NAS server to create cloud for iPhones.
Home automation.
Maybe media storage.
Read something about “ad blocking” on across entire home network.
Oh yeah also everything on the cheap ($230. So far).
I bought dell 7050 i7 16g ddr4 and 256g drive for OS. It came with windows 11.
Then I bought (4) 3TB sata3 drives used.
Figured I will probably need to do some metalwork to get all 4 drives in there.
Guessing I will need a PCIe card to connect the 4 drives.
Planning Truenas w/Raidz1
Any advice for any other forums for noobs or YouTubers to follow?
Hey man - as far as other forums, I guess servethehome is pretty solid for home lab stuff. Youtube is harder as a lot of TrueNAS guides become out of date in 6 months or less from release. @Stux has a few tutorials that he has personally made. Otherwise, if you want more general homelab/server stuff level1techs is fun.
The resource section on the forum is pretty useful, also the option to just make a post & ask for help/advice is an option.
Things to look out for; make sure the HDDs you have are CMR, not SMR. You mentioned a PCIe card to connect additional drives; make sure to grab an HBA & that it is flash to IT mode.
Edit: Last point of advice - a lot of stuff that isn’t recommended ‘just works’ at first, however a lot of recommendations are made with the view of keeping data safe & increase chance of recovery in case something goes critically wrong in the long term vs get something that initially seems functional.
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Hi,
from my point of view, the existing hardware can be used, but it’s not ideal.
I assume that by the possible form factors of the 7050 (Micro / SFF / MT) you mean the Tower.
I’m not sure whether your 4×3 TB drives are 3.5" or 2.5".
Fitting 3.5" drives will probably not be very easy.
The PSU (I believe 240 W) should just barely handle the spin-up current of 4×3.5" spinners plus the rest of the system (CPU, motherboard, etc.), but there won’t be very much overhead…
The motherboard should have 4×SATA ports + 1×M.2 slot, so you probably could do this without an additional PCIe card. For a boot drive + one 4-wide RAIDZ1 pool, it should just about work.
Overall, it’s not ideal, but if you already have the hardware, it’s still worth trying to get started.
A regular backup of both your data and TrueNAS configuration is strongly recommended.
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I don’t like it.
That Dell SFF base + 3 HDDs that won’t fit just seems like a lot of work with little payout other than “I made this”-awards.
Have you verified that the board has SATA ports to cover your 3 (4?) devices? You didn’t go into much detail so I don’t know if your SSD will require a SATA port as well. Then there’s the question if the system has enough power (cables and capacity) to run everything in there and possibly ventilation/air flow issues depending on what the end result looks like.
If there is a next time I recommend planning any required modification or tinkering before you go out and buy the stuff.
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Thank you all for the support and advice. I do have a total of 4 SATA ports but I think my SSD HD is running out of one.
I think I can buy some cables and jump in the pool. I feel like that’s the best way to learn. Look forward to sharing my journey with everyone.
thanks again.
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My HD’s are Ultrastar 7K4000 so I found out they’re CMR. I’ll take you advice about the PCIe. Thanks for the advice.
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Update on the build.
Dell 7050 OptiPlex i7 7700
3.6ghz Mini Tower
2x 8g DDR4 ram
256g SSD for Boot
LSI 9300 8i 12g PCIe IT
4ea HGST HUS724030ALE641
3TB Ultrastar 7K4000 sata 3
240 watt power supply.
Pulled out the CD/DVD to make room for my 4 drives. Building brackets to hold drives.
Current dilemma: how do I power my 4 hard drives (about 10-11 watts max) and still power my boot drive?
Can I use the 8 pin power connector HDD ODD for all 5 drives? And where can I find a the cord, and what is it called?
All drives are 15 pin.
Or is there better idea?
Uh oh… I hadn’t realized until now (when you asked how the drives are powered…) how proprietary this PC is built.
Dell really put some effort into making life difficult for tinkerers.
The power supply appears to be a 240 W unit, which might just barely be able to handle 4 HDDs.
The critical factor here is not the 11 W per drive during normal read/write operation, but the much higher spin-up current, which is easily at least double that. I would assume a short-term draw of at least 20 W per drive.
What concerns me most, based on how i understand the architecture and design, is that the PSU does not appear to supply power to the drives directly. Instead, it seems to only provide connectors to the motherboard, and the four drives are powered from there.
Dell most likely designed this system for one 3.5″ drive + one optical drive + two 2.5″ drives.
If you now divert all the power for four (?) 3.5″ HDDs through the motherboard, you may end up damaging it. I also don’t immediately see a way to tap power directly from the PSU using adapters, i suspect the PSU only delivers 12 V, (with 5 V and 3.3 V being generated on the motherboard).
You might want to check whether there are other modders online who have managed to run this setup successfully (for example by installing a different PSU).
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