HL15 from 45Homelab - Expensive, but good?
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 ก.ย. 2024
- Does the HL15 pass the test? Is it everything we hoped? Find out in todays video.
For more information visit 45homelab.com
Further thoughts in selfhosted.sho....
===
🖥️ alex.ktz.me
🎙️ selfhosted.show podcast
🦣 mastodon techhub.social/@ironicbadger
📓 blog.ktz.me
💾 perfectmediase...
🧑🏽💻 github.com/iro...
![วันเกิดเธอ (TO YOU) - PHUWIN [ OFFICIAL MV ]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/_ROx1Bj3T0Y/mqdefault.jpg)
I'm not that fancy! Thanks for the video!
Thanks for watching! You are kinda fancy with all that RGB ;)
@@ktzsystems You've got a point there!
@@TechnoTim while you have his ear, pester him about that NixOS NAS project he's working on. I wanna see this thing!
I think they've done a good job overall with the HL15 and it is a tempting proposition. Big fan of the pod and hope you create more content on YT, Alex.
Great video Alex! Self-Hosted is how I first learned about the HL15. It was perfect for my larger storage needs and I didn't feel like dealing with HBA/SAS cables and all the headache that comes along with it. This fit the bill nicely.
This is my first stab at a proper storage server, and I'm going to attempt to follow your wisdom of "storage should be boring". I'm running with Rocky and Cockpit, and it's really a great little looking glass.
Self-Hosted with you and Chris is what really pushed my homelab motivation over a slump!
Good breakdown on it, I did not mind the digging on the price, I just dont see how they are asking that much for it, even not counting deals you could homebuild one for less, or go for more for same cost.
I am having a hard time justifying its cost and space it will eat in the rack, 4U's of space and only 15 drives, that you have to pull the case out to replace? not very user friendly, a front loader would have been a way better option.
Great review, looking forward to picking one of these up.
I’m sure you’ll be very happy it’s a super solid unit!
It would be a dream NAS case, but unless you are set on spending 2K for a complete build, I don't think it makes any sense for everyone else. 800USD for the case and backplane is still a little too high to justify for many. I think many of us were expecting a deeper discount on a barebone option.
Compare this unit/price to a comparable Synology unit. I think this unit would run rings around Synology. I love Synology and have 2 units, looking at a 3rd, if I could pull the dollars together this would be my pick, again if I had the dollars. I too bought a Rosewill case and it runs i5-8400 32gb quite nicely on UNRAID managing 9 drives. But HL15 😛
Gentelmen's nod to the background picture choice. :)
Openttd for life!
You beat me to it... (I'm an AMD guy so...) 😎
Mine is on the fedex truck now. I went bare case with the rails. I wanted to customize the internals more... I think thats gonna either replace my backup storage server or a plex server upgrade
Regarding the price, I see this from the side of the pro-/consumer NAS market, a 2-bay Synology NAS with somewhat ok specs is 600 USD. Yes, with a XYZ-Brand NAS I already have OS and the electronics need. But for 800 USD + some old motherboard & cpu combo off of ebay or other similar platforms, this might come to something like 1000 USD to 1200 USD. I can't find a 15 bay consumer NAS for that money, the cheapest one I can find is about 2000 USD. So you could even spring for the fully built solution and be around the same price as a pro-/consumer NAS.
Ergo, price is fine for me. Although, I wonder what the shipping fees are to Europe...
Where's the HL60??
I agree with all your points here! If they would’ve made the same case with a just a normal mini-SAS backplane and come down to $600 for the barebones chassi I would buy one immediately. Their custom solution is probably where a lot of the cost went. But today, and especially for us Europeans, it’s way too pricey compared to something like the Inter-Tech 3U-3416 or 4U-4416. Annoyingly the freight cost and tax aren’t available until AFTER (!) you’ve entered your credit card details in their shop. Come on…
Don’t get me wrong, I love that they really tried and they show that they understand that there’s a market. It’s just that the regular home lab:er is too cheap for it.
What I think they’re sort of missing out on though is the small to medium business market, just by addressing it so hard towards home lab. The pricing for a complete system is VERY compelling when you start comparing it to a similar prebuilt system from Supermicro and the likes.
Agree! The word “homelab” on the front is a miss for SME market - though I’m sure they will happily sell you one of their other systems for this.
It’s just their first foray into the market and I’m sure that once they get a better idea of volumes prices might adjust - or they might not. Doug is quite engaged with this project and on the podcast they hinted at several other things in the product line.
I really wish Inter-tech cases were readily available here, by the time you pay to get one shipped to the US it's not much cheaper than the HL15.
@@nadtz But you guys have so many cheaper alternatives then we do in Europe. Rosewill, Chenbro etc. Plus you market for used enterprise gear is so much bigger and better. So let us have Inter-tech at least.. 😅 Plus I'm pretty sure some of Inter-techs cases are the same Chinese branded cases, so you might as well order from Ali.
@@KS-wr8ub Fair enough but I got to work in one of the 4u inter-tech cases and for the price new they are really nice cases, probably comparable to Sliger.
I'm kind of over the cheaper stuff at this point, too many scars and small annoyances that probably aren't a big deal when you don't work on rackmount stuff day in day out but that I don't want to deal with at home if I don't have to. Of course there are tons of second hand options here like you said, so I guess I shouldn't complain too much.
Love all your videos amigo! Had my eyes on these cases since they were announced, and this video just makes it more tempting! Just need to get the wife approval factor...... Thank you for all your work on here on and on the Pod Cast! LINUX ON!
I still don't see the value proposition with the server for the price. Especially if it isn't whisper quiet. Sure the hardware will be older but there are some nice Dell tower servers available in that price range now. You can build a pretty crazy PowerEdge T440 for $2k.
Sliger makes a cheaper chasis that looks pretty good and uses front load drivescompared to the hl15 bare bones kit.
As a complete unit the price point makes sense, but honetly the chasis is just way too much.
Also Sliger is made in the USA and made out of essentially just stamped steel.
If you don't need more than 12 bays there are a lot of cheaper chassis options (and Sliger is definitely a nice one) but more than 12 bays and your options drop down to a few. I agree the cassis is expensive for what it is but I still plan to grab one and hopefully less expensive options will be available in the future.
Don't think like we don't see Transport Tycoon Deluxe vibing in the background.. However, cute little NAS!
I feel like the price makes sense for the case given the comps in my local market. The rosewill at about half the price, for example, feels about right.
The problem is more the number is pricing it out of my budget. But I certainly would like one if it weren't lol.
Alex touched on this, but basically if you read between the lines they aren't targeting all home labbers, but rather are viewing this as a way to improve loyalty with existing enterprise customers (sys admins who love them at work and want them at home), or, what they would really like, is to have this serve as an entry point for the home labber who is a sys admin who has solution control/influence and could then look at 45drives more seriously in their workplace.
I think from a business point of view, viewing this as a marketing effort to get more enterprise customers, makes a lot of sense, but the homelab community isn't used to being bifurcated in quite this way.
Those "mini Sata" connectors you refered to are called "HBA SFF-8643" ;)
Rolls right off the tongue!
@@ktzsystemsand they likely support sas and sata. What's the mobo model?
Is it Transport Tycoon in the background ?
Yes! Technically openttd but I won’t nitpick 😎
Great video🤩
Maybe a cheaper case with less disks and some M.2 slots?
I appreciate them trying to do what they are trying to do but the price point is still too high. eBay is littered with 2nd hand enterprise hardware for pennies on the dollar. Love 45 Drives but the HL15 is a pass for me....
For that price point at least they should send the rails in the price. Even if I have the money I can't see myself buy this chassie and absolutely not the entire system.
It's a steal. My next build will be one for sure. No more making a case kind of work or repurposing old power hungry throw away servers. 15 drive bays in a fresh case that uses ATX PSU and mobo. Is it a few bucks more tha. Other options, yes. It it exactly what so many home labs want/need for a fuss free bit of kit, yes. Can't compare 10yr old thrown out hardware to new as it isn't fair and the new stuff that's close isn't quite there or is more.
The only thing I think they missed here is not using PWM fans for those of us that don't have a rack in a closte/basement and are going to have this in a living area. Easy enough to swap some standard size fans though.
The entry cost just too high for most people want to trying home lab
Hope they consider made some smaller , entry friendly version
Current NAS case on market lacking a bit of tanky and robust meassurement.
I think they will, they've mentioned a few on Self-Hosted in a smaller size. But this is a bit of a "premium" offering from a physical chassis standpoint. This bridges a gap between consumer and enterprise. 3D printed parts allowing tinkering and repairing at home. It's a premium/niche product from a premium/niche company, they can't churn these out the same way say Silverstone can.
It’s confirmed that they are working on 4 and 8 bay options. I’m sure they’ll be on the higher end price wise but I might be surprised - we’ll see!!
Brb. Just parking my tank on top of my server.
This isn't someone's first homelab server. This is someone who's got used to running their own services and NAS and is tired of reused enterprise gear and made to mostly work roswell cases or NAS cases that we all wish fit just 2 or 4 more drives. This is for us that know we're in and we wand to upgrade into one nice package that's gonna offline 3 other pieces of hardware and have drive bays left for when we need more space in a year or 3 so we don't have to build another 4 or 6 bay NAS or upsize all the drives again. For us we know who we are and we're already planning which color way we want.
@@chublez planning which colorway? Nah, that was months ago. I'm at the migrating storage jobs over portion of the game at this point. The HL15 is fantastic and I love mine!
It is interesting that Weddell from Level1Techs, also a certified professional, has a total opposite opinion on the 45Drives HL-15 case. I wonder which one of the two of them I am going to take advice from? The one who thinks Roswell is better value or Weddell who states he has 45drive machines still in service after 10 years which means he actually WORKS in server rooms and in the field.
I bought 45drive in 2018 and was extremely disappointed.
Did it only come with 44?
Too much expansive for what it is !