Meet Your Next Home Server - Aoostar R1

Re-test with 2.5" SSD's (with drive adapters) and UNRaid in BTRFS (to see if power draw is lower at idle)
Definitely a pretty clean looking little "NAS" with light "SERVER" capability, but the low power CPU's just can't hang for the most part
Thanks for this...I have to kick myself every time I see your video's because I immediately go to "the jungle site" and click buy...but then realize I'm broke...LOL
I don't think just having two NICs will allow passthru for PROXMOX because it won't have a dedicated port/ip for the webgui
Keep em coming!!!!

I believe they have a 6 and 8 bay nas coming "Soon™️" and I'm really excited because it sounds like it'll be a perfect match for what I want to set up at my parents place for some remote backup

Can you please do a video on how to optimise a budget nas/Plex server for lowest power draw while keeping the same performance

Huh, this actually looks like the perfect little system for my needs, with minimal headache. My current NAS sits in my bedroom and it’s loud, so I’ve been looking to replace it. All I need is Jellyfin, home bridge, and file storage so yeah. Looks like I’m gonna be looking into this one a little deeper. Thanks for the video!

I like mini pc Minisforum EliteMini HM80
it's time to abandon the 3.5" hdd and switch to ssd 2.5"

If you've ever used anything with e-cores, you'd run away from this for "daily tasks".

You can also usw wsl

Hi, you may wanna use Sunrise on the server PC with Moonlight on the client's PC instead.

Great video. My R1 should be here in a couple of days. I ordered the barebones version via the AOOSTAR website. For anyone going this route, make sure you provide a contact number when ordering, or else they may delay dispatching the order. I plan to install proxmox on it and set up my first NAS + migrate homeassistant from my Pi4 to a container/vm on the R1. A lot of this stuff is new to me, so fingers crossed. Any idea if an alternate fan could be hooked up to the other connector you mentioned for PWM control?

I got this from AliExpress last year, but their older version with athom a300u. Would you say n100 is a big jump, upgrade?

I've had this with n100 for almost a month. I added 32gb ram + two 4tb ultrastar hdd drives. Copes very well with many tasks. I also replaced the fan with a Noctua NF-A9x1 and I'm currently looking for a fan for the radiator because it's noisy. Great for home needs!

Thank you.
I just ordered the 5700U version and 64GB of Ram 😊
I keep comments about fan upgrade and use 2.5" disks instead of 3.5" (why not ssd?) .
I dream of proxmox + jellyfin + opnSense + ubuntu + other things on it.

Such a great design! A dual drive enclosure and mini PC in one. My 25W Celeron J tower holding various 3.5” HDDs will soon be replaced by this format.

You can probably get those drives out by using a pull tab made from Duct tape on the drive. Stick tape say 3" on the top of drive then hangs off 2" or so and fold 1" back on itself to cover the sticky side. That's obviously the pull tab to grab the drive and pull out.

Does it have any RAID option in the bios?

What game was that on the video ?? Look nice 😊

the reason for the idle power draw is that your NAS drives dont spin down. the OS needs to tell it. I can only hope WD drives dont ignore OS commands as long ago you could tweak the firmware.

i have a small server in an HP ProDesk 600 G4 SFF also running windows. It works pretty well as long as you take care of some unwanted windows "features"
In Virtualbox i have 3 Machines running Linux to give me a Docker, a nextcloud and a Pihole. It works very stable since September when i set it up.

Greetings from Germany

it's expensive though.

Hello from the Unraid newsletter

When I was taking apart my R1 to install the NVME SSD and RAM, I noticed that the motherboard in the center of the unit connects to the backplane (for the 2 sata drives) via what looks like a 4 lane PCIe connector. The motherboard has 2 of these connectors and one of them is unused. Any idea if the spare connector could be used to hook up a second m.2 NVME SSD via a PCIe to m.2 cable/connector?

This unit also sells as T-Bao R3/Pro, I have been using the 5500U version for about six months. I've been using with Unraid for data backup and media streaming, I've also managed to get perfect hardware transcoding with Jellfin, that's a huge plus for me. For the moment I am waiting for a PCI riser cable to arrive, the HDD daughterboard uses only half of the PCI slot. I will try my luck and see if I can use an additional SATA controller card for extra storage. I've tested the internal NVMe slot with a SATA adapter, but it only worked on Windows.

I'm thinking of getting one of those, but for a Truenas Scale build... perhaps that R7 5700U model instead, because I want to run a whole ton of docker containers. :P NextCloud with a ton of plugins is a resource hog, but there are some stuff that I can only find there... oh well.

Great vid

Is this a good fit for the following:

Thank you for the great content! 🙋🏽‍♂️ I’m looking to replace a Hikvision NVR of IP camera’s with AI capabilities. I’m looking at Coral + Frigate at the moment… I am also open to other options?

Current Setup:
1X Hikvision DS-7608NI-I2/8P 8CH
1X 4TB Drive
1X 2MP PTZ
2X 4MP Turret
3X 2MP Dome
1X HDMI Monitor

Goals:
1. Face and Person Recognition with Frigate or BI + Deepstack
2. iOS Push notifications with a snapshot of the event
3. Access to camera’s from HomeKit if possible
4. Below 25W of power consumption with two 4GB Skyhawk HDD
5. Hub for Home Assistant

I appreciate all the help 💪🏽

High WAF factor

Nice lil' machine - too bad that you cannot get it in europe. As far as I'm concerned i see a system that ... Well ... Can be beat in terms of idle watts by diy solutions. Or even a well thought out pico psu server on a more powerful platform. If youre going to sink 30 watts at idle into a system them this doesnt really make a ton of sense.

I'd rather have two external hdds plugged into an optimized n100 mini pc at that point, taking advantage of usb 3.

N100s are the new pis for me nevertheless :) (and i wish i could say "despite being much more expensive")

I’m trying to setup a JellyFin server for the first time. Would this be powerful enough for being a 4k media server using JellyFin?

The R1 is a steal for 250 usd (current price), however, it's lacking two extra 3.5" drive bays I need to setup my home server.. bummer..

I have a different n100 mini PC and with batocera i can play up to ps2/gamecube at native. And some xbox games.

props for the shoutout to etaprime. hes the emulation goat

Looks like the perfect living room HTPC/NAS/Plex server and no need to learn any software since it's Windows makes this accessible. My original plan was just to plug my 2 external HDDs into the USB 3.2 of a N100 mini PC, but this is only slightly more expensive and looks much nicer, probably would perform better and draw less power as well? Time to shuck a couple of drives.

How did you install Unraid onto the unit as it comes with Win11 preinstalled? Can you share the key steps with me please?

FYI the R1 I just got from Amazon DOES support fan control for the lower fan. I replaced the 2-pin fan with a 4-pin slim fan, plugging it into the same header, and the BIOS allowed me to adjust the speeds. In Win11, Speedfan did not recognize it however "Fan Control" did and I was able to create custom curves. I also added 3/4" rubber feet to the bottom to improve airflow, and between that, the fan curves, and adding a heat sink to the NVME SSD, the SSD's temp dropped 10-15 degrees, with very little noise from the fans or hard drives, which were quite loud prior.

The BIOS date is late November 2023, so maybe updating older units with new firmware will help, or maybe my board is a newer version.

Perfect remote backup nas?

Although I'm a software engineer work, at home I'm an average Windows user. I only need a NAS to protect against a disk failure so Windows simple disk mirroring is fine. I also run a Plex media server as well as a printer server. This nice looking PC replaced 3 separate boxes - a homebrew SBC printer server, an old Netgear NAS, and an external WD drive. Incidentally your review greatly influenced me to go this route.

I have the 5700, fans are super noisy, cpu fan in particular which I don’t think can be replaced

I am interested in getting my feet wet with this unit, however I do need some advice. Primary job of the NAS will be to backup my wife and I computer docs and possibly phones to this, and from there using Idrive for cloud backup. I plan using a 4tb NVME drive in the M.2 slot to backup everything instead mechanical drives. What software should I use on the Aoostar that would show up "easily" on our Windows and Mac laptops and phones to connect everything together?

Anybody know how to access the boot manager on this?

AOOSTAR started a pre-order of its new NAS barebone in an aluminium case. AOOSTAR WTR PRO 4 Bay 90T Storage INTEL N100 Nas Mini PC for $289. Looks awesome.

Can you know the temp of the HDDs using these?

Cleta Flat

I ended up getting two of these, a couple months apart. One of them I'm using to run OMV as a NAS, and the other I'm running Linux Mint plus CasaOS and Cockpit. The goal was to learn more about Linux while having a couple NASes for backup purposes, and worked for both. Decent discounts during Amazon sales.

I am dreaming ....
1. Windows 11 combo NAS
or
2. Linux combo NAS
So I can use this as my daily driver as well as NAS in my network ....
Main question: "How to do this ???"
Is there a manual somewhere, or an instruction video ???

“Great video! Just a heads-up for everyone considering products from companies like Aoostar. While their tech is innovative and affordable, it’s important to be aware of potential security risks. Given the influence of the Chinese Communist Party over private companies, there are concerns about possible backdoors and data privacy issues. Make sure to research independent reviews, use robust security software, and keep your firmware updated. Stay safe and informed! 👍”

I got this thing to run proxmox backup server (virtualized in pve, I know, dumb idea) and a few other lightweight things like a backup pihole for DNS redundancy. It's a cool design, however I was fairly disappointed that the marketing material showed 2x nvme slots and 2x ram slots, but when I got it I found out that's only for the Ryzen versions. Oh well, too late, it's just running PBS and that's all I needed it for. Noctua fan upgrade helped, and I think I'm going to replace the thermal paste because everything I've seen in this price range had bad thermal paste application at the factory. Fun little box.

Hi, may I know what is the max power consumption in the wall with 2 HDD? Thanks!