atl-far-east Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 Hi all, I'm thinking of upgrading my unRaid server (which is a 2U system that's a little slow and very power hungry). There are lots of mini-PC builds (this is a high-end example of one) that seem to have good specs and use low power, as well as have enough SATA ports for my needs (1 cache, 1 parity, 2 drives). However, most of the mini PC cases don't have space for lots of drives (obviously). How would I go about actually using the SATA ports, then? If I had an external eSATA dock like this, could I connect it somehow? Could I use the on-board SATA port(s) and pass through a cable, or would I need an HBA (?)/RAID card instead and using a PCI-e card (with riser)? I also understand that not all motherboards support acting as a SATA port multiplier too - but not sure exactly what that impacts. Is this a terrible idea in the first place? Any advice appreciated. Thanks! Quote Link to comment
atl-far-east Posted July 13, 2018 Author Share Posted July 13, 2018 Replying to myself so I can get notified of replies, which I forgot to select! Quote Link to comment
Squid Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 Generally, I'd say avoid them. eSata port multipliers don't always have the greatest support on the motherboard / add-in cards, and you may also run into performance issues especially during parity checks if you fully populate the enclosure, as you're trying to funnel all that bandwidth for the 5 drives through a single eSata connection. 48 minutes ago, atl-far-east said: Could I use the on-board SATA port(s) and pass through a cable, Yes, SATA to eSata cables are easily found. Quote Link to comment
atl-far-east Posted July 13, 2018 Author Share Posted July 13, 2018 Great, thanks Squid! Really dumb question: to use an SATA to eSATA cable with an external drive, just find a gap in the case to pull it through? Any other good procedure for that connection? Any advice on an external chassis without needing a port multiplier? Quote Link to comment
Squid Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 33 minutes ago, atl-far-east said: Any other good procedure for that connection? I would definitely avoid hammering in a rail-way spike into the case to make the hole 33 minutes ago, atl-far-east said: Any advice on an external chassis without needing a port multiplier? Not my area of expertise. Quote Link to comment
atl-far-east Posted July 13, 2018 Author Share Posted July 13, 2018 Got it, no railway spikes. Thanks! Quote Link to comment
praeses Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 Scroll though this list for a visual idea: http://www.satacables.com/html/sata-pci-brackets.html I've seen ones with 6 before in a full height single-width. When it comes to storage, my preference is to stay away from anything external, especially esata for a few reasons: Separate power supplies, more points of failure Not a robust connection (either damage or temporary disconnects) cables are typically stiff and things may not sit nicely Everyone has their preferences however. For temporary stuff USB 3.0+ seems to be fairly reliable, as in to just copy data off a disk. Most notably if the drives are small and can be powered directly off the USB port safely. System performance can take a hit however. Typically when you're looking at adding external drives as part of your array your cost/power consumption/cabling, and in some cases overall volume/size goes up more than you may expect. I wouldn't recommend planning a build with anything dangling on the outside except for maybe a USB NIC or similar (I think Aquantia has 2.5/5G Base-T USB 3.0/3.1 versions coming soon, will be interesting if they end up being supported). Quote Link to comment
ken-ji Posted July 13, 2018 Share Posted July 13, 2018 Small PCs are not neccessarily the cheapest / most cost efficient, but if you really want to use a mini PC like that, you probably could add these: http://www.scsi4me.com/lsi-sas-9207-8e-8-ports-external-low-profile-6gb-s-sata-sas-pcie-3-0-hba-controller-card.html https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817707320&cm_re=sas_enclosure-_-17-707-320-_-Product and one sff-8088 cable. This is not a recommendation to get these parts - I just googled them up so you can see how they can go together. I am currently using: Cooler Master 110 Mini ITX case ASRock Z270M-ITX/ac LSI 9206-16e SFF-8644 to SFF8088 cables Areca 4036 (SAS/SATA JBOD Enclosure) https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1001223-REG/areca_arc_4036_8_bay_sas_enclosure.html Other than my cache drive and appdata SSD, everything is in the enclosure so my array fails as a single device in case of power issues or cable issues. The HBA and enclosure did not come cheap when I got them a few years back. Quote Link to comment
atl-far-east Posted July 15, 2018 Author Share Posted July 15, 2018 Thanks praeses and ken-ji. Super helpful and a lot to think about for planning! Quote Link to comment
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