My NAS setup currently.

8 8TB drives (the NAS is like 6 years old) in RaidZ2.

Edit: The scribbled spot is a SSD that had the barcodes visible. The SSD is a 1TB drive for VM installs and other stuff that isn’t deep storage.

Edit2: The SSD isn’t anchored because it has no moving parts and it was placed like that for testing… 4 months ago… It’s just temporary I swear!

Edit3: For those curious the case is a Darkrock Classic Storage Master

  • sudoEnglish
    3·
    4 days ago
    • How do you still have open SATA ports on your motherboard?
    • Where are all those neatly tied SATA cables going? I think I can peek them behind and above the CPU?
    • What is the card between the GPU and the SSD? Is it some RAID controller?
    • Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOPEnglish
      3·
      3 days ago

      I still have quite a few (all but 1) open SATA ports due to the card between the GPU and SSD. All those neatly bundled SATA cables plug into that card.

      The card in question is HBA card, specifically a LSI 9207-8i card. They regularly go for about $40 on eBay. If you buy one make sure that it’s in IT mode already, they usually are but if the seller doesn’t mention it try a different seller.

      Using just that card and a couple cables (literally 2) you add the ability to add 8 drives to your system.

      Edit: I should specify that the 2 cables are SAS to SATA cables. You basically have to find the correct one for your card as there’s a couple kinds of SAS to SATA cables.

      • sudoEnglish
        2·
        2 days ago

        That sounds so much more efficient than hunting for a motherboard with 8 SATA ports and dealing with all those cables.

        Do the drives still show up as separate devices? Its not doing any hardware-raid? I’m just wondering if I can swap to one of these when I need to upgrade my system.

        • Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOPEnglish
          1·
          2 days ago

          As long as the HBA card is in IT mode the drives all show up as individual drives to the system.

          You can totally snag one of those cards for like $45, a set of cables for like $13 per 4 drive cable, and like $12 for a pair of sata power extension cables.

          All said and done with the cables and the card I think I paid like $80 usd.

          The drives were a lot though and in fact since I got the system set up (I took the pic when I has it down for annual maintenance) the cost of drives has changes significantly.

          Also HDDs use a lot more power than SSDs. Like a lot a lot more.