The ULTIMATE Raspberry Pi 5 NAS

A number of comments have asked about using a 2.5 Gbps USB 3 Ethernet adapter instead of the PCIe switch, which would allow me to run the disks at PCIe Gen 3 speed.

I tested that with a Plugable 2.5G adapter (which is plug and play on the Pi 5), and you're right! I got 270 MB/sec writes for a 50 GB test folder, and 200 MB/sec reads. Check out the GitHub issue linked in the description for all the details.

This little NAS just keeps getting better 🙂

"This is a terrible idea" Why isn't it being done by red shirt Jeff then?

$2000 worth of drives is overkill for a cheap nas not

Jeff, I use OMV on a pi 4 with usb3 drives and get consistent full line speed gigabit writes from windows file transfer

wouldve gotten the like anyway, but earned the sub from the OG Tron reference,… would have also accepted the night club in Legacy, or the Daft Punk song attached,… haha

Great video, how about openNAS/TrueNAS btw

So, a possible reason why the Mac was slower than Windows at interacting with a SAMBA based NAS is that SAMBA is an attempt to write a compatibility layer with Windows Proprietary SMB network share protocol/framework/technologies. It started off as a way to get old NAS in the 1990s to be compatible with Win NT systems on the network–but figuring out how Win NT and Win 9x did the whole "network neighbourhood" stuff. With it largely being a very clean room attempt to make something that would allow the various Windows computers to talk to the data server

This was mostly to avoid having to set up a Windows Server… as those things were ridiculously unstable at that point in time. Windows Servers have gotten better with their BS–but you typically were only running them to reduce compatibility issues with Wintel computers present on the Network. As Microsoft is weird about having strange hooks in its software (like the hooks it put into Win3x to avoid it running on other company's releases of CP/M DOS Compatible systems). There is a reason why Hotmail was running ontop of FreeBSD until the late 00s/early 10s. They tried, several times, to move from FreeBSD… but Windows Servers were just not that particularly stable. Yes, FreeBSD is known for stability… but we are talking about running a mail server–so uh… yeah, that instantly reduces stability of that system (Friends don't let friends set up mail servers)

So, Windows is going to have an easier time talking to a SAMBA system–due to a bunch of weird proprietary bits of nonsense inside Windows. Where as OSX is going to rely on the clean room work to make a compatibility layer for the SMB/CMB/etc stuff–and add that to the fact the rPi NAS is also running the clean room work compatibility layer. Making it for two bottle necks, with the Windows system having only one of them

Now, it isn't so much that Windows implementation of SMB is better or cleaner code. It is more, that we do not know everything about SMB. We know like 99.99999999999999% of it (at this point, though some were argue 98% or 95%–and some angry old billy goats would say 63%)… but there is just enough that is not known that will cause a Windows system talking to a SAMBA setup to run faster than a SAMBA to SAMBA setup. With a Windows SMB to Windows SMB running the fastest of all

That being said… Windows is not really designed to function as a server. I mean, that is a bit of a misnomer–as that suggests Windows was "designed" at all. Though some would argue the "throwing stuff at a wall, until you have a thirty centimetre thick tile on the wall to release" does count as "designing" and that I am engaging in gate keeping by suggesting otherwise

Perfect project

It's a real shame that Raxda didn't put the barrel jack on the other side of the board to avoid the issue with the heatsink/fan…

It triggers me not seeing cases for these devices.

My favourite saying related to DIY: If it breaks, you get to keep both pieces.

I've been wondering about your Mac transfer speed comments and I thought you edit video directly from the NAS. So how does this work fast enough when scrubbing through huge files?

What was the Addon you were using for homeassistant?

RAID in OMV7 is now plugin in omvextras. It’s called multiple device plug-in.

Any one of those SSDs costs more than the hardware used. Ouch >_<! Otherwise, fetch my bib!

I’ve really been trying to find the best value solution in these last days and I can stop thinking about, what if you used the onboard 2x USB 3.0 ports (USB 3.0 to sata adapter or a normal external hard drive) and then you could have the 2.5 networking and would still in theory be able to saturate the connection without as much hassle. It wouldn’t look or be as cool to put together but, I’m poor ahahahah

Edit: In my case I don’t care about raid redundancy (would backup anyways) and then I could even buy one of those USB 3.0 NVME cases and call it a day with fast read and write speeds. Or would I? I really don’t know and can’t afford to find out. A video would be amazing 😀

OOo! thats a Juicy Thumbnail

The thing that puts me off a DIY NAS like this is that there's no case. I'm in a dreadfully dusty environment, so I'd like some good generic case options to put things like this in – not necessarily small either.

I don't love that the PCIe on the Pi 5 is via a zif ffc connector. Those aren't exactly known for their durability. Zero insertion force connectors aren't really for consumer use… as your average person will want to feel a click and will push harder until something happens, often breaking it.
The specific connector radxa is using is extremely common in display cables and board to board interconnects in laptops. Unfortunately it needs to be to be very parallel and square to the connector – a common cause of damage is pulling up perpendicular to the board and connector, or inserting at an angle, which causes the pins to bend and can easily cause a short.

wait a second they did compute module 5 ? the same as the 4 ?

I think the two pcb are too closer.