are there any older ex-office mini PCs like the elitedesk, optiplex, thinkstation, etc models that can fit a 3.5" drive? Not looking for anything new and thus expensive, just want some old junker (6/7/8th gen Intel) that can host some light stuff. thanks
yeah, those are too big. was hoping to score an ITX-sized abandonware for cheap and retrofit it with a 10 TB or so drive. I had this thing many moons ago:
it could fit a drive, with some wiggling and swearing. so I figured maybe something similar exists. building it from new parts is way, way out of budget.
Tons. Go look for refurb units from any of the big manufacturers, but I doubt you’ll get them at steal prices. Have a look at the Minisforum larger format models that are more updated and $250-400. They can fit that and more. The MS-01 is a gem.
If you can find them the “mini” format Elitedeak has a 3.5" internal bay along with an optical, for what it’s worth. It’s not as small as a “micro” but it’s smaller than a tower, and at my hearby Uni, they go for the same (cheap) prices.
There’s a few companies selling a very plasticky mini-pc that also has 2x 3.5" slots. Trialling it now for a homebuilt Nas, so far impressed. Worst problem is that the bigger drives can be noisy.
Not the OP, but capacity: there aren’t 20TB 2.5 drives.
(Or 18, 16, 14, 12, or 10TB ones, for that matter…)
Kinda a dead-end product since laptops are all on SSDs, and enterprises have flocked to SSDs as well and that was essentially the entire market for that size of HDD.
Totally. I’ve got an 8TBx4 RAID5 that has about as much space as one 20TB spinning drive, but with the advantage that if one fails I don’t lose anything.
Putting 20TB on one drive though? That’s too risky for me.
I mean, 20TB drives will work in an array just as well as 8TB 😉
Honestly with the price of refurb enterprise drives, it’s really hard not to justify not going that route and just keeping a spare drive formatted on warm standby at all times.
A bit of a digression though, since OP isn’t looking to cram a bunch of drives into an old mini case.
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The micro/tiny form factor PCs generally only have space for a 2.5" drive, while the SFF/desktop size PCs can fit at least one 3.5" drive.
Dell, 8th Gen Intel with one 3.5" drive bay: https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-us/optiplex-7060-sff/opti_7060_sff_setup_specs_manual/storage?guid=guid-4eab9a0b-c403-4bcd-b692-9419bddfed24&lang=en-us
Lenovo, should have one 3.5" drive bay: https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/desktops/thinkcentre/m-series-sff/thinkcentre-m920s/11tc1mdm92s?orgRef=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.google.com%252F&srsltid=AfmBOorJ_EUW-QYIIIGy3i7ZJbitPq8UWoxdoQxtM_BNabrKcNojn7WL#tech_specs
yeah, those are too big. was hoping to score an ITX-sized abandonware for cheap and retrofit it with a 10 TB or so drive. I had this thing many moons ago:
it could fit a drive, with some wiggling and swearing. so I figured maybe something similar exists. building it from new parts is way, way out of budget.
edit: this is how it ran for close to a year.
Tons. Go look for refurb units from any of the big manufacturers, but I doubt you’ll get them at steal prices. Have a look at the Minisforum larger format models that are more updated and $250-400. They can fit that and more. The MS-01 is a gem.
If you can find them the “mini” format Elitedeak has a 3.5" internal bay along with an optical, for what it’s worth. It’s not as small as a “micro” but it’s smaller than a tower, and at my hearby Uni, they go for the same (cheap) prices.
There’s a few companies selling a very plasticky mini-pc that also has 2x 3.5" slots. Trialling it now for a homebuilt Nas, so far impressed. Worst problem is that the bigger drives can be noisy.
Aoostar in the US I think.
Why 3.5" drive? (Just curious).
I’ve found prices aren’t necessarily any better at that size.
they are widely available and cheap.
Not the OP, but capacity: there aren’t 20TB 2.5 drives.
(Or 18, 16, 14, 12, or 10TB ones, for that matter…)
Kinda a dead-end product since laptops are all on SSDs, and enterprises have flocked to SSDs as well and that was essentially the entire market for that size of HDD.
Capacity like that is the only reason I could think of.
Putting that much data on just one drive freaks me out
Raid builds hurt financially up front but can save you from a lot of heartache later, even with larger disks.
Totally. I’ve got an 8TBx4 RAID5 that has about as much space as one 20TB spinning drive, but with the advantage that if one fails I don’t lose anything.
Putting 20TB on one drive though? That’s too risky for me.
I mean, 20TB drives will work in an array just as well as 8TB 😉
Honestly with the price of refurb enterprise drives, it’s really hard not to justify not going that route and just keeping a spare drive formatted on warm standby at all times.
A bit of a digression though, since OP isn’t looking to cram a bunch of drives into an old mini case.
That’s why you use 2 and have backup.
Two is one and one is none.
Thing is - “mini” PCs old enough to have 3.5 slots are probably way too old to have decent CPUs.
I have a PC from 2006 it is not “mini” and it has an awful CPU… :(
What would be a good used upgrade with 4x 3.5 bays?
You probably have to go back further than that for a 3.5" sff pc. Look on woot though, they have such refurbs all the time. Or scrounge a mini tower.