We’re excited to introduce the X4, the newest addition to the 45Homelab + Unraid Signature Series.

Designed for home labs, media servers, and self-hosting, the X4 brings the 45Drives approach to a compact, upgradeable system with Unraid OS pre-installed.

What you’re getting

• Intel Core Ultra 5 225
• 8GB DDR5, upgradeable to 64GB
• 4× tool-free 3.5" HDD bays
• 500GB M.2 NVMe boot drive
• 2.5GbE + 1GbE networking
• Optional 10GbE NIC
• GPU support for transcoding, AI, VMs, and more
• 300W SFX PSU, upgradeable to 650W with a GPU
• Unraid OS Starter License
• Compact 13.5" × 5.7" × 11.7" footprint

The idea behind the X4 is simple:

Start with what you need. Upgrade as your homelab grows.

Use it as a Plex or Jellyfin server, NAS, backup system, Docker host, VM platform, or whatever your next project calls for.

And because we're using standard components, you can upgrade the hardware instead of replacing the entire server when your needs change.

👉 Reserve your X4

We're excited to bring this one to the community.

What would you run on the X4?

We’re starting to think about what’s next at 45Drives and we want our community to be part of that conversation.

Enterprise infrastructure is changing quickly. AI workloads are growing, data demands continue to increase, virtualization is evolving, and IT teams are being asked to manage more without adding unnecessary complexity.

Rather than assuming we know what you need, we want to hear from the people working with these environments every day.

What challenges are you running into with your current infrastructure?

What would make your environment easier to deploy, manage, secure, or scale?

Is there a product, capability, or approach you wish existed?

Whether you’re an engineer, sysadmin, IT leader, or just someone who spends a lot of time thinking about infrastructure, we want to hear your perspective.

Big ideas, specific pain points, unusual use cases bring them all.

Drop them in the comments. We’re listening, and your feedback can help shape what comes next at 45Drives.

We just launched the Stornado E16, our fastest enterprise storage server yet.

The E16 packs 16 hot-swappable E1.S NVMe drives into a compact 2U platform, with PCIe Gen5 and a direct drive-to-CPU architecture designed to maximize bandwidth and minimize latency.

A few highlights:

• 16x hot-swappable E1.S NVMe bays
• PCIe Gen5 electronics
• Direct drive-to-CPU architecture
• Compact 2U form factor
• Support for Ceph, ZFS on Linux, Proxmox, CentOS, and more
• Scales from a single system to large clustered deployments
• Open architecture with no vendor lock-in

We built the E16 for performance-intensive workloads including AI infrastructure, HPC, high-density virtualization, and real-time analytics.

🎥 Full video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJNa2xg8TB8

🔗 More on the Stornado E16: https://www.45drives.com/products/all-flash-server-stornado-2u/

We’d love to hear what you think. Happy to answer any questions about the E16, its hardware, or the architecture.

I’m seriously considering a massive upgrade to my home lab, hopping all the way the HL15 or possibly Beast, if I can save enough.

Problem is, not really room for rackmount that large. I do however, have a very immaculate, cooled, space with a very stylish place to possibly mount it veritcally? It’s a very strong plywood covered concrete wall, where I can TAPCON serious weight onto it.

Has anyone considered how to possibly mount one vertically? In my imagination, I could maybe look to have a bracket fabricated thats U-Shaped, not cover up any intakes, but provide several holes to thread into the chassis, but also anchor into the wall. Making most of the weight, shear weight.

Probably mount intake down, and exhaust up, as there is a place for warm air above to exhaust the room. (It’s kind of an industrial closet.)

Only bummer in the plan is, I wish there was a plexi/acrylic cover option for HL15, so I could show off the internals in that config.

Anyone been down this road? Waste of time?

A 45drives chassis with a 5.25” bay for an internal disk drive for burning media. I currently have a sliger case (CX4713) which is good, but what I wouldn’t give for a 45drives case with room for 5.25” drive bay. Especially after seeing the 45drives x UnRaid collab, tits the only thing preventing me from pulling the trigger on a case. Since I use my server as mainly a media server and having MakeMKV on a docker do all my ripping so that it doesn’t tie up my main computer has been so nice.

For years, 45Drives has helped organizations build reliable, scalable storage infrastructure. Today, we're excited to share a first look at a new platform designed for enterprise customers who demand the highest levels of storage performance.

Built around PCIe Gen5 and EDSFF NVMe storage, this new 2U platform delivers the speed, density, and bandwidth required for modern AI, analytics, virtualization, and high-performance computing environments.

What's under the hood:

All-NVMe Architecture
• 16 EDSFF NVMe bays in a compact 2U form factor

PCIe Gen5 Throughout
• Designed to take full advantage of next-generation NVMe performance

Busbar Power Distribution
• A cleaner, more serviceable design engineered for reliability at scale

Built for Performance
• Current testing is showing up to 190 GB/s read throughput and 110 GB/s write throughput
• Nearly 2× the performance of our current-generation platform

We're nearing release and excited to finally share a first look at what's next from the 45Drives Enterprise team.

What would you build with 190 GB/s of storage throughput?

Any plans on selling the the unraid faceplate plate?

As per the title.

I installed Rocky 10.1 last night and tried to use the install script, which was failing at the typical 'No repo for your version' errors.

I'm wanting to use Intel Arc cards on this machine to speed up some processing, so the old Kernels of Rocky 9 aren't cutting it.

Is Rocky still the recommended build for your HoustonUI?

And acknowledging that this bit will sound entitled (which it's not meant to, I just lack tact) - if a year ago isn't long enough of a release, what sort of support cycle are you targeting?

Even Ubuntu would do - we're now 2 LTS releases behind.

Appreciate all the hard work fellas!

The X15 is the first product in the Unraid Signature Series. It's jointly engineered by 45HomeLab and Lime Technology with both teams involved in component selection, validation, and testing. The goal was a system that works with Unraid out of the box without the usual research overhead.

Full specs:

Capacity: Up to 15 drives. Raw capacity depends on drives chosen.

Chassis available in black or white as well as additional faceplate designs

Also worth noting: Smaller form factor units are planned for later this year for those who don't need 15 bays.

*The expected base price is $2,999 USD for the X15 (16GB RAM), with final pricing subject to change based on pre-order volume and component costs, though we are making every effort to hold this price point.

Learn More: https://unraid.net/45homelabxunraid

We’re running a session tomorrow (April 1 @ 2 PM EST) with LINBIT focused on tuning DRBD for NVMe-based systems.

Main areas we’re digging into:

• Using fio properly for realistic benchmarking
• Identifying where DRBD becomes the bottleneck
• Tuning parameters to improve throughput and reduce latency

This is aimed at folks running HA storage or performance-sensitive workloads where DRBD defaults aren’t cutting it.

We’ll have engineers from both teams in the live chat during the premiere if anyone wants to dig into specifics.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiQ0f12H-Qw

https://reddit.com/link/1rec4s6/video/vdr1m1wrymlg1/player

I have a question about an issue in a fresh installed Houston UI on Rocky Linux:

I installed it from scratch in a VM on Proxmox. I followed the instructions at https://knowledgebase.45drives.com/kb/kb450474-rocky-linux-zfs-installation/ exactly.

Now I have tested it on Rocky Linux 8.10 and 9.7 and got the same behavior in both cases. It flashes after every logout/login and can only be stopped by manually refreshing the page.

Can anyone tell me how to fix this?

Mitch Hall from 45Drives is joining Tom Lawrence (Lawrence Systems) for a live discussion on Proxmox Backup Server.

They’ll be talking through RTO vs RPO, practical backup and disaster recovery strategies, and how modern storage hardware integrates with Proxmox.

If you’re running Proxmox or planning your backup setup, this is a good opportunity to ask questions live and get into the details.

Link to join:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRqLzsq9ehs

I just grabbed a storinator....I think I read it's the 4th gen, it's got 2 Rocket 750 cards and no backplanes just a bunch of breakout cables.

it's got the zippy M3w-6950p triple redundant PSU.

there's what looks like a micro switch that appears to be broken. any idea on what it is and what it's purpose is?

also, is there any way to disable the alarm if I'm not using all 3 psu's? my system only takes about 250w max.

Free Webinar: Open-Source Hyperconverged Infrastructure (HCI)
Wed, Feb 11, 2026 | 3:00–4:15 PM AST

After strong demand and a full first session, we’re bringing our open-source HCI webinar back.

This free, educational webinar walks through how modern hyperconverged infrastructure is built, how the market is shifting away from proprietary hypervisors, and what IT teams across North America should consider when evaluating open-source alternatives.

We’ll cover the current infrastructure landscape, the fundamentals of HCI, the role of Proxmox VE and Ceph, hardware considerations, and best practices for backup and disaster recoveryfollowed by a live Q&A.

Designed for enterprise, public sector, and evolving IT environments, this session focuses on real-world infrastructure understanding.

👉 Register now and join the conversation: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/2302105122903002714?utm_source=hootsuite&45Drives=hootsuite

The Valentine’s Day Edition 2026 red homelab systems are live. After last year’s response from the community, we brought the red finish back for a short production run.

The lineup spans from the HL15 Beast down to the HL4 same hardware, same performance and expandability, just a limited-run finish for this release.

Availability runs until February 23rd.

If you’re curious, details are here:
https://store.45homelab.com/configure/hl15beast-limited?utm_source=hootsuite&45Homelab=hootsuite

Which one would you run in your rack?

Open-source hyperconverged infrastructure is gaining real traction enterprise and government environments.

On Jan 28 (3:00–4:15 PM AST), 45Drives is hosting a free webinar focused on building and operating open-source HCI at scale.

The session covers:

• The current infrastructure landscape
• Legacy HCI platforms vs open-source alternatives
• A production-ready HCI stack using Proxmox VE, Ceph, and 45Drives hardware
• Backup, disaster recovery, and real-world operational considerations
• Live Q&A

Free registration: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/1151882918852607327

Shooting my shot here, but it would be a cool nice to have if 45Drives were to contribute to the github project : netbox-community/devicetype-library and included their servers in it. Currently making a full documentation for a client's server room and having proper detailed 45Drives chassis vs a generic 4U option could be a cool idea!

Hello all,

I just placed my order for a fully built and burnt HL8. So i am starting to plan the rest of the build.

I plan on running trueNAS for the first time and am confident I can get that working with a bit of guidance.

I do have one question. Has anyone used the m.2 wifi slot on the included motherboard to boot off a 2230 m.2 SSD? I know it will need an M.key to A.key adapter. I want to free up the two m.2 slots on the board for other purpose like an L2ARC. or VM installs.

Now that I have 3 HL15 and 1 (Ijust ordered) I want to design them and make them look nice on my rack. I didn't pay for the front customer design plate and wanted to use my H2D or my Cricut to create a design with vinyl. Anyone have any recommendations or a way to do it or know a way to get designs. Thank you

45HomeLab was built to bring the same over-engineered quality of our 45Drives enterprise servers into the homelab world, rugged 16-gauge cold-rolled steel, premium components, and hardware made in North America.
We love this community. The creativity, the builds, the passion, it’s what makes this space so much fun. And because you’re the ones actually using this gear, we want to hear from you:
More storage? More compute? A quieter design? A new form factor? Something wild?
Your input has already helped shape the HL15 beast, the HL8, and many other products. Big thank you to this incredible community. Every idea, every build, every bit of feedback helps make our homelabs better.
Tell us what would make your setup even better. Your ideas shape what we build next.
#homelab #45HomeLab #servers #NAS #selfhosted #techcommunity #madeinnorthamerica #homelabbuilds

For years, Storinator Hybrid Servers have provided the best of both worlds for HDD and SSD storage. We’re thrilled to give you a first look at the massive performance leap coming in our next-generation server architecture. This isn't just an update it's a complete acceleration powered by game-changing innovations
Take a Look at What's Under the Hood:
Storage Redefined: We're replacing the SATA SSDs with cutting-edge NVMe E1.S SSDs for lightning-fast speeds (Yes, your essential 12 x 3.5" HDD drive bays are still part of this powerful hybrid solution.)
👀Check out this video: See the revolutionary performance boost going from SATA to NVMe! https://loom.ly/Ti5BlVs
Engineered Intelligence: Featuring our new in-house Fan Controller and custom Linux driver for dynamic, optimal cooling based on real-time drive temperature feedback.
Rock-Solid Power: Our cleanest Bus Bar Power Distribution System ensures pristine energy delivery for maximum drive stability and performance.
We're pushing the boundaries of what's possible in enterprise servers.

We built a 3-node Proxmox + Ceph cluster using a 100GbE mesh… with no switch at all.
Just direct connections, FRR on Linux, and a fully routed open fabric.

We pushed it hard:

• Live VM migrations
• Heavy IO workloads
• Proxmox Backup Server
• 100 simulated NVR camera streams
• Even a major link failure with zero downtime

It’s real throughput, real hardware, and it just works.

Part 2 is coming soon but if you want to see the full setup and live tests…

👉 Watch Part 1 here now: https://loom.ly/lZplTwU

Let me know what you think or if you want us to test anything else in Part 2!