cross-posted from: https://discuss.tchncs.de/post/66988984

What I have

I have an old Acer Aspire A515-51G and I also have a desire to have a home server. In combination this creates a need for the laptop to carry more HDDs than it can from factory. Usually it can take one M.2 SSD and one 2.5" SATA drive.

What I want

I want to make the laptop able to run at least 4 HDDs in RAID 5 for storage and have one SSD as boot drive.

What I did

The buying phase

  • 4 HDDs
  • M.2 to SATA adapter
  • 12V/5V SATA power converter
  • 12V 10A power supply

The designing phase

I needed space to hold the HDDs, so I designed a 3D printed a cage to attach to the bottom of my laptop. Two 80mm fans can be attach to it. You can see it on printables. Also I remixed a tray (here is the original) so the HDDs can slide in and out of the cage.

.

The assembly phase

A cutout at the bottom of the laptop was needed to give access to the SATA ports of the adapter.

I put a 2.5" SSD into the already present place for it in the laptop.

Then the cage was attached to the laptop, the HDDs were put in their trays, the trays inside the cage and the cables attached to the adapter and HDDs.

  • irmadlad@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    2 hours ago

    I like it. The OCD in me is screaming why you didn’t use a dremel tool to cut the slot for the USB ports instead of using a rusty, dull, steak knife from the junk drawer, but that’s just me. LOL

    • SpatchyIsOnline@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      15 minutes ago

      So I actually have a setup similar to this, but with a mini pc (m.2 to 6x sata adapter, each one connected to a 4tb ssd - well eventually, only 2 are populated currently) and I did use a dremmel to cut through the metal top of the case and it was still a horrible sharp mess, even after I tried sanding it down. I ended up 3d printing a custom i/o shield to stop my cables (or fingers) getting sliced on it and that actually works really well!

      Edit: I dropped some pics of my setup in the comments on the original thread!

  • Aqivex@fedinsfw.appEnglish
    30·
    21 hours ago

    This post is cursed.

    Not because of the insane jank, of course. That’s on brand for self host and I love it.

    It is cursed because it has awakened something in me, and I can feel every old laptop in my vicinity trembling in fear.

    • Bytemeister@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      20 minutes ago

      I can feel every old laptop in my vicinity trembling in fear.

      Don’t deny them that last chance to live a life of purpose.

  • CaptPretentious@lemmy.worldEnglish
    20·
    22 hours ago

    This is the type of stuff I love to see the most when it comes to PCs. This to me is far more impressive then someone with a standard case, with standard RGB fans, standard AIO RGB cooler…

    This reminds me of stuff I did in college.

  • MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    19 hours ago

    so what kind of looks did you get when you booted that up in the public library? how long before either (a) the cool librarian asked you how you did it or (b) the jerk librarian asked you not to burn down the library

  • suff@piefed.socialDeutsch
    3·
    1 day ago

    Apropos! Has anyone extended their laptops memory by replacing its DVD drive?

    My attempt failed when I bought a misgendered micro sata cable…

  • 9point6@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    1 day ago

    Part of me wonders what chipset is running that adapter, and if you’d get a better one if you went for a miniSAS adapter rather than individual sata ports (enterprise port generally implying a better controller chip)

    Then realised there would probably be no use for such an adapter in enterprise so if you did get a different connector it would probably just be the same interface chip as whatever is in this.

      • Avicenna@programming.devEnglish
        1·
        17 hours ago

        Yes and I have almost zero knowledge of hardware. So it might be something obvious but initial buying phase photo suggests you bought a card with 6 sata ports and connected them to the motherboard. Can you just connect sata boards to the mother board just like that without any extra work?

        • BarHocker@discuss.tchncs.deOPEnglish
          3·
          6 hours ago

          I could, yes. The laptop has an M.2 slot that is intented to be used for M.2 SSDs, maybe you know them, they’ve gotten very popular. Almost any mordern motherboard has space for them.

          But instead of putting an M.2 SSD in that slot, I bought this adapter with SATA ports. And this adapter fits exactly in the same spot as the SSD could have. Then the SATA ports of the adapter can just be used as regular SATA ports as on any motherboard.

  • Decronym@lemmy.decronym.xyzBEnglish
    1·
    12 minutes ago

    Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:

    Fewer Letters More Letters
    NAS Network-Attached Storage
    PSU Power Supply Unit
    SATA Serial AT Attachment interface for mass storage
    SSD Solid State Drive mass storage

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