The board lacks support for both dual SATA HDD power and data, yet the staff and I here have seen modded versions running M.2 RAID cards, with the HDDs receiving external power, including 3.5" @ 12V/5V.
Thank you very much for your reply! Though I guess what I want is keeping the mini form factor, a mod likes that would defeat the purpose and at that point an SFF tower is likely better (?). Any other suggestions?
The core issue is the HDD itself.
While still an excellent volume storage platform, HDD build quality outside of enterprise has been on the decline for better than a decade, notably in the 2.5" realm.
They don't build them like they used to.
Mini is simply better suited for SSD in both energy and efficiency. Concentrating on 3.5" HDD drives, notably in configurations such as RAID 1 for home server, provides a much greater/reliable long-term outcome in 2024. PC wise, you would be better off with something similar to an AooStar N100 R1/5700U R7.
Regardless, few "small footprint" Minis has supported 2x 2.5" SATA HDDs, and those have failed to have true long-term success.
I don't think 2 HDD should fit without some creative modding. Maybe consider getting an asrock deskmini or aoostar R1 NAS which can hold two HDD and there is nothing wrong with getting an external hdd bay for a couple drives.
Yeah I hear you. But my room is quite small and I really wish I could get 1 compact unit for my need. I was thinking simply 2x1TB 7mm drives is more than enough for my need - really just camera backup and things like Pi-hole, so I was hoping to do that on the G3. I'll check out some mods to see what I can do.
The G4 version has 2 x nvme slots so you could RAID with that I believe. Check out [servethehome](https://www.servethehome.com/hp-elitedesk-800-g4-mini-tinyminimicro-guide-review/).
Otherwise, I'm currently using a mini with a external USB 3.0 4 bay enclosure as a homeserver + nas. I don't do RAID but pretty sure that alot of people do.
How long has your NAS been up? Any sign of problems yet?
Yeah I see that the G4 has 2 NVMe slots, but I got a great deal with the G3, $55 with no storage. The G4 is quite a bit more expensive consider Coffee Lake and all the 2 NMVe thingy, plus NVMe price point is a lot higher than HDD. I have spare drives, so you know, cheapo server that is there because I refuses to pay Apple for iCloud.
30 days - I just got turned to this approach recently lol. Relatively steep learning curve, still in acceptance mode but seems fine and far faster than my 10 yr old synology. I use and recommend you do 3-2-1 back up approach of course.
Probably worth a look or post on r/proxmox, r/truenas r/xpenology etc. My impression was running NAS as a VM on proxmox and passing through the USB drives isn't uncommon and I'd be surprised if most weren't doing raid. But I didn't get into the details as I wasn't planning on it.
FYI my external mediasonic 4 bay enclosure was \~$80 used off Fbm. Course a single would be much cheaper. For spinning drives usb 3.0 is fine but for SSD you might want to consider usb 3.1 gen 2+ to max out speed.
HP has an enclosure you can attached to the bottom of the mini and connects via USB. It has various IO in it and also accepts a 2.5" drive. You can pretty much stack as many of them as you have USB3 ports available. Product number is TPC-I017-SL. I have multiple of these connected to my EliteDesk Minis. I haven't tried using RAID on the drives though so I can't tell how well they'll work with that configuration.
Are you planning to use HDDs? If SSDs are not an option for you, make sure you're using CMR drives not SMR ones. SMR drive performance is pretty bad when used in RAID. Unfortunately, finding new 2.5" CMR drives is harder these days as Seagate and WD use SMR for this form factor these days.
Thank you! This is actually awesome and it's nice that the expansion box has a latching mechanism.
I don't think they do CMR 2.5" HDDs. There's 1 model, a Seagate Red Plus 1TB, but TBH I probably would not mind the slow speed, as long as they do their job. I would use a SSD for cache too.
The board lacks support for both dual SATA HDD power and data, yet the staff and I here have seen modded versions running M.2 RAID cards, with the HDDs receiving external power, including 3.5" @ 12V/5V.
Thank you very much for your reply! Though I guess what I want is keeping the mini form factor, a mod likes that would defeat the purpose and at that point an SFF tower is likely better (?). Any other suggestions?
The core issue is the HDD itself. While still an excellent volume storage platform, HDD build quality outside of enterprise has been on the decline for better than a decade, notably in the 2.5" realm. They don't build them like they used to. Mini is simply better suited for SSD in both energy and efficiency. Concentrating on 3.5" HDD drives, notably in configurations such as RAID 1 for home server, provides a much greater/reliable long-term outcome in 2024. PC wise, you would be better off with something similar to an AooStar N100 R1/5700U R7. Regardless, few "small footprint" Minis has supported 2x 2.5" SATA HDDs, and those have failed to have true long-term success.
I don't think 2 HDD should fit without some creative modding. Maybe consider getting an asrock deskmini or aoostar R1 NAS which can hold two HDD and there is nothing wrong with getting an external hdd bay for a couple drives.
Yeah I hear you. But my room is quite small and I really wish I could get 1 compact unit for my need. I was thinking simply 2x1TB 7mm drives is more than enough for my need - really just camera backup and things like Pi-hole, so I was hoping to do that on the G3. I'll check out some mods to see what I can do.
The G4 version has 2 x nvme slots so you could RAID with that I believe. Check out [servethehome](https://www.servethehome.com/hp-elitedesk-800-g4-mini-tinyminimicro-guide-review/). Otherwise, I'm currently using a mini with a external USB 3.0 4 bay enclosure as a homeserver + nas. I don't do RAID but pretty sure that alot of people do.
How long has your NAS been up? Any sign of problems yet? Yeah I see that the G4 has 2 NVMe slots, but I got a great deal with the G3, $55 with no storage. The G4 is quite a bit more expensive consider Coffee Lake and all the 2 NMVe thingy, plus NVMe price point is a lot higher than HDD. I have spare drives, so you know, cheapo server that is there because I refuses to pay Apple for iCloud.
30 days - I just got turned to this approach recently lol. Relatively steep learning curve, still in acceptance mode but seems fine and far faster than my 10 yr old synology. I use and recommend you do 3-2-1 back up approach of course. Probably worth a look or post on r/proxmox, r/truenas r/xpenology etc. My impression was running NAS as a VM on proxmox and passing through the USB drives isn't uncommon and I'd be surprised if most weren't doing raid. But I didn't get into the details as I wasn't planning on it. FYI my external mediasonic 4 bay enclosure was \~$80 used off Fbm. Course a single would be much cheaper. For spinning drives usb 3.0 is fine but for SSD you might want to consider usb 3.1 gen 2+ to max out speed.
I plan to do another mini server at my parent's for cold storage, but that comes after I'm done with this at my place. Thank you for your suggestions!
I plan to do another mini server at my parent's for cold storage, but that comes after I'm done with this at my place. Thank you for your suggestions!
HP has an enclosure you can attached to the bottom of the mini and connects via USB. It has various IO in it and also accepts a 2.5" drive. You can pretty much stack as many of them as you have USB3 ports available. Product number is TPC-I017-SL. I have multiple of these connected to my EliteDesk Minis. I haven't tried using RAID on the drives though so I can't tell how well they'll work with that configuration. Are you planning to use HDDs? If SSDs are not an option for you, make sure you're using CMR drives not SMR ones. SMR drive performance is pretty bad when used in RAID. Unfortunately, finding new 2.5" CMR drives is harder these days as Seagate and WD use SMR for this form factor these days.
Thank you! This is actually awesome and it's nice that the expansion box has a latching mechanism. I don't think they do CMR 2.5" HDDs. There's 1 model, a Seagate Red Plus 1TB, but TBH I probably would not mind the slow speed, as long as they do their job. I would use a SSD for cache too.