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.
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I would love to watch a short documentary following you trying to take this on a plane
Lol, cause who wants to use a single USB to interface with the laptop? That’s crazy.
❌ Fat Client
✅ Fattest Client
That’s janky as hell, I love it.
Next step is to free the acer from it’s physical bonds and screw the motherboard to the 3D printed stand.
One could frame it and put it on the wall
This has awakened sonething in me
if you wire up some blinky LEDs to the power supply, then yes. I NEEDS THEM BLINKYS
That’s scary looking but also really awesome.
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.
The fact that there exists an m.2 x6 port SATA adapter is the wildest part to me.
There’s a NINE PORT ONE! That’s bonkers!
I was also very happy to find out they exist, otherwise this whole thing would’ve been a no-starter.
I used one for my server. I’m quite happy with it
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
this is cursed and i love it
Hot
Is the laptop cooling ok with the lid closed? Or do you crack it open when actually in use?
I’m more irritated than I’d like to admit by the fact that there is no 12V to 6x SATA power converter going with that M.2 to 6x SATA adapter.
Well, I just used a similar adapter in my tower to get more sata ports. M.2 is not just for laptops. Even my ancient mobo had a slot.
Also slightly bugging me, but I didn’t find 6x SATA power. And my plan always was to use 4 drives.
Maximum respect!
How are powering them up… Do you have a PSU behind the HDDs ?
Edit: never mind just saw the whole post
