2.5" HDD to fit inside the box?

Turris Omnia
1

beside of mSATA SSD, will it be possible to insert 2.5 hard disk, considering enough space to fit, and SATA and power connectors?

2

There are some adapters which give you a standard SATA port from mSATA. But you still need to get power from somewhere. I couldn’t find an adapter for SATA and power.

To be honest I am a big fan of SSDs and have replaced every HDD except in my NAS. I am probably going to equip the Turris Omnia with a 500 GB mSATA SSD (sets you back ~150€ in Germany) just for OS and document backup. Or I might exchange the current 256 GB mSATA SSD in my main rig… Decisions…

Nevertheless, it would’ve been great if the board had SATA ports as well, similar to the WiTi board. If this was the case, it could’ve completely replaced the NAS I am currently using. They could’ve done it oldsql style at the bottom like the expansion ports on consoles (NES, SNES, N64). Now I have to either keep using it or use USB3 external drives. Less than optimal. Regardless, I am eagerly awaiting the release of the Turris Omnia :smile:

€dit: I completely forgot. There are mPCIe SATA controllers. But I do not know if they would work so easily with the Turris OS.

3

Definitely not. We want the case to be as slim as possible,

4

Ondrej Filip mention that you can put SSD inside the box. So 2.5" HDD is almost the same.
Don’t you think? :smile: or I misunderstand it?
https://ctrlv.cz/ph06

5

I guess he was talking about mSATA SSD what are of much smaller form factor than 2.5" SDD / HDD. Ondrej should have mentioned that.

1 Like
6

That’s right. Ondrej forgot to mention that.

7

Are you seriously suggesting that even a small 7-9.6mm HDD would be too high to get in there? Judging from the pictures, the metal case is already around 35-40mm high. With smart placement / design of coolers and jacks there is most certainly enough space for one or even two 2.5" drives. From the pictures you released it seems there is enough space for one HDD above the wifi cards, unless one uses these extreme cards with big heatsinks.

If there really is no space above the PCB, you could fit them below the PCB. The screws/bushings holding the PCB can probably be reduced or extended in height, winning a few crucial millimeters.

Thank you in advance for all your efforts!

8

I hope to see the NAS extension.
The mSATA is compact but more expensive than a traditional HD.
It the case were big enough to fit two 2.5" HD, they we can have a raid setup using the ASM1061.
The other issue is the power for the HDs, it would be nice to use the same power supply.

9

I think the USB should be sufficient enough to power two 2.5 SSD, since they only use 5 V. I’ve seen a USB->4 pin molex for xbox which i think is the same as for for PC. Then use a Y-split cabel to two 5-pin molex.

http://mrconsoles.com/catalog/xecuter-molex-power-cable-p-850.html#!prettyPhoto[pp_gal]/0/

drilling 8 holes in the top could make it possible to, at least, put 2 disks outside of the box. Maybe even inside, but I’m guessing it could cause some heat issues.

1 Like
10

Maybe the custom top cover of the hacker perk would be useful for you. You can still get it on Indiegogo and contribute here to let the project team know what your plans are: https://discourse.labs.nic.cz/t/what-external-devices-are-you-planning-to-did-you-connect-to-your-router/207?u=m4x

M4x

1 Like
11

Using USB3 for storage is really not a problem, at least not capacity wise:

It’s very easy to turn the router into a NAS, buy this Maiwo usb3/esata RAID dock and populate it with upto 4 x 10TB disks. The description of upto 24TB is old, it provenly supports at least 8TB disks.

If you want more, buy a separate USB3 RAID module or Port Multiplier, for example Addonics HPM-XU in RAID 5 mode , to this you can chain connect upto 5 pcs of Maiwo raid dock (each preferrably in RAID 0), this means upto 200TB raw disk capacity (with 10TB disks). So you will have a RAID 5 array made of RAID 0 docks. Addonics has many other models, check them out.

1 Like
12

since 2,5" HDD will not fit inside, and besides, there are no 2,5" HDDs bigger than 2GB currently, it does not eve make sense to try to insert such small HDD inside. Therefore USB3 external HDD [even multiple] seems fine, such as 5TB WD. I don’t really see a point in using USB3 > eSATA converter, it will only reduce the transfer speed…

13

I’ve seen 3TB external 2.5" HDDs appear last week, but since they’re WD, they most likely have USB interface only even if you take them out of the enclosure.

14

If you need speed you can use a SSD with msata interface, if you need a lot of storage and RAID, you can use USB 3.0
I would like to put a cheap HDD inside, but there are alternatives.

15

Say; one does not need the speed and would attach an external 3.5’’ (externally powered) HDD.

Would it spin-down / go to a power-save modus when it is not actively used (or would that be HDD dependent)?

I’m thinking ‘ultra cheap (backup) “NAS” functionality’ here.

EDIT: Oops; sorry for “reviving” this old topic (question stands though :blush: )!

16

Depends on the chipset used in the case and its firmware. Some prebuilt USB harddisks even enforce this or their disks are preconfigured to sleep after a few minutes.

17

I’ve got WD 5TB Elements External USB 3 Drive http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1077554-REG/wd_wdbwlg0050hbk_nesn_5tb_elements_external_hd.html what I plan to have connected to Turris. Currently I have it connected to Windows PC and it goes to sleep mode regardless of Windows Power settings. So I guess the sleep function is hard coded in the HDD box itself.

18

Thanks adminX and xsys, Indeed it seems very device (chipset / firmware) dependent.

Oooooh that looks like a “winner-combo” with the Omnia. @ml70 (or anyone els ofc.) do you have any (warranty) experience with those “Dealextreme” guys?

19

They do honor their warranties BUT it involves sending it back to China, so it’s not quick by any definition of the word. They’ll even refund the postage cost to you as store credit. Been their customer for years, bought tens of different sku’s, no complaints.

Do note that by mail it might take up to 6 weeks (at least never less than 2), so paying for DHL is a smart option.

20

Looking at their prices that seems pretty reasonable (can’t have cheap and fast…)! I think I am falling for it (difficult to find a cheaper raid5-able hardware raid setup)! :slight_smile:

I am waiting for more information about the upcomming Turris-Omnia’s NAS upgrade though, as a more “native” solution does have my preference. But I’ll keep the ‘Maiwo usb3/esata RAID dock’ within my scope for comparison, for sure!

Thanks for suggesting it!