USB C Hub to connect 4 HDDs on NAS?
Hi everyone, how’s it going?
Today I’m running the setup shown in the photo (I got the 3D-printed case from this link): a Lenovo M720q with one SATA SSD for the TrueNAS boot pool, one SATA SSD for the apps pool, and four HDDs (two for Plex media and two for personal file backups). The four HDDs are connected via the PCIe x16 slot using an expansion card with four SATA ports, and everything seems to be working fine (I say this because I haven't encountered any issues and can see all the drive information).
I built the NAS this way because I wanted compact, energy-efficient hardware. It serves my needs very well, but since I’ve started using virtual machines on TrueNAS—something I hadn't planned on doing at the start of the project—I’m finding myself wishing I had a dedicated GPU.
What do you think would be a viable solution for connecting the HDDs in a way that frees up the PCIe slot? I’ve seen USB hubs get a lot of criticism; are they really not worth it?
Thanks for your time and help.