DIY Thunderbolt Raid DAS???

[James Alton]

Hi everyone,

 

I'm sorry to revive an old thread from 2018, BUT, this is one of the only threads I could find with a Thunderbolt DAS need using an iMac.

 

I was about to go the NAS route too with my 2019 27" iMac, but realized I could upgrade my machine with a Core i9-9900K, 2TB NVMe SSD, 2TB SATA SSD, (RAM was already upgraded) and use the old parts for my setup if needed (Core i5-9600K, 128GB NVMe SSD, 2TB SATA HDD).

 

Now using my spare parts, I was looking at the Z390 motherboard with a tower for sale on Facebook Marketplace (https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/Z390 Phantom Gaming 4/index.asp). Leaving me to purchase PSU, RAM, SATA hard drives for RAID.

 

I noticed the Thunderbolt interface as well and was hoping I could use this as a NAS & DAS (or even just DAS! which is really all I need...)

 

I'm a filmmaker as well and have 24TB over 5 external drives right now, hoping to put everything in RAID5 or using FreeNAS, RAIDZ5, probably with 6x10/12/14/16 TB hard drives.

 

I guess I'm perplexed as to how/why QNAP and others can build a DAS, but a commercial-of-the-shelf motherboard with a Thunderbolt connector can't. Is there a AIC that can provide the same functionality?

 

Or am I reviving an old thread and I should just buy a pre-built DAS already?

 

Would love to hear from your experience @PWRFNK

 

Thanks everyone.

[cbergeron]

An AIC works fine.  Here is a new post about using a Thunderbolt 3 AIC in a DIY NAS.

 

https://chrisbergeron.com/2021/07/25/Ultra-fast-Thunderbolt-NAS-with-Apple-M1-and-Linux/