Hey everyone! I'm looking to piece together a quiet (or as close to silent as possible) rack-mount storage array for my homelab. My main goal is to have around 16 TB of usable space in RAID5 while keeping costs down.
I have two potential “brains” to run it:
- An M1 Mac mini on macOS, or
- A 2015 Mac mini running Fedora.
I’m leaning toward a JBOD enclosure + software RAID to keep the budget in check. I’d also like to 3D print a custom rack mount for it, but I’m open to other ideas. Noise is definitely a concern, so I’m curious if anyone has modded JBOD enclosures, swapped fans, or done any creative dampening to cut down on vibrations.
Requirements / Constraints
- 16 TB usable (thinking 4×6 TB or 5×4 TB).
- RAID5 (open to mdadm, ZFS, or SoftRAID on macOS).
- Rack-mounted (planning to 3D print brackets, but off-the-shelf solutions are cool too).
- Noise minimization (quiet fans, drive choice, etc.).
- Budget-friendly (trying not to break the bank here).
Questions
- Any JBOD enclosure recommendations?
- Hardware vs. software RAID?
- Drive picks for lower noise? (Open to SSD if there are reliable ones for cheap)
- 3D printing or shelf-based rack mount tips?
- Any alternative approach?
Looking forward to hearing your experiences and suggestions!