Antares Posted February 8 Posted February 8 Heya everyone! I've been in the market for a NAS/homeserver and have already got a license. I've messed around with home servers before, but that was years ago. Now, I'm looking for something more serious, as more people will be using it. After doing some research, I'm considering getting the following: Minis Forum MS-01 (i5 12600H) 3x 4TB NVMe SSDs 1x 2230 NVMe SSD (exclusively for HexOS) instead of the wifi/BT card 1x32GB DDR5 (SODIMM) @ 5.600MT/s We'll be using this as a back-up server for project files (mostly Photoshop) as well as a media server for entertainment (Jellyfin). After reading the documentation, we opted for three drives as you can't later on expand the array when opting for two drives. If required, I expect a PCIe to M.2 adapter to work for adding the fourth drive. If I understand correctly, you can't install HexOS on the array itself, so for that we'd opt omitting the wifi card in favour of a 2230 NVMe SSD. I'm aware it's not the most cost efficient build, but size and power consumption outweighs budget in our case. Do you think this is a sane build? I think it should work just fine, right? Quote
Sonic Posted February 8 Posted February 8 Hi Antares, You can definitely run HexOS on the MS-01. Personally, I don't think the MS-01 is the ideal NAS device. You can indeed add extra SSDs via PCIe to M.2, but cooling will become a challenge. The MS-01 is widely used as a server in many homelabs. I have one myself—it's truly a brilliant device! Minisforum did develop a prototype expansion card with four SSDs, but it was never released due to heat issues. The great thing about the MS-01 is that it packs a lot of performance into a small case—actually too much for a NAS. At the same time, it has just too few expansion options for storage to be an ideal NAS solution. But don't get me wrong—you can definitely run HexOS on an MS-01. With the setup you’re proposing, you’ll be good to go! 1 Quote
Sonic Posted February 8 Posted February 8 btw: "If I understand correctly, you can't install HexOS on the array itself, so for that we'd opt omitting the wifi card in favour of a 2230 NVMe SSD. " --> this is correct 1 Quote
Antares Posted February 8 Author Posted February 8 2 minutes ago, Sonic said: Hi Antares, You can definitely run HexOS on the MS-01. Personally, I don't think the MS-01 is the ideal NAS device. You can indeed add extra SSDs via PCIe to M.2, but cooling will become a challenge. The MS-01 is widely used as a server in many homelabs. I have one myself—it's truly a brilliant device! Minisforum did develop a prototype expansion card with four SSDs, but it was never released due to heat issues. The great thing about the MS-01 is that it packs a lot of performance into a small case—actually too much for a NAS. At the same time, it has just too few expansion options for storage to be an ideal NAS solution. But don't get me wrong—you can definitely run HexOS on an MS-01. With the setup you’re proposing, you’ll be good to go! Thank you! I appreciate the response. It's reassuring to hear the setup itself should work just fine. That was what I was afraid of, yeah. I estimate we're not going to need more than 8TB of storage any time soon, let alone over 12TB (if we decide to expand it down the line). I've seen some posts about the expansion card specifically for the MS-01, but the heat issues did indeed make cautious. I hope with just the default three M.2 slots seated, we won't be running in thermal issues. I'm looking forward ordering the parts then and setting it all up! Quote
Sonic Posted February 8 Posted February 8 The three SSDs are cooled with a separate fan, so that should be fine. One thing to keep in mind is to buy SSDs that don’t consume too much power and therefore don’t generate as much heat. For example, the Samsung 990 EVO Plus is an SSD that stays relatively cool. Other brands also possible. There are plenty of SSD reviews available, such as on ServeTheHome.com. One more thing—the MS-01 has both 10 GbE and 2.5 GbE network connections. However, the 10 GbE port is SFP+, which is something to keep in mind. Quote
Dylan Posted February 8 Posted February 8 2 hours ago, Sonic said: the 10 GbE port is SFP+ Yeah, this can royally screw up your plan if you get a SFP and you're expecting RJ45 so PLEASE pay attention to that. Quote
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