AMD 7840U as Homelab / NAS?

I thinking about to use my 7840U mainboard as NAS / Homelab.

I’m read that USB shouldn’t be use for external storage when used in combination with RAIDs caused by possible disconnects.

Does anyone know, if this is the same for Thunderbolt NVME enclousres over USB4 ports?

Under Fedora 42 I saw my extern NVME over lspci instead of lsusb.

I wouldn’t since the FW sleeps the TB ports to save power. Idk if that behavior changes when you put the mainboard in standalone mode. Nor do I think the m.2 slot supports bifurcation. I could be wrong on all counts though.

This would be a problem.

My current concept is:

  • Installing Proxmox on internal NVME
  • Connecting 2 external NVME via Thunderbolt
  • Creating a VM with Unraid and passtrough the 2 external NVMEs.
  • Other services will be stored/deployed on internal NVME
  • Adding 2,5Gb ethernet expansion card
  • (Optional) Adding a Thunderbolt Docking station for additional ports (reduced write/read performance for multiple NVMEs should be ok)

Another concept:

  • Buying necessary (bottom case) parts for a Framework 16 with expansion bay for dual NVMEs

With this concept I have 4 internal NVMEs (2 for Unraid in VM, 1 for Proxmox and 1 for “unsafed” mass storage)

While Thunderbolt NVME enclosures are definitely better than USB, there are other things you need to worry about. I got two of these ACASIS 40Gbps M.2 NVMe SSD Enclosures a couple months ago and, for a reason still unknown to me, they only work when one of them is plugged in at a time. The second one won’t be recognized when plugged in, at least under Linux. I would recommend the OWC Express 1M2 Thunderbolt Enclosure as they didn’t have this problem and also work in USB mode as a fallback. They are more expensive, but I have 5 of these now and haven’t had any problems.

If you’re wanting just a thunderbolt hub without a lot of bulk, I would go for a Plugable 5-in-1 Thunderbolt 4 Hub. I have a couple variants of these and they seem to work well. There are different variants of this in the same form factor, with the only real differences being the USB port and type of barrel plug used, so I’d get whatever one is cheaper. I got this one because it uses a standard 5.5x2.5mm barrel plug, but I do have another one that I got before I found this one that uses a Dell/HP style power connector.

As much as I like Framework, I wouldn’t recommend going this route; it’s not a very cost-effective option. If you’re going to spend that much, I’d go for a UGREEN NASync DXP480T Plus. I don’t have one of these yet, but I’m likely going to be getting one in the future unless something else comes out that’s better than this when I feel like it’s time to get one.

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Is that the FW or is it the OS? I know this is a problem with Windows and I have to go and turn it off in the device manager to stop it happening. I don’t know if there is a similar problem with Linux, I haven’t experienced it as yet - and I certainly wouldn’t be looking to use Windows as a NAS.

It’s almost certainly the FW, they pushed those TB retimer updates for this purpose in the past iirc.

Again, I could be wrong, FW engineers would be able to give a definitive answer but I’m pretty sure this behavior is controlled by the BIOS and EC and thus is inherent to the laptop.

Thanks for all your responses.

The idea to use the AMD 7840U mainboard based on my hope to just run one device to safe money in power consumption and upgrading to AMD Ryzen HX370 for my notebook.

But with the possible power safe issue for external Thunderbolt 4 devices it seems to be better to have more than one device.

I just checked some BIOS release threads and yeah, Framework has pushed retimer updates to reduce power draw and put them in low power mode in certain instances. They specifically called out when using a DP/HDMI expansion card without the display cable attached but that is immaterial to the larger point that FW firmware does in certain instances sleep TB ports to save power. I wouldn’t risk data loss OP without a guarantee that the mainboard won’t do this in standalone mode or something like that. I would contact support and post their response here if I were you.