Hi, noob here.  I have a Thinkstation P360 Ultra that I am planning to run unraid on.  Seeing how it’s a mini pc, the one major problem that I foresee is where/how I go about connecting my 3.5” drives. I am considering up to 5 HDDs. 
 

So, my first and simple solution was to get a hard drive bay or DAS to enclose my HDDs that I can then connect to my thinkstation using a usb C cable but after researching, it seems that method is not recommended.  One post on this forum mentioned that the only valid way is through SAS cables if I recall correctly.

I also thought about using a pcie 3 card to connect the individual HDDs but those don’t seem to supply power and the HDDs will need to have their own power source.

 

Conveniently, my thinkstation p360 ultra also has the following slots:

 

PCIe 4.0 x16, Low Profile, Full Length, 75W

PCIe 3.0 x8 (x4 Lanes), Low Profile, Half Length, 25W

1 x 2.5GbE – RJ45
1 x 1GbE – RJ45

Could anyone recommend an optimal solution to connecting HDDs to my Thinkstation to be used as NAS? 

Preferably, I would like to dedicate the 4.0 x16 for my GPU but if there’s no other way then I will be willing to make that compromise. 

 

Is it even possible? If so, what parts am I looking to buy?
 

 

Thanks in advance!

MiniPCs are limited for this, but the best way would to use a SAS HBA connected to an external SAS enclosure.

Sorry if this is a stupid question but how would I power the drives?  Will the SAS HBA also provide power through the SAS cables (https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/NNQAAOSw6zlhhjVj/s-l1600.webp) ? If so will there be enough for 5 drives? or will I need an external power supply to turn on independently?

Edited February 4, 20251 yr by adies

You would need an enclosure with a built-in PSU, or a manually built one, like this for example:

 

https://forums.unraid.net/topic/74460-external-sas-storage-101-query-not-guide/?do=findComment&comment=686248