Well I have been using an old gaming PC as NAS after it’s GPU died, and even though it has served me greatly, it’s a power hog. Also CPU is pretty old to do any transcoding or AI stuff. I have scored a mini PC with Intel N5105 for free, and its quite power efficient. Also it doesn’t have SATA, but two nvme m2 slots, one of which can work with these m2 Sata adapters (asm1166 chip with 6 SATA ports). Now minipc obviously can’t power up the 5 hardrives, all 3.5" SATA, so I need an external power supply. minipc got it’s own adapter brick, so is there a similar adapter that can work for drives, or I have to get a PSU. But then again, If I am getting a PSU, I wonder if I could power the MiniPC off it as well.
I did came across this , and was wondering if this could be that would work for me.
I’m currently planning for my next server, and there’s the same question.
My first idea was a plain and simple PSU for 12V and then a small buck converter to make 5V from the 12V.
Then I found a variant of the 12V PSU that has UPS capability built in (you can plug a 12V battery and it does everything else, or you can leave the battery away and it’s just a PSU) and I ordered me this one. So I need no external UPS unit.
Example here: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32852797799.html
It’s not complete yet. For the wiring I’m going to do some tinkering with a cheap extension cable.
If I’ve understood you correctly, I think you’d need to link 0VDC / GND between both the system PSU and the HDD PSU, otherwise you’ll get variable reference voltages for the data lines
Happy for someone else to shoot this idea down in flames, but I think the data is using absolute, not differential voltages
The almost free method is use the PSU from the old PC, and grab a 5V relay with flyback diode to trigger the PS_ON pin and run that off a USB port on the mini PC. That way the PSU powers up automatically with the rest.
Not a bad idea, but I was thinking of giving my PC to a younger sibling with a cheaper GPU, so get them into PC gaming so they stop bothering me for switch 2.
The only reason I am tempted by the above is because of their smaller brick size.
To answer your question, yes that PSU looks like it should work. I’m not sure I would use this PSU for my NAS due to the quality of the manufacturer being unknown, but generally it should be fine so long as it is not mission critical.
Also if you have access to a 3d printer, there are some great designs for external drive cages to keep them safe and cool.
You could do it for free. Take the guts out of your old PC, leave the HDD’s in there and the existing PSU. Extend the sata cables through to your MiniPC.
If the PSU won’t fire up, then there’s a couple of pins in the main block you can jumper - or fit a momentary switch to - to act as a switch.
The old PSU will still be reasonable efficient, since power is not wasted except as heat, and it shouldn’t get hot running just the hdd’s. 3.5 hdd’s use around 8-20watt each, depending on spindle speed, so at most it’s 100w at startup, but probably settle down to ~40 for the drives.
Or - yes, those things you linked will work too, but they’re basically doing the same job as the above.
Not a bad idea, but I was thinking of giving my PC to a younger sibling with a cheaper GPU, so get them into PC gaming so they stop bothering me for switch 2.
The only reason I am tempted by the above is because of their smaller brick size.
