Hi!
I really wanna make a build with the Fractal Node 804, but I find it difficult to under how can I fit 10 HDDs in there when most of the motherboards mATX have like 4 SATA slot. I am not planning to use a GPU rather an Intel Quick Sync from the latest gen. Would be great if anyone could help
Thanks
The case can fit 10 HDD just fine. You can use a LSI SAS HBA to connect 8 more hard drives.
People coming from Europe should take a look at the Fujitsu D3644-B (6x SATA, Micro-ATX). It’s a C246 motherboard and costs 140 €. With an used i3-8100 for ~60 €, its a really efficient system with a powerful iGPU. It should be even possible to install the Iocrest M.2 E-Key 2x SATA card to reach a total of 8x SATA ports, but finally this will result in a price range similar to the Gigaybte C246M-WU4 (160 €, 8x SATA, Micro-ATX).
I use the Gigabyte C246N-WU2 (Mini-ITX) in my main server and its power consumption of only ~7W (with active 1G LAN, SATA SSD, W10, 16GB RAM) is a dream. Now with active 10G card (~6W), 8 sleeping HDDs (~4.5W), USB-Stick (Unraid), 64GB ECC RAM and NVMe, it idles at ~19.5W.
I wonder why the C246 motherboards have such a bad availability, especially outside of Europe?!
I have followed your builds for a while and I am excited to build the T110 II next weekend. I am a little confused in the section below on the T110 you list SATA cables for the HDD, so what if I want to use SAS drives? Do you have a recommendation for those cables or these will fit those drives as well? I am a total NOOB but I have researched and read different things so any advice will be greatly appreciated.
You need a SAS HBA and cables to use SAS HDD.
Thank You!!
no Fractal Design 7 XL?
This guide was released in July of 2019, before the Definite 7 XL.
It’s a perfectly valid case, and the guide is still relevant, but I can’t update every guide to include the latest hardware.
Hello!
New to all things NAS/Server related and I’m looking to buy/build.
Was debating Synology (ds220j) until I found this site via YouTube.
I’ve spent the last couple of days reading over the NAS Killer 4.0 thread and safe to say I’m a little overwhelmed.
That said, I’m still debating but also came across some Lenovo ThinkCentres (m83/93 SFF or m93 tower) or Dell optiflex (7010) that are listed on the 4.0 thread on Amazon’s Woot! This week for a seemingly decent price.
Could these be an option and just add extra HDDs?
My needs are simple. Mainly want a place for file share/backup and dump all my photos vs all the cloud services I currently use. Possible remote workstation and would like to be accessible from my phone/iPad. No real plans for streaming but who knows. Also want to keep things somewhat small and power efficient but not opposed to a tower.
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
These boxes do not look like good options for a NAS as they have limited drive space. Anything with SFF (Small Form Factor) is a clue that it’s not made to hold many extra drives.
I understand that it can be a bit overwhelming. You use case is for a basic NAS, and the primary function of a NAS is storage. Therefore a primary consideration should be # of drive bays. You don’t have to fill all them, but if you limit yourself to 2 or 3, then you limit your ability to easily grow your storage space. You should not need a ton of CPU or memory for this build.
I’d recommend going with the featured build above which I think you will be very happy with. Another option would be to go with one of the Chenbro builds on the NK4.1 thread. (you basically buy a cheap Chenbro rackmount and then move it’s internals over to a case you like.
If you want a smaller form box, the mini-itx build above looks nice.
I appreciate the response and I’m glad I looked around a bit more and waited before impulse buying.
I’ll give a closer look at the 4.1 builds. Thanks!
I picked up a Supermicro X9SCM-F to upgrade my old NAS Killer build from 2018. Does the ram I have work with this board? It’s a bunch of 8gb PC3-10600R sticks. I’m not sure of the speed on them.
Unfortunately not, you need ECC UDIMM, you have ECC RDIMM.
Check out the RAM links in the guide above.
Ahh that’s what I figured when I was looking at the ram listed here. I’ll go ahead and look for the right ram now haha, thank you!
The SAS to SATA breakout cables in OP went up a bit. The red variant by the same maker has 20% off coupon right now; $11.99 for two sets of cables.
https://www.amazon.com/CableCreation-2-Pack-SFF-8087-Controller-Backplane/dp/B07CL2V2FZ
I personally have run these same cables for 3 years without issue.
Good NK 4.0 starter system here for $79.99 OBO…
This is logical but I think I can work around this using expansion cards like this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07SZDK6CZ
I have written more about this here and would love more feedback: Any technical reasons why we cant have a NAS Killer using the intel HP 290 or ProDesk 400 G4?
I’m very interested in your build since it is exactly what I am looking for. I like to have a super power efficient NAS and do not need any virtualization or “apps” running on it. I like to use a SSD for caching and hope that my RAID is sleeping the majority of time.
Can you help me out with some recommendations? I can’t find your board anywhere - I live in Europe.
You can’t find it, because I recommend it to often ^^
I’m active on several NAS building websites and many people bought this board. Even the Asrock C246 WSI is sold out, although it’s not as power efficient as the Gigabyte.
The Fujitsu D3644-B is still available, but it’s not an ITX Board and mainly distributed by German resellers. But some of them offer international shipping so check them out:
If you need ITX you are at the moment out of options if you need ECC and don’t want IPMI (which adds 5 watts). You could try to add an alert (it seems yesterday was some stock):
If mATX is ok for you, buy the Fujitsu (6x SATA, 1x M.2) or try to find the C246M-WU4 (8x SATA, 2x M.2). But I warn you, prices exploded in the last 2 months.
Do not buy the C246-WU4 (Full ATX). It can’t be as efficient as it has an additional controller for SATA ports 9 and 10.
If you can live without ECC RAM, you could buy a usual B365 board with 6 SATA ports. Some mATX versions even have 2x M.2 slots (like the Asrock B365M Pro4).