this post was submitted on 25 Nov 2024
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Old Mini PC with 3.5" HDD (lemmy.ml)
submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/selfhosted
18 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

are there any older ex-office mini PCs like the elitedesk, optiplex, thinkstation, etc models that can fit a 3.5" drive? Not looking for anything new and thus expensive, just want some old junker (6/7/8th gen Intel) that can host some light stuff. thanks

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[–] malios 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The micro/tiny form factor PCs generally only have space for a 2.5" drive, while the SFF/desktop size PCs can fit at least one 3.5" drive.

Dell, 8th Gen Intel with one 3.5" drive bay: https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-us/optiplex-7060-sff/opti_7060_sff_setup_specs_manual/storage?guid=guid-4eab9a0b-c403-4bcd-b692-9419bddfed24&lang=en-us

Lenovo, should have one 3.5" drive bay: https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/desktops/thinkcentre/m-series-sff/thinkcentre-m920s/11tc1mdm92s?orgRef=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.google.com%252F&srsltid=AfmBOorJ_EUW-QYIIIGy3i7ZJbitPq8UWoxdoQxtM_BNabrKcNojn7WL#tech_specs

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

yeah, those are too big. was hoping to score an ITX-sized abandonware for cheap and retrofit it with a 10 TB or so drive. I had this thing many moons ago:

it could fit a drive, with some wiggling and swearing. so I figured maybe something similar exists. building it from new parts is way, way out of budget.

edit: this is how it ran for close to a year.

[–] pax0707 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Thing is - “mini” PCs old enough to have 3.5 slots are probably way too old to have decent CPUs.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

I have a PC from 2006 it is not "mini" and it has an awful CPU... :(

What would be a good used upgrade with 4x 3.5 bays?

[–] solrize 4 points 1 week ago

just want some old junker (6/7/8th gen Intel)

You probably have to go back further than that for a 3.5" sff pc. Look on woot though, they have such refurbs all the time. Or scrounge a mini tower.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Why 3.5" drive? (Just curious).

I've found prices aren't necessarily any better at that size.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Not the OP, but capacity: there aren't 20TB 2.5 drives.

(Or 18, 16, 14, 12, or 10TB ones, for that matter....)

Kinda a dead-end product since laptops are all on SSDs, and enterprises have flocked to SSDs as well and that was essentially the entire market for that size of HDD.

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Putting that much data on just one drive freaks me out

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Raid builds hurt financially up front but can save you from a lot of heartache later, even with larger disks.

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod 4 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Totally. I've got an 8TBx4 RAID5 that has about as much space as one 20TB spinning drive, but with the advantage that if one fails I don't lose anything.

Putting 20TB on one drive though? That's too risky for me.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

I mean, 20TB drives will work in an array just as well as 8TB 😉

Honestly with the price of refurb enterprise drives, it's really hard not to justify not going that route and just keeping a spare drive formatted on warm standby at all times.

A bit of a digression though, since OP isn't looking to cram a bunch of drives into an old mini case.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That's why you use 2 and have backup.

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod 2 points 1 week ago

Two is one and one is none.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 week ago

Capacity like that is the only reason I could think of.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

they are widely available and cheap.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 week ago

If you can find them the "mini" format Elitedeak has a 3.5" internal bay along with an optical, for what it's worth. It's not as small as a "micro" but it's smaller than a tower, and at my hearby Uni, they go for the same (cheap) prices.

[–] just_another_person 1 points 1 week ago

Tons. Go look for refurb units from any of the big manufacturers, but I doubt you'll get them at steal prices. Have a look at the Minisforum larger format models that are more updated and $250-400. They can fit that and more. The MS-01 is a gem.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

There's a few companies selling a very plasticky mini-pc that also has 2x 3.5" slots. Trialling it now for a homebuilt Nas, so far impressed. Worst problem is that the bigger drives can be noisy.

Aoostar in the US I think.