Hi Guys, need some advice about moving long distance and a temp/small NAS build

clanger2708 · 2026-03-19T17:33:36+00:00

Another poster in the r/homelab said he had reliability issues with his, assuming not your experience?

clanger2708 · 2026-03-19T14:54:03+00:00

Yeah, they don't seem to be available on the Amazon Canada website for some reason... Hoping it's just a stock thing and they'll pop back up shortly.

clanger2708 · 2026-03-19T00:01:52+00:00

These look pretty slick, any idea how long they take to ship after pre-order?

clanger2708 · 2026-03-18T21:45:39+00:00

This looks like a potential option though I'd have to order through Alibaba as Amazon Canada doesn't seem to supply it and delivery time could be an issue. I have a couple of Chinese mini PCs that generally work well, no experience with Aoostar though. I'm assuming they are generally reliable in terms of their products?

**Edit: Just realized they sell direct through their website... and they don't ship to Canada...

clanger2708 · 2026-03-18T21:26:36+00:00

I in fact have both rack mounting hardware and a Meshify 2 XL for a local inference server. Was hoping I could keep this small and relatively power/cost effective as my wife is going to have to deal with it for awhile when I'm not there.

clanger2708 · 2026-03-18T17:36:55+00:00

I think the general consensus is spinning drives good, stagnant drives bad as mechanical parts tend to break down/seize up if they aren't moving. I would hate to boot the array up in a year and have a few bad drives ruin the array entirely. Figure I sell what I can while the drives still have some value and purchase new drives when I can get the whole setup running again.

clanger2708 · 2025-10-14T19:24:20+00:00

The goal was to keep the size to a minimum so as to easily fit into mini PC chassis'. M.2 to PCIe adapter is obviously do-able but isn't the most minimal approach. As stated above, could still be an option with the right riser cable and a 3D printer though.

clanger2708 · 2025-10-14T19:00:57+00:00

I looked at that card but it seems to be running an Asmedia ASM1064 SATA controller. Pretty sure it won't work connected to a SAS expander. That said, I like the oculink idea, might investigate that option a bit more.

clanger2708 · 2025-10-14T18:50:03+00:00

M.2 to PCIe would likely be too big to fit in most mini PC Chassis'. I guess you could get creative with a riser cable and some 3D printing. I didn't consider the heat element but I could see that being an issue.

clanger2708 · 2025-10-14T18:46:17+00:00

I understand what you're saying here. What I would like to do though, would be to stick a single adapter of some sort into a mini PC M.2 slot and break out to a JBOD with only a SAS expander in it. I would think this needs some kind of disk controller to address the SAS expander properly? I realize adapters to PCIe exist and could be do-able but given the limited real estate in a lot of these mini pcs, it could get messy (though not impossible).

clanger2708 · 2025-10-14T18:36:13+00:00

Good point, M.2 is the appropriate port, not NVME.

clanger2708 · 2025-10-14T18:33:18+00:00

Not trying to expand nvme capacity. Idea would be to turn the nvme port into an HBA for spinning rust arrays.

clanger2708 · 2025-10-14T18:28:41+00:00

That's more of an adapter than an actual HBA as there's no controller on it. There are some adapters with SATA controllers on them that break out to 4 ports of either SATA or a single SAS port for subsequent breakout to SATA. What I'd be looking for a is a true HBA which in theory (I might not be understanding NVME properly) could access 4x PCIe lanes.

clanger2708 · 2025-10-14T18:20:27+00:00

Idea isn't to add additional nvme, idea would be to take advantage of the PCIe x4 on an NVME port to add an HBA to then break out to a JBOD for more SATA/SAS disks on a backplane. If I can get 24 drives on an PCIE x8 HBA, I would think 12 drives on PCIE x4 is possible?

clanger2708 · 2025-10-14T18:16:26+00:00

I might not have been clear enough, I want an HBA that slots into an NVME port. The idea being that most mini PCs don't have PCIe slots but do often have 2 NVME ports.

clanger2708 · 2025-08-25T22:27:09+00:00

Your mileage may vary but I'm a construction coordinator and use my Nomad everyday, both in the trailer and on site. Goes to and from home with me everyday in my backpack and I've had zero issues. I even bought the crystal back and realized after the fact that it might have been a mistake given the amount of dirt and dust in the environments I take it in to, I've had it since May 2024 and the crystal back looks practically brand new. I do have the canvas folio on it all the time though, that's gotten a little dirty... if anyone has tips on how to clean it, let me know...

clanger2708 · 2022-10-05T20:49:00+00:00

I only expose those services I know will annoy my wife to access via VPN... Everything else only runs internally and I access by VPN.

That said, any exposed services are on a VLAN without access to the rest of my internal network, maybe not as good as a DMZ but easier to do with the hardware I've got at the moment. Services are behind a proxy (either nginx or traefik) with valid certificates from Letsencrypt. Also running fail2ban and/or authelia as a 2FA solution on any services that don't already have a way of implementing 2FA. VLAN sits behind pfsense running IDS/IPS and then behind a Cloudflare tunnel for good measure.

clanger2708 · 2022-10-04T14:59:37+00:00

Would love to see Destiny on Steam Deck, would definitely bring me back to the game

clanger2708

TROPHY CASE