Plans to turn old laptop to NAS - how janky is it?

[Aleph256]

Pretty much as the title says.

Ever since building my tower a few months ago, the laptop I'd been using (MSI GE73 8RF-455XFR Raider RGB) has been sitting there collecting dust.

It's pretty beat up and the used market isn't great in my corner of the country, so it would have little resell value as someone's rig.

I've been considering keeping the storage and memory, and trying to sell the shell for parts, but lately I've been discussing with hardware-focused coworkers and considering using it to replace my struggling entry-level prebuilt NAS.

 

Here's a picture of the mobo:

(the schmoo near the lower NVMe slot is from the thermal pads that came with the stock 256GB drive)

 

I don't own a 3D printer, but can get easy access to one and know enough CAD to design a chassis.

My game plan would be as such:

• Disable the GPU (don't plan on using it, I already have a Shield to take care of my video needs)
• Reduce the ground print by:
  • Poping off the thermal apparatus and replace it with a heatsink over the CPU
  • Getting rid of the IO extension
• Keep the stock NVMe for the system (probably some TrueNAS?)
• Pop a NVMe-to-SATA splitter in the other NVMe slot
  • I've been thinking of a 4-HDD Raid-Z1 array with read and write cache SATA SSDs
• Use a small backplane to make it easier to connect the drives.
• Print a case, add some fans, profit.

 

In an ideal world, I'll only be using the laptop's power brick, and I've been eyeing this kind of contraption, powered from a USB port:

• Two MOLEX for the backplace
• One MOLEX with SATA adapters for the cache drives
• One MOLEX with fan headers splitters for the cooling

 

I fully realize how janky this sounds, hence why I'm asking for opinions.

Thanks for taking the time to read me.

[joshfrog]

you can buy a USB hard drive dock like this

It would let you add external drives via a USB cable and run everything threw your laptop.

The only downside would be the price.

 

9 minutes ago, Aleph256 said:

 

I fully realize how janky this sounds, hence why I'm asking for opinions.

Thanks for taking the time to read me.

Jank yes but you have to work with what you have. 

[Blue4130]

8 minutes ago, Aleph256 said:

Pretty much as the title says.

Ever since building my tower a few months ago, the laptop I'd been using (MSI GE73 8RF-455XFR Raider RGB) has been sitting there collecting dust.

It's pretty beat up and the used market isn't great in my corner of the country, so it would have little resell value as someone's rig.

I've been considering keeping the storage and memory, and trying to sell the shell for parts, but lately I've been discussing with hardware-focused coworkers and considering using it to replace my struggling entry-level prebuilt NAS.

 

Here's a picture of the mobo:

(the schmoo near the lower NVMe slot is from the thermal pads that came with the stock 256GB drive)

 

I don't own a 3D printer, but can get easy access to one and know enough CAD to design a chassis.

My game plan would be as such:

• Disable the GPU (don't plan on using it, I already have a Shield to take care of my video needs)
• Reduce the ground print by:
  • Poping off the thermal apparatus and replace it with a heatsink over the CPU
  • Getting rid of the IO extension
• Keep the stock NVMe for the system (probably some TrueNAS?)
• Pop a NVMe-to-SATA splitter in the other NVMe slot
  • I've been thinking of a 4-HDD Raid-Z1 array with read and write cache SATA SSDs
• Use a small backplane to make it easier to connect the drives.
• Print a case, add some fans, profit.

 

In an ideal world, I'll only be using the laptop's power brick, and I've been eyeing this kind of contraption, powered from a USB port:

• Two MOLEX for the backplace
• One MOLEX with SATA adapters for the cache drives
• One MOLEX with fan headers splitters for the cooling

 

I fully realize how janky this sounds, hence why I'm asking for opinions.

Thanks for taking the time to read me.

No way that you can use usb to power that much stuff.

[r00tb33r]

So not worth it.

 

Building a jank NAS is a declaration "my data is worthless".

 

Build it once, build it right.

[OddOod]

2 hours ago, Blue4130 said:

No way that you can use usb to power that much stuff.

There is a power supply that comes with the enclosure. though 25$ per drive is steep

[Blue4130]

2 hours ago, OddOod said:

There is a power supply that comes with the enclosure. though 25$ per drive is steep

I was confused by the part where he said he only wanted to use the laptop power brick.

[Aleph256]

2 hours ago, OddOod said:

There is a power supply that comes with the enclosure. though 25$ per drive is steep

@Blue4130 was likely talking about how I expect to power 6 drives + fans using two USB ports.

So... Looking at the feedback so far... Dumb idea, don't do it, try to sell for parts and save up to build something more decent with an ITX board and a standardized PSU?

[OddOod]

On 10/1/2024 at 10:08 AM, Aleph256 said:

@Blue4130 was likely talking about how I expect to power 6 drives + fans using two USB ports.

So... Looking at the feedback so far... Dumb idea, don't do it, try to sell for parts and save up to build something more decent with an ITX board and a standardized PSU?

Honestly my laptops seem to always end their lives as single purpose machines. I've got one that's running a HUD in my front hall, another in my wife's meadery that's just for her brewing notes. Another that is connected to the Gym TV. There's even one that has an actual HDD which is in my dad's shed for the pure purpose of playing spotify.
Anything for which you'd use a rPi, you could use this.

[GigasetRemasteredGoldCard]

I am trying to do the saaaaame!!
Here is what i'm experimenting with

 

There is a pendrive on the left, i loaded TrueNAS there and that's my boot device so i can test with a bigger internal drive, that's the main SSD right there on the right.
 

My plan is to keep playing with this thing, until i reach a point I feel confident i can trust it with family photos and a few of very important documents. That's why I'm learning how to manage users, partitions, volumes, how to serve em via SMB then stop than serve them again, how to secure it from unwanted changes and, most important of all, how to recover the system on OS failure, how to transfer the drives to a new system, and how to upgrate it in capacity.

 

I just need a family archive, that's all i am gonna care about, so i'm planning to get a couple of 4TB drives and set a RAID 1.

 

Today's Challenges: i need to find out if there is a port i can use in this motherboard, so i can put some sata drive, but i will also need to power those things, so i'm surely going to need an external bay.
I don't like, really, that this MB has no other ports, i don't even know what's the one the main drive is in.

Future Upgrades: I'm gonna buy a proper MB or a MiniPC with multiple SATA. Alternative is to use an old desktop but those take up so much space. Also if I succeed convincing my friend to make their own i will try to make an offsite replica.

 

Conclusions: I see many threads about turning laptops to nas, and it comes down to your needs and your finances. My priority is to store a copy of my docs and pics, learn to manage a nas, keep it as secure as i can. I might put this proj in my CV as well!

 

NOTES:

Yes! it is kept togethere via adhesive, some of it snapped and broke, i cannot keep the power plug i re-soldered in the chassis and the only screen i can use to look onto the BIOS settings is the ony attached to the board even tho there is an external hdmi! I'm not gonna take out the cooling like OP cause i don't thing there is a better solution i can set up other then the cool and flat pipes pipe that are is already there.

[Aleph256]

On 10/1/2024 at 5:39 PM, pergatorio said:

You could see if someone has a barebones Dell OptiPlex to trade or sell for cheap to tide you over till you sort something proper if funds are an issue.

I could do that, but I don't really need to - when I said my prebuilt (Drivestor 4 Pro) was struggling, it was more in terms of un-upgradeable 2GB of RAM that I saturate due to starting to use it for some containers.

Funds aren't too much of an issue and I've been planning an upgrade for some time, to relegate the current one as an offsite backup at my parents' place. But hey, if it can be done on the cheap, I'm not against saving munnies.

 

On 10/4/2024 at 4:51 PM, OddOod said:

Anything for which you'd use a rPi, you could use this.

A fair argument, but wouldn't the Pi be more power-efficient at it and thus save me some in the long run?

 

Either way thanks for all the feedback, guess I'll be firing a thread for a more proper solution after some more research.

[OddOod]

On 10/5/2024 at 3:19 PM, Aleph256 said:

Pi be more power-efficient

And a fair argument in return. However, if you disable/just don't leverage the GPU, you're probably gonna draw all of 20W vs the Pi's 5W, so yes, 4 times the power, but that marginal 15W, at 20c a KWh, is 25$ a year.