Thanks for that info–I was wondering if it was a debian issue. I am on Debian Bullseye (11) though.
The caddy is just one of those cheap generic ones from Amazon. But I have 3 of them–and I have swapped and tested with another.
Yes, both cables are connected. This was working fine–the drive just suddenly stopped showing up…
good luck, hopefully you can figure it out. i had nothing in terms of issues from drives connected through similar caddy in the last few weeks I have been running proxmox…
Thank you! Do you per chance know which Bios is on your units?
Mine still has F.21 on it. I’m thinking of updating it.
It seems the HP Bios update utility is windows only though. So gotta get a window boot going to do it.
Also I switched the Bios from ACHI to Raid–I think Raid being older has better compatibility and still supports ACHI features. Is that what you are using? Trying everything here… I appreciate you trying to help!
I will check and respond - I recall downloading the upgrade files for BIOS but system telling me no update is needed (already running latest). Also I do not recall switching ACHI to RAID , I think I run it default as is - just swapped CPU for i7-10700 and put in 2 sticks of 16 GB ram each without ever logging to my node #2 and #3
checked. my setup is exactly as yours - BIOS is F.21 , ‘Sata emulation’=RAID. So I dont think that is the factor. check the caddy you are using? Any issues with it previously?
Links
…
- NVMe FAQ - Adapters: [Official] NVMe FAQ & Info - M.2, U.2, heatsinks, and more!
- Add 8GB RAM or 8GB RAM (pick whichever is cheaper)
I grabbed an HP S01 on eBay. Thanks guys! Just a quick question, do I need an adapter to put an NVMe drive in? And for the 8GB of RAM, is it recommended to purchase an 8GB stick and replace the 4GB the desktop comes with, or buy another 4GB stick and add it to the existing one?
You don’t need an adapter unless you want to install more than one m.2 NVMe drive, but you may want to add a heatsink from that post. And keep the 4GB stick installed in addition to the 8GB.
I run mine S01 models with 32 GB of RAM each (2 sticks x 16 GB per stick). i think it is the max the motherboard would support
How much RAM do you think I need for a dedicated Plex box?
For the hard drive, would something like this work? Seems so cheap which makes me cautious. But I guess 128 GB is pretty cheap nowadays.
There’s also some $14 listings for used Samsung NVMe pm951 models where the reviews are talking about Windows 7!
8GB is plenty for a dedicated Plex server. And that drive you linked could work, but you would need a length extender. That drive is 30mm long, the S01 only has mounting locations for 42 or 80mm drives.
what are you doing with Plex- that would drive your RAM requirements. If you are serving SD video to single user with little use of transcoding vs attempting to serve 10 users concurrently 4k content transcoding from H265 into variety of resolutions/formats…
in general, I believe in “buy once, cry once” attitude- 32 GB RAM is <$100 in US , you buy it once and then move on. if you later want to use machine for something else, you already maxed out the memory.
same for SSD, read a decent review article (i.e. Anandtech did one SSD storage this year), identify price points you care about, check most reputable models/brands. buy once, and move on…
32GB of RAM is wasted on a dedicated Plex server, regardless of how many simultaneous streams you’re serving. Plex itself can get by on as little as 2GB, the 8GB minimum recommendation allows RAM for the OS. Even if you do decide to use a RAM disk for the transcode buffer, 16GB is still plenty.
Today you want Plex, tomorrow you decide to run something else with it. The beaty of general computing architecture is that you can, can change hardware roles and uses. With cost of RAM to max out being fairly cheap, why not do it?
i.e. I personally run Plex on Nvidia Shield TV which I believes has 3 GB RAM and dedicated hardware for transcoding. Works great for that and along few android devices supported for many years after release. .
Thanks. Makes more sense now. I’m trying to keep costs down if I can, for now. I figure I’ll put 8 GB in and then in the future swap out the 4 for 8 if I decide to use this machine in other applications.
I do find myself taking last year’s devices and adapting them to new purposes. I like that the builds here seem efficient for their purpose but still open ended enough to be adaptable.
Thanks, this was helpful.
Two other questions, sorry!
The heatsinks listed in the NVMe post seem out of stock - would this do? Looks thick, I’m curious if it fits.
And the GC Extreme thermal paste - would I benefit from applying that to the SSD before assembling the heatsink around the drive?
It won’t work if you opt for the 2230 m.2 drive you linked earlier. For a drive that small, check out the “Partial Coverage” section of the m.2 post for some smaller heatsinks. Or to be honest, you may not even need a heatsink at all. The flash memory chips operate better when they’re a little warmer, it’s just the controller that likes to be cooler. If you do opt to go for a heatsink, you won’t use Gelid. The heatsinks should come with adhesive thermal pads which you should use.
Okay thank you. I’m going with a regular 2280 drive.
In the 128-256 GB range, there’s a lot of used $15-20 ones from WD or Samsung which seem to date back as far as 2015 (but some sellers claim “97-99% life remaining”)… and then newer drives in that capacity seem to be Chinese offbrands. Not sure which would be better.
how big is your plex library? how would you plex server access it? i.e. a rip of BD movies I own ends up around 20-30GB. 128 GB is what - 3 movies worth of storage? Expanse show season 3 is 90 GB ripped of the BD set… Are you sure 128-256 would be enough?
1.5 TB. But I was just going to run OS and Plex on the SSD.
Media is on an external drive connected to a small headless server at the moment. I might just attach that to the HP S01 until I build a NAS.
I’m having trouble understanding SSDs though. 2x vs 4x etc. Would this drive work well as a Plex cache disk? https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B086BKGSC1/ref=sspa_mw_detail_3?ie=UTF8&psc=1
@zzyzx - read something like this Best SSDs: May 2021 (anandtech.com) to get an idea of brands, pricings in $ per GB and key gotcha’s (drive types, storage types, technologies used).
then, pick your budget - remember cheap junk is still junk and you may regret it badly later on.
then get whatever capacity/type you want 
random Amazon links or random drives is much harder way to do it.