СОБРАЛ СЕРВЕР ИЗ МИНИ-ПК! БЭКПЛЕЙН 8SSD И 15 ВТ НА ВСЁ!

Summary

The video documents a compact, low-power home server built around a GEEKOM IT13 mini-PC. The presenter describes it as a long-running hands-on experiment: the server had been in use for about 10 months, handling services and even video editing directly from its storage.

Hardware and Design

• The case is designed to support eight 2.5-inch SATA drives. The presenter initially tested an eight-drive backplane but ultimately left it out because it made the build bulkier, added cables, and had drive-activity LEDs that would flash in a living space.
• Instead, he designed and 3D-printed a compact drive basket from carbon-fiber-reinforced PETG-CF. Drives can be installed or replaced without dismantling the assembly, and gaps between them allow airflow.
• A quiet fan below the drives moves air upward through those gaps. It runs at 5 V rather than 12 V to reduce speed and noise.
• A DC-DC buck converter supplies 5 V to the drives and fan from the mini-PC’s 19 V power supply. The presenter says he has used this converter continuously in other projects for years.
• The mini-PC’s built-in SATA controller is used for a drive connection. The basket is designed for eight drives, while the fast storage pool discussed later consists of three SSDs.

Storage Software and Approach

The server runs TrueNAS Community Edition and uses ZFS. The presenter contrasts this flexible, free software approach with turnkey NAS products from Synology and TerraMaster. He acknowledges that commercial NAS systems offer approachable interfaces, support, apps, and ecosystems, but argues that their branded storage features are largely built from established technologies.

He highlights ZFS features such as data-integrity checks, repair of damaged blocks when redundancy is available, snapshots, and replication. The three-SSD pool is configured as a stripe, similar to RAID 0, for capacity and speed, with no redundancy in that pool. To protect data, the server replicates it on a schedule to a separate server with hard drives.

The presenter also describes using an API and AI assistance to help configure TrueNAS and other services through commands rather than relying on the web interface. Examples of services he mentions include photo management, network boot/PXE installation, virtual machines, Home Assistant, and other server software.

Networking and Performance

• The mini-PC has 2.5GbE onboard, which the presenter says can limit the speed of the SSD pool.
• He adds an external 10GbE adapter over USB and reports that it has operated stably throughout the server’s 10 months of use.
• The three-SSD stripe is said to reach roughly 12–13 Gbit/s in sequential reads, while the 10GbE connection is sufficient for his use.
• He edits channel videos directly from the server rather than copying them to another computer first.

Cooling, Power, and Noise

• A Python script controls the mini-PC’s built-in fan through registers in its fan-control microcontroller. It can monitor CPU temperature, fan speed, processor load, and power, and change the CPU’s TDP profile.
• The script can stop the fan when cooling is unnecessary and return control to the normal fan automation when the processor exceeds a set temperature. The presenter gives about 65°C as the threshold in his configuration.
• He commonly runs the CPU at a 15 W TDP. The script can switch profiles without restarting the machine.
• With a Windows virtual machine stopped, he reports CPU consumption below 5 W and says the overall server uses around 15 W while operating continuously.
• The stated goals are a quiet, unobtrusive server with minimal power use, rather than a conventional desktop build with a larger case and power-supply losses.

Guide and Review Points

This is primarily a build and long-term-use walkthrough, not a formal product review. The video covers:

1. Designing and printing a removable eight-drive mount.
2. Wiring the drives and a low-speed cooling fan through a DC-DC converter.
3. Setting up TrueNAS/ZFS, SSD striping, and replication to another server.
4. Adding 10GbE connectivity and managing the mini-PC’s fan and TDP with a script.
5. Comparing a DIY TrueNAS server with turnkey NAS systems and conventional desktop-based servers.

Main Speaker and Sources

Alexander, the channel’s presenter, narrates the build and shares observations about the software, performance, and power use.

Products and technologies discussed include the GEEKOM IT13 mini-PC, an eight-drive 2.5-inch SATA backplane (tested but not used in the final layout), TrueNAS, ZFS, Synology and TerraMaster NAS systems, and an external USB 10GbE adapter.