The EVERYTHING $300 Fanless Home Server

This fanless server has EVERYTHING. Inside is an Intel Atom C3758, 4x SFP+ 10GbE, 2.5GbE, SSD slots, and external HDD connections. We show you how you can make this an awesome pfSense or OPNsense appliance or NAS/ virtualization host for something like Proxmox VE or TrueNAS and save $1000 or more doing it.

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Timestamps
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00:00 Introduction
02:09 External Hardware Overview
06:40 Internal Hardware Overview
10:55 Performance
13:30 Power Consumption
14:48 Key Lessons Learned - Turning this into a Proxomox VE or TrueNAS NAS and VM Host
18:36 Wrap-up

[stephenneal]

I'm sure others have already posted - but a possible reason why the USB 2.0 RF dongle and the USB 3.0 flash drive didn't work together is that USB 3.0 connectors can give off a LOT of RF in the 2.4GHz range that can take out a lot of RF keyboard dongles if they are too close to a USB 3.0 port running at USB 3.0 speeds. I have a small USB 2.0 extender cable to move the dongle away from the port for just this scenario.

[UpcraftConsulting]

If you want 1u rackmount I suggest sending them a message. I have bought customized Qotom devices with 1u cases for small upcharges before. They are usually very open to case customization. If you order in larger quantities they would even silkscreen your own logo on the box as they offer ODM services for an upcharge. (Quantity required wasn't even that large, like 6)

[stevenmishos]

One thing I'd like to see covered is how well these small companies manage firmware updates over time.
I really liked Intel NUCs for small homelab devices because Intel did a good job keeping BIOS updated as vulnerabilities were discovered.

[craftkiller]

TWO DAYS AGO I bought one of the fanless boxes you reviewed last year, and NOW you show me this absolute beauty?!?!

[billhgong]

The mouse keyboard dongle and USB drive issue just can’t be resolved since USB 3.0 will interfere with 2.4GHz signals. At such close range EMI shielding won’t work either so it’s not a design flaw for this particular product. If you use an extension cable for the dongle it should resolve the issue.

Also the SSD is covered in epoxy or sealant is most likely to make it environment-proof instead of for security reasons.

The slot below two m.2 2280 slots is a m.2 3042 slot and is wired for WWAN (when considering the SIM slot is next to it, and of course the majority of m.2 WWAN cards are in 3042 size unlike WLAN cards at 2230 size).

[djole]

@8:30 That's a M.2 B-key slot for 4G/5G WWAN cards. You can even clearly see the connections to the SIM card slot.

edit: It's really great to see that you get this slot on this PC as it can offer quite inexpensive WAN redundancy.

[pinkowl]

The AliExpress reseller just uploaded your video to their product page, lol.

[marcogenovesi]

These chinese industrial-ish things are on a roll. I remember a year ago when it was hard to get even a multiple eth mini PC and now boom it slices it dices it washes the dishes

[CrimsonDemonKyo]

I have been looking at this alot and I have found that the spot you were thinking was for a Wifi card is a M.2 B Keyed 3042/3052 slot this is commonly used for 3G, 4G, 5G Celluar Card. Wifi cards use M.2 A+E or M.2 E keyed slots. I was not able to find a good way to use wifi in this without some type of adapter card.

[RyanGrange]

I have an older QOTOM model with dual 1Gb eth, a J1900 cpu, 4GB RAM, and 60GB EMMC storage. It's served me faithfully as a pfSense firewall/router for many years now.

[saxxonpike]

This is absolutely nutty for the price point.

[trisymphony]

This feature set screams "make me into a 1U server with 4 hotswap bays connected over the SFF 8087". I would love to buy that as a NAS/homelab box.

[NonyaDamnbusiness]

Dammit, Patrick! I already replaced my old 1GB Protectli firewall running baremetal Arista/Untangle with a CWWK N305 4-port 2n5GB firewall and virtualized OPNsense on it passing thru WAN/LAN NICs and installing HAOS as a VM and moved all my docker stuff over to an LXC running Docker (~20 containers) and now this shows up.

Oh well, at 7% CPU utilization and only using 48% of the 32GB RAM I have installed it I think I'm good to go for a while. it did replace a separate firewall and Proxmox server so at least overall power consumption is down. And I did add a Zigbee USB stick to it and it's slowly replacing the Philips Hue-based lighting systems I have with cheaper options that don't require me to have a "cloud account" with Philips.

[kingneutron]

ZOMG FML, you just DESTROYED my NY resolution to *take a break* from ordering things on AMZN! But MAN this is too good to pass up, I have a 15-bay SAS shelf that I want to try with this and see if I can get 10Gig Fiber networking going somehow in the homelab! Will be a challenge since the Qotom will be the only capable unit, but if I get a good tax refund I might build a 10Gig-capable server :^) In the meantime I have 2x 2.5Gbit routers with 10Gbit SFP+ connectors that may benefit from this in the meantime. You Rock!!

[waifulhu]

you always manage to post a video about the exact device i need at the exact time i'm looking for it lmao

[djsmeguk]

Rhis looks like a possibility to replace both a 12 year old homelab server and a newer but still old qotom netbox. The 2.5 and 10g combo looks amazing and replacing the old server HDD setup with something more portable would be a nice upgrade.

[BenX]

Thank you! I've been looking everywhere for something that checks all the boxes for a new proxmox/router unit for my homelab, I think this blows my requirements out of the water and gives me room to grow. this is probably it!

[nestorkropotkin]

Really glad I am still early on in my Home Server project. Still might keep my NGFW separated from my NAS/Home Server but this might just pull me back into the All In One plan again. The nice thing about 'passive' cooling is that adding active cooling to it is not hard. :D

[stevenwheelwright]

the coral edge TPU has a m.2 E key form factor that would work with that empty WiFi slot. you could then run an NVR with object detection very easily with frigate

[reneb]

I bought the 1U unit version with i226V nics with 64 GB memory. It also has fan and is looking great. There's one major issue with the unit intel x553 SFP+ ixgbe is a no go on Proxmox. No kernel driver in Debian.