March 7, 20233 yr I have had an R720 setup with Unraid for a while and am now looking at switching to something more power efficient and that generates a little less heat. I currently have 6 3.5" array drives + a 3.5" parity drive + a 2.5" cache SSD in my R720. I am looking at switching to a Lenovo M720q for my actual Unraid server that I'll run my Docker and VM's (if any) on and a NAS/DAS for my file storage, but had a couple of logistical questions. I've never used a NAS or DAS before and have only ever had my drives located locally in my server. If I were to move to a DAS/NAS + the Lenovo M720q, what does that setup look like exactly? I assumed I'd use the NVME in the Lenovo 720q as my cache drive, but what about my parity/array drives? I planned on putting them in the DAS/NAS, but how do those interface with Unraid exactly? Do they all show up as individual drives as if they were local to my server? Can someone help me understand exactly how that would work? I've never actually used a NAS before, so I am not exactly sure how to go about this.
October 4, 20232 yr @semicole Have you found a solution to the problem? I am currently in the same situation: I have a Lenovo M720q, but it only has room for two SSDs (one 2.5" and one m.2 NVMe). I still have 4x4 TB 3.5 HDD lying around. How should I build Unraid with parity, cache and data disks?
October 4, 20232 yr Author 4 hours ago, rematch said: @semicole Have you found a solution to the problem? I am currently in the same situation: I have a Lenovo M720q, but it only has room for two SSDs (one 2.5" and one m.2 NVMe). I still have 4x4 TB 3.5 HDD lying around. How should I build Unraid with parity, cache and data disks? I ended up going with a whole different solution altogether after realizing how difficult it was going to be to get this working how I wanted. I ended up making a new server in a Jonsbo N2 and I use the M720q as a standalone pfsense box.
October 4, 20232 yr 3 minutes ago, semicole said: I ended up going with a whole different solution altogether after realizing how difficult it was going to be to get this working how I wanted. I ended up making a new server in a Jonsbo N2 and I use the M720q as a standalone pfsense box. I see. Would you be willing to write more details about the installed hardware and your implementation? Sounds very interesting. I'm still going to try the Lenovo box, but having an alternative up my sleeve is certainly not bad. Thanks.
July 9, 20242 yr Doesn't the Lenovo M720q, m920q and m920x have a proprietary pciex8 slot to which you can attach a 90 degree riser that has a regular pciex8 slot at the end of the riser? This allows you to attach a second nic for pfsense/opnsense OR a hba adapter that would allow you to connect one or two sas drives or 4 or 8 sata drives. You would need an external hard drive case with a power supply to power the hard drives. I believe you can not have a SSD or the riser card installed at the same time due to the size limitations of the tiny case.
July 9, 20241 yr After posting the above and a quick after super nap, Google found this article of a person using a Lenovo m720q and a LSI-9200-8E with TrueNAS. Not sure what his external enclosure is but he mentions it is powered by a 250 watt power supply he had laying around in his garage. In my garage I do not have any computer parts laying about but I do have all kinds of old Chevy and Corvette stuff...LOL.. Maybe this link will inspire some of you. https://github.com/NKkrisz/HomeLab/blob/main/markdown%2FLenovo_M720Q_Setup.md Cheers from Nova Scotia....
July 9, 20241 yr How to put an hba into a Lenovo m720q https://www.printables.com/model/701086-lsi-9200-8e-pci-eback-cover-for-lenovo-m720q
November 4, 2025Nov 4 On 7/9/2024 at 7:45 PM, Vetteman said:After posting the above and a quick after super nap, Google found this article of a person using a Lenovo m720q and a LSI-9200-8E with TrueNAS. Not sure what his external enclosure is but he mentions it is powered by a 250 watt power supply he had laying around in his garage. In my garage I do not have any computer parts laying about but I do have all kinds of old Chevy and Corvette stuff...LOL.. Maybe this link will inspire some of you. https://github.com/NKkrisz/HomeLab/blob/main/markdown%2FLenovo_M720Q_Setup.md Cheers from Nova Scotia.... Many thanks from the future.
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