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<p>Firstly,theJBODboardIboughtisn't the one I mentioned before. That board, seemingly, is old and no longer in production. I got a newer revision, the CB2 as opposed to the CB1. It'sgotsomedifferences,butnothingthatreallymattersformypurposes.</p>
<p>Next,the5-portSATAcontrollerIexpressedinterestindoesn't work. I bought it and installed it and the laptop just doesn'tseemtoagreewithit.Like,itwon't even load the BIOS interface, let alone boot with the thing installed. With an NVMe SSD, or with nothing in the slot, it'sfine,butwiththeSATAcontroller,nodice.MyGameTheory™isit's either a power thing or it'sjustaclassicLaptopBiosMoment™,thethingbeingprogrammedtoexpectanSSDinthatslotandnotknowingwhattodowhenthere's something there other than a storage device. Either way, I don'tseeagoodwaytosolvethis,soI'mnotreallyinterestedinpursuingitfurther.</p>
<p>Sothat's five out of my eight total SATA slots gone, replaced with a single SSD, leaving me with a boot drive and three SATA slots to work with. This by no means dooms the project; that'sstillenoughforadriveforTrueNASappsandredundantstorageintheformoftwomirroreddisks.That'snotbad,anditwouldbereasonabletostophere.Butwecandobetter.</p>
<imgsrc="media/2023-11-23/contraption.jpg"alt='Five SATA drives plugged into a laptop, one via an internal SATA bay, and the other four via an M.2 SATA controller in place of the WiFi card and a SATA splitter board. The latter four hard drives are powered off of an ATX PC PSU controlled by a Supermicro JBOD controller board.'>
<imgsrc="media/2023-11-23/lsblk.jpg"alt='lsblk output showing five SATA drives recognized by the system (sda through sde)'>
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<p>Ifyou're not sufficiently techy to decipher what'sgoingoninthosepictures,itboilsdowntothis:itworked.</p>
<p>Now,I'm fully aware that I'mprobablynotgoingtogetsuperincredibleperformanceoutofthissetup,butthethingis,harddrivesareslow.Like,they're<em>really</em>slow.AfastHDDwouldbehardpressedtosaturateaSATAIIconnectioninoptimalconditions,letaloneSATAIII.Intermsofpurebandwidth,oneSATAIIIportshouldsupporttwoorthreeharddrivesfine.Besides,nothingaboutthiswasevergoingtobeperformanceoptimized.</p>
<p>I'm nearing the point where I have everything I need to put this together. All that'sleftistheharddrivesthemselves,potentiallyasecondSATAmultipliertospreadtheloadbetweenthetwoportsbetter,andtofigureoutacase,becauseI'mnotrunningthisthingstrewnacrossmydesklikethis.</p>
<p>Thismonth's update is I'vebeenthinkingaboutwaystoupgrademylaptop-serverintoafull-blownNASwithfancyfeatureslike"data redundancy"and"several terabytes of disk space"sotodayyougettohearaboutmythoughtprocessforthat.Lookforwardtoaproperblogpostaboutthisif/whenIeverbuilditforreal.</p>
<p>On<em>certain</em>modernlaptopsitwouldstartandendthere,butluckilyformemineisnotonesuchmachine.MylaptopisanHP15-dk0030nr,afour-year-oldmid-tiergaminglaptopboastingupgradeableRAM,aninternal2.5" SATA drive bay, an M.2 NVMe SSD, and an M.2 WiFi card. A good amount of upgradeability for a laptop, and I plan to take it to its logical extreme.</p>
<p>AfunfactaboutNVMeisthat,despitebeingbilledasastorageconnectionstandard,it's fundamentally just PCIe, which means you can connect basically any PCIe device to it if you have an adapter. Meaning my laptop essentially has two internal PCIe slots I can use to expand its capabilities however I see fit, assuming I'mpreparedtopunchsomeholesinthebottompaneltomakeitallfit.</p>
<imgsrc="media/2023-10-28/ECS07.jpg"alt='A 5-port M.2 SATA controller, keyed for an NVMe drive slot.'>
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<p>Onelittleissuethough:Ihavenowaytopowerthedrivesdirectlyoffofmylaptop.FormylittletestIwasabletopowerthedrivesoffofsomespareSATApowerconnectorsinmydesktopPC,butthat's not exactly an enterprise-grade solution, and for all its internal PCIe connectivity it'snotlikemylaptopisbristlingwithATXpowerconnectors.Ifyouthoughtplugging3.5" HDDs into the WiFi card slot was janky, you ain't seen nothing yet. Here's where we really get into the weeds.</p>
<p>OneofmyfirstthoughtswastouseUSBpower,eitherfromthelaptop's ports or an external hub. It'salow-powerDCdevice,soitshouldbepossible,right?Unfortunately,nobodymakesanadapterforthat.<ahref="https://isopod.zone/notes/9la5c343fqi1cjof">Someoneonfedi</a>claimedtohavesuccesswithpartsfromanexternalHDDenclosure,butmylaptophappenstohavelessthansevenUSBports,andIdidn'twanttouseUSBanyway,plusdriveshuckingstopsbeingcosteffective<em>fast</em>onceyouhithighercapacities.</p>
<p>Sothen,ifUSBisout,maybeIshouldlookintosomethingthat's actually designed to power hard drives. Realistically, that means a PC PSU. I'mdividedbetweenastandardATXPSUorsomethinglikeaPicoPSU,butitdoesn't really matter either way - they both do the same thing. The issue <em>here</em> is how I'mgonnarunthemwithoutamotherboard.</p>
<p>See,PCpowersuppliesrelyonthemotherboardforcontrol,specificallyononewirethatthemotherboardbridgestogroundtoturnthePSUon.Youcanrunthepowersupplymotherboard-lessbymakingthisconnectionmanually,butI'm hesitant to do that on account of if I fuck it up I could light a fire or kill myself. I'dprefersomeotherwaytoturnonthepowersupply.Enterthisthing:</p>
<imgsrc="media/2023-10-28/CSE-PTJBOD-CB1.jpg"alt='A Supermicro JBOD power board'>
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<p>ThisistheSupermicroCSE-PTJBOD-CB1.IlearnedaboutitfromaStackExchangethreadthatlinkedto<ahref="https://www.servethehome.com/supermicro-cse-ptjbod-cb1-jbod-power-board-diy-jbod-chassis-made-easy/">thisServeTheHomearticle</a>aboutit.It's the "motherboard" from a JBOD enclosure (think an external hard drive, but with dozens of disks). It'slikeaPCmotherboard,butstrippeddowntotheabsolutebareessentialsforthepurposeathand.It's available on Ebay for around $60 CAD, and all it does is basic power management. I can plug this and my drives into my PC PSU and I'mofftotheraces,withoutmakinganelectricalhazard!Asabonus,Ialsogethookupsforapowerbuttonandacoupleoffans.</p>
<p>Somyplanthusfarisasfollows:SATAbootSSDinthelaptop's internal drive bay, 7 ports worth of SATA controllers in the NVMe slots hooked up to high-capacity HDDs, and power those drives off of a standard PC PSU managed by a JBOD power board. Just two variables left to solve for: a chassis for the thing, and a way to pay for all those drives. For the former, I'vegotsomevagueideainmindinvolvingsomecustom-lengthmetaltubingandalotof3d-printedbrackets.Forthelatter,maybeI'llusemytaxreturn,orspendlikesixmonthsbuyingeverythingpiecemeal.</p>
<p>Hadabitofathinkaboutmyprinciplesandprioritieswebsite-wise.LongstoryshortisI've turned off the redirect for chrome-based browsers. I'vegotafewreasonsfordoingthis,chiefamongthembeingthatIdon't want to lock out people who have to use chrome because they don'thavetotalcontrolovertheircomputersorrelyonchrome-onlyaccessibilitytoolsorwhatever,andalsoifI'mgonnausemywebsiteasalinkhubitseemsabitcounterproductivetoblock,statistically,mostinternetusersfromseeingit.</p>
<p>Itwasmybirthdayacoupledaysago!I'm 21 now. I can drink in the States I guess, though I'mhopingthatnevercomesup.Mydadcelebratedtheoccasionbytakingmeouttolookatcars.Thiswascomplicatedsomewhatbytwofactors:One,I'mafuckingcolossusandallhumaninfrastructureisdesignedspecificallytobejustbarelytoosmallforme,andtwo,Iliveinfuckingsemi-ruralNorthAmericaandallyoucangetnewhereishugeSUVsandevenhugerpickuptrucks.</p>
<p>Ididn't buy anything. Besides the fact that I don'twanttoimpulsebuyafuckingcar,mycityisn't a very good place to shop for used cars, especially not of the type I actually want. I'dprobablybeabletofindabetterdealintheonenearby-ishbigcity,plusI'dliketoshootforahybridifIcanswingit,somethingthatmoreorlessdoesnotexisthere.Funlearningexperiencethough.</p>
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<p>Work's good. I was right about the reduced hours being temporary, so I'mbacktonormalonthatfrontnow.Thestoremanagersaystheykeepgettingtemperaturealertsfromthewalk-infridge,whichconfusesme-Iwentinthereandscannedeverythingwiththethermometerandeverything's fine. I don'tknowwherethey've put the temperature probe they'reusingbutIsuspectthereadingoffitisn'trepresentative.</p>
<p>Beenaminute.Afewwebsiteupdates,butmostlyminorstuff.Onebigthing:I've been thinking about image formats some and I'vedecidedtoreplaceabunchoflargerimageswherequalityisn't hugely important such as backgrounds with JPEGs instead of PNGs like I had before in order to reduce the load on peoples'internetconnections.IkepteverythingasPNGforalongtimeoutofprinciplebecauseJPEGobjectivelyisn't very good in terms of quality, but you cant deny the filesize advantages and there are frankly greater evils in the space right now. Speaking of, I'vealsomadetheprofoundlyoptimisticdecisiontoalsoincludeJPEGXLversionsofeachimage,forwhichthestandardJPEGsactasfallbacks.ThisstillresultsinasignificantlysmallerfilesizeperimagevisibleonthewebsitethanPNGs,amazingly.</p>
<p>Iconfiguredmyreverseproxytoautomaticallyredirectallclientswith"Chrome"useragentstringstothatpage.Thisisn't hard to circumvent if you know what you'redoing,andthat's part of the point - as the article explains, Google wants to create a world where workarounds like that are impossible. I fully believe at this point that using Chromium-based browsers is tantamount to contributing to Google'sstrangleholdonthefreeweb,butIfeelliketryingtomakeitactuallyimpossibletoaccessmywebsiteusingthemwouldruncountertotheprinciplesI'm espousing here, if the measures I'vetakendon'talready.</p>
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<p>Work's been alright. I'mgettingfewerhoursthanI'd like, but I have my reasons to believe that'satemporaryarrangement.Nothingmuchelsetoreport.It's been pretty uneventful for the most part, which I'minterpretingasagoodthing.Nonewsisgoodnews.</p>
<p>SoIwaswrongaboutInvidiousinmylastentry-IgaveGoogleWAYtoomuchcredit,lol.TurnsoutalltheydidisblockedahandfulofbigInvidiousinstances.That's all. The software still works, and Invidious has been updated to detect that it'sbeenblockedandlinkyoutoanotherinstancesoGoogle'sbullshitteryisbarelyaroadbump.</p>