LaCie (and others, but I can vouch for LC) makes good, ruggedized external storage powered via USB-C --- using an powered external USB-C hub hooked up to a fast USB 3.x port on your machine, you can easily power a half-dozen or so at once with only a single DC adapter for your main machine, then just velcro the small usb-c drive cage to the bottom of the laptop platter on the tripod and have the laptop power it via usb-c 🙂 Just a thought I had while watching based on some stuff I've been tinkering with here in my small home lab. Thanks for sharing your journey, inspiring me to comment (I normally only lurk) --- Looking forward to more from the Studio and, ofc, more forward looking Blender content (my fave!)
Nice developments :). Regarding the use of a dock for SSD, here's an FYI from my own recent adventures: (armchair expert incoming) (I got a USB3 dock and it's just not transferring as fast as I would have liked). There are limitations to USB-C expansion cards as they usually dont get a PCI-e slot with the bandwidth for the full transfer speed. Usually the only accessible PCI slot goes through the bridge and not directly to a CPU lane. I've discovered there is a USB4.1 connector on my motherboard (which is quite old) I didn't know was there and it has it's own dedicated lane. Bought a USB4.1 Type E to Type C connector for around $30 and now through the back of my case I have a fully functional USB-C slot. Good chance you may have one on your MoB too. Also, USB-C now supports thunderbolt which accesses the common bus directly to the cpu giving some pretty crazy speeds. Thunderbolt was formally just for for Apple Mac, mostly used by editors who would use a thunderbolt compatible SSD dock for video editing. Additionally, when reading over usb-c there is some 20microsecond delay before transfer begins and with thunderbolt (over the PCI-e directly) there is some 0.02microsecond delay. over many transfers, this adds up (apparently). Hopefully that's interesting, maybe will help get those faster transfer speeds. Otherwise, I have been looking at NAS and although I really want one it now falls into the category of "good in theory, mediocre in practice". Also, it's not as trivial to run and maintain for common folk as it would be for a proper network engineer (who is usually the kind of person who swears by it).
I understand why you explain your decision to use SSD hotswaps instead of NAS. I actually just did a bit of a dive into a home server/NAS/firewall unit. I also have cold backups that are completely disconnected (external drives that I backup every few months). This is the kind of stuff that can occupy a person forever, just gotta choose a system and use it :D 💾
Don't forget the stickers! 🙃
LaCie (and others, but I can vouch for LC) makes good, ruggedized external storage powered via USB-C --- using an powered external USB-C hub hooked up to a fast USB 3.x port on your machine, you can easily power a half-dozen or so at once with only a single DC adapter for your main machine, then just velcro the small usb-c drive cage to the bottom of the laptop platter on the tripod and have the laptop power it via usb-c 🙂 Just a thought I had while watching based on some stuff I've been tinkering with here in my small home lab.
Thanks for sharing your journey, inspiring me to comment (I normally only lurk) --- Looking forward to more from the Studio and, ofc, more forward looking Blender content (my fave!)
Nice developments :).
Regarding the use of a dock for SSD, here's an FYI from my own recent adventures: (armchair expert incoming)
(I got a USB3 dock and it's just not transferring as fast as I would have liked).
There are limitations to USB-C expansion cards as they usually dont get a PCI-e slot with the bandwidth for the full transfer speed. Usually the only accessible PCI slot goes through the bridge and not directly to a CPU lane. I've discovered there is a USB4.1 connector on my motherboard (which is quite old) I didn't know was there and it has it's own dedicated lane. Bought a USB4.1 Type E to Type C connector for around $30 and now through the back of my case I have a fully functional USB-C slot. Good chance you may have one on your MoB too.
Also, USB-C now supports thunderbolt which accesses the common bus directly to the cpu giving some pretty crazy speeds. Thunderbolt was formally just for for Apple Mac, mostly used by editors who would use a thunderbolt compatible SSD dock for video editing. Additionally, when reading over usb-c there is some 20microsecond delay before transfer begins and with thunderbolt (over the PCI-e directly) there is some 0.02microsecond delay. over many transfers, this adds up (apparently).
Hopefully that's interesting, maybe will help get those faster transfer speeds.
Otherwise, I have been looking at NAS and although I really want one it now falls into the category of "good in theory, mediocre in practice". Also, it's not as trivial to run and maintain for common folk as it would be for a proper network engineer (who is usually the kind of person who swears by it).
WOO!!! Can't wat!! 🥳
I understand why you explain your decision to use SSD hotswaps instead of NAS. I actually just did a bit of a dive into a home server/NAS/firewall unit. I also have cold backups that are completely disconnected (external drives that I backup every few months). This is the kind of stuff that can occupy a person forever, just gotta choose a system and use it :D 💾
🧲 💾