Welcome, let’s introduce ourselves here!

[beardedbrewer]

Might as well introduce myself as well... 

I am beardedbrewer, but go by beardman as well, not just because I have a beard and I am a brewer... of mostly beer and coffee, sometimes both!

I am an IT professional who loves all things tech. I am excited for HexOS and purchased a lifetime license during the Black Friday promotion. I love the idea of building my own NAS with little fuss, and I believe HexOS allows me to do just that. 

[Mobius]

7 hours ago, jamaican.mekrazy said:

@Mobius To be honest, I don't plan on slowing down any time soon.  The only factor will be cost.  The 12x8TB SSDs I currently have cost me a bit over $300 USD each just one year ago and now cost over $550.  Would I be able to expand my pool by slipping in some additional, less expensive, brand/model of the same capacity I wonder?

ssd nas is the dream. Im trying to find a way to stick my nas into like a closet because of hdd are so loud.

[Dylan]

7 hours ago, beardedbrewer said:

Might as well introduce myself as well... 

I am beardedbrewer, but go by beardman as well, not just because I have a beard and I am a brewer... of mostly beer and coffee, sometimes both!

I am an IT professional who loves all things tech. I am excited for HexOS and purchased a lifetime license during the Black Friday promotion. I love the idea of building my own NAS with little fuss, and I believe HexOS allows me to do just that. 

Welcome @beardedbrewer!!

[jamaican.mekrazy]

I'll second that... Welcome, @beardedbrewer!

[pinormous]

Howdy ya'll, I'm pinormous. My interest in computers started back with RollerCoaster Tycoon, a game that could run on anything. I was soon puzzled why other games couldn't be played on my family computer, quickly learning that not all computers have the same capabilities. As my knowledge grew, I stumbled into the LimeWire era of data hoarding and never looked back. Over the next 7 years bigger hard drives were purchased then filled, external drives were acquired then subsequently filled, heard about Plex as a way to remotely access all my content, then I finally got serious about my addiction and bought an 8-bay NAS - giving me 34 TB of useable space.

This will surely be enough, I told myself, there's no way I'll fill it up.

5 years later, I found out how much of a lie that was. So I'm now diving down a new rabbit hole of disk shelves and servers. If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing; so I have a 28U rack that I'll be filling with networking, power management, and whatever else I can slap in there and explore. I have 2x24 bay shelves that, once populated, should net me around 900 TB of useable space.

Surely, this will be enough space. There's no way I'll fill it up.

I'm looking forward to the journey of learning new software and hardware that will enable this upgrade in the coming year, with HexOS hopefully making my first real move outside of Windows a simpler foray, leaving plenty of time to tinker more with networking. 

When I'm not learning-by-doing, I am frequently found playing factory or driving games. When I'm not off the clock, I travel the US as a longhaul truck driver (which piqued my interest after putting hundreds of hours in ATS and ETS2), so having my own personal Netflix is a real saving grace. 

[Dylan]

Dang! Pics please!

[pinormous]

On 5/14/2025 at 8:29 AM, Dylan said:

Dang! Pics please!

My gaming setup:

Corsair Crystal 570x case

Ryzen 7 9800x3d

32 GB DDR5 at 7200 mhz

Gigabyte RTX 3080 ti

Corsair K100 keyboard and Ironclaw mouse

Logitech G920 wheel and pedals with Eaton shifter by CustomSimShop

Dark Matter 34" 1440p ultrawide

Senny HD 6xx powered by Fosi K5 Pro

Server stack:

Tripp-Lite 25u rack (got the height wrong earlier)

Itech BHK117-8e 8 port KVM

Dell SC8000

2x Netapp DS4243 w/IOM6s

Still hunting for the right UPS, PDUs, and switch to get it all spun up. 

Truck:

2024 Freightliner Cascadia

DD13 engine with DT12 automatic transmission

72" sleeper, double bunk

Adaptive cruise, lane departure, TK Tripak Evo APU, 1500w inverter

Gigabyte GF KF5 laptop for media consumption and gaming connected to a 40" Vizio TV

[Dylan]

Nice rig.

Where are you going to put that half rack? That's gotta be drawing more that 15-20 amps, no?

[pinormous]

I expect it will, yes. I have an unused, enclosed nook under the basement stairs; it already has an exhaust vent I plan to put a fan in and it'll be a short run to add an 10/8 gauge drop from the 200 amp box in the garage. 

[Dylan]

2 hours ago, pinormous said:

it already has an exhaust vent I plan to put a fan in

Really jealous of this. I also have a spot under stairs that would be PERFECT for my gear but there is zero way to vent heat (much less cool it) at least without spending silly $$

You've got ample capacity for storage....hoping we can be friends when buddy backup is supported  😁