Mainboardsuggestion S-ATA + USB 3

  • Hi fellows,
    seems my Banana Pi finally died - first it's MicroSd was broken, with another one it always reboots (but as that card was verified successfully using Etcher to flash the image, I think my BPi is broken.
    So I wonder what my next NAS will be based on.


    I would like to use a USB 3 4TB disk (I already have) as well as 2 S-ATA 4TB Disks (as soon as I can afford).
    And I would like to keep the system as silent as possible and economic in case of electricity/year.


    As I have enough space to place the machine next to my router, it just needs a wired LAN connection ;)


    Any suggestions of Atom Dual-/Quadcore mainboards or stuff like this? And would 2GB ram be enough to get an appropriate speed?

  • I think my BPi is broken.

    Maybe it's the PSU? Already checked?


    We have one Olimex A20 Lime2 server at a customer where the PSU started to die approx. 4 months ago. The voltage dropped a lot below 5V but since we operate all Lime2 server with a connected LiPo battery funnily this only lead to partially discharging the battery from time to time but the powermanagement IC and the DC-DC circuitry on this board managed to run stable up until recently. In the last weeks the provided voltage dropped below 4.5V and a few days ago even below 4V and only when 3.8V were decreased it was time to replace the PSU with a new one (now at stable 5.15V again).


    In case you use an Armbian image you can check for voltage drops easily through sysfs (check Armbian forum for details).


    If it's about a new device then I would most probably go with an EspressoBin. Performance as any x86 based Gigabit Ethernet equipped NAS box, one USB3 port, one SATA port, one mPCIe port where you can add 1, 2 or even 4 more SATA ports.


    And would 2GB ram be enough to get an appropriate speed?


    How/why should amount of DRAM and NAS performance be related?

  • Just checked the PSU. 5.13V and while booting current it between 300-500mA. So nothing to complain about thie. To make sue I chanceg PSU and Micro-USB cable as well, but still same behavior.


    But to ensure it's not a systemfailure I just re-flashed the operatingsystem, now my banana pi seems to work, again ;)
    Nevertheless I'm going to replace it by faster hardware, soon.


    Have seen some Atom ION providing gigabit-ethernet - maye that's a better choice than Atom D2550...

  • Have seen some Atom ION providing gigabit-ethernet - maye that's a better choice than Atom D2550...

    For consumer hardware, the Nvidia ION Atom chipset supports 4 Sata ports, while most Intel Atom chipsets support 2 Sata ports. So ION will give more flexibility with your storage scheme. Intel Atom server chipsets have more ports of course, but cost a lot more.


    ION draws a bit more power though, due to the more capable graphics. Even though you can usually disable graphics in BIOS/UEFI after setting up OMV, often that will only free up system resources while the hardware still draws power. Not always the case, but something to consider since you mentioned energy efficiency.


    Additionally, a lot of the lower priced ION hardware uses Realtek 8111 gigabit LAN, which for me at least, has been problematic with OMV (and Linux in general). I've not lost data with systems using the 8111 LAN, but they often "pause" or "freeze" for a bit mid-transfer. A lot of the intel chipset Atom boards come with the same Realtek NICs, but many Atom 2500/2550 boards from Intel have Intel NICs, which I've not had issues with. Just my experience.


    If you haven't, take a look at the Which-energy-efficient-ARM-platform-to-choose thread. So many more choices now for ARM based solutions that are much faster and purpose designed than the older ARM development boards. @tkaiser provides a lot of detail on options there!

  • I would like to use a x86 plattform, as ARM based systems need special compilers which (in case of Synology: Marvell Armada) aren't available always....so I would benefit on an Intel oder AMD CPU in cast of flexibility and upgrades.


    But EspressoBin indeed looks nice.
    tkaiser: Will it be supported by OMV officially?

  • But EspressoBin indeed looks nice.
    tkaiser: Will it be supported by OMV officially?


    Every ARM device that is supported by Armbian can run a performant OMV variant by simply using a Debian Armbian image (Jessie --> OMV 3, Stretch --> OMV 4) and then let OMV be installed. Works flawlessly on the EspressoBin after latest fixes: Building OMV automatically for a bunch of different ARM dev boards

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