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The Radxa Taco is a carrier board that lets you turn a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 into a network attached storage system. It should also work with Raspberry Pi CM4-compatible systems like the Radxa CM3, which is helpful at a time when Raspberry Pi hardware can be hard to come by.

While the compute module acts as the brains of the operation, the Taco adds connectors for up to 5 hard drives or SSDs, an M.2 slot for a PCIe SSD, USB and Ethernet ports, and a connector that can be used for wireless or AI accelerator modules.

First unveiled last year, the Radxa Taco has been hard to come by. But now it’s available for purchase from Allnet China for $95. And if you don’t like the idea of exposing all of your storage and networking gear to dust and other environmental irritants, CNX Software reports that Allnet is also working on an enclosure for the Taco.

One one side of the board there are 5 SATA interfaces that can be used for 2.5 inch hard drives or SSDs that are up to 15mm thick. You can also connect 3.5 inch drives, but you’ll need to use a cable as they won’t fit atop the board itself.

On the other side you’ll find an M.2 2280 socket for PCIe NVMe storage, an M.2 E Key that can be used for a WiFi card or Google Coral AI module, the connector for a Raspberry Pi CM4 or compatible compute module and a set of ports that includes:

  • 1 x 2.5 Gbps Ethernet
  • 1 x Gigabit Ethernet
  • 1 x USB 2.0 Type-A port
  • 1 x HDMI port
  • 1 x microSD card reader

There are also a set of activity LED lights, a Maskrom key, an ATX power supply connector, a DC power input jack, a fan connector, and a spot for a CR1225 RTC battery.

via CNX Software

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6 replies on “Radxa Taco board turns a Raspberry Pi CM4 or Radxa CM3 into network-attached storage”

  1. Now sit down and add the costs of all part +, case, cables, brackets and power supply etc.

    Not so cheap after all and home built with no warranty.

    🤔

    1. Comparable to building it out of PC parts really. Especially right now where your only option is to put it in a PC case.
      It seems prices come out around $200 either way (<a href=https://pcpartpicker.com/list/2qBZd9″>if you opt for 8gb of RAM in your build), which is still cheaper than or comparable to a typical 5 bay NAS and might offer better performance.
      PC parts use more power but so will the hard drives and you’ll be able to use generic ISOs, not SoC-specific images.

      1. A PI4 is not equivalent to a AMD Ryzen 5. So not a like for like comparison.

        1. It’s just an example. I didn’t think spending a lot of time looking for an exact comparison was worth it just to give an example to demonstrate the possibility of spending about as much on PC parts.

  2. Yeah, they’d better be working on an enclosure, one with rails to hold up the hard drives, because that’s, uh, not really useful for the connectors that make it special without one. Hope it doesn’t throw a fit if you try to hot swap a hard drive.
    And the way I’d set it up, I’d kind of prefer if the soldered-on buttons were on the same side as the activity LEDs.

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