06-20-2019, 11:16 AM
Hi Folks,
I've received my NAS case, SATA PCIe HBA and other bits.
On first look, the case is well designed and laid out for this purpose (NAS). The drive carrier frame needs to be a bit stiffer (rolled edges would help here) because it depends on the drives for stiffness and proper shaping. The two orientation nubs have to be "helped" to get the drive carrier frame mounted and that's a bit of a pain with 3.5" drives installed.
A simple one page sheet with recommended drive orientation would be helpful also. If you put the drives in with the SATA connector end towards the RockPRO64 end of the case, the cables bind against the SATA HBA.
Once that is sorted, things fit very well and the case is very sturdy.
The outstanding issues in my mind for now are -
- The light pipe is pretty useless unless the unit is in a dark room
- The unit should include a proper case fan as part of the base package
- The drive carrier frame needs its edges rolled to both add needed stiffness and save our fingers
Other than those three items, this is a perfect solution for use as a media server in a home environment or a small workgroup file server. I've currently configured it with two 12TB Seagate He drives striped using mdadm for speed and capacity.
Performance tests will follow.
I've received my NAS case, SATA PCIe HBA and other bits.
On first look, the case is well designed and laid out for this purpose (NAS). The drive carrier frame needs to be a bit stiffer (rolled edges would help here) because it depends on the drives for stiffness and proper shaping. The two orientation nubs have to be "helped" to get the drive carrier frame mounted and that's a bit of a pain with 3.5" drives installed.
A simple one page sheet with recommended drive orientation would be helpful also. If you put the drives in with the SATA connector end towards the RockPRO64 end of the case, the cables bind against the SATA HBA.
Once that is sorted, things fit very well and the case is very sturdy.
The outstanding issues in my mind for now are -
- The light pipe is pretty useless unless the unit is in a dark room
- The unit should include a proper case fan as part of the base package
- The drive carrier frame needs its edges rolled to both add needed stiffness and save our fingers
Other than those three items, this is a perfect solution for use as a media server in a home environment or a small workgroup file server. I've currently configured it with two 12TB Seagate He drives striped using mdadm for speed and capacity.
Performance tests will follow.