Best way to connect HDD's to a mini pc

[happy1]

Hey guys,

 

my plan is to build a cheap unraid server for my father. He is already using 2 HDDs with 6TB size.

 

The plan was to buy a refurbished Lenovo M710q Tiny Mini PC or HP Prodesk (or something similar to this), they are really cheap here (around 100€) with a i5-6500T, 8GB Ram and SSD.

 

Now I need a good solution to connect the existing HDD's to the unraid system. Since these mini pcs are obviously too small to fit the HDD's in it, I need an external enclosure or something similar. On another thread here, I already read that USB to SATA is not a good idea, so what would be the post solution to make the mini pc and the HDD's work together? 

Another idea was to buy a nvme to sata port adapter and use them to connect the hdd's, would this be a better solution than a usb enclosure?

Thanks in advance.

[Vr2Io]

2 hours ago, happy1 said:

Another idea was to buy a nvme to sata port adapter and use them to connect the hdd's, would this be a better solution than a usb enclosure?

Yes, but seems won't have enough space for cable / socket fan-out without modify the case.

 

 

[happy1]

I mean there is solutions for this. But is the nvme to sata adapter a legit solution or just slightly better than the usb3 connection?

[Vr2Io]

Don't think M2 to PCIe, you can't mount the add-on card reliable and powering cable routing also not possible.

 

M2 to SATA should be the best solution.

 

USB3 always not recommend because hard to found one which work well or stable. But longtime ago, I use a 5bays USB enclosure, after fix all problem it serve me well, but actual bandwidth is limit to 300MB/s, so in worst case, each disk have 60MB/s only. But this solution really cheap and tidy.

Edited May 8, 2022 by Vr2Io

[happy1]

5 minutes ago, Vr2Io said:

Don't think M2 to PCIe, you can't mount the add-on card reliable and powering cable routing also not possible.

 

NVMe to SATA should be the best solution.

 

USB3 always not recommend because hard to found one which work well or stable. But longtime ago, I use a 5bays USB enclosure, after fix all problem it serve me well, but actual bandwidth is limit to 300MB/s, so in worst case, each disk have 60MB/s only. But this solution really cheap and tidy.

and if I connect each HDD to 1 USB 3.0 Slot with the cable in the picture, I'm basically not limited and I just need to worry about the reliability? Which factors can impact if it will work stable or not

Edited May 8, 2022 by happy1

[Vr2Io]

12 minutes ago, happy1 said:

I'm basically not limited and I just need to worry about the reliability?

Yes, a useful tool could help you stress test the reliability

 

https://h2testw.en.lo4d.com/windows#screenshot_header 

Edited May 8, 2022 by Vr2Io

[BRiT]

Drives across USB have a tendency to disconnect, which would cause the drive(s) to drop out of the array.

[Vr2Io]

5 minutes ago, BRiT said:

Drives across USB have a tendency to disconnect, which would cause the drive(s) to drop out of the array.

Yes and No, depends on you got a right one or not, but this cost me a month to troubleshoot.

 

15 minutes ago, happy1 said:

Which factors can impact if it will work stable or not

Hardware issue mainly on USB controller and Bridge controller, OS and USB cable not relate from my experiences.

[happy1]

So I guess I shouldnt even try getting one of these mini-pc's and just try to get a cheap used tower pc to use sata instead of usb

[BlinkerFluid]

Another option besides a tower, is to get a small form factor with a pcie slot and use external sas pcie card to connect to a diy das box or an enclosure with a sas backplane. HP S01, HP 290 come to mind because i know they have a full pcie slot but there are others. This is the best way I can think of to use a mini pc/small form factor and still have a ton of storage space directly attached. Your originally proposed hardware I don't think is going to work due to lack of the expansion slots

 

Edited May 9, 2022 by BlinkerFluid