What I have
I have an old Acer Aspire A515-51G and I also have a desire to have a home server. In combination this creates a need for the laptop to carry more HDDs than it can from factory. Usually it can take one M.2 SSD and one 2.5" SATA drive.
What I want
I want to make the laptop able to run at least 4 HDDs in RAID 5 for storage and have one SSD as boot drive.
What I did
The buying phase
- 4 HDDs
- M.2 to SATA adapter
- 12V/5V SATA power converter
- 12V 10A power supply
The designing phase
I needed space to hold the HDDs, so I designed a 3D printed a cage to attach to the bottom of my laptop. Two 80mm fans can be attach to it. You can see it on printables. Also I remixed a tray (here is the original) so the HDDs can slide in and out of the cage.
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The assembly phase
A cutout at the bottom of the laptop was needed to give access to the SATA ports of the adapter.
I put a 2.5" SSD into the already present place for it in the laptop.
Then the cage was attached to the laptop, the HDDs were put in their trays, the trays inside the cage and the cables attached to the adapter and HDDs.
I am not worried about cooling. The system will be in a cool place, the HDDs are cooled by the 80mm fans and the laptop has its own cooling system that I just de-dusted.
Any issues with the M.2 to SATA adapter? I’ve heard rumors to stay away from them, as the SATA controllers tend to overheat. Just wondering how the M.2 card behaves under load while trapped beneath the laptop.
Its more that laptop fans are not designed for 24/7 usage, it will wear out quickly. Plus I hated hearing it.
Fair, however, I have run this laptop in a different 24/7 setup for years and it was fine. Also the laptop lives in a place where noone needs to hear it.