Add SSD NAS post (#3)

Author: norbertas

package-lock.json

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+---
+title: Turning Lenovo M720q Tiny into a 3-SSD TrueNAS box
+pubDate: "2026-01-17"
+description: "NAS with 2xNVME SSD and 1 SATA SSD"
+image: './og-image.jpg'
+---
+
+Some time ago I replaced my custom pfSense router with a [UniFi Cloud Gateway Ultra](https://techspecs.ui.com/unifi/cloud-gateways/ucg-ultra).
+That left me with a Lenovo Tiny PC sitting on the shelf with no real purpose. Instead of relying on an old external HDD for storage, I liked the idea of turning the M720q into a small NAS.
+
+My first idea was to connect a few HDDs directly, but that would mean keeping the drives outside the M720q with messy cabling. Then I started wondering: could this be an SSD-only NAS, and how many drives can actually fit inside a Lenovo M720q Tiny?
+
+
+# Parts
+- PCIe riser card – already had  
+- Ugreen PCIe NVMe adapter ([link to Amazon](https://www.amazon.de/-/en/UGREEN-Adapter-Heatsink-64Gbps-Supports/dp/B08TBW12B8/))  
+- 2× [Patriot P320 2TB NVMe SSDs](https://www.patriotmemory.com/products/p320-pcie-m-2-internal-ssd)  
+- Existing SATA SSD for the OS  
+
+# Putting it all together
+
+Out of the box the M720q supports one NVMe SSD and one SATA SSD.
+By using a PCIe riser with an NVMe adapter, there is just enough space to add a second NVMe drive, giving a total of three SSDs.
+
+![Added additional NVMe drive](riser-with-ssd.jpg)  
+
+The SATA SSD ended up resting on top of the NVMe drive without its original enclosure, so airflow is probably optimistic - but everything fits and the case still closes.
+
+
+![All assembled](assembled.jpg)
+
+
+I installed [TrueNAS Scale](https://www.truenas.com/truenas-community-edition/). The two NVMe drives are configured as a mirrored ZFS pool, with the SATA SSD used only for the OS.
+
+Planned usage:
+- NFS shares for my Proxmox node  
+- Samba shares for local file storage  
+- Time Machine backups for my MacBook