FriendlyELEC-Forum

Thinking of combining the NAS kit with some M2 to SATA adapters. I think running 3-4 traditional HDDs shouldn't saturate the PCI-E 3x1 bandwidth 99% of the time, and it has big upgrade potential for up to 16 drives this way.

One problem - how should I get SATA power? They use both 12V and 5V, but the GPIO only has up to 5V?

You would probably need to get a PSU that has SATA plugs and then convert any other 12V DC providing lines to the 12V barrel jack or whatever the 2-pin connector is behind it (assuming that’s power input).

Unless you use your existing power unit for the board. Just probably more efficient and less mess if whatever powers the SATA drives would power the SBC too.

Tried posting a reply to this before but think my account was new and didn't post.

You will most likely need some sort of external power. You could either use a desktop PSU and see if it supplies enough 12V headroom to add the CM3588 Carrier Board onto it or just use it secondary but that might have more wiring involved.

Just be careful if you do any DIY wiring to make sure you don't leave your self open to shorting wires, etc.

would like to see if it is actually possible to have 16 sata drives hooked up to the nas board

In theory if you could find a supported m2 sata card it would make a really good board