Here is the latest firmware:
https://sabrent.com/community/xen...ost-269862
Scroll to the last post for details. You need to flash the firmware per bay and will need a hard drive in that specific bay to flash the firmware! If you have time to flash one by one, you can define name like per port numbering so it show up properly in device manager! I really want to hard drive sleep timeout feature and looks like this fix it!
For those that got device cannot be flashed due to improper hardware, select that mystery drive and hit safely remove and try again!
expirediconian | Staff posted Mar 29, 2024 06:44 PM
Item 1 of 4
Item 1 of 4
expirediconian | Staff posted Mar 29, 2024 06:44 PM
SABRENT 10 Bay 3.5” SATA Hard Drive Tray Less Docking Station
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The Mini PCs we normally see listed max out with 2.5Gbps networking. So this would be able to keep up and saturate the pipe. If you needed more bandwidth, having separate direct SATA connections would be needed, likely with some type of external SAS connection.
10 drives is very large, unless you are going for extremely cheap small drives to fill the array. IMO it's better to use larger drives as each drive consumes power to run. UGreen has a Kickstarter going right now that has some really crazy deals for NASes that are supposed to ship in June. You might be more bang for your buck there.
Also, anyone thinking of using this many drives, Go with at least one parity disk, or even better two. The chance of data loss increases as you move to more and more drives. Not caring about movies on a single 10TB drive... fine. Not caring about 180TB, that's going to be a much larger pain to replace everything.
I was checking what level of support it has from Sabrent (zero, they have really gone downhill with firmware updates) and there's a thread about how it doesn't have automatic power recovery to bring the drives back up after power loss.
actually, i am not even sure of the reference? but sabrent is very well known in ssd and pc component business for the last 5-10 years
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USB is not a stable interface for software RAID.
Not saying it can't be done, just that you wouldn't be allowed anywhere near a data center if you tried to make a case for it.
I was checking what level of support it has from Sabrent (zero, they have really gone downhill with firmware updates) and there's a thread about how it doesn't have automatic power recovery to bring the drives back up after power loss.
Software RAID isn't the issue, this being a USB enclosure is.
For example, $249.99 for Intel Core i5-12600KF + MSI Z790-P Pro (2.5Gb Ethernet) + G.Skill Ripjaws V 16GB DDR4-3200 Bundle:
https://slickdeals.net/f/17392776-intel-core-i5-12600kf-msi-z790-p-pro-wifi-ddr4-g-skill-ripjaws-v-16gb-ddr4-3200-kit-computer-build-bundle-249
$119.99 for a mid tower case with 10 hard drive bays(with 10 tool-less hard drive slider brackets included for easy replacements):
https://www.newegg.com/p/2AM-0319...BFGVJH18
That's just $370 so far. Add a power supply(https://slickdeals.net/f/17389542-500w-thermaltake-smart-80-plus-standard-series-pc-power-supply-12-free-s-h-w-amazon-prime) and a CPU cooler(https://slickdeals.net/f/17313574-thermalright-assassin-spirit-120-v2-cpu-air-cooler-ax120-v2-4-heat-pipes-tl-c12c-v2-pwm-quiet-fan-cpu-cooler-computer-heatsink-cooler-17-69) and you're good to start sliding in hard drives.
Sure, you're going to spend a bit more than this enclosure($1.27 more), but now you've got a dedicated computer, one box to hold everything and run all your home server software.
From what I understood this is just a multi-bay external drive dock. it shouldn't ever need firmware upgrades because it's just a simple drive reader.
But it was more a knock at Sabrent, who has really dropped the ball on support in the past few years.
Never buying an SSD from them again, that's for sure.
For example, $249.99 for Intel Core i5-12600KF + MSI Z790-P Pro (2.5Gb Ethernet) + G.Skill Ripjaws V 16GB DDR4-3200 Bundle:
https://slickdeals.net/f/17392776-intel-core-i5-12600kf-msi-z790-p-pro-wifi-ddr4-g-skill-ripjaws-v-16gb-ddr4-3200-kit-computer-build-bundle-249
$119.99 for a mid tower case with 10 hard drive bays(with 10 tool-less hard drive slider brackets included for easy replacements):
https://www.newegg.com/p/2AM-0319...BFGVJH18
That's just $370 so far. Add a power supply(https://slickdeals.net/f/17389542-500w-thermaltake-smart-80-plus-standard-series-pc-power-supply-12-free-s-h-w-amazon-prime) and a CPU cooler(https://slickdeals.net/f/17313574-thermalright-assassin-spirit-120-v2-cpu-air-cooler-ax120-v2-4-heat-pipes-tl-c12c-v2-pwm-quiet-fan-cpu-cooler-computer-heatsink-cooler-17-69) and you're good to start sliding in hard drives.
Sure, you're going to spend a bit more than this enclosure($1.27 more), but now you've got a dedicated computer, one box to hold everything and run all your home server software.
For one, many of them have at least 4 2.5Gbe Ethernet ports, meaning you can also run OPNsense on them and turn them into a router.
They have 6 SATA ports onboard and at least one PCIe slot if you need more.
Also, some run off a DC barrel jack, meaning you don't need to buy a separate power supply.
As far as cases go, there's a company called Jonsbo that makes ITX cases with hot swap bays built in, which is perfect for these boards.
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I was checking what level of support it has from Sabrent (zero, they have really gone downhill with firmware updates) and there's a thread about how it doesn't have automatic power recovery to bring the drives back up after power loss.
This with a USB 3.2 n100 mini pc makes a fantastic NAS, Plex or whatever. Also going to use way less power than any server.
.. when all you need is a jbod enclosure
setting those specifics aside for a moment, however, let's not talk about the what, but the why. - jbod without some kind of redundancy system offers zero protection against drive failure or bit rot. theoretically you could configure software raid with one of these jbod boxes, but because they use usb which adds another layer of technical complexity to the mix (usb hotplug is known to be a mess and likes to stop recognizing drives occasionally for no good reason which can lead to data failure and inconsistent states). if you're willing to spend $200-300 per hard drive to fill even half of a 10 bay jbod, you might as well get a sas jbod instead of a usb one due to the significantly improved reliability and bandwidth OR just grab a cheap 16 bay server that's a few years old off of ebay, load up truenas, and have it manage your storage for you including multi-disk redundancy (i usually recommend raidz2), weekly zfs scrubs to avoid bit rot, and daily checks on hardware status to alert you of impending hard drive failure so you can pick up a replacement before it happens without any down time.
My internet upload speed is 10 Mbps, so having something a thousand times faster than any plex server I could make would be pretty nice. But the storage would cost twice as much as this thing does, and I'm not ready to dish that much out all at once.
Hardware-wise though USB is ABYSMAL for reliable storage as the cheap usb controllers used in stuff like this likes to disconnect randomly and try to reconnect which is hell on redundant storage systems.
I can't even imagine how well a software RAID would work on this, so you definitely wouldn't want to use this for anything that requires heavy redundancy.
If you pair it with any of the mini PCs that get listed here and load it up with those refurbished server drives, it would make a pretty killer Plex server.
For one, many of them have at least 4 2.5Gbe Ethernet ports, meaning you can also run OPNsense on them and turn them into a router.
They have 6 SATA ports onboard and at least one PCIe slot if you need more.
Also, some run off a DC barrel jack, meaning you don't need to buy a separate power supply.
As far as cases go, there's a company called Jonsbo that makes ITX cases with hot swap bays built in, which is perfect for these boards.
Wouldn't those NAS boards be fairly limited in running home server docker containers and VMs, as offered by NAS software like Unraid?
As to the Ethernet ports, you can easily and cheaply add those to a normal desktop via PCIe or USB ports; upgrade to 10/25/40/50Gb if you feel like it. Some motherboards include two ports and/or 10Gb Ethernet right on the back panel.
Same for SATA ports; you get 6 on that motherboard(more on others), and you can add more via PCIe.
Also, the motherboard combo I linked has four M.2 SSD slots; use them for cache/OS/VM/Docker drives, or install a Coral AI accelerator in one and use it for visual recognition and alerts in a Frigate home security camera system.
You could also install a GPU to run local AI software like Llama chat or Stable Diffusion image generation.
It just feels like you have a lot more capabilities, performance, and upgradeability with a PC with a normal modern CPU than with a NAS board.
Of course, maybe that's overkill for you, and a power efficient NAS board is perfect for your needs.
But again, thanks for the info; it's great to know the different options for building out a NAS/home server.
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Wouldn't those NAS boards be fairly limited in running home server docker containers and VMs, as offered by NAS software like Unraid?
As to the Ethernet ports, you can easily and cheaply add those to a normal desktop via PCIe or USB ports; upgrade to 10/25/40/50Gb if you feel like it. Some motherboards include two ports and/or 10Gb Ethernet right on the back panel.
Same for SATA ports; you get 6 on that motherboard(more on others), and you can add more via PCIe.
Also, the motherboard combo I linked has four M.2 SSD slots; use them for cache/OS/VM/Docker drives, or install a Coral AI accelerator in one and use it for visual recognition and alerts in a Frigate home security camera system.
You could also install a GPU to run local AI software like Llama chat or Stable Diffusion image generation.
It just feels like you have a lot more capabilities, performance, and upgradeability with a PC with a normal modern CPU than with a NAS board.
Of course, maybe that's overkill for you, and a power efficient NAS board is perfect for your needs.
But again, thanks for the info; it's great to know the different options for building out a NAS/home server.
And many do, as demonstrated by r/homelab.
The nice thing about those NAS boards I mentioned is they include a lot of desirables in a minimal package for not a lot of cash. And they tend to consume less power overall.
As far as AI goes, look into OpenVino for stable diffusion. There's also an open B key slot on the system I bought if I wanted to run a Coral card.
But, if you don't have power or space constraints, then of course a server grade motherboard would be the target.
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