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.
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.