Hi,

 

I'll install OpenMediaVault and Nextcloud on a tinkerboard and I would like to know if there is any advantage on run system on SATA / USB in this case and if it is possible to do this on tinkerboard since it was not clear for me on the docs.

 

Thank you

weird "bumping" this old question but here are some of my findings, just quick answer
(my tinkerboard runs on 2x USB-SATA HDD's, 1x 2TB, 1x 500gb, and 1x 1.5TB external hard drive)

1. flash firmware on your USB-SATA. it shuts down every 10 minutes or so, depending on the chip, but other firmware dont have those issues (eg, those HDD cloners). check your SATA-USB controller for reflashing. this is left as an exercise to the reader.

2. remember that tinkerboard isnt 4x usb but rather 2x USB device, 1 lane is reserved for the audio controller and the other lane is split to a Genesys 4USB hub controller. since this is USB2.0, you're stuck at 480Mbps, around 60MB/s transfer rates. since it's half-duplex, it's halved to 30MB/s on the hub alone. expect a max throughput of 30MB/s shared. real life performance may vary: i sometimes get full 30MB/s on one device, sometimes, all devices are just the slow. depends on your use case, 30MB/s is just *slow*

that's pretty much it about my experiences on the device. now i'm getting a used 500GB HDD running e2fsck. i hope it works well, for 2 days it seems okay. this is while one HDD runs tar while the other does downloading.

also be wary of power consumption: 3A on the whole device (take note without peripherals, tinkerboard runs at ~1A on idle and ~2.5A on full load) . go beyond that will cause instability (either boot issues, or in my case USB hub stops working.) i wont recommend using a hub (no issue in power, but slow-downs are a real pain in the butt) but instead those USB-Y splitters that split the device's power. use a separate USB power brick to power the devices alone (i taped my power lines going on the device's side, just to be safe.)

Edited January 26, 20233 yr by xAda