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If you haven't already i'd definitely check out serverpartdeals.com. Got 4 Exos drives from them and like others said cheaper per TB than Iron wolfs. and even with shipping International, in my case UK, still comes out cheaper.

I've been buying THESE direct from Seagate and have been really impressed with their performance. This also has the benefit of really low chance of counterfeit drives and WAY cheaper prices (though it appears you are in the EU so unsure how the price/shipping would work for you) Best of luck!!

That WTR Max is crazy. I'm really curious how loud that thing is under load (spinning disks/fans) especially compare to the WTR Pro's we have.

Not especially which is why I posted the question. Was hoping a few folks would chime in about new devices being considered. Glad I posted the question as there is really good feedback! Please share the link to the wooden case - that'd be cool to see.

See: https://nascompares.com/2025/02/21/updated-fake-used-seagate-ironwolf-hdds-now-reported-how-to-check-your-drives/ for more background info

This is not really a HexOs issue, It's the lack of good Realtek drivers for Linux based systems.

Review Nascompares: https://nascompares.com/2025/05/16/zimaboard-2-review/

I tried to keep to a similar budget and made the build i would rather have for the price. https://nl.pcpartpicker.com/list/Wb3wZc cpu: 12700k - cheapest cpu with intel uhd 770 igpu Mobo: asus something or other - has intel nic so theoritcally shouldn't cause you trouble and i like asus motherboards ram: gskill 64gb 5200mhz cl36 - slightly cheaper ram that is slightly faster and personally i like gskill ram, its the only brand i purchase ram from anymore cooler: thermalright peerless assassin 90 - its cheaper, should still fit in case and a reoccuring theme here, i like thermalright coolers os drive - cheaper ssd - its as big as you need, significantly cheaper, from a trusted brand and for fun i made it a triple mirror storage drive- 24tb exos, i like going with big drives and there are 4 of them because we can lol psu: went for a cheaper 750w psu because you have no need for a 850w even at max capacity, we could go even smaller but this one is very efficient edit: seems like i was typing this out before your newest post, so i'll look into it edit 2: i would say just take my list and adjust storage to your preferred budget you may even be able to find new exos drives for less on ebay but as i'm in a different part of the world than you its hard for me to check just make sure with any segate drives your purchase, regardless of how trusted the retailer is, you check the farm data to see if it actually is new.

EXOS is definitely a lot cheaper, and makes a lot of sense, thanks for that tip! I looked into the differences, and what I read, but I am not 100% certain, is that the EXOS is bought in higher bulk, thus is cheaper, as well as that there are a few firmware features that are added to the Ironwolf (Pro) that can make them more expensive. But this is all assuming and not fully certain. I am running Plex as a separated VM, and might add a video card for that machine to help with it, so no Plex / Jellyfin will not run on HexOS. For the network card, thanks, I didn't know that that one was not compatible. I thought that all of the newer generations kind of were supported. Does this have to do, that it's not an intel chip for the network cards? For those who want to follow the updated list is now this: https://nl.pcpartpicker.com/list/YkMCkf

I personally would go with intel if you plan on hosting a plex or jellyfin server. If you don't it doesn't really matter what you go with. One thing to keep in mind the network interface card (nic) on your motherboard is not compatible with hexos. the cheapest compatible one i could find is this one https://nl.pcpartpicker.com/product/WQTp99/asus-rog-strix-b650e-i-gaming-wifi-mini-itx-am5-motherboard-rog-strix-b650e-i-gaming-wifi However that one is short on sata ports. like your original pick so you will still need a hba card. you should go with the seagate exos drives that are higher end and cost less. (don't ask me to explain why its like this because i have no idea)

Hi all, First of all thanks for all the developers with all the time and effort in this product. I can really see the vision, and hope you will be able to have full 1.0 available soon. While we're waiting for this, I currently am already looking (and maybe already go install it) on a DIY system, which I want to get to replace my Synology (I really hate the direction they are going into now). With this in mind, I am wanting to build a full DIY system since my Synology is also almost nearing it's end of life and possibly I would need to replace it anyway in the next few months / years. This is a work in progress list on what I am going for: https://nl.pcpartpicker.com/list/86bFyW Explanation on what I have with this build: 2 SSD disks, which will be used for HexOS installation. I prefer HexOS to also have a redundant disk. 2 NVMe disks, for supper fast-storage / VM's I might run 3 HDD disks for general storage, I don't need speed for that, but want to make sure it's durable. What I want to keep from the list: 3 HDD's for 20 TB (or more) since I think it's currently the sweet spot for storage per GB. These disks I require to be "NAS" based disks. 2 NVMe disks. I think the 2 TB is the sweet-spot, so I am selecting these. I don't need the fastest, since it won't run much etc, but prefer to have it like this The case I really like. If there is something similar to this case which you'd recommend, please let me know, but I kind of already want to have this case. Everything else is up to debate. I don't want a *to* power hungry system, but I want to run at least a few VM's. it would be like 1 or 2 VM's i'm running, only for backup if my main server would suddenly die, and I need to recover files. The amount of memory is a bit based on the amount of storage that's used + a little overhead for the VM's. If you'd recommend less, tell me why, if I should need to do more, please explain 🙂 . I am leaning more towards AMD since I think their performance is slightly better than Intel right now, but I am not saying I won't go for Intel. Also, I prefer to go with new so I know that I'm the first user, and not that someone already used almost everything, as well as have the warranty with it. What is the thoughts of other people? Did I pick good? did I do overkill, did I pick something that's not good enough? What would you recommend etc. Thanks in advance!

Did you also spot some interesting new hardware?

excellent platform to try a lot of things. 2,5 gbe NIC's is a really nice upgrade. Also nice to experiment with 3d printed cases

I'm very new to HexOS and any type of NAS and I had the same issue as you and others. I tried changing the DNS settings like @CuppahJoe shared. It didn't seem to work at first. I left it along and this morning I tried installing Plex and Immich and they worked! I don't know if there's something to waiting a long time before trying again, but that helped. Your post was almost a month ago. Were you able to get it working, or did you still need help?

I'm backing the new ZimaBoard 2 and look forward to trying many things. One is to get HexOS running on Proxmox.

i have over 50tb of personal blu ray rips and linux isos with so many more blu rays i want to add. I'm eventually gonna combine my old server and current hexos machine (which has an empty 50tb) into one bigger 100+ tb server. once it gets that big itll also be used to replace google photos and computer storage. I'd get to stop purchasing anything more than the base storage for macbooks and phones.

Heh, no apologies, definitely needed some micro-stress reductions in this blog!! Just nice to warn people.. I'll not forget that episode of the wan show that began with a load of swear words... I was watching with my daughter who was just learning to talk 🤣

What do you plan on using 120TB for?

Mainly as a power efficient NAS to store files, pictures and movies. I will run HexOs as Proxmox VM with NVME passtrough. I also run Proxmox Datacenter Manager in a LXC container. My Lincstation N1 will be my Proxmox Backup server. I use spinning rust only as offline storage and as backup target. The spinning rust is activated only when needed using Cron jobs (shutdown) and Wake-on-LAN. The Lincstation N2 (and also my N1) uses only 6 to 9 watts in idle.

The power savings compared to 12 hdds and reduced noise is just mouth watering. Fast ssd storage sound like such a treat, what do you plan on using yours for?

I almost forget Minisforum MS-A2. Also a lot of performance in a small box.

I am waiting for indepth reviews of the Minisforum N5 (pro) and WTR Max. Both are interesting devices. I am also reading a lot about oculink NVME boxes. This is a link to the one from Aoostar, but also other brands have them on the roadmap. https://aoostar.com/products/aoostar-tb4s-oc-usb4-oculink-4-slot-m-2-nvme-ssd-enclosurepcle3-0-x-1-single-slot-up-to-800mb-s-support-thunderbolt-4?variant=50145471889706

120+ TB is a lot 😀. I will start with 4 x 4 TB in raidz1. I will reveive my brand new Lincstation N2 next week and I am looking forward to have 10 TB net storage. 10 TB fast SSD storage and a 10 gbe NIC will bring my HexOs NAS to the next level.

It’s apparent I’ve taken a little break from the HexOS implementation. It’s just that many questions are up in the air, a situation which don’t help me going forward. By writing them down here I try to make the road ahead a little smoother. It makes me being able to focus on one problem at a time. I hope. So here we go: Smb shares possible without installing anything? Separate pool for smb shares? (correct TrueNAS terminology?) Getting my main Windows PC going, for smb shares Delete truesnas_admin account, and create another administrator user? Static IP (realized by DHCP reservations?) Https instead of http? Useful comments are welcome!

New gear? Yes! I’ve just got a Raspberry Pi 5 to play with for a second unit placed elsewhere, with a USB drive for storage, OR as a separate device for implementing Nextcloud. There is a Nextcloud PI OS for this. I even found a wooden case for the Pi, to make it not look like computer gear.