Radxa Penta SATA HAT - does it support 3.5" HDD (not SSD)

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I’m willing to build a NAS, with 2 WD 8TB HDD in RAID1 mode.

The Radxa Penta SATA HAT seems like a great choice, but I’d like to know if it does really support HDDs link for these: https://www.westerndigital.com/en-gb/products/internal-drives/wd-purple-sata-hdd?sku=WD84PURZ

Thanks a lot

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Yes, 3.5 drives are supported via extension sata cables and there was also external cage available for those. Obviously 3.5 drives won’t fit directly into board like 2.5 can.

Here is photo from wiki:

You can use molex to sata power connector from board. Also there is one extra esata port for 3.5 drive.

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Hi marcusn,

The Radxa Penta SATA HAT can use 3.5-inch hard disks. And we have updated the power selection section of the usage document[1] to help users choose the right power supply mode.

I checked the specifications[2] for the WD84PURZ and I couldn’t find its peak current, so I wasn’t quite sure it would work with the Penta SATA HAT.

We generally recommend that users use a hard disk with a peak current of less than 1.8A, and a hard disk with a capacity of less than 12T on the market will generally have a peak current of less than 1.8A.

The average read/write power consumption of the WD84PURZ is relatively low, and I suspect its peak current will not be very high.

[1] https://docs.radxa.com/en/accessories/penta-sata-hat/penta-for-rpi5#power-supply-selection
[2] https://documents.westerndigital.com/content/dam/doc-library/en_us/assets/public/western-digital/product/internal-drives/wd-purple-hdd/product-brief-wd-purple-hdd.pdf

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Perfect!! Thanks a lot for the detailed info, @setq and @dominik.
Just bought the shield and will put it all together asap.

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Can’t find this image on the Wiki. Do you have a link to that drive expansion?

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The one from photo is available on allnet: https://shop.allnetchina.cn/products/internal-sata-iii-drive-enclosure

But You don’t need to limit yourself to this particular one, almost any sata backplane and cage should work. Browse local market for server components and You will find more cheap (4 bays) options (great for quat sata hat) and for penta sata hat if You are using fifth drive somewhere.