The PERFECT Desktop Homelab Server!

For years, I've been searching for the perfect Homelab server... a server that doesn't need to live in a rack. A server you can set on your desk, store all your files AND run all your self-hosted services. That server didn't exist... so with the help of 45Drives... we made one.

But first... What am I drinking???

Sierra Nevada (Chico, CA) Cosmic Little Thing Hazy Double IPA (8%)

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[Kvantum]

How was this not just called the "Deskinator"?

[elikirkwood]

Coming from a position of having built my homelab from entirely used hardware without paying more than $200 for any single piece, this is an expensive product, but I also realize that compared to basically any other off the shelf nas box this is an insanely good deal

[KormakurDanielsson]

5:21 LMAO. Your "Ah, ah!" was perfectly timed! My jaw dropped when that opened

[RemyL]

Hey Jeff, just an FYI... that mobo DOES support Bifurcation 4x4x4x4. The support is determined by the CPU. AMD Cezanne CPUs (5500GT and all 5000 APUs) do not support that particular mode. AMD Vermeer CPUs (most 5000x and non-x series that do NOT have on-chip graphics) do support the 4x4x4x4 setting. It will appear as just 4x4, but it does allow 4 NVME drives on a single 16x slot. I remember running into this on a Asrock mobo and after seeing this video, I tested it with the B550I AORUS PRO AX 1.1, Asus Hyper m.2 card with 4 1TB NVME drives and a Ryzen 9 5950X on a TrueNas Scale test build. The 4x4 option did appear in the BIOS and once i set it, I saved the changes and added the card. All four drives showed up in TrueNas without any issues.

[StarFox]

**my American Express said "no, you dont need it" ** 🤣

[jgmor]

No cooling on the drive bays? Seems like they would get pretty toasty in that box.

[TechnoTim]

Woo can't wait to see it in person, oh and you of course! Does it come in white???

[cameronfrye]

I happy to see companies are thinking specifically about home servers, but there might be an upper limit to what people will spend on what is ultimately just a nice case. I mean, it doesn't even have RGB or tempered glass panels!

In all seriousness, I can't see too many home labbers paying that kind of premium. I just put a part list together, and you can get all the components listed in their fully built & tested offering, as well as a competing 8 bay hot swap case, for less than they're asking for just the HL8 + power supply. They seem like a great company, and I'd love to support them through purchasing their products.. but I simply can't get to $600 for a small ITX NAS case.

[AlphaConde-qyvi]

Watching this video, what I kept in mind was your glaring omission of the *thermals*.
That case looks so cramped, the disks so close to each other... and I didn't see any ventilation path for the disks. That's a big nope for me.

[iankphone]

The lack of 120mm fan positions in the back is a big miss. Airflow seems super weak. GN Steve's gonna eviscerate this thing.

I mean, look how packed that drive cage is.

Or am I missing something?

[jdl]

Barebones price seems out of line with very similar offerings. 8 bay Silverstone DS382 has SAS/SATA for $230, 4 bay Supermicro CSE-721tq with PSU is $270, 5 bay CS351 for $190, etc. IMO the value isn’t there to get thicker gauge steel. Perhaps the backplane is more reliable than the Silverstone products, but without data that’s just speculation and the Supermicro product is certainly reliable and at least as high quality.

[atleast]

I'm in both camps on this one. I definitely see how it's a great value for people looking for a relatively compact server that isn't shaped like an enormous pizza box, doesn't have an eco NAS CPU, and isn't government contract level expensive. On the other hand, I have a small rack, run all my VMs and containers on mini PCs, RPis, and other SBCs, and have a budget about on par with most ebay shoppers. Soooo... I'll be looking forward to your next collab where the end result is a 1/3-depth 1U, rack-mountable 6-bay SSD only, x86 based homelab solution for under $400. Cheers! 🍻

[StorageReview]

Nice! Fills an interesting niche in the market. Can't wait to get this one in for review!

[Hadcrash]

Undoing those two thumb screws and it goes all early 2000s DELL Optiplex on you.

[david_sanchez]

I'm excited to see someone finally addressing this issue. It's an impossible task to find the perfect home lab NAS chassis. They're either too small (not enough drive capacity), too underpowered, have limited network bandwidth, or you're stuck with only gigantic rack-mount options. This is definitely a step in the right direction and I hope it brings in enough ROI so that they keep progressing down this path and evolving the product. I'd love to see a version that offers 10GbE out of the box but I know getting built-in 10GbE on a Mini ITX platform is hard to find and usually expensive.

[paulbrooks]

Your intro was spot on, I paid around 1k for essentially desktop PC hardware and a tower and put in 4 HDDs and a bunch of old SSDs. Im an apartment dweller and quiet is my hard requirement alongside space and power. Being able to customize the hardware is crucial since I want cores and RAM, but not enterprise level (nor the price). I found that once you hit 1k it became pointless to do prebuilt and many prebuilts that cost less were underspecced junk with no upgrade path.

[jesmasco]

For less budget options, Fractal Design Node 304 lets you mount 6 3.5 HDD, ITX motherboard, dual PCIe slot, 3 Fans, ATX/SFX power supply. It is possible to mount more drives if you use 2.5 units and 3.5 to 2.5 adapters. Is not the only one, there are "chinese" NAS cases too, you can use ITX boards too.

[HuMaNiTaRiAn]

that's one expensive case, nicely designed, but expensive.

[Paulnt]

Since it's full-height, with x8x4x4 bifurcation, you can add one of the risers with a LP x8 and 2xM.2, so you can get 2 NVMe and a 10/25Gbps NIC.

[ATLDreams]

Yea that price needs to drop like $200