10 commodity SSDs through a powered USB hub forming a poor man’s NAS with snapraid + mergerfs

How did you end up with this setup? Did you just already have a bunch of SSDs from over the years? That’d be cool af if you posted a photo of it.

For the NAS, what do you use for storage? Do you have an external drive hooked up via USB or something else?

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?

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?

Thanks for clarifying that. One last question if you don’t mind – some listings (such as this one) say “no OS,” and “You must reload the unit to gain original factory functionality.” Are they just talking about installing my own OS or does “reloading” mean something else in the context of these thin clients that I’m not aware of?

Gotcha, although I’m in the US, so would something like this DELL WYSE 5070 THIN CLIENT Intel Celeron J4105 1.50GHZ 8GB RAM 64GB SSD No OS ($34 w/ free shipping) be comparable?

Gotcha, the one you linked is sold out, but what about this one?

it being ARM based will cause various headaches when learning compared to something x86

Hmm, this is just enough to give me pause. Thanks for the heads up. I’ll have to think on this some more and maybe do a little more research.

What made you want to switch from docker to podman?

How does one actually get laptops from local electronics recycling? I keep reading about getting EOL equipment but details on how to actually get one’s hands on such equipment are scant.

Beelink ME Mini

Would something like this be suitable as a NAS + Jellyfin + Home Assistant box?

I got into my new network share, albeit not anonymously, but that’s okay. Thanks for chiming in.

Gotcha. FWIW I got in after following the instructions in the “Optional” paragraph about setting up users for authentication - I added a Linux and Samba user called shareuser, set the new user as the owner of /mnt/ShareDemo, and updated the config.

Thanks for confirming my suspicion. This was really going to eat at me if nobody else chimed in, so you really saved me from questioning my own sanity.

Gotcha - thanks for clarifying. I tried logging in w/ login and password of guest, but that didn’t work, either. FWIW I successfully authenticated after following the “optional” part of the tutorial (created a new user shareuser, made it the owner of /mnt/ShareDemo, and updated smb.conf).

Based on non_burglar’s and frongt’s comments, I think I’m willing to file this experience under either incomplete or incorrect tutorial. Importantly, I have learned something about setting up a local Samba share, so I thank you for helping me.

This helped, thank you!

What has me scratching my head is that in the tutorial I was reading from, it mentions setting up users but very explicitly labels that section as “Optional.” Anyway, I got in after following the instructions in that paragraph - adding a Linux and Samba user called shareuser, setting the new user as the owner of /mnt/ShareDemo, and updating the config. Unlike in the tutorial, I kept browseable = yes so that I can still browse to the folder in my file manager.

valid users = shareuser
public = no
writable = yes
browseable = yes

Sorry, I’m trying to understand your comment. Are you suggesting I put something else in place of nobody:nogroup when I set ownership of the ShareDemo folder, or is the issue that I have to actually create a user called nobody and a group called nogroup? Or should I create a different user and group specifically for this samba share? Thanks.

That’s pretty slick.

What are the HDDs plugged into? Would you mind posting some photos of the back?

Have you checked proton db to see what other gamers are saying about these two games?

Piefeddites

game-changer

pun intended