Storaxa kickstarter - an interesting small NAS

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Marsh

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May 12, 2013
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Copy and paste from the kickstarter campaign comments posted 5 hours ago
You be the judge
FYI, I am still a backer for now


StoraxaCreatorabout 5 hours ago

Cost break down summary:
$80 PCB
$22 DDR4 16GB RAM
$10 WiFi Module
$10 120GB SSD
$14 Case
$7 120W Power Supply
$5 Others
Total: $148

StoraxaCreator
I understand your point but no one will order stuff on Ali Express in China, we use a similar platform from Alibaba called 1688.com,


For 1688, the language display is only available in Chinese. If you look at the site’s order quantity and price, you can see if you order more than 100pcs, the price will go down to less than 700RMB (which is about 100USD). Please note that we have gotten over 1900 orders now. I also want to point out that the supplier on 1688.com is also a reseller. We are dealing with the mass production manufacturer directly, that means the price is even lower than the price shown on the site. Unfortunately, Ali Express’ price is for overseas clients. Local companies all know how to source at a better price.

Sure, we can provide a cost breakdown. We are happy to provide the information to alleviate any concerns.
 
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Haldi

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Jan 9, 2023
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Screenshot_20230118-122659_Firefox.png

Any Questions you have about the Team or the Project can now be asked and they will answer them.
So if you think this is a scam because of XYZ now is your chance to get answers.

https://www.kickstarter.com/project...0zODc5NTI4Mg==&reply=Q29tbWVudC0zODc5NjQ2NA==

P.S Hardware Transcoding via Plex works on Proxmox and N6005.
 

Yusseiin

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Jan 18, 2023
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Hi all,
first time here :)
I have experience with a dedicated server with i7 7700 on Hetzner, i am using it for Plex ( HW Trancoding ) and other service and it is working like a charm but the cost it is getting pretty expensive.
I was searching for an HomeNas at the lowest budget and found this "Storaxa" but with the N6005 i am not so convinced that it's enough to get a good result in HW transcoding with other service running in background.
The AMD Cpu seems a better choice but the compatibility for know seems awful.
Someone has experience with N6005 and can prove me wrong?

Sorry for bad eng.
 

Haldi

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Jan 9, 2023
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Try searching for users with the N5095 or N5105 which are pretty much the same CPU but more widely used.
 

nozama

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Dec 1, 2020
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yeah, the 11th gen ATOM is pretty good for the money, power consumption and performance. However, these ATOM only have 8 PCIE 3.0 lanes, split between the LAN, SATA, M.2, WiFi, and the U.2(?!). 5 of the 6 SATA seems to be split from a JMB585, and M.2 are using only 1 lane (pcie3.0 x1?), but still, not sure about the speed of the U.2 and the NVME cradle. If the U.2 is hooked up correctly, this is much better than that 1688 (or CWWK) board that's been around since last Sept. This is great for home lab or just home NAS, just hope that they have more info on how things are wired up and what performance should we expect. Also, no overheating on the 2.5Gbe chips, I hope.
p.s. I am guessing that U.2 is modded from the 2nd M.2 (ASMedia ASM2812X PCIe switch bridged over pcie3.0 x1 ?), unless they did a major work on the mobo.... sad...
 
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Yusseiin

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Jan 18, 2023
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Finally they add an intel CPU upgrade option.
For now i will stick with N6005 that seems the cheap option ( around 250€ ), upgrading the CPU will skyrocket the cost and i am still pretty unsure that they won't run away with the money.
 

vamega

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Nov 8, 2022
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I'm probably going to back out of this.
It seems too fantastical, and the upgrades increasing the SKUs makes the MOQ based discounts seem small.

Let alone requiring the creation of modified PCB to support the i5/i7 chip, since I've not seen one from CWWK that's a NAS yet.
They do have a i3/i5/i7 mini pc/router, that's got 6 ports (https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804991358673.html), and this could probably form the basis for their upgraded chips.

But customzing PCBs, validating things work, and shipping them out successfully seems too fantastical.
I wanted to believe in this, and I want this to exist which is probably what got me to back it.

If they do end up launching I'll pay the premium for buying it without the kickstarter "discount".
Or maybe I'll just buy the i5 motherboard directly from CWWK/Topton when it shows up on Aliexpress.

If I needed a more complete product right now, I'd probably buy this things via a TaoBao Agent.
(暢網(ChangWang)AIO-T6六盤位企業級nas私有雲網路儲存Unraid正版授權磁盤陣共享備份雲盤 - Taobao)

Seems like $280 for the base model, or $400 for the 32G-512G version.
Shipping to the US probably adds $50 to a $100 from what I'd been able to gather from the some TaoBao agent websites I looked up.

I'm surprised Topton/Kingnovy haven't made this available on AliExpress with some markup.
 

Marsh

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May 12, 2013
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Don’t bet more than you can afford to lose.

The original base model is exactly what I want and need. I am sticking with the base model .

Not paying attention to CPU upgrade, feature creep and price creep.

I do not need the 4 x m2 slot, if the 4 x m2 works, it is extra.
I do not want faster CPU , 10gbe. Just want to have low power, unit that does not overhead.

Storaxa is just as system integrator.
The project is not rocket science.
Proxmox runs on the N6505 already , no big deal.

All I need to have system to run Ubuntu or Debain.
 

mirrormax

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Apr 10, 2020
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didnt realize people still back KS projects with the insane high rate of either straight scam, or just unable to deliver any kind of product for announced price.

also really shitty that any news outlet or youtuber cover these projects unless they are from really credible people or already shipping products.
i remember linus covering the dune case(mac pro case for pc for like 250$) among others, which led to more than a million USD pledged to the founder that still hasnt delivered any sort of product, but you can now buy a super high quality replica from china for like 1k usd which makes more sense considering the quality/material used on it.
 

vamega

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Nov 8, 2022
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Don’t bet more than you can afford to lose.

The original base model is exactly what I want and need. I am sticking with the base model .

Not paying attention to CPU upgrade, feature creep and price creep.

I do not need the 4 x m2 slot, if the 4 x m2 works, it is extra.
I do not want faster CPU , 10gbe. Just want to have low power, unit that does not overhead.

Storaxa is just as system integrator.
The project is not rocket science.
Proxmox runs on the N6505 already , no big deal.

All I need to have system to run Ubuntu or Debain.
While I'm fortunate enough to be able to afford to lose the cost of a storaxa, I'd prefer not to. Given that the manufacturer tjems themselves sell a NAS for more than they're charging, I can't see how they're going to get a discount large enough to make this feasible.

If they do ship a product, I guess I'll buy it at retail pricing.
 

mirrormax

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Apr 10, 2020
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its just a massively minus EV play to back most of these projects, especially when it has already hit the goal.
you get a slight discount if it does ship, compared to buying it after they ship. but everytime they dont ship you lose all your money and financed another crowdsourcing scam.
if you can afford to lose the money, cant you afford to pay slightly more if its succesfull?
 

vamega

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Nov 8, 2022
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I ended up reaching out to the CWWK store on aliexpress, and expressed interest in buying the NAS from them.
Within 24 hours they had put up a listing of the NAS on Aliexpress.

It's $428 (including shipping) for the N6005 barebones.
Given that CWWK (Changwang) is almost certainly the manufacturer for this product, it's hard to see how Storaxa can produce this at ~ $265 including shipping.

Yes this is the Aliexpress price, which means Aliexpress takes a cut. Still hard to imagine that they're able to bring it to by %40 (not including the additional components like the ASM PCIE multiplexer, the additional m.2 ssd slots, the wifi module, and god knows what else).
 

grad

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Jan 9, 2021
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I don't even care about the hardware, software, I don't care if someone just lego-builds components and asks marginal compensation for assembling it for you, if the design is suboptimal etc. As far as I hate established companies overpricing their products and lock you into ecosystems (e.g. QNap, Synology, everyone), I am not going to back any kickstarter project again unless 1) it comes from a reputable manufacturer (I backed Cyrus Audio for a DAC and I was more than happy with the result) or 2) it comes from reputable and active member of a community (I backed MRz+ UHD Music Server from unknowns in HongKong/China region and these thieves only produced fake videos, stole our money and vanished).

I can't accuse or predict but I learned to be extra cautious. It is not about the money and time wasted, it is the lie that hurts. I hope backers at least get something in return but even then I wouldn't trust it to be supported.
 
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Yusseiin

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Jan 18, 2023
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It's $428 (including shipping) for the N6005 barebones.
Given that CWWK (Changwang) is almost certainly the manufacturer for this product, it's hard to see how Storaxa can produce this at ~ $265 including shipping.

Yes this is the Aliexpress price, which means Aliexpress takes a cut. Still hard to imagine that they're able to bring it to by %40 (not including the additional components like the ASM PCIE multiplexer, the additional m.2 ssd slots, the wifi module, and god knows what else).
They told in the comments that they will not outsource components on Aliexpress, but directly from supplier.
They link this chinese site https://detail.1688.com/offer/684010688925.html?spm=a26352.13672862.offerlist.6.25a12f73uXyJ4s that is selling the board with N5105/N6005 at 700 Yuan (100$) if you order more than 100 piece.They have more than 5.500 piece so for sure the price will be lower.
I think that the price is pretty clear and do not seems a scam.
For me it is more
They will deliver?
Will this work?
 

mirrormax

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Apr 10, 2020
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so even more expensive if its aluminium custom design, with 4x m.2 connectors and adapters, 5x sata 5x sata power etc.
also the board linked dosnt have usb 3.1 on back ports, nor internal headers for usb 3.2, so must be a custom board, a PCIE switch chip to do 1 u.2 to 4 m.2.
 
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