Raspberry Pi Storage Server (NAS) : Compact, Powerful & Portable

🌐 Building My Own Raspberry Pi Home NAS Server

Hello everyone! 😊

I had this idea to build a reliable storage server using a Raspberry Pi, and I thought it would be great to share the journey with you all.

I’ve always been interested in small servers and dreamed of having my own home server rack someday. But honestly, many of you probably already know that building a full setup like that can be quite expensive 💸

So I started thinking... what’s the best and simplest way to begin? 🤔

That’s when I realized that creating a NAS storage system using a Raspberry Pi is a smart and practical starting point 🚀

While working on this project, I ran into a few challenges along the way. So in this guide, we’ll talk about those issues, explore possible solutions, and figure out the best ways to overcome them 🛠️

I truly believe this will be very useful for anyone planning to build a home NAS server 🏠💾

Alright, no more talking… Let’s jump straight into building it! 🔥

1. Raspberry pi 5
2. SD Card (for install Raspberry pi OS)
3. Radxa Penta SATA HAT
4. Acrylic HDD holder Board
5. FPC Cable
6. M2.5*5 Copper Post
7. M2.5*18+6 Copper Post
8. M2.5*5+5 Copper Post
9. M2.5 Screw
10. Radxa Penta SATA Top Board
11. Data Cable
12. M.2.5*40+6 Copper Pillar
13. 4x 2.5 SDD Hard Drive or Normal Hard Disk
14. RJ45 Cable
15. 2.5Gbps USB Ethernet Adapter (read step 9 & 16)

Tools and Others

1. Screw Driver
2. USB typeC Power Adapter
3. DC 12V 5A (5525) adapter to power the SATA HAT
4. 3D Printer for Print Casing

First, I take the Raspberry Pi board and the screw set that came with the SATA HAT. From that kit, I use the M2.5×5 screws along with the M2.5×18+6 copper standoffs. 🔧

Then, I carefully insert the screws through the four mounting holes on the Raspberry Pi and fix the copper standoffs in place. These four standoffs will act as the main support structure for building the rest of the setup on top of the board.

Make sure to tighten the copper standoffs firmly 🔩 so they don’t become loose later when we continue assembling the rest of the hardware.

Next, take the SATA HAT and locate the FPC connector on the back side. Then, carefully insert the IPEX (FPC) cable into that connector. 🔌

⚠️ This step is very delicate, so make sure to do it with patience and care. The cable and connector can easily get damaged if handled roughly. Take your time, check the correct orientation, and gently slide the cable into place.

If you look closely at the second photo (zooming in helps 🔍), you’ll see the correct direction I used to install the cable. Once the cable is properly seated, lock the connector to secure it.

After that, take the other end of the FPC cable and carefully connect it to the Raspberry Pi board.

Now you can slowly position the SATA HAT on top of the Raspberry Pi. You’ll notice that it aligns perfectly with the copper standoffs we installed earlier, making it easy to mount everything securely together 🔩

Now, let’s move on to assembling the HDDs 🛠️

First, take one hard disk drive (HDD) and place it onto the acrylic holder board. Then, use screws to fix the drive into the first two mounting holes, making sure it is securely attached.

You can repeat the same process for the remaining drives. Don’t forget to tighten screws on both sides so each drive stays firmly in place 🔩

This step is simple but important, as proper mounting keeps your drives safe and stable.

In my setup, I used 3 HDDs, but you can go with 4 drives if you prefer. Even using just 1 or 2 drives is perfectly fine depending on your needs 👍

Now it’s time to connect the HDD cluster to the SATA HAT 🔌

Carefully bring the assembled drives closer to the SATA HAT and check the orientation of the SATA connectors. This is important because SATA connectors only fit one way, so take a moment to align them correctly before pushing anything in.

Once aligned, gently connect each drive to the SATA ports on the HAT. You can refer to the photos to get a clear idea of how everything should sit together.

⚠️ Be careful not to force the connectors or damage any ports. Always connect them slowly and smoothly to avoid breaking pins or loosening the ports.

With everything properly connected, your HDD cluster should now sit neatly on the SATA HAT, completing this step of the build ✅

Next, we move on to assembling the top board 🔝

First, take the M2.5×40+6 copper pillar set and connect three pillars together to form four long standoffs.

After preparing the standoffs, look at the underside of the top board. You’ll find a white double row pin connector there. Carefully connect the data cable to this header.

⚠️ Make sure to check the correct orientation before connecting. Just like before, don’t force it in the wrong direction.

Next, we need to install the four long copper standoffs we prepared earlier. 🔩

Take those extended standoffs and fix them into the four mounting holes on the SATA HAT. These will act as the support pillars for the top board.

This step is not difficult at all, just make sure to align them properly and tighten them carefully so they stay firm. Do it gently and with control no need to apply too much force. ✅

Next, take the top board and carefully place it on top of the four copper standoffs we installed earlier 🔩

Align the board so that all four holes match perfectly with the standoffs. Once everything lines up, gently lower it into position.

Then use the M2.5×5 Copper post to fix the top board onto the standoffs. Tighten each one slowly and evenly so the board sits firm and balanced.

At this stage, your structure should now look clean, solid, and fully stacked, just like in your photos 👍

Now we reach the final assembly step 🎯

Take the data cable from the top board and carefully connect it to the SATA HAT connector. This cable is very important because it controls:

🌀 Fan speed control

📟 Top display data communication

Raspberry Pi setup depends on this connection for proper monitoring and cooling control.🚀

Now we move to the network connection step 🔌

In this setup, I connected the Ethernet using a 2.5Gbps USB adapter, instead of using the built in port on the Raspberry Pi. 🌐

The main reason for this decision is simple 👇

The built in Ethernet port is limited to 1Gbps, and when transferring large files on a NAS system, I felt that 1Gbps might become a bottleneck.

So I decided to use a 2.5Gbps USB Ethernet adapter through the USB 3.0 interface. This allows:

⚡ Faster file transfers

📁 Better NAS performance

🚀 Nearly 2x network speed improvement compared to 1Gbps

Also, when buying an Ethernet cable, it’s better to choose a good quality one like CAT6 or CAT7 🔌

You can easily find more detailed information about these online if you search Google. People who work with networking already know this well.

Simply put, the cable you choose also affects the speed ⚡

💽 Installing Raspberry Pi OS (Important Setup Note)

Next step is installing the operating system on the SD card. I’m not going to go through the full flashing process here because it’s already well documented, and you can easily follow official guides or tutorials on YouTube and Instructables.

"Official guide"

🧠 Important choice: OS version

For this project, the OS choice matters 👇

1. If you are building a NAS system (like OpenMediaVault) → use Raspberry Pi OS Lite
2. ✔ Lightweight
3. ✔ No desktop overhead
4. ✔ Best compatibility for server setups
5. If you are just learning Raspberry Pi basics → you can use the Desktop version
6. ✔ Easier UI
7. ✔ Good for beginners

But for this NAS build, Lite version is the correct choice ⚙️

⚠️ Final note

If you run into any issue during setup, feel free to message me 👍 I’ve worked with Raspberry Pi setups before, so I can help if something goes wrong.

After putting the Raspberry Pi OS into the SD card 💽, the next step is to insert the SD card into the Raspberry Pi and power it on 🔌

When talking about power ⚡, you need to supply it correctly to the SATA HAT. If you are using SSD, it takes around 3W, so a good USB TypeC 5A power supply is enough 👍

But if you are using normal 2.5” HDDs, they take around 5W or more per drive 💾 so you need a 12V power supply through the 5.5×2.5mm DC jack on the SATA HAT 🔌

⚠️Very important warning : Never use USB TypeC power AND 12V DC jack at the same time ❌

✅ Final recommendation

For any HDD based NAS: 👉 12V 5A DC adapter via 5525 jack = best and safe choice 🔥

This works reliably no matter how many drives you use, and keeps the system stable under load.

After installing the OS and powering up the NAS system 🔌, I connect to the Raspberry Pi using SSH from the terminal 💻

⚙️ Step 1 – Enable PCIe

First, we enable PCIe support:

Edit this file 👇

/boot/firmware/config.txt

Then add this line at the end:

💾 Save the file and reboot the system 🔄

💽 Step 2 – Check Disks

After reboot, we can check if all storage devices are detected.

Run this command:

This will show all connected disks and partitions 🧠

I’ve added screenshots here so you can check the commands 📸

If you are new to this, it may look a bit confusing at first 😅 but if you are interested in networking, servers, and Linux, these are actually very basic things.If you are into servers and networking, these are the basic things you will see all the time. It’s not really complicated, it just feels new at the beginning. Once you practice a bit and search things yourself, it becomes easy 🚀

Now let’s run a simple speed test 📊 Since we are using a mechanical hard disk, the speed will naturally be lower 🧠

💽 Step 1 – Write Speed Test

Run this command:

This tests the write speed of your disk 💾

🚀 Step 2 – Force PCIe Gen 3

To force PCIe Gen 3, add this line:

📁 File location:

/boot/firmware/config.txt

Then save and reboot 🔄

🔍 Step 3 – Check PCIe Link Status

After reboot, run:

Then:

This will show if Gen 3 is active ⚡

📈 Step 4 – Re test Speed

After confirming Gen 3 is working, run the same dd test again and compare results 🚀

You should see better performance depending on your setup 👍

💡 In my case, I’m using a normal desktop HDD, so the speed you see here is expected for mechanical drives 💾

If you use an SSD, you will get much higher speed results ⚡🚀 compared to a HDD.

Now we are done with the hard disk testing phase 💾✅ Next step is installing the NAS management system. For this, we will use OpenMediaVault 🧠

⚙️ Why OpenMediaVault?

This is why I chose it 👇

✔ Easy NAS management system

✔ Works perfectly with Raspberry Pi (Lite OS)

✔ Web based control panel 🌐

✔ Supports Windows, macOS, and mobile access 📱💻

📌 Important note

I’m not going to write full step by step installation here because it becomes too long and confusing (easily 10–15 steps or more 😅).

Instead, you can follow the official OpenMediaVault guide. It’s the best and most updated source for installation

🌍 What you get after setup

Once OpenMediaVault is installed, you can:

📁 Share files between Windows and Mac

📱 Access storage from your phone

🌐 Manage everything from a web dashboard

💾 Turn your Raspberry Pi into a full NAS server

This is the point where your build becomes a real home NAS system 🔥 After this, managing storage becomes very simple and centralized 👍

After finishing all the hardware and NAS setup, the next step is to give the build a proper product level finish 🎯

We can design a custom enclosure for the whole system using Autodesk Fusion 360 🧠

This case is made to fit the full NAS setup including the Raspberry Pi, SATA HAT, HDD/SSD stack, fan, and all internal wiring in a clean layout.

The model can be adjusted easily if needed 🔧 such as changing dimensions, adding extra drive bays, improving airflow, or modifying mounting points depending on the build.

Once the design is ready, it can be exported for 3D printing 🖨️ and assembled to complete the project.

After printing, the whole setup becomes more organized, protected, and looks like a proper finished NAS product instead of a DIY build 🔥

Download Files

Finally, I tested everything by creating a ~100GB shared volume and mounting it on Windows 10 as a network drive 💻 OpenMediaVault handled it smoothly, and the share works perfectly across devices.

🌐 Cross device access test

✔ Works on Windows 10 as a network drive

✔ Works on iPhone Files app 📱

✔ No third party apps needed

✔ Also accessible from macOS 🍎

Everything connects through the NAS server directly 👍

⚡ Speed comparison

1. 1Gbps = normal NAS speed (fine for daily use)
2. 2.5Gbps = noticeably faster transfer 🚀

💡 If you use an SSD, you can get even better performance on the 2.5Gbps network.

But SSDs are more expensive 💸 So:

1. 💾 HDD = best for large storage + budget friendly
2. ⚡ SSD = best for speed + performance

🧠 Final conclusion

This setup makes file sharing very simple 👇

1. One central storage server
2. Access from Windows, Mac, iPhone
3. No extra apps needed
4. Everything managed from NAS

Honestly, this is a very practical home server setup 🔥

Once it’s running, you don’t need to think about file transfer between devices anymore everything is already in one place 👍

This is the final part of my project 🔥 I couldn’t finish the case yet because I don’t have a 3D printer 🖨️ so I ordered it from a 3D printing service. Once it gets delivered, I’ll upload photos so you can see the final result 📸

I think you’ll like this build 👍 You can even use this as a portable NAS system 💼

Just look at the size when it’s in hand, it’s very compact, but the performance is not small at all 🚀

💡 Also, don’t forget to add a heatsink to your Raspberry Pi 🌡️ I didn’t have one during my build, but it’s definitely recommended for better cooling.

If you have any questions about this project, drop a comment below 💬And if you want more content about networking or servers, let me know as well 👍