I turned a cheap NAS into a SLEEPER home server

[@mattybbg6850]

'While it technically works' pretty much describes my home lab setup...

[@HardwareHaven]

Hahahaha same.... same...

[@Driveby-2]

@@HardwareHaven My home lab is your other quote from the video today "...............Poop......."

[@BenjaminBuell]

I have a 8 drive ZFS array, but no 3.5 drive bays on my 1U. So I have a pile of drives sitting on top, with a power supply I took from an old office pc powering all the drives with SATA splitters. Oh, and a Walmart box fan to keep it cool. My lab is all kinds of jank, but I love it.

[@Driveby-2]

@@BenjaminBuell Its perfect! as long as we realize its there and can go away at any time , its worth it to have fun with the tech...

[@haydenc2742]

Wouldn't be a "home lab" otherwise ;)

[@razpeitiamx]

This may be a fire hazard but it's pretty common on this channel _inmediatly subs_

[@HardwareHaven]

My man!

[@phizaal]

As a former health & safety officer, I approve this message.

[@jburnash]

I really appreciate your enthusiasm and drive when it comes to projects like these. There is something nice and calm about your presentation and explanation - which means this is one of the very few KZbin channels that I *do not* run at 1.25 speed. Thanks!

[@2112user]

Nice video, love reusing stuff like this myself. On the front PCB, come across this sort of thing often. What I've found works more often than not.... Find the traces to those LEDs you want to use. Cut them somewhere convenient and just solder on your own wires to power them.... do similar for the USB if you got some old headers. For power.... wall wart with molex ends always served my needs for 120VAC to 12/5vdc. Crack them open and take the PCB(s). Wire the 120VAC lines together and add all that safely into the shell of the original powersupply or 3D print an enclosure. Could add a 19 volt supply internally and pass a cable for the MOBO out the back so your only plugging in one 120volt end. Also add an internal SSD for OS since that M.2 has room.

[@davidg5898]

Nicely done! I didn't know that little backplane header also had a +5V rail. I'm going to re-do mine to be more like yours now. I janked up mine so long ago there wasn't much DIY posting about it yet, so I had to decode the pinouts myself and missed that -- I ran jumper wires from the MB's USB header +5V, but your way is better since it doesn't need wires in the system. Some of my panel decoding that might help you... - HDD LED: On the longer front panel connector, the green wire between blue and yellow is +3.3V for HDD LED, and orange and red at far end of connector (not orange and red pair in middle) are both ground. - Power LED: Blue wire next to above mentioned green lights up the power LED, but the original MB feeds +5V on that lead so it must be meant to power more than just the LED. Connect at your own risk as the circuit might be trying to draw more than 3V3 and could burn out the MB's LED header. - Front USB: On the shorter front panel connector, find the side with all 5 wires populated, they are standard USB2 connections, in order: black = s-ground, black = ground, green = data+, white = data-, red = +5V. S-gnd is not necessary to connect, but can be more stable connection with higher speed devices (USB2 "high speeds", that is).

[@famitory]

time to get in on that PCBway sponsor money and create a new front panel that slots in where the old one was with all the same LED/button placements, maybe with RGB leds for the meme

[@SHO1989]

I second this idea. It pisses me off those 2005 to 2011 mini servers had so much proprietary junk turning them basically into ewaste when they became too slow to use. It would be nice to see PCBway make a kit to revitalize these old HP, Acer mini server cases.

[@HardwareHaven]

The sponsorship isn't the hard part. It's the "create" part. Haha!

[@hamsterwolf]

Perf board is also a great low budget option. I think you could very easily recreate that pcb with perfboard.

[@kinkykane0607]

@@SHO1989 I have a HP MediaSmart Server EX490 and I think its such a aesthetically pleasing NAS. It would be amassing to be able to revitalize it :)

[@Czapowski]

when you upload the day instantly gets even better

[@jumpmaster5279]

Behind the scenes, hardware haven style, We can still use the nas, until it becomes a bonfire

[@JohnADoe-pg1qk]

With this 6 port M.2 SATA adapter you could squeeze in an additional SATA SSD (zip tie, tape, velcro) as an OS drive, power would need an adiitional Y-adapter.

[@otter-pro]

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. No need for unraid, we could install truenas instead.

[@Andy_Panda]

Or use a SATADOM, one that doesn't require power.

[@HardwareHaven]

I liked Unraid for this box though. But yeah that would've worked as well!

[@DLTX1007]

@@Andy_Panda satadom without power requires it to come from a specific satadom slot itself so no that wont work

[@BatteryPoweredBricks]

I love simple, quick videos like this where everything goes right on the first try! Keep em comin'!

[@TheQuickSilver101]

It seems to have been a pain in the butt, that said it's actually usable for any number of things now which is pretty incredible. This is the kind of project that makes this channel a must see. Thank you!

[@mikelambert4490]

This was excellent. You do some of the best and most entertaining builds on KZbin.

[@RazeacBroksnaerOfficial]

i feel like the purpose of the proprietary connector to the motherboard is if it detects that moment within the past 5 mins is to Cut off power when its idle and save power when not in use and enables it when there is background network access

[@mrmotofy]

That does make sense, kinda what I was thinking too. Like some of the shucked HDD that need the 1 contact taped to work

[@danielleblanc5923]

As shown on other channels / blogs the Asrock DC motherboard accepts anything between 12v and 19v so: - A laptop power supply will work - A 12 + other voltages will work fine too (with a slightly higher current then for 19v) The slightly higher current for 12v will not be a problem if the 12v for the drives does not need to pass through the motherboard but goes directly from the power supply to the backplane. Good luck.

[@soundspark]

It's quite amazing the server power of 4 E-cores. I have Windows Server 2025 Insider Preview running on a cheap mini-PC. It has two gigabit Ethernet connections; one is used for the domain controller and the other for the Hyper-V network bridge.

[@stuffwhy3501]

This is great. I updated one of these just a few months ago which has been hanging around actually since it launched but didn't use components with enough oomph. It's still around, though, and maybe it CAN be improved...

[@HardwareHaven]

Nice! And thanks for the comment

[@stuffwhy3501]

@@HardwareHaven Did you or can you show the pinout for the two buttons to the front panel? I think it is not in the video but I'll watch again. I probably found the same few sources for documentation as you did but the diagrams I found were off a German language forum or something, I forget.

[@HardwareHaven]

I did not, my bad. I also found the guide in German and just had to translate the page to English. If you send me an email, I can send you what I know on the pinout.

[@Dr_De4th]

If you want, i can translate it for u, im german and can read Electronic diagrams aswell. 😊

[@stuffwhy3501]

@@Dr_De4th if you could I think that would be incredible. Might be able to get more functionality if the whole thing was understood

[@SlinkyD]

5:32 Pop the pins by sticking something flat & strong in those tabs by the wire side of the connectors. You can see the terminals on both connectors at the timestamp. Then you can swap them. Try one from the new harness on the MB pin just to check the fit. Then check for fit in proprietary connector. If good, swap one by one to maintain the correct pinout. They do sell crimp tools & terminals for different sizes and conmectors. Good thing is that there are certain ones that'll work well for you computers, cars, and other things. You can save soooo much money and time from broken wires. My brother could've did that fixing a Lexus. Whole problem was a bad factory crimp job on the camshaft sensor wires and vibration broke the wires. He only found that out after the parts & labor. New connector with longer wires to splice, $9 with tax. Heatshrink already on deck.

[@locommotionmusic]

nicely done! :) used to have one of these and really liked it. eventually moved to the HPE microservers (N36, N40, and N54) for several years. amazing how much expansion they offered. if i recall people were kitting them with 10+ drives via the optical drive bay and eSATA port. i _think_ someone managed a 16 drive build. Good times! :)

[@c0p0n]

The N100 is a great choice for a home server. Low power and surprisingly performant. It'll run the usual home server stack without breaking a sweat. The lack of PCI lanes is a problem though.

[@Demopans5990]

That's when you start looking at Alibaba boards.

[@7o177]

Regarding the front panel, isolate the components you want to use and cut the traces with a razor blade and just solder new wires onto the leds and switches directly.

[@TechExploresNYC]

4:33 unlocks the true performance, must do. at 7:55 If you really want to you can cut all the traces then solder directly to the switches and LED to the standard headers

[@B2DT11B]

Love your videos. I cloned (for the most part) your P310 build as NAS which has gone great. Thank you.

[@JoseTorresMates]

Nice way of not allowing so many things go e-waste Love your Channel, man...

[@haydenc2742]

Way very cool! Definitely need a deeper dive into this build...the "intro" short video was nice...but you left so much content on the table... Loving it though...a little powerhouse, but you also left 2 SATA ports in the wind, but it is what it is, especially since you can't put more drives in the little box...too bad one or two of those 2.5" IcyDock modules would fit, make it a 6 or even 8 bay super sleeper NAS Loving it! Keep em coming!!!!

[@JanCzmok]

On the frontpanel, i did remove all cables and wired the connectors to the LED and power switch. works like a charm

[@luca_krtkr]

I actually just did a similar mod on an Acer h341 I got with some other stuff from a friend. I was surprised when I saw basically the same machine I had just worked on in the thumbnail, lol. Mine now has a Asrock Q1900-ITX I had kicking around from my first home server and is running Synology DSM quite nicely. I actually got the LEDs to light up sometimes, but they randomly changed their color and I didn’t want to fry them and so I decided to just unplug them. The 5V for the disks to spin up I „borrowed“ from the front USB Connectors with some jumper wires.

[@joezep2154]

I considered upgrading this hardware as well, I originally installed OMV (blindly) and of course, found it dreadfully slow But for those of you who have one of these lying around (better yet, the H342 iteration) or can find it cheap online, I have a suggestion for it that is both simple and useful Put the jumper in, leave an empty hard drive in it and boot a USB of the latest Daphile ISO The machine booted without fuss, opening the web interface worked first try and the install can be copied from that initial USB boot and further setup can continue from the single hard drive you put in Make sure said drive is "Clean", no partition or format information so that the Daphile installer will handle it The resulting system can be used to pipe music throughout your home using LMS/Squeezelite devices and has adequate performance to even be a very light file server, for your music files Lots of limitations, but a sound use case for the potato class hardware The fact I have mp3s, flacs and even backups of DVD ISOs on the 4 drives (can add a 5th to the e-sata port too) makes it a fairly low hydro powered server for an audio server

[@billyryan2518]

My Coral TPU works great in the A+E key slot formerly occupied by the WiFi/BT card on my N100 based GMKtec G3.

[@DrDipsh1t]

TrueNas can be installed on USB as well. I contemplated using a high write endurance micro sd card in raid 1 (use 2 card readers which are super small) and basically utilize every available sata port for an hdd and pcie lane for important stuff.

[@darknessblades]

From what I know there are 2 versions of that ITX board 1 using a barrel jack 1 using the standard 24 pin

[@fairmania]

Magic smoke!! Quality content as ever, really made me chuckle, thank you!

[@totoantoke]

Loved the Video. I actually use an old H340 case as my Unraid Nas as well. Just with on old Xeon 1265l v2 and some Hardware i had lying around. But i still love this little Case, even tho setting everthing up is a pain in the Butt.

[@jeremyfmoses]

Fun project - thanks for sharing!

[@pythoneatssquirrel]

I think this is the most appropriate channel for my question. I am watching your videos for a while now and I can definitely say that your pile of old gear is bigger than mine 😂 so my question is: how can you get rid of the smell of old electronics? Especially when it comes for power supplies. I tried with alcohol 95% and 99%, distilled water and even perfume, nothing works, they still smell like my grandma's old tv. They smell so powerful that if I leave an old power supply in a box with new components, everything will have the same odor after a while 😂

[@JoeAnshien]

This video makes me happy I sold my Windows Home server when they EOL'd it and built unraid in a nice mid-tower. Been running it ever since!

[@killahb33]

You're Canadian!! As am I! Anywho great video!! I don't think that's a fire hazard, you have soldered and heat shrinked each wire, I think the better solution would be solid wires with pins but I think you're good! I love projects like this cause it's saving something from the landfil. The hype of the N100 is completely lost on me, I don't understand why the homelab community seems to like it, the lack of cores seems like a major downside and single channel like you mentioned.

[@middle_pickup]

You could easily add your own LED's for any of the motherboard's functions, and wire it yourself. Just place the LED's under the front panel. Boom.

[@stonehenge313]

I cant help thinking you could of cut some of the problems away if you were able to find a different motherboard to that fit. Great video!

[@abunk8691]

When I saw you had a DC barrel jack power board I knew there would be problems powering the other components haha. If it was a version that uses ATX connectors then thing would have been easier by bring able to keep the Flex PSU. By the end of it at least you got it working or as you said "technically works" haha.

[@ovarb12]

great video and an easy upgrade. thanks dude!

[@leangxd]

cool nas, hope to see wideo where u figure out how to get every led and port working with n100

[@philippemarcelgrohmann1225]

I love this channel ❤, exactly in the sweet spot of sever, hardware stuff and tinkering, nicccce 👌🏻🤗

[@HardwareHaven]

Happy to hear that!

[@Mihai-Marian-Cenusa]

N100 suports by default single channels memory!I pass through all the steps and I found the same schematics on that forum:)) My setup. include the Asus prime n100 mb which is very similar in therms of specs..the downside is that PCI express slot is only X1...

[@7o177]

protip for microsoft cd keys, you can use a barcode reader to type them in nearly instantly including during windows setup.

[@jttech44]

I don't see how any of this could be a fire hazard honestly. Connector adapters are easy to make, and there's nothing magic about OEM versions. The way you did it is correct, soldered connection, generous heat shrink.

[@emadedinalshugran3158]

Since you have more SATA ports now, you can try SATA dome to give you more flexibility with the OS in case you want to use anything else other than UNRAID It's a simple storage with SATA interface and USB power

[@JamesColeman]

You saying something is a fire hazard that isn't just discourages people from learning. What you did actually looked proper.

[@ohokcool]

He said probably and not everyone is qualified to make such an assessment of work

[@tim3172]

It quite literally is. He's using an inappropriate wire gauge to connect 4 relatively high-power draw 3.5" hard drives. Commercially available Molex to SATA power adapters have a rich and storied history of melting and causing everything from sparking to fires. ... and that's when they're using the correct wiring gauge.

[@Nathan15038]

Yes, finally the video is out. Now we could try to game on a old NAS😂

[@rchltmedia]

i honestly never know acer made this NAS. i only know acer for it's desktop tower, Altos workstation & laptops.

[@H1rNf1cK]

I think a Supermicro MB would have been the better choice. A X10SBA for example... All connectors onboard and easy to use with full NAS support (probably^^).

[@fharni]

Great work. You can put two SATA SSDs in in the free PSU space for caching. This will greatly will increase the overall speed.

[@mrmotofy]

He's already basically maxing the 2.5Gb so not much more can be done for speed

[@Oliver_TV-yr6de]

I bought my Acer H340 new at the time. I bought a used mainboard bundle and rebuilt it yesterday. GIGABYTE GA-H67N-USB3 with i5 Intel CPU. It works great. I put 2 times +5V from the internal USB ports to the backplate on turtle and green cable. After that all 4 drives run perfect. Can you please tell me your pins for the front panel.🙏🙏🙏

[@DasKroenerTier]

Had one of these as my first server. It was a pain in in the ass to get the LEDs on the front to work with Openmediavault.

[@keithmiller9665]

Explaining Computers YT channel did a good video on this n100 CPU motherboard when he built an system using a small existing case simillar to the old Shuttle PC case.

[@kote315]

If you want lots of SATA and LAN ports in a mini-ITX motherboard, take a look at BKHD products. These guys love to put in an insane amount of ports!

[@zeroturn7091]

I have their CS612 board, while it’s technically not iTX I agree with your assessment.

[@HardwareHaven]

I considered it! I think I kinda liked using the N100 and that Asrock board specifically and pointing out all the flaws since people CONSTANTLY tell me to use it lol

[@frankmthompson]

I have 3 of these (one with a bad power supply). I think I have a new project to play with :)

[@HardwareHaven]

Have fun!

[@kevinoneill2170]

12:13 💩... 🤣

[@back4more420]

On that new N100 cpu motherboard does the USB 3 work well enough to connect hardware RAID boxes for media server use? Thanks great video I love modding things to make them better or just to keep it working.

[@relucentsandman6447]

Loved the chill music

[@HardwareHaven]

Happy to hear it!

[@Brudukah]

up to this Day i still use the original H340 as a Fileserver / NAS - just added some RAM and a VGA-Port some years ago

[@AndreChaosweapon]

the m.2 to sata ports has 6 slots right? you can put some ssd in there and install unraid or i'm wrong?

[@HiKamMudriku]

This build is really cool and interesting

[@HardwareHaven]

Thanks!

[@Exotic69420]

Was excited for this video 😊

[@HardwareHaven]

Hope you enjoyed it!

[@Fennek_Kaipii]

I have about 50W total power consumption on a stone old build: Intel Celeron G3900T + 4x4GB Crucial DDR4-2400 GIGABYTE GA-B150M-DS3H motherboard Emtec X300 M.2 SSD Power Pro 256GB [OS] LSI 9211-8i SAS Controller [IT-mode] Seagate Barracuda 4TB HDD [ST4000DM000] x3 Seagate IronWolf 4TB HDD [ST4000VN008] x1 Inter-tech 4U-4408 server case (all pre-installed fans and empty slots filled with Arctic fans aswell) Corsair VS350 PSU [Linux Mint 20.1 Cinnamon; ZFS + Samba]

[@JzJad]

Should take a shot at making a custom PCB for the front panel :D Also may want to look into doing stata dom for the host OS

[@TommyThousandFaces]

The CNVi really makes it less useful than it could be. I went for the mATX one exactly to get more expansion slots. How is the system handling powering 4 drives off of a single connector on the board? I don't think it's rated to draw enough power for 4 HDDs.

[@w3isserwolf]

Asus makes an n100 Board with atx Powerplugs but only 1 sata port. But you should Take a Look at it if you plan to Build a thing Like That.

[@Spreadie]

Regarding the RAM, N100 is supposed to be paired (optimally) with a single DDR5 DIMM and each DDR5 DIMM has two channels. Compatibility with DDR4 leaves a lot to be desired.

[@leonelantonio36]

To be honest I tape leds know, every pc should have the option to turn off that rainbow leds

[@Cynyr]

Hmm, this is giving me ideas... A 8088 to 8087 pcie bracket and a 8087 to sata breakout and this thing would make a cool little DAS.

[@HardwareHaven]

Could be cool!

[@Pabula]

Did you tested AsRock N100DC mobo + Coral? I'm asking more because i want to do a Home Assistant setup with the AsRock mobo + Coral + Frigate Surveillance setup.

[@KeithWeston]

Cleaning montage for the win!

[@nielsdebakker3283]

Why not use the n100m board, works with a normal power supply. And power (connections) enough for the hd's. Never mind, the n100m mobo looks to be wider. (about 3 pcie slots of room wider)

[@HardwareHaven]

Well it's matx for starters haha

[@derikdang8829]

Way too cool Hardware Haven 👍..

[@gd.ritter]

Can you compare your total cost invested in making this work vs an entry level modern nas?

[@Sapious1]

Great video, enjoyed this...

[@mepurionus]

Wondering if grabbing the version with 24pin on mobo would let me make a sleeper one inside 1U network switch by 3D printing some parts. Your fire hazard is nothing compared to what I've done, mainly because you at least used solder and heatshrink tube unlike me twisting cables together and using paper duct tape. Also idea - custom front panel for buttons and LEDs, it may sound scary but trust me its not c: plus that way you could utilize front USB port with small hub from inside that would also has a flash storage for unraid so no usb stick sticking out.

[@legen_dary42]

Is it bad if your hard drive pops, sparks, fizzles, and smokes when you power on your rig?

[@shephusted2714]

good for a dev server

[@keithgoldston2859]

I love watching you videos thanks for sharing

[@HardwareHaven]

Glad you like them!

[@michaelkane6797]

'I thought this would be a quick, fun, easy project' 😂 Ok, ok... doesn't that motherboard have an on board 1Gb nic? If so, you could put in a pico PSU to eliminate the fire hazard (although I think your solder job is probably perfectly safe) and a pcie SATA adapter of your chosen flavor. That would make a great remote backup server, and honestly a perfectly acceptable home server for most people. Come to think of it.. if you really want the pcie for faster networking, you could simply mount an SSD where the old power supply was, connect it to one of the on board SATA ports and boot into CasaOS or TrueNAS or whatever from that. Lots of options there, that's really a cool little project case.

[@marsovac]

His solder job may be safe but he used double power over the rated for the connector and wire.

[@HardwareHaven]

Definitely lots of options!

[@fractalorigin]

I always wonder why, although according to the specifications of the n100 processor it supports up to 16GB RAM, some motherboards allow you to install 32GB... 🤔

[@jasonarmstrong1515]

why not just run both power supplies? Internal for the case, external for the ITX board and connect both power cables to a single power bar with an off switch?

[@alistairtravels]

that motheboard also runs on 12v so no need for an external psu

[@HardwareHaven]

I considered it... I just hoped I could make it cleaner with how I did it.

[@terrorpup]

I kinda wish you get the new Radxa ITX board with the RockChip and try it with it.

[@thanhthuanbe9751]

I've seen another n100 motherboard that already have 6 (even 9) sata port, 4x 2.5 lan. I think it might fit in this case

[@Zerrudo_]

Thanks for being a guinea pig, had plans for this exact same build. Ultimately went with a Datto 4-bay nas off ebay for a similar price.

[@GhostieXV]

if you used a motherboard with atx could you reuse the PSU?

[@philspam2087]

I dont know exactly why, but this Video often gave me some serious History Channel vibes 😂

[@CyFr]

Great... But how do you do it with the MyCloud NAS devices from Western Digital that were discontinued?

[@plagosus]

Hey, it works. That's important.

[@bader51500]

Sleeper build ❌️ Sleeping build ✅️

[@Landjrin]

Couldn't you have run the backplane off of the NVME sata adapter and then used the onboard Sata ports for a 2.5' Sata SSD for boot?

[@HardwareHaven]

Yep. Unraid was what I had already decided to go for though, so i didn't bother.

[@arhamzarif6313]

damn, is there any other old NAS like this on the market rn?

[@HardwareHaven]

I think there are some HP boxes that are similar, and maybe even some netgear readyNAS boxes with PCIe slots. Not sure though!

[@kenyates7960]

I have one of these that has been collecting dust ... now I may try and resurrect it! The worst things about these systems was they came with Windows Server btw.....

[@JamesTenniswood]

Use the WiFi slot for 2.5gbe and then do sata on the pic slot

[@HardwareHaven]

Wifi slot doesn't support PCIe sadly

[@experiment18a40]

i think the reason your unraid wouldnt boot on the old motherboard was because you was using a usb 3 flash drive. i had to buy a usb2 flash drive and it worked for me

[@ENetArch]

Time to build a pcb, using pcb way, to create a custom pcb that can replace the pcd in the case to match the case buttons and lights. 😊

[@Phil-D83]

You need to map the wires for power,etc. Does acer have a manual for repairs on this thing?

[@HardwareHaven]

I didn't come across one, but didn't look TOO hard.

[@Phil-D83]

@@HardwareHaven cool side project, but not much cheaper than building a new one (basically the cost of a case)

[@HardwareHaven]

For sure

[@dankatapich]

You coud add an ssd in to the place of the psu for truenas or other os :>

[@cadmiral3d146]

Why the DC and not the N100m that works better for ATX power.