Hey there selfhosted community.

Does anyone here have experience with silent or mostly silent storage solutions? I would like to implement a NAS solution for my homelab and home.

I tried a fully fledged consumer NAS (QNAP with Seagate 12 TB NAS drives) but the noise of the platters was not acceptable. Currently I have a external WD drive attached via USB to my mini PC/server but I would really love to implement some kind of redundancy in the form of a NAS from where the critical files would be backed up to Hetzner for offsite and on external drives.

I don’t need a ton of space. My most critical items are photos. As silent operation is very important I started looking into ssd NAS solutions. Does anyone have experience with Beelink ME mini? Other solutions I looked into where either overkill or horrendously expensive.

I would really like to pull the trigger on a solution here before the prices for storage will skyrocket in the future.

  • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
    19·
    2 days ago

    I tried a fully fledged consumer NAS (QNAP with Seagate 12 TB NAS drives) but the noise of the platters was not acceptable.

    If you have a NAS, then you can put it as far away as your network reaches. Just put it somewhere where you can’t hear the thing.

    • koldanor@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      5·
      2 days ago

      Yeah I would do that if I could but unfortunately we would hear the thing regardless of where I would set it up in the flat.

      • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
        2·
        2 hours ago

        Okay, this is unfortunately DIY, but if you’re willing to spend time:

        Get a plywood box and put it in there.

        If you hear vibrations, put sorbothane between the NAS and the box.

        If you need more sound absorption, put acoustic foam on the inside.

        If you need more cooling, drill two holes, mount a case fan, and run the air through some kind of baffle. Like, maybe attach insulated flex-duct, like this:

        https://www.amazon.com/Hon-Guan-Silencer-Reducer-Ventilation/dp/B07HC8CXQG

      • tburkhol@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        2 days ago

        I realize you’re looking for new toys, but ‘anywhere in the flat’ includes ‘under a pile of pillows.’ Otherwise, for personal photo-sized storage, just put a couple 2.5mm format SSDs in the QNAP.

        • felbane@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          21 hours ago

          under a pile of pillows

          maybe not literally though, hard drives do need some cooling…