Brand New NAS-curious Builder

[binger]

So I’m new to this whole NAS thing. I saw the LTT video and bought the lifetime license figuring it was a good project to support and try to figure out. I’ve wanted to build one for a long time but have been intimidated by the setup process. I’ve only ever used Windows, so anything else seems hard for me. I’ve also never built a PC, but I know I can, I’m a pretty handy person.

 I’ve got a 2015 Dell with a 4th Gen i3 processor that I’ve been hanging on to for just this purpose. My plan is to buy 2-4 HDDs to hook up to this system. The motherboard has 2 “HDD SATA” plugs on the bottom right, and there are 2 power connectors coming from the power supply. So I’m confident in my ability to hook up 2 hard drives and slot them in to the provided bays.

I have 2 questions though:

1) If I have brand new, blank hard drives, no OS installed on them, will I download HexOS on to a USB drive and boot in to that from BIOS? Will the BIOS screen just pop up when i power on the machine (if everything is connected and working properly?)

2) I’ve seen pcie expansion cards that add sata drive capability. There were 2 other power connectors coming from the power supply that went to optical drives. The connectors look identical to the ones that went to the HDD. Could i get an expansion card and use the 2 power connectors and get 2 more drives for this machine? If so, are there any specifications I should look for with these expansion cards?

 Thanks in advance for helping this NAS-curious newbie. 

[binger]

So I looked further back in the forum and saw the reply of no USB boot drive, so it will have to be an SSD that will have to use one of the sata ports, which will necessitate an expansion card I'm thinking...

[arvinpw]

1 hour ago, binger said:

1) If I have brand new, blank hard drives, no OS installed on them, will I download HexOS on to a USB drive and boot in to that from BIOS? Will the BIOS screen just pop up when i power on the machine (if everything is connected and working properly?)

 

you do need SSD as a boot drive, the USB drive just for initial installation of HexOS

 

1 hour ago, binger said:

2) I’ve seen pcie expansion cards that add sata drive capability. There were 2 other power connectors coming from the power supply that went to optical drives. The connectors look identical to the ones that went to the HDD. Could i get an expansion card and use the 2 power connectors and get 2 more drives for this machine? If so, are there any specifications I should look for with these expansion cards?

the connectors coming from power supply to optical drive is SATA Power, and it is universal to any HDD using SATA connector.

and yes, you can use expansion card and using SATA power connector coming from power supply, just make sure that the expansion using SATA3 (6 Gbps)

 

48 minutes ago, binger said:

So I looked further back in the forum and saw the reply of no USB boot drive, so it will have to be an SSD that will have to use one of the sata ports, which will necessitate an expansion card I'm thinking...

ideally, with modern hardware, people just use NVME SSD as their boot drive, so their SATA ports are free and can be utilize as storage

[binger]

Ok awesome thank you so much for the quick reply! I think I'll wind up getting the SATA3 expansion card that has 2 SATA ports. I'll use one of the motherboard HDD ports for a SATA SSD and get a USB connector so I can get the download from one computer on to that, then plug it in to the NAS setup. I'll use the remaining 3 SATA ports for 4 or 8 TB HDDs for the storage array. 

[Sir Charles the Orange]

Brand new NAS curious builder here! Glad to see I'm in good company!

[arvinpw]

4 hours ago, binger said:

Ok awesome thank you so much for the quick reply! I think I'll wind up getting the SATA3 expansion card that has 2 SATA ports. I'll use one of the motherboard HDD ports for a SATA SSD and get a USB connector so I can get the download from one computer on to that, then plug it in to the NAS setup. I'll use the remaining 3 SATA ports for 4 or 8 TB HDDs for the storage array. 

After i look again at the picture, your mainboard PC already has 4 SATA connector, the buttom right corner with 1 white, 1 blue, 2 black. Those are SATA data connector, and from power supply is 4 SATA power connector.

 

If you want setup with only max 4 drives, you do not need the expansion card.

[binger]

On 12/1/2024 at 9:33 PM, arvinpw said:

After i look again at the picture, your mainboard PC already has 4 SATA connector, the buttom right corner with 1 white, 1 blue, 2 black. Those are SATA data connector, and from power supply is 4 SATA power connector.

 

If you want setup with only max 4 drives, you do not need the expansion card.

Dang! I saw the other two SATA data connectors and they read OPTICAL or something like that, so I assumed they wouldn't work as HDD like the other ones say...shoot.

Well, I got the expansion card installed anyways, if there is a glitch with that I'll try the ones on the main board. 

I ordered some 5.25" to 3.5" bay converters so I can mount the 3.5" drives up top, and a 3.5" to 2.5" converter to put one HDD and one SSD on the bottom. Should be ready to rock and roll by Monday! Looking forward to getting a Beta download invite so I can see if it works :-)

 

[arvinpw]

5 hours ago, binger said:

Dang! I saw the other two SATA data connectors and they read OPTICAL or something like that, so I assumed they wouldn't work as HDD like the other ones say...shoot.

such a Dell thing, that is why i kind of hate the Dell prebuilt PC. hahaha

well, best of luck. hopefully you'll be able to setup NAS and running it well.

[binger]

Thank you for your help!