Home NAS with SAS Drives

MouthBoy · 2024-11-03T16:05:15+0000

Hi All,

I have looked at other home NAS threads but cannot see anyone with this exact question. I have been given 6 x 6TB SAS drives, some that have only had a few hours of use, and I want to plop them into a PC/Server just to use as a NAS. I am unsure on a few things however.

I am conflicted between getting some older PC hardware and putting in the SAS drives by way of PCI slot cards, or getting an older server hardware and doing something similar. I will put in an SSD as a boot.

So, I have the drives, but I am unsure on the rest. Budget is genuinely as cheap as possible to make this happen. Restrictions are that it cannot be overly big or obtrusive and nothing that, at least when powered on and running, will be too noisy. It will be connected to Ethernet so no Wifi requirements. I am no good with servers stuff so really leaning on advice here. Regarding the OS, I am open to options here too.

Any advice is great.

jellybeard999 · 2024-11-03T21:35:50+0000

The cheapest way to get the drives running is probably a used Dell / LSI SATA/SAS raid card.

MouthBoy · 2024-11-03T21:43:12+0000

Any direction on models? I've been looking and some seem "ok" on spec but just have 2 or 3 HDD spaces, and others just seem ridiculously huge for what they properly will deliver.

Is an option just to find pc parts from a few generations ago and stick in a SAS card? Would this cause issues not running things like ECC memory or is that just not a worry?

jellybeard999 · 2024-11-03T22:04:47+0000

I'm assuming you're just storing files for home use? I'd be looking at zomething like

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/394721366024

2 of https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/303770606870

The card only has 2 ports, but the breakout cables expand that to 8

To get SAS onboard a motherboard, you're probably looking at server hardware which is generally massive, noisy and expensive, or old and massive, noisy and inefficient. For home use, you can put the SAS card in pretty much any PC with enough drive bays.

What model are the drives?

MouthBoy · 2024-11-03T23:43:54+0000

ST6000NM0034 are the models. They were free and I plan to have 4 in use with 2 redundancy, I think.

So, just get/build a low power PC, 2 of those cards and a case to house? Do I need to consider anything regarding the hardware for SAS or the NAS OS?

jellybeard999 · 2024-11-04T01:07:35+0000

MouthBoy said:
ST6000NM0034 are the models. They were free and I plan to have 4 in use with 2 redundancy, I think.

So, just get/build a low power PC, 2 of those cards and a case to house? Do I need to consider anything regarding the hardware for SAS or the NAS OS?

The drives look fine. I was just thinking they might (though unlikely) be 10k drives which would be hot and noisy.

Yes, but just 1 card and 2 cables. Nothing special required OS wise as far as I'm aware other than raid card drivers.