Is there some kind of relatively small, low-idle-power NAS that I can use at 2.5GHz to shuttle data? It would be separate from that other network so that I can connect just two computers and leave the NAS on all the time with minimal power and heat, unlike the large NAS. I would probably just run one 2.5" SSD in it. They used to sell small enclosures, but what I see on the Jungle Store looks like pure crap and only 1GbE. The other option is a 2-bay QNAP or similar, which is more than I need. Thanks.
Simple NAS
- Thread starter LunarMist
- Start date
sedrosken
Florida Man
You'll likely end up needing to go with that QNAP or something similar to get 2.5GbE. I don't think the really simple single-bay NAS devices have graduated past gigabit yet, since almost no one with needs that simple will have a home LAN any faster than 1Gbit anyway.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I think there are a few low power systems that could be purposefully assembled to operate in very low power idle states but doing so requires a ton of research since something as completely stupid as the wrong USB controller can prevent some OSes from transitioning to lower hybrid states.
ddrueding
Fixture
I'm agreeing with Merc on this one, probably best to roll your own. Without the 2.5GbE requirement you just want a Rasbery Pi with a SATA SSD hanging off it.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
The first thing that comes to mind are the approximately one zillion no-name AliExpress ITX boards using a Celeron N300 or N5105 + 4x 2.5GbE and 6 or 8xSATA and MAYBE a 1xPCIe4 slot. These guys mostly have two m.2s and can probably be tuned for extremely low power operation running on Linux that boots off a modest flash drive.
I've been tempted to build such a thing but I'm not really constrained by power costs in the way some of you are.
I've been tempted to build such a thing but I'm not really constrained by power costs in the way some of you are.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I don't use 2.5GbE anywhere. I have a 1GbE switch and three systems with 40Gb NICs
The fastest I have in the AsBox 4x4 is Thunderbowls level 4, but I'm not able to go more than 2.5GBE on the NAS.
The other option is to de facto in the AsBox, then the Main is not primary. I suppose that will be the life eventually, but I am holding out for now.
The other option is to de facto in the AsBox, then the Main is not primary. I suppose that will be the life eventually, but I am holding out for now.
I'm just going to buy the Cheap Asymmetrical NAS (CAN) and try it first.
I like the temperature 72F in here, so no sweat-inducing storage servers are running 24/7 like in your house/datacenter.
Once I have the 40GB SSDs internally I can reduce usage of all other nASes to a few hours per week.
I like the temperature 72F in here, so no sweat-inducing storage servers are running 24/7 like in your house/datacenter.
Once I have the 40GB SSDs internally I can reduce usage of all other nASes to a few hours per week.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I probably won't see indoor temperatures under 80F until mid-October but that has less to do with the computers (My workstation, two other desktops and the file server) and more to do with being on the top floor of a very well insulated building with unfortunately poor airflow due to window placement.
You are a gluon for punishment. I start breaking out in a sweat after 75°F unless there are human fans. 80°+F is impossible 24/7. I put up with that crap in Europe back in the 20th century. I use far more power WFH now and it's warming up the room all day. The plan is to have the AsBox 4x4 running about 16 hours per day, the main computer about 8 hours per day, the new CAN close to 24/7, and each regular NAS about 8 hours per week.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I got used to high temperatures years and years ago. My partner has as well, though it took her every bit of four years to get there. That may just be one of the special powers we subatomic particles have.
Haha. I remember in high school we made jokes about what anti-color (anti-quark) could represent Plum Crazy.
I have a theory that the desired ambient temperature temperature increases by about 2/3°F per year after age 70 up to age 85.
I have a theory that the desired ambient temperature temperature increases by about 2/3°F per year after age 70 up to age 85.
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Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
That explains Florida and Arizona. Some day soon those people will be longing for the livable winter warmth of Michigan and Minnesota, though.
With due apologies to the Sedorkian, AZ is much better than FL. It's warmer, but mostly the humidity is quite low. And you don't have those horrible storms every few years. Some people spend the hot AZ summers in another state or northern AZ.
jtr1962
Storage? I am Storage!
Didn't happen with my mother. I kept where she was at 70 in the winter and she never complained about being cold. In the summers if I turned the A/C past about 80 she complained about being hot. This was while she was wearing shorts.
If I'm just sitting or lying down, high 70s is tolerable to me if the humidity is low. If I'm doing any kind of activity 50s or 60s is better.
Regarding AZ, at least swamp coolers work there so you don't have to spend a fortune on cooling. Florida is so humid you have no choice but to use the A/C all day for most of the year.
Modern homes are very well insulated, so the A/C power needs are not as much as you would think. Swamp coolers are inadequate when it is really hot all summer and we are still in the monsoon season where it rains and adds humidity. Most of AZ has a high solar energy rating year around, not like what you are used to in the Northeast.
The basic NAS under consideration has a spec of 8-15W. It has a small fan and the ARMed SoC. I hope it would draw about 10W with a single 2TB SSD on idle. It's not clear if sleep mode works right with an SSD or if it is even necessary when the SSD is not doing anything.
The basic NAS under consideration has a spec of 8-15W. It has a small fan and the ARMed SoC. I hope it would draw about 10W with a single 2TB SSD on idle. It's not clear if sleep mode works right with an SSD or if it is even necessary when the SSD is not doing anything.
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Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Check out the Youtube channels NASCompares and ServeTheHome; they both have a large number of reviews for modest systems that can handle 10Gb connectivity + a good number of SATA ports. 15W should be attainable even with an Intel CPU, albeit probably not with 10GbE running.
sedrosken
Florida Man
I keep my AC at 78F not because I want to, but because that's the lowest temp my AC can economically maintain. I do not live in a modern home -- it was built in the 70s when it wasn't in vogue yet to actually insulate homes down this far south. If I set it to, for instance, 75F, it basically never leaves the cooling cycle and my electric bill goes up astronomically. My office is also the warmest room in the apartment, given it has my rack and server running constantly. Winter has rapidly become my favorite season as it's the only time of year I'm not actively dying of heat stroke.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
78. LUXURY!
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Does it not obey its firmware configuration? Is this a major concern? Surely it's on a UPS, right?
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Isn't previous state functionally the same thing for you?
Nope. That does not allow remote operation. I'd like to place the 2-bay one behind some other stuff under a table. Usually it is possible to shut off a NAS through the GUI, then turn off the power through a wireless AC outlet. When the power is turned back on the NAS boots when set to always power on. I do that with one of the 8-bay NAS that I don't want running all the time yet takes about 6-7 minutes to boot, plus the ZFS file unlockers every time.
Of course the plan is to keep the 2-bay NAS on all the time, but if it turns off for any reason it will be a hassle to access. I have one remaining 12V UPS and may try that to mitigate long power failures where I would deliberately turn off the main UPS. The NAS AC adapter is rated at 12V/4A, but the UPS is 12V/3A. That's probably enough for one SSD since the 4A would be able to run two HDDs and the 12V motor startup current. There must be a 12V to 5V step down supply inside the NAS, since it is designed for 2.5" SSDs in addition to 3.5" HDDs.
Of course the plan is to keep the 2-bay NAS on all the time, but if it turns off for any reason it will be a hassle to access. I have one remaining 12V UPS and may try that to mitigate long power failures where I would deliberately turn off the main UPS. The NAS AC adapter is rated at 12V/4A, but the UPS is 12V/3A. That's probably enough for one SSD since the 4A would be able to run two HDDs and the 12V motor startup current. There must be a 12V to 5V step down supply inside the NAS, since it is designed for 2.5" SSDs in addition to 3.5" HDDs.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
There's a company called GeekWorm that makes a KVM over IP, which apparently does support remote power control. Only problem is that it's kind of expensive for a device that doesn't even come with the Raspberry Pi it needs to operate.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
CougTek
Hairy Aussie
Would that small PC do it for you, with a pair of 8TB M.2 drives? It uses between 7W and 10W idle.
Lower-end than that, there's the Hardkernel's HC4. Assembly video here. Only 0.29W idle power.
Lower-end than that, there's the Hardkernel's HC4. Assembly video here. Only 0.29W idle power.
Somehow the link above is corrupted.
TS-216G Power Consumption
HDD Sleep Mode: 4.973W
Operating Mode, Typical: 13.907W
With the cables and stuff it was still under $300 since the 2TB SSD and the USB over 2.5GbE were in the used parts bin.
I will have to relocate the NAS to be able to access the power switch. I may strap it to the bootom of a table. If I were more energetic as not interested in warranty I'd take it apart and find the contacts on the PCB for the switch and run that somewhere. The boot time is about 250s, which is not as bad as the other QNAPs, but still slow compared to Syndology.
I do have the 8840U 4x4 Box which is similar to what you mentioned, but I don't want it to be a primary data location. The main computer has only 24TB of SSDs, but I hope to get more 8TB and increase that to 40TB by 2025. The 8TB BLACK without the heatsink is not available yet.
TS-216G Power Consumption
HDD Sleep Mode: 4.973W
Operating Mode, Typical: 13.907W
With the cables and stuff it was still under $300 since the 2TB SSD and the USB over 2.5GbE were in the used parts bin.
I will have to relocate the NAS to be able to access the power switch. I may strap it to the bootom of a table. If I were more energetic as not interested in warranty I'd take it apart and find the contacts on the PCB for the switch and run that somewhere. The boot time is about 250s, which is not as bad as the other QNAPs, but still slow compared to Syndology.
I do have the 8840U 4x4 Box which is similar to what you mentioned, but I don't want it to be a primary data location. The main computer has only 24TB of SSDs, but I hope to get more 8TB and increase that to 40TB by 2025. The 8TB BLACK without the heatsink is not available yet.
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Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
The problem with the HC4 is that it's not going to have fast LAN access. You can get a USB to 2.5GbE NIC and that's a start, or sacrifice an m.2 port for 10GbE by an adapter that costs 150% of the board cost. I'm also under the impression that LM wouldn't be terribly comfortable setting up a Linux install for data sharing, but since that thing also has a couple SATA ports, it really would make a pretty great stand-alone NAS.
It is indeed interesting, but I'm not seeing any value in building a two-bay 1GbE NAS in the 2020s. Maybe having a really small device with just 2x M.2 rather than SATA would be different, but that one has no M.2 at all. I'm not sure why there is no 2.5GbE. Is it due to the Cortex or the AFrican processor?
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sedrosken
Florida Man
It's because devices this small are not marketed to people like us. Period. Those Cortex chips are just as capable of communicating with 2.5GbE support hardware as anything else, but they cost money that the manufacturer has deemed to not be worth the expenditure.
The kind of person this is marketed to may well have only recently got forced into a 1Gbps home LAN when their ISP forced them to pay for a new router/modem combo. For those of us with high-falutin' 2.5 or 10GbE networks, we're expected to cough up much more for much more complicated gadgetry, or of course roll our own (and likely still pay something approaching the cost of a small moon).
Give it five, ten years and you might see stuff in this bracket start adopting 2.5GbE, as the "gamer" routers do now.
The kind of person this is marketed to may well have only recently got forced into a 1Gbps home LAN when their ISP forced them to pay for a new router/modem combo. For those of us with high-falutin' 2.5 or 10GbE networks, we're expected to cough up much more for much more complicated gadgetry, or of course roll our own (and likely still pay something approaching the cost of a small moon).
Give it five, ten years and you might see stuff in this bracket start adopting 2.5GbE, as the "gamer" routers do now.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
My favorite thing at the moment are $600 NAS devices that still only have 1GbE interfaces. Getting the "Video Editing" versions of the same product is what you need to see a 10GbE port.
In the future I hope to be downsizing all this craziness to one really good NAS at home and maybe a slower one that is mainly offline. SSD prices are currently too high to be feasible for 150-200TB raw storage NAsd.
The Synology DS923+?
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
There are definitely plenty of devices that are still 1GbE only. The 8 bay Synology I've had since the Obama administration, I'm willing to forgive the lack of fast connectivity. Less so something just being introduced to the market.