NAS built in 2015? No, SFF instead!

[DomSmith]

1 hour ago, ulfn said:

With the riser card, do you mean an M.2 drive could be used there? I’m not that much into M.2 slots. I built computers with classic SATA connection for drives.

Yeah it looks like the slot on the mobo is a standard m.2 port intended for an NVME drive.

I'd guess they've made a 'riser' for this instead of making a custom board, which makes a lot of sense.

The CPU has only 9 PCIe lanes running at Gen3 according to this: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/products/sku/231805/intel-core-i3n305-processor-6m-cache-up-to-3-80-ghz/specifications.html

After you take off the the lanes required for the I/O, networking etc. there isn't going to be much left for storage. I think I'd also want to verify that there are actually 4 lanes going to that slot to avoid later confusion. You can do this from the linux shell with the lspci command.

There are a couple of ways of splitting that signal off to the 4 storage drives, there could be a PCIe switch on the expansion board so each drive would get 4 lanes but but the bandwidth would be shared on a time slot basis, this would be expensive to implement and have little benefit in a NAS setup.

I suspect that the expansion board just peels off 1 lane to each of the 4 drives, so each drive will get 1 dedicated lane. If you squint at the traces on the PCB you might be able to see this, otherwise use the lspci command...

This was known as 'bifurcation' and required specific support from the CPU, mobo and BIOS on older systems, but I think that's not the case any more...

 

[ulfn]

@DomSmith    OT, There’s is a river way up north in Sweden, that’s bifurcated, so splits into two rivers.  

[ulfn]

And I’ll check with your lspci some time in coming days, Thanks for the suggestion!

[DomSmith]

I found that lspci command very useful in my endeavours repurposing thin-clients, might put a post up about it...

[ulfn]

So, before I would have time to open my own StoneStorm Pocket NAS, as they call it, I believe it’s about time I told you about videos I found. This first one is, I believe associated with the brand itself. It shows you how to get into the inner space and so. There are some Q and A in the comments also.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-b1ipi7ii8

[ulfn]

I told you earlier, this mini is sold under another brand. This video review is of a ”CWWK Pocket NAS” which to my eyes look exactly the same, as my own StoneStorm device. This thing with different branding is not unusual in Chinese electronic products, like computers and HiFi gear. Here we go:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09emfOJW9g8

 

 

Edited February 3 by ulfn

[ulfn]

Now, I’m on my way to earning the moniker ”SFF ninja” given to me by @Dylan  in another post. Not there yet but slowly going in that direction.

Edited February 3 by ulfn

[Dylan]

12 hours ago, ulfn said:

Not there yet but slowly going in that direction.

I believe it you!

[ulfn]

Thank you @Dylanfor assistance with the new headline for this topic of mine.

[ulfn]

As you might have noticed, I haven’t talked much about HexOS itself, in this topic. I don’t have a panic about that. Let HexOS slowly evolve, I will get there in due time. For now, I’m content with exploring this ”Pocket NAS”.  More will come!

[ulfn]

For (Hex)OS it seemed I would have to go with what is referred to as an industrial SSD. So, like the chip only, with no outer casing. These are not easy to get on the consumer market. But thanks to @Starshock2002 and @DomSmith I now know it’s not that exotic. In my topic ”What type of SSD is this?” under Hardware user Starshock2002 said that this industrial SSD looked to be the thing inside most 2,5” SSDs, and so did user DomSmith in this topic. Both had a picture to show. SO what did I do? I got me a Samsung SSD!. Somehow I’ve stuck with Samsung for 2,5” SSDs.  In the shop I told the guy I would immediately void the warranty, because I only need ”this” and showed him a photo of the inside chip.. Then I found a video on YT showing how to get inside the casing. The operation on my own SSD would have to wait a couple of days. Only then I will know if it fits inside my ”Pocket NAS”. But for those interested, here’s the video:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5Wf2q2kAnI

[ulfn]

For those who might think, how can you buy an SSD for like US$91 without knowing it would work? Well I’m also in the HiFi/audiophile community, and in those circles 91USD are like coffee money. I’m hardened.

Edited February 8 by ulfn

[Dylan]

@ulfn I hope you are documenting your build, especially with pics - I'd love for you to be able to share your process.

[ulfn]

@Dylan Yes, that’s what I intended to do, all the time. The videos I’ve had here is like the story from the outside. Nothing’s like the story told about your own little gadget, with pictures - and words. That would have to wait a little though, ’til I’ve got time to sit down for a while.

[ulfn]

So, this is why I believed the videos could be of interest. For those intrigued by this ”Pocket NAS” for themselves, and would want to get one ”now”, before I’ve got the time to show my own road to NAS-areth.

[ulfn]

Better late, than never as they say, reality has a way of being in the way. Here comes my little operation on the Samsung 870 EVO SSD, to get to the inner chip as needed in my case (!) the ”Pocket NAS”.

[ulfn]

With label pulled off the three torx screws are visible, and I finally found the correct bit to use

[ulfn]

I forgot to say that I did a little checkup of the SSD in preparation for this operation, to verify it was alive and well, before I literally screwed up the warranty. Maybe I could have done more, but I wanted to get going.

[ulfn]

When you know what to do, thanks to the video I linked to in an earlier post, it was a straight road to the inner part of the Samsung. With the three torx screws away, it meant the chip was easy to get out. Finally I put it in an anti-static bag, waiting for the opening up of my Pocket NAS. That would be for another day, but now I’m finally getting somewhere. On the horizon I can spot the HexOS ISO coming to use. Bye for now.

[ulfn]

Just a point about dealing with electronic parts like this. I always hold them by the edges. Very often on videos you see the person putting fingers all over it. Before I start I try to get rid of static electricity, by putting my hands on a heating radiator.  I’ve built five or six computers since 2008, and never had a problem with static charge buildup. 

Edited Sunday at 05:59 AM by ulfn

[ulfn]

On 1/27/2025 at 11:43 AM, DomSmith said:

You can do this from the linux shell with the lspci command.

 

On 1/27/2025 at 11:43 AM, DomSmith said:

After you take off the the lanes required for the I/O, networking etc. there isn't going to be much left for storage. I think I'd also want to verify that there are actually 4 lanes going to that slot to avoid later confusion. You can do this from the linux shell with the lspci command.

Sorry for my confusing quote; No 2 is the appropriate one in this case. Today I found the time to do this. But I would need some help from @Dylan or @DomSmith with the interpretation of the shown result when using the lspci command. If only you can read it, A little blurry…

Edited Sunday at 02:03 PM by ulfn

[ulfn]

Now is also the time to try installing my chip-only Samsung SSD, before the four, admittedly also Samsung, NVMe drives. A very petite SATA cable was part of the StoneStorm Pocket NAS package.

[ulfn]

So with the top off, you can see the four NVMe slots, very easy to get to.

[ulfn]

The four screws in this position in each corner are removed to lift the next layer up. For the following step I chose a wooden tool as opposed to a metal one. To continue I put the butter knife in the small openings left and right in the first picture, and gently pulled it downwards to lift the metal thingy. Apparently you undo a connection to do with the four drive slots , when you do this.

[ulfn]

Here we are as a result  (first picture) and to be honest I expected my SATA SSD chip to have its connection on the underside of the layer I just lifted up. Like in the second picture I’ve shown before, from the ipc.net support team. I would have to stop here for now to investigate a little more. I need to watch this video before I can continue. To my memory it showed even more of the inner parts of the Pocket NAS.