One last upgrade for my Acer H340

[name stolen]

I absolutely agree with you to be cautious with new hardware and a really old PSU. And the "borrowing" kind of sucks, without credit given. But I think that hardware selection could run 85% utilization all day without breaking a 190W sweat. I probably wouldn't do it beyond a powerup and benchmark run.

 

[MBastian]

And the "borrowing" kind of sucks, without credit given.

He sort of revealed it in an answer to a question. Thus some bloke approached me here asking if he could send me his H341 to be converted.
Scanning through his portfolio I bet much of his pieces are based on discussion and articles from STH. Sort of inevitable and I bet even the "big guys" like Linus do this ... or more likely have their staff doing it.

But I think that hardware selection could run 85% utilization all day without breaking a 190W sweat. I probably wouldn't do it beyond a powerup and benchmark run.

It's not straight 190W. It's 140W max on the 12v line. At least the CPU and the disk drives derive their power from +12V. That like 4-10W per drive and, depending on BIOS and OS setting up to 90W for the CPU. I clamped my 4650G to 45W TDP but my whole setup can still reach 150W when pushed. The current wisdom is not to exceed 70% of a PSUs rated capacity. So any sane build would try to stay below 100W on +12V and 40W on +5V. Thus my search for a more capable PSU back when I contemplated the upgrade.
Besides: My H340 is still going strong. No thermal problems at all, even when it was running in an attic room. It is no longer running 24/7 as I have my families daily media needs on a 5TB 2.5" HDD plugged into a Turris Omina which syncs itself if there is a change on the main NAS. If I need it can start it via WOL.

 

[Cycle Sense]

Hello All,

I just brought back to life an old Acer H340 back to life. The original motherboard gave up the ghost so I decided to upgrade the motherboard to add some functionality using TrueNAS Scale. This Forum was of great help. So to pay it forward I have collected everything in one spot so future people can convert their machines without all the leg work.

This link was of great help to power the back plane

Weltherrschaft und andere Dinge » Acer Aspire easyStore H341 backplane Schaltplan

Elektronik, Musik, Musikelektronik und Boxenbau

web.archive.org

Spinning up the 4 drives at once does not seem to be an issue. I may build a small delay circuit that delays the current by a second if I feel its an issue and connect it to the Sata 3 +4 drive slots if I need it.

attached is a PDF I wrote with the pinouts for all the cables and my notes. The Schematic is curtesy of the link above which helped greatly. A lot of probing with a multi-meter got the rest done.

Also some pictures of the end product.

Note: that I ended up using the Copy/Transfer Switch on the front panel as a reset switch. The power switch works as normal.

I was able to figure out the HDD, Power and Net lights. Problem was it was going to be way more work then it was worth to adapt them to the new motherboard. It wasn't going to be an easy "snip the leads and plug into the new Header" situation so I just left it. I may end up putting some LEDs of my own in there if I really need it or repurpose the other Drive LEDs if I really want it. If you want to get the LEDs to work "normally" it looks like you would need to supply +5 volts to the Front panel board as per the pinouts PDF and make an interface board that would translate the 3.3v signal from a standard motherboard header to ground out Pin 6 Green with HDD activity.

I was able to get the Front USB 2.0 port fully functional.

​	Pin​	​	​	Pin​	​
Turns off White LED on “i” with 3.3V​	9​	White​	Black​	1​	Goes to R13, Not sure of function​
grounds circuit on Power Switch​	10​	Purple​	Brown​	2​	grounds circuit on File Xfer Switch​
Turns off LED on “Xfer” with 3.3V​	11​	Green​	Red​	3​	Turns off Purple LED on “i” with 3.3V​
Turns on Net LED when grounded when yellow powered​	12​	Blue​	Orange​	4​	Goes to R269, Not sure of Function​
+5V to Board​	13​	Black​	Yellow​	5​	+5V to Board​
Goes to R271, Not sure of use​	14​	Brown​	Green​	6​	Turns on HDD On Ground when yellow powered​
Ground​	15​	Red​	Blue​	7​	goes to R11, Lights up PWR LED 5V​
Ground​	16​	Orange​	Purple​	8​	goes to R11, Lights up PWR LED 5V​
​	​	​	​	​	​
​	​	​	​	​	​
10 Pin BackPlane​	looking at back of connector with index tabs to right​	​	​	​	​
​	Pin​	​	​	Pin​	​
Fan RPM​	10​	Brown​	Black​	1​	Ground​
FAN PWM Control repusposed as +5V​	9​	Orange​	Red​	2​	OTPA​
Charges Sata Power Slot 1 + 2​	8​	Green​	Yellow​	3​	Back Plane Temp Sensor​
Charges Sata Power Slot 3 + 4​	7​	Purple​	Blue​	4​	Back Plane Temp Sensor​
Ground​	6​	White​	Grey​	5​	Ground​
​	​	​	​	​	​
​	​	​	​	​	​
10 Pin USB Connector​	looking at back of connector with index tabs to right​	​	​	​	​
​	Pin​	​	​	Pin​	​
+5V​	1​	Red​	Red​	6​	+5V​
NA​	2​	White​	White​	7​	Data – USB PORT Front Panel​
NA​	3​	Green​	Green​	8​	Data + USB PORT Front Panel​
Ground​	4​	Black​	Black​	9​	Ground​
Ground​	5​	Black​	Black​	10​	Ground​

the end result.

J5040-ITX
4 core, 10w Cpu @ 2Ghz
with 16GB RAM
Samsung 980 NVME drive 256GB mounted to a PCIe 1X carrier board as a boot
All 4 drive bays function.
No LEDs light up
I added an A+E Key M.2 adaptor to add 2 more Sata ports to the board for a total of 6 Sata ports. they will be used for Esata connections in the future, still testing this though.

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B09MSWNF7X?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1

Running TrueNAS Scale.

Hope this helps someone. Please double check your connections and verify these findings with your board. I am not responsible if you fry something.