Cloudshell for XU4 is a $39 NAS Kit for ODROID-XU4 Board

Hardkernel launched ODROID-XU4 development board a couple of weeks ago. The board is a low cost ($74) update to ODROID-XU3 development board, with an Exynos 5422 octa core processor (4x A15, 4x A7), 2GB RAM, Gigabit Ethernet and USB 3.0, making it a pretty good target for a NAS.  It’s easy to connect all requires parts such as hard drive and power supply together, but it would normally be a mess on your desk. So the company create a NAS kit for the board with an enclosure, cables, fans, and even an LCD display with they call Cloudshell for XU4 for sell for $39, so you can get a high relatively high performance NAS for around $113 + shipping, which will vary depending on your distributor, as well as an HDD or SSD drive.

Cloudshell kit content:

• Enclosure with top and bottom covers, rear, front and side panels. Available in Smoky-Blue or Smoky-White as shown above.
• CloudShell board with a 2.2″ TFT color LCD (320×240), a SATA connector (via Genesis GL3321G USB 3.0 to SATA bridge), and IR receiver
• A 30-pin GPIO ribbon cable (5 cm) to connect the CloudShell board to ODROID-XU4
• A USB 3.0 type A-B cable (30 cm) to connect the two boards.
• Screws & Nuts –  14 x 6 mm Philips screws, 6 x 5 mm Philips screws, 4 x 5 mm Hex Nuts , 4 x 3 mm screws
• Metallic Spacers – 2 x 21 mm male-female spacers, 4 x 25mm female hex PCB spacers, 2 x 47 mm female hex PCB spacer
• 4 x adhesive silicon feet

The assembly instructions can be found on the product page. Hardkernel does not provide a specific image for the NAS function, so you’d simply have to install one of the Ubuntu images, and configure the services you’d like to use [Update: To setup the IR and LCD, visit the Wiki]. Such solution was benchmarked at ~80 MB/s (download) and ~70 MB/s (upload) while transferring a 1.6GB files from/to a SAMBA share configured in ODROID-XU4.

Thanks to Onebir and Nitin for the tip.

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.

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