Optiplex micro as a low cost 6 bay NAS

I don't know, but a 4-bay Synology NAS would be MUCH better.

You can format as SHR (Synology Hybrid Raid-5) , and have 1-disk Fault Tolerance (with little loss of over-all space). It's also a whole miniature server. Load it up with quality drives and get a UPS-Battery for it (like a APC) and you are all set. 

If you must, you can start with 1-2 drives. 

Well here it is - just a few bits and bobs to sort out but all working as expected. 

Not a bad setup.  So how did you deal with all of the wires coming out of the micro?

Hi Brad,

I was going to thread them through the spare opening on the back (mine has a vga port installed)

 but decided to keep the VGA port as it gave me something to secure the SSD to.

so out came the Dremel 

Hi, is it still working without issues?

Quick question: how do you supply power to the icy doc?
Do you use the Dell's power supply with extra long cables, or a separate PSU?

If separate PSU what type?
And don´t you have problems with ground potential differences between the internal Dell PSU and the external PSU?

Your setup is tempting to replicate, but I am genuinely concerned about power issues.

Thanks!

Luis

Hi Luis,

its been running now for around 5 months without a single issue, I tidied up the internal cables a bit and put a passive heatsink on the pch chip to drop the temperature - it went from 65C to 55C - a personal choice only

To power the icy dock I bought a separate power supply - Lacie ACU057A-0512 - from ebay for £7.50 and replaced the connector with a standard molex one and connected it to a SATA power splitter. This provides both 5v and 12v to the dock

Hope that helps

Stephen

Great, thanks for the quick reply!

I am waiting for an ebay 7040 SFF to arrive, and your setup looks very tempting.

Cheers,

Luis

Outstanding man.I love it

I have an old 3060 micro Optiplex

I'm definitely going to do this

I guess another visible element plugged into M.2 slot with E-key might be something like this:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/385196803212
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/334602068289

Ending up with 6+2 extra (to already available onboard) sata ports (omitting power requirements details).

But often they just use PCIe-to-USB-to-SATA controllers, which effectively makes it USB device, therefore just plugging extension via USB would do the same job (there are USB3 to multiple SATA adapters).

@sashires​ Great! I am trying to build the same thing, but for some reason cannot get it working in Linux. What OS did you end up using? Also, how did you manage to get the UEFI system to recognize the M.2 to SATA adapter? I for some reason cannot get Optiplex to recognize the adapter and additional hard drives. 

Hello, I am doing the same project as you.

I would like to know if you are still using this system and if you have had problems? Your post is from 2022, so if you still use it after these years, it means you have had good results.

Hi have a dell Optiplex 3070 micro pc, and wondered how I could use this as a home server Nas setup.  Newbie so pardon the query.  I can see the sata ports from the nvme which go to the storage unit (if you could provide link to that would be great).   But the msata (pcie) port, not sure which it is as I get conflicting docs on this. But on my 3070 it had a 2.5 HD drive.  What can be used by this.    Can I ask what and where does the red cabling go and used for

@Joacoargu​  
Hi - yes I'm still using it and have had no problems at all  - it's been on constantly now for 30 months

@whiteeagle7​ 
Hi,
I hope you got this sorted, I run Ubuntu on mine and I don't recall any issues getting it to recognise the sata card