I would use a Raspberry Pi for this purpose with an USB stick for mobile internet access, USB drives for storage, with aggressive power management.
(The Pi has IO pins, so with some external circuit, it can unpower external parts of the system too.)
2 Likes
TrueNAS cannot run on an RPI, not yet at least.
I agree, but why using TrueNAS for this purpose?
It is what the OP was asking for.
OK, and is it not allowed to propose other, maybe better suited ideas?
How about a virtualized Truenas using QEMU emulating a x86 machine ? 
@Farout I was thinking about that as a possible reply, now I laugh.
@Gyula_Masa you can suggest but I just wanted to ensure the OP knows the compatibility issue. Rpi most certainly could be a NAS if configured correctly.
OK, because, I have a suspicion, that the original idea would not really work for him…
There is even a 5 SATA hat for SBCs. But that would be with OMV, or directly managing storage on your favourite distro for ARM.
https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2024/radxas-sata-hat-makes-compact-pi-5-nas
1 Like
I appreciate everyone continuing this thread. I’m going to start by testing with the Atom C2758 and go from there.
As I’m a fan of SuperMicro, I was looking at some of their embedded options, and there is a system that runs on only 6W, but that would certainly come with limitations.
As for the reason to run TrueNAS, it’s because I’ve already got it running at home, and would like the simplest backup route between the two systems. Having both running TN means I don’t have to learn and manage two NAS softwares, and I’m already familiar with TN, although I was excited to download Fangtooth this morning.
1 Like
That’s awesome, but when I consider four 8GB QVO drives (new) comes to over two grand when factoring in the RP5 and paraphernalia I really do question if there isn’t a better option like 5G and a reverse proxy.
1 Like
In the world of low power ARM wins
As to intel systems I’d look at platinum or titanium psu as starting point - at least 96% efficiency at 50% load, and 90% at both 20% and 100% load and you need every watt
Ideally you don’t want to be doing a DC - AC - DC conversion as you loose power on each step (The PI has an option the PICO PSUs for PCs say the aren’t suitable for batteries)
This is one of the alternatives I was speaking of: 12 watts, 4 cores, 8 threads, up to 32gb ram. It gets a Passmark score of 3686, with room inside for one SSD, but two SATA ports for options:
I’m still holdiing out for the Atom C2758 to come back from RMA.
SuperMicro did the repair on the C2000 Atom board, and on the same day a C3000 board arrived from Ebay, so I’m testing both side by side, and playing with Fangtooth at the same time. The two combined are consuming about 70 watts. I could still turn off the 10G network and save a few, and I could disable the graphics chip, once it’s set up. However, Passmark score on the Atom processors are 2317 for the C2758, and 4614 for the C3758 - both around 20w.
Meanwhile, I finally got smart and did an advanced search on the Intel Ark and found that the Core i3-1315UE accepts ECC, gets around a 10,000 Passmark score, and runs on 12W minimum assured power.
I’ve stretched myself thin and will have to deal with what I have, for now, but it’s amazing how far low power computing can stretch.
1 Like
Thanks for the data points.
And good luck finding a Core i3-xxxxE (Embedded) at retail…
A lot of the supermicro boards have a 12V in… iirc.
This would be a regulated 12V… not whatever is coming out of a battery system…
Oh one can have fun with all this…. MikroTik switches have very wide input ratings. Combine that with a few bits and pieces from around the internet and you have a likely very efficient UPS DC power supply.
See the DCW20 from Nextys, a LiTime LifePO4 24VDC communicating battery, a DCDC NUC and a few BOP components to tie it all together. Power it all with a meanwell UHP-200-24 PSU and you’ll likely get a very high energy efficiency solution thanks to no dc-ac-dc conversion.
The network equipment can run off the DCW20, the NUC off the DCDC NUC PSU. If you need to power a POE network, select the higher voltage LiTime 51.2VDC battery series and a meanwell UHP200-48 instead. BOP is important, however. Like a good series of adequate fuse blocks to ensure that your wiring doesn’t turn into a hair dryer should it short.
1 Like
@ere109, In the past i used a QNAP TS-253D as a target for my remote backups. It has an Intel Celeron J4125 and i installed 16 GB ECC and added a Noctua NA-FC1 PWM since truenas could not control the fan speed on that system.
It worked great. I ended up replacing it with something with more processing power to run apps.
The NAS appliances are usually designed to be low power, specially if you use SSDs.
Take a look at it, maybe that is your answer.
1 Like