save on design and printing time as well as alleviate problems with heat and the printed parts.
the sleds are usually pretty cheap on ebay, and you can always buy replacements without much effort.
Printing the bracket for the drives in PLA now. I designed them to make minimal contact with the drives so I think they’ll be ok. Even in the rough draft setup the 140mm fan seems like overkill to keep them all cool. If the bracket warps I’ll reprint in something else. Polymaker recently released HT-PLA and HT-PLA-GF, which I’ve been eager to try.
