Which energy efficient ARM platform to choose?

Zitat von Adoby

Around double the price of a HC1.

cloudmedia.com/?product=popcorn-hour-transformer-nas

Yeah, they killed it by pricing. I proposed the idea right here in this forum to eliminate the USB3 cable/connector hassles by soldering the USB-SATA bridge directly on the board as soon as we realized that RK3328 performance is pretty sufficient for the NAS use case: Building OMV automatically for a bunch of different ARM dev boards

Unfortunately TL Lim (Cloudmedia and Pine64 founder) made this a Cloudmedia product and not a Pine64 one (that ruined the pricing) and unfortunately the Swiftboard is still not available.

So unfortunately all we have are HC1 and HC2 right now if it's about an almost trouble free and compact and low energy single disk NAS thingy. I really wonder why no one else picks up the idea and does such a cheap NAS thingie with an RK3328, Allwinner H6 (yeah, software support still sucks) or some other inexpensive ARMv8 SoC.

Zitat von tkaiser

I really wonder why no one else picks up the idea and does such a cheap NAS thingie with an RK3328, Allwinner H6 (yeah, software support still sucks) or some other inexpensive ARMv8 SoC.

Maybe there is not such a market demand for this type of sbc? In the end, people love their RPi :>

Zitat von JohnStiles

From what he wrote this is the assumption.
On the other hand, he also wrote about speed problems. So before you spend your money on anything, think carefully whether it is worth following cheapness. Think carefully about choosing a particular sbc. Because then people cry that they have slow sbc and what to do (raspberry pi).

If you do not want odroid hc

then maybe look at Popcorn Hour Transformer

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well my omv is now raspberry based, so even orange pi zero plus will be a step up for me I guess lol I used raspberry pi and it's pretty sufficient for my need. It used to restart all the time and corrupt the sd image, but when I replaced the power with the official raspberry psu, it works wonder. But yeah, transferring files are s..l..o..w

Zitat von indragm

well my omv is now raspberry based, so even orange pi zero plus will be a step up for me I guess lol I used raspberry pi and it's pretty sufficient for my need. It used to restart all the time and corrupt the sd image, but when I replaced the power with the official raspberry psu, it works wonder. But yeah, transferring files are s..l..o..w

Slow but useful when we want to try something like OMV, by using a RPi already bought for another old project.
Slow but reliable for home users, and some online friends/family.
Thx to OMV for using this king of hardware.

But yes, it can be useful to have the good advice from people who knows well those SBC, to find a good ARM product for NAS purpose driven by OMV, if it exists.

Zitat von indragm

well my omv is now raspberry based, so even orange pi zero plus will be a step up for me

Your money, your choice.

Zitat von tkaiser

[NanoPi M4]

A new revision of the SATA HAT with some important modifications seems to be available soon: http://wiki.friendlyarm.com/wi…ex.php/NanoPi_M4_SATA_HAT

Two mutually exclusive 12V inputs, improved thermal design, 2 more USB2 ports available on headers, fan connector (PWM adjustable) and only one Molex connector any more so I would assume they sell it with one power breakout cable for all 4 SATA disks...

My only concern is the 88SE9215 that can be seen on one of the wiki pictures (since this chip is connected with just one single PCIe lane -- what we want instead is the 88SE9235 using both PCIe lanes)

Zitat von tkaiser

A new revision of the SATA HAT with some important modifications seems to be available soon: http://wiki.friendlyarm.com/wi…ex.php/NanoPi_M4_SATA_HAT

Two mutually exclusive 12V inputs, improved thermal design, 2 more USB2 ports available on headers, fan connector (PWM adjustable) and only one Molex connector any more so I would assume they sell it with one power breakout cable for all 4 SATA disks...

My only concern is the 88SE9215 that can be seen on one of the wiki pictures (since this chip is connected with just one single PCIe lane -- what we want instead is the 88SE9235 using both PCIe lanes)

Hmm, I assumed that such a SATA HAT would also be uasbale for the T4. Just checked and the PCIe x2 GPIO is only present on the M4. Bummer

I'll try a combination of either:

• M.2 to Msata + Msata to Sata adapters, or;
• M.2 to pci-e 4x + PCIe to Sata adapters.

Or just skip this, buy a 1TB NVME SSD and only use the HDD as nightly backup connected via USB 3.0.

Zitat von Alexio

M.2 to Msata + Msata to Sata adapters, or;

While this will work, the second ingredient is not an 'Msata to Sata adapter' but simply a PCIe attached SATA controller in mPCIe form factor (no mSATA involved at all).

Edit: not entirely sure whether it will work. AFAIK data lines are the same with mSATA and mPCIe pinouts but if not then your 'M.2 to Msata' adapter will already be the showstopper.

I hope you're aware that there exist other RK3399 boards that are equipped with a full PCIe x4 slot (RockPro64 for example). The more adapters you use the less reliable the setup will be.

Zitat von tkaiser

While this will work, the second ingredient is not an 'Msata to Sata adapter' but simply a PCIe attached SATA controller in mPCIe form factor (no mSATA involved at all).
Edit: not entirely sure whether it will work. AFAIK data lines are the same with mSATA and mPCIe pinouts but if not then your 'M.2 to Msata' adapter will already be the showstopper.

I hope you're aware that there exist other RK3399 boards that are equipped with a full PCIe x4 slot (RockPro64 for example). The more adapters you use the less reliable the setup will be.

mPCIe indeed, not mSATA, mistake from my side.

And I'm aware such a setup will introduce risk (apart from the risk of using cheap (less reliable?) components).

Before buying the NanoPC T4 I was also considering the Rockpro64 with the NAS kit. In the end I've chosen the NanoPC because of its form factor and expectancy that the USB3 port would be fast enough. Unfortunately the speeds to the attached 3.5" HDD are slow (10.5 MB/s). Still need to swap the HDD to an SSD to verify if the HDD or the NanoPC is the culprit.

Edit; just tried the SSD right away, it has a write speed of 216 MB/s. Strange because the HDD had speeds of 180 MB/s in the past.

Zitat von _John C

Im using the Orange Pi Zero Plus and with your help Ive managed to switch Ethernet from GbE to Fast Ethernet (Thanks).

Well, if you always want the OPi Zero Plus to operate at 100 MBits/sec then the normal OPi Zero might've been the better choice?

The nice thing with being able to switch between Fast Ethernet and GbE is that I use this to let my small OMV boxes idle at lowest consumption possible just to switch to Gigabit Ethernet when needed (I use a lot of those boxes as 'backup appliances' for Macs and while the time a backup needs is not important, with large restores and disaster recovery you always want fastest network possible -- so it's nice to switch on demand with ethtool between both modes).

Wrt overall consumption please keep in mind that saving an additional 0.5W is often not worth the hassles, especially if you compare with what you could save by e.g. 'optimizing' the way you vacuum at home

Once you manage to let a connected HDD spin down when not active that's already a nice saving. Those GPIO tricks to cut power to external USB disks require some knowledge and if you're not good at this (like me) it always involves the risk of breaking stuff.

For such low power operation mode where you can easily switch on/off consumers from userspace still the Olimex A20-Lime2 is the device to go. Full UPS mode with an attached battery, no USB-SATA bridge that wastes energy since 'native SATA' port and if you have external consumers (e.g. a connected backup disk) you can easily switch power on/off with sunxi-pio utility. Unfortunately Olimex A20-Lime2 is based on an old and slow dual core SoC.

Guys what do you think of this upgrade of the odroid?
https://forum.odroid.com/viewtopic.php?t=33781
Paired with a FANTEC QB-35US3-6G or FANTEC QB-35U31 and a small SSD for SO it seems to be interesting

Zitat von Blabla

Guys what do you think of this upgrade of the odroid?

https://github.com/ThomasKaise…k_Preview_of_ODROID-N2.md

It's USB3 storage and everything is behind an internal USB3 hub. Not the best prerequisites for 'reliable NAS operation' IMO but it's currently the fastest affordable SBC at least with multi-threaded loads.

Once stuff like CPU and IRQ affinity is set I would expect it to be a rather fast NAS (~100MB/s as usual today with fast SBC) but USB storage is... USB storage.

People not knowing about the importance of used USB-to-SATA bridges in USB3 disk enclosures will run into troubles as always (that's one of the reasons Hardkernel did ODROID HC1 and HC2 and soldered a good such bridge on the PCB)

Zitat von Blabla

Paired with a FANTEC QB-35US3-6G or FANTEC QB-35U31

What do you expect from those USB3 attached thingies in combination with an SBC?

• USB3-A receptacle/cable hassles are quite common (way more often issues compared to USB2/Hi-Speed since those additional contacts for the SuperSpeed data lines are laughable tiny and as such you're running really easy into interconnection issues with USB3-A jacks/receptacles)
• These things usually provide RAID functionality which is an insane idea to run such a huge Single Point of Failure (you need another replacement unit since otherwise your data has gone once the thing dies)
• What about the consumption of these USB drives boxes?

If I would want to add up to 4 disks to an SBC I would clearly go the SATA route (taking an old PC enclosure and then implanting a NanoPi M4 with its SATA HAT inside the enclosure and feed the whole setup with an external 12V brick or do something similar with an EspressoBin)

I'm currently using a Raspberry Pi 2B with a 2TB HDD. It's terrible!

After reading through this thread I thought that I'd settled on getting an Odroid-HC2, but now I'm thinking I'd like the ability to have 2 or more 3.5" drives (probably up to 4) connected, possibly even in a RAID1 configuration. I'd like to be able to do general backing up of files and also stream music and movies etc to a media centre.

Zitat von tkaiser

If I would want to add up to 4 disks to an SBC I would clearly go the SATA route (taking an old PC enclosure and then implanting a NanoPi M4 with its SATA HAT inside the enclosure and feed the whole setup with an external 12V brick or do something similar with an EspressoBin)

This suggestion really grabbed my interest and seems pretty doable from my perspective as I'm pretty sure I've got an old enclosure hanging around somewhere. Do you think it would be the best setup for what I'm looking for? Sorry for being a bit of a newb, but what exactly do you mean when you say

Zitat von tkaiser

feed the whole setup with an external 12V brick

Does that mean that the whole setup SBC and drives would be powered by the one power supply? If so, what would that power supply look like?
Thanks

Zitat von ekent

I'm currently using a Raspberry Pi 2B with a 2TB HDD. It's terrible!

After reading through this thread I thought that I'd settled on getting an Odroid-HC2, but now I'm thinking I'd like the ability to have 2 or more 3.5" drives (probably up to 4) connected, possibly even in a RAID1 configuration. I'd like to be able to do general backing up of files and also stream music and movies etc to a media centre.

This suggestion really grabbed my interest and seems pretty doable from my perspective as I'm pretty sure I've got an old enclosure hanging around somewhere. Do you think it would be the best setup for what I'm looking for? Sorry for being a bit of a newb, but what exactly do you mean when you say

Does that mean that the whole setup SBC and drives would be powered by the one power supply? If so, what would that power supply look like?Thanks

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Indeed, powering all the components by means of one power supply. The power supply required depends on the amount of disk and if they are 2.5" or 3.5". As per the FriendlyARM SATA HAT page:
12V/2A can drive one 3.5" hard disk or four 2.5" hard disks
12V/5A can drive four 3.5" hard disks

Zitat von ekent

now I'm thinking I'd like the ability to have 2 or more 3.5" drives (probably up to 4) connected, possibly even in a RAID1 configuration. I'd like to be able to do general backing up of files and also stream music and movies etc to a media centre

Can't really help here since

• RAID1 is IMO just fooling yourself (talking about mdraid, a zmirror or a btrfs raid-1 is something entirely different)
• For RAID in general you need absolutely reliable hardware while SBC setups are usually quite the opposite. Especially all those RAID setups don't deal that great with power losses and undervoltage (which is one of the most common problems with SBC, at least those powered with 5V)
• I like to have my backups physically separated from my productive data (that's the amazing thing with those SBC, they are that inexpensive that you can buy more than one and put the backup disks in another location --> another room, building or even area when using a VPN)

I mentioned the SATA HAT with an if clause: 'If I would want to add up to 4 disks to an SBC' (but I really don't want to add a bunch of disks to an SBC, at least not with all disks active at the same time)

Also you should keep in mind that this SATA HAT is brand new and currently not tested by any of us here ( ryecoaaron ordered a kit but I would believe this will take some time). I would better wait for people sharing their experiences.

Zitat von Alexio

12V/5A can drive four 3.5" hard disks

Be careful with such statements since how did they test? If they tested like Hardkernel with their H2 you might be surprised.

Also vast majority of 3.5" HDDs I came across so far have "2A spinup current on the 12V rail" written in their datasheets. That's 8A on the 12V rail for spinning up the HDDs so 5A for the whole system looks like a nice overload situation.

We should always keep in mind that SBC manufacturers have a totally different background than 'server builders'. The former create toys for tinkerers and as such are surprised themselves with each and every of their products lacking useful features or reliability (applies to all of them).