this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2023
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Small Unraid PC with 2 HDDs. Silverstone SG13 case with Asrock N100DC-ITX, the SATA power cable was too short so I had to improvise. (lemmy.world)
submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by OrangeCorvus@lemmy.world to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
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The Asrock N100DC-ITX uses a 19v power brick so no separate PSU to power the drives. It comes with a 4 pin cable that splits into 2 SATA power.

The case I chose, Silverstone SG13, comes with a 3.5" HDD bracket but you need to mount the drive belly up so you can screw it in. The second drive I want to put where the PCIe slot is, found a nice 3d model for that. The thing is, the power cable would be too short and the drives would be too far apart to reach both.

So I removed the HDD bracket and cut 2 L-shaped aluminum stripes and I screwed the drive belly down. This way the cable now reaches both drives. I know, I could have cut the cable and made it longer but I prefer to avoid playing with power cables if I can.

Turned out quite good. Wanted to share it with other people. Now I need to find someone to 3d print the PCIe HDD holder and find some rubber stuff to put under the L-shapes to dampen the sound of the drive. This is the 3d model, https://www.printables.com/model/385403-pci-slot-hdd-bracket but V2 with the nice feet.

PS the drives in the images are broken so I just used them as dummy drives.

That's about it.

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[–] Nollij@sopuli.xyz 6 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Just FYI for the future, you can find SATA power extender cables for just a few bucks. Just be careful to get crimped instead of injection molded

[–] nezbyte@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

You can also build your own custom SATA power cables with some crimp connectors.

https://a.aliexpress.com/_mszyiNO

[–] OrangeCorvus@lemmy.world 3 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Thanks for the tip! For some reason I was searching for a similar but longer cable to the one provided but never thought to look for a SATA power extender :).

I've heard about avoiding the injection molded ones but I wanted to ask you, is it safe to power the 2 drives directly from the motherboard? The board has 2 SATA ports and the cable that comes with has 2 power SATA connectors so it should not overheat/burn the cables if they give you the option to use it? This is the board https://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/N100DC-ITX/#Specification

I live in a constant fear of batteries catching fire, cables melting and other bad things happening when it comes to power :). That's why I tend to only buy original batteries, cables, power adapters.

[–] Nollij@sopuli.xyz 3 points 11 months ago (2 children)

The risk was poorly-made power adapters, where 2 pins could short/arc. These cables were almost exclusively injection molded and sold through cut-rate outlets like Ali Express (and Amazon resellers of them).

Technically crimped cables are not immune, but they are rarely seen with such cost cutting. Quality molded cables are also fine, but that is very difficult to recognize or verify after purchase.

The manual should tell you the power limits, and you can cross-reference the power usage of the drives. It's probably ok for normal consumer drives, but high-draw or enterprise drives could be an issue. You could also (probably) just get power from the PSU.

[–] OrangeCorvus@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

Unfortunately it doesn't say in the manual. It only says that if you use 4 HDDs you should use a 90W DC 19V power brick. I already ordered one, my confusion was if the 4 pin cable supports 2 HDDs but I guess since the board has 2 SATA slots and cable also has 2 SATA power connectors. I plan to most likely use 2x WD Red Plus 8TB, they use 6.2W (load), 4.1W (idle)

[–] OrangeCorvus@lemmy.world 0 points 11 months ago

Thanks.

[–] SheeEttin@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

If that's the stock part, seems like it would be within spec. You can check the manual or detailed spec doc to be sure.

[–] OrangeCorvus@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Also posted this above to a previous poster but you won't be notified so I will post it here as well.

Unfortunately it doesn't say in the manual. It only says that if you use 4 HDDs you should use a 90W DC 19V power brick. I already ordered one, my confusion was if the 4 pin cable supports 2 HDDs but I guess since the board has 2 SATA slots and cable also has 2 SATA power connectors. I plan to most likely use 2x WD Red Plus 8TB, they use 6.2W (load), 4.1W (idle)

[–] SheeEttin@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Huh. Kind of surprised it supports up to four drives, but if that's what it says, there you go. Shouldn't be any risk of drawing too much current through the wire. At most the board or PSU would shut down.

Also, if you are putting more drives in, see if the BIOS lets you enable staggered spin-up, so that they aren't all peaking at the same time.

[–] OrangeCorvus@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago

Will do, thanks!

[–] RotaryKeyboard@lemmy.ninja 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I like the choice of SIlverstone for the case. I got one of those for my proxmox server. It was compact, but not so compact that I left a lot of skin and blood behind after mounting components. I will say that other manufacturers (like Fractal Design just seem to understand how to design an interior a lot better, though.

[–] OrangeCorvus@lemmy.world 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I also like the case and since the motherboard has power integrated and the CPU is in theory passively cooled, it will be quite empty since I don't have to stuff a PSU/GPU inside it. Initially, I wanted to get the Fractal Ridge but it was to long for the opening in the cupboard where it was going to sit. The SG13 seemed like the best choice, size wise and the 2 drives fit good.

I am planning on putting a 80mm fan at the back which would bring somewhat limited fresh air and on the front a 120mm fan as exhaust to remove heat from the mobo/hdds.