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External HDD docking station + laptop/SFF/thin client vs ATX tower w/ internal mounts for NAS? (lemmy.ml)

submitted 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) by yo_scottie_oh@lemmy.ml to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world

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My current setup is two always-on hard drives hooked up to this two-bay external hard drive docking station plugged into a laptop via USB cable for whatever network sharing I may need. This has been good enough so far, but I'm anticipating the need to expand down the road, i.e. adding a third drive. When that time comes, part of me thinks I oughta just spring for the 4-bay version of what I already have and keep on keeping on. Another part of me thinks maybe I should plan a new build in a mid-ATX case w/ 4 or 5 HDD mounting slots for future expandability.

One thing about the external docking station that appeals to me is how portable it is, meaning if I ever want to spring for a beefier laptop or one of those thin clients, I can just plug the HDD docking station into the new host and away I go. Another nice thing about laptops and SFF equipment is how energy efficient they are. On the other hand, planning a new ATX build w/ HDDs mounted internally would enable me to plan the whole thing top to bottom w/ whichever components I like, but I'm a tad concerned about how feasible it is to achieve the same level of power efficiency w/ an ATX build compared to a laptop/SFF/thin client w/ external docking station.

Has anyone else out there had this dilemma, and which way did you go? Any advice or warnings about what might come back to bite me down the road if I stick w/ the external docking station or go w/ an ATX build?

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[–] mpramann@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

If you want to use a thinclients only a few have that little power draw I would even consider to the heart of my always-on homeserver/NAS (so pretty much only Intel NXX processor builds). There a plenty of ITX and mITX mainboard + N100 combos out there, paired with a decent NAS case you are running a cheap and expandable config. And you can easily run a lot of docker containers on there with enough RAM provided, because normally you are using only a few services at a time and for that a N100 is plenty. I would only consider those thinclients if AI is something you are planning to run.

[–] yo_scottie_oh@lemmy.ml 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I would only consider those thinclients if AI is something you are planning to run.

Do you mean b/c AI would require a beefy host for the thin client to connect to?

[–] mpramann@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

No, I wrote this a bit confusingly. There a lot of these mini PCs with the same form factor as thin clients but much beefier specs. And some of these are actually build to handle AI workloads and could be a good choice if your homeserver should run such tasks. But other than that they just draw to much power. Actual thin clients usually have similar or less cpu performance than a N100 selfbuild but if you ever feel like you need more power there is no way to upgrade it but get a completely new thin client. Plus the self build will be more reliable because of the SATA connections and often has better networking.

[–] yo_scottie_oh@lemmy.ml 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Thanks for clarifying. If I understand correctly, you're saying that in terms of energy usage, a thin client + external docking station for HDDs might have a smaller footprint than an ITX build, but at the expense of future upgradeability. On the other hand, an ITX build would likely draw more power than the thin client + external HDDs, but enables me to upgrade individual components down the road. Did I get that right?