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Build an AlexaPi with Amazon Alexa & Raspberry Pi

Build an AlexaPi with Amazon Alexa and Raspberry Pi
Build an AlexaPi with Amazon Alexa and Raspberry Pi

Introduction

Today I want to show you how you can build your very own Amazon Echo with Alexa, on a Raspberry Pi using the excellent AlexaPi package by renekliment at GitHub. It’s not as complicated as you’d think and works just like the real thing, and I offer a free, sleek 3D printed case plans to print on your own 3D printer, or use a 3D printing service (which are pretty cheap). I also highly recommend installing the Gordon Ramsay Skill Set (free) so he can tell you how bad your cooking is 🙂

[youtube=”https://youtu.be/MlJrmqjPZhQ”]

Contents

  1. Introduction, Hardware Requirements, Flash Raspbian to microSD card
  2. Create an Amazon Developer account, Setup Device & Security Profile
  3. Update Raspbian, Install AlexaPi, Summary

Hardware Requirements

The hardware required for this project is reasonably easy to acquire, but the speaker needs to be a specific type/brand if you want to 3D print the case as it’s designed to slot into the top, but I’ll give you all the relevant links.

Raspberry Pi

You can use either a Raspberry Pi 3 or 2B models for this project, along with a minimum 8GB microSD card and a good quality power adapter for your Pi. Best to buy a starter pack which you’ll find on the links below.

Microphone and Speaker

Pretty much any mini USB microphone will do the trick, and I have given links below for the specific speaker (A10 Mini Speaker) depending on whether you’re printing the 3D case, if you’re not printing the case, you can use any speakers you like.

Case

I am giving away the 3D case print files for nix which are available here. You will need to follow the instructions to build the case.

Once booted up, just say "Alexa" then ask anything you like
Once booted up, just say “Alexa” then ask anything you like

 

Flash Raspbian

Let’s get started. Now we need to flash your microSD card with the Raspbian operating system. You’ll need a microSD card of 8GB or more and the application Etcher to transfer the .img file to it (Etcher supports Windows, Linux and MAC).

  1. Download the latest version of Raspbian (full version, not lite) from raspberrypi.org
  2. Click on and extract the .img file and take note of it’s location
  3. If not already installed, download and install Etcher for Windows, Linux or MAC
  4. Insert your microSD card into a card reader, close any automatic windows, prompts or alerts
  5. Fire up Etcher which should detect the microSD card automatically (important! if you have multiple choices, be sure to choose the SD card we are working with)
  6. Click on the Select Image button, navigate to your Raspbian .img file, select it and/or click Open
  7. Once you’re sure you have everything right by double checking, click on the Flash! button
  8. Etcher will now start the flashing process, click Yes to the Windows prompt, and close any automatic alerts/windows that show shortly afterwards
  9. Flashing should take about 5 minutes, then you’ll be presented with the “Flash Complete!” dialog
  10. Close Etcher, remove the card reader and microSD card
  11. Insert the microSD card into your Raspberry Pi

Now we can move on to the next section Create an Amazon Developer account, Setup Device & Security Profile.

Build a Raspberry Pi RAID NAS Server – Complete DIY Guide

Build a Raspberry Pi3 RAID NAS Server – Complete DIY Guide

Introduction

Today I will show you how to build a Raspberry Pi 3 RAID NAS server using USB flash drives, the Linux native RAID application mdadm, and SAMBA so the drive will show up as a normal network folder on Windows PC’s. It’s a pretty easy tutorial and shows you how to create a Linux RAID array which is a good skill to have.

Contents

  1. Introduction, Hardware Requirements & RAID Levels
  2. Install/Update Raspbian 9.x “Stretch” and mdadm
  3. Setup RAID Volume & File System
  4. Install/Setup SAMBA, Summary

Hardware Requirements

Raspberry Pi

You can use Raspberry Pi’s from version 2 onwards, so 2B, 2B+ and RPi 3’s are fine, but I recommend the latest Raspberry Pi 3. You’ll also need a good quality microUSB power pack suitable for the Raspberry Pi you’re using, if in doubt, just buy a combo pack that comes with case, power pack and other goodies.

USB Flash Drives

We will be using USB2.0 flash drives for our RAID array because RPi’s (all versions) only support USB2.0, so there’s no use spending up big on USB3.0 drives (unless you want to). The drives should all be the same size and preferably the same manufacturer for a good RAID array however, if you have an odd one out, just make sure it’s the same size or larger than the smallest drive.

In terms of drive size, your budget will be the determining factor, so just get what you can afford. Remember that with RAID-0 you get the total amount of all drives put together, so 2x 64GB drives will give you 128GB. RAID-1 will halve your total capacity, so 2x 64GB drives will give you 64GB, and RAID-5/6 will give you roughly 2/3 of total capacity, so 3x 64GB drives will give you 128GB of storage. RAID-10 will halve you total capacity, so 4x 64GB drives will give you 128GB storage (more about RAID levels further below).

RAID Levels

The number of drives you have with determine what RAID level you will be able to create. I suggest 3 (or more) drives which is the minimum required for a RAID-4/5 array that offers a good balance between redundancy and speed. If you only have 2 drives, I suggest using RAID-0, and even though there is no redundancy, RAID-0 rarely fails on solid state media. I have had my workstation running on SATA-3 SSD RAID-0 for years and it never skips a beat, but If you’re storing important files, definitely go with RAID-1.

If you’re confident in your Linux skills you can create a RAID-10 array with 4 drives, which is 2 sets of RAID-1, then each set is used to form a RAID-0 array giving you the benefit of speed and redundancy (I will show you how to create all types of Linux RAID arrays).

Number of Drives RAID Level Availability
2
  • RAID-0 Stripe (Fastest, but no redundancy)
  • RAID-1 Mirror (Excellent redundancy, good speed)
3
  • RAID-0 Stripe (Fastest, but no redundancy)
  • RAID-4 Dedicated parity disk (Good speed & redundancy)
  • RAID-5 Block-level striping with distributed parity (Excellent speed & redundancy)
4
  • RAID-6 Block-level striping with two parity blocks distributed across all member disks (Excellent speed & redundancy)
  • RAID 10 (nested RAID 1+0) (Excellent speed and redundancy)

Once you’ve chosen a desired RAID level you’re happy with, let’s move onto Install/Update Raspbian 9.x “Stretch” and mdadm.

Build Your Own Mini-ITX Firewall with IPFire – Complete DIY Guide

Build Your Own Mini-ITX Firewall with IPFire - Complete DIY Guide

Introduction

Today I will show you how to build your very own compact Mini-ITX Firewall using easily sourced parts with the excellent (and Open Source) IPFire firewall operating system. You can also use any old PC with an extra Ethernet card, but this guide does focus on the Mini-ITX form factor and parts suitable for it. I will also give you links to the sources for each part.

Contents

  1. Introduction, Hardware
  2. The build
  3. Motherboard BIOS settings, Installing IPFire
  4. Basic IPFire configuration, Summary

Hardware

Mini-ITX is becoming more and more popular as parts become much cheaper to buy, and more variety (like cases) become available. Mini-ITX is also the perfect form-factor for things like firewalls and VPN routers, that’s why I am using it in this guide. We also don’t need a high-spec motherboard, fast CPU or tons of RAM with IPFire (and all other Open Source firewall offerings btw) as it has minimum hardware requirement of 1GHz CPU, 1GB RAM, 4GB hard drive and 2 Ethernet ports. This means you can source older Mini-ITX motherboards which will be cheaper but still perform perfectly well.

Motherboard, CPU & RAM

An ideal motherboard for this project is one with an Onboard CPU, this means the CPU is hard-wired to the motherboard and is non-removable or upgradable. A lot of Mini-ITX motherboards were (and still are) made with this type of setup and are plentiful on websites like eBay and Amazon second-hand. If you prefer to buy a new Mini-ITX motherboard visit Logic Supply, Mini-Box or the usual NewEgg, TigerDirect, MicroCenter, NCIX.

I already have a Gigabyte GA-J1900N-D3V Mini-ITX motherboard from an earlier project that has 2 Gigabit LAN ports, a Quad-Core Celeron J1900 CPU running at 2GHz and takes low-voltage DDR3L SODIMM laptop RAM. I already have 4GB DDR3L RAM, perfect for this kind of "always-on" build.

  • RECOMMENDED HARDWARE
  • Mini-ITX form factor motherboard
  • 1GHz CPU or higher
  • 2GB RAM or higher
  • 1 Gigabit Ethernet port or more
  • If only 1 Ethernet port, you will need at least one expansion slot either PCI-Express, Mini-PCI-Express or PCI for extra Ethernet port
  • Predefined eBay search for Mini-ITX motherboards or motherboard & CPU combos
Gigabyte GA-J1900N-D3V Mini-ITX Motherboard
Gigabyte GA-J1900N-D3V Mini-ITX Motherboard

Ethernet Expansion Card Options

IPFire (and all other firewall OS’s) need a minimum of 2 Ethernet ports, one for Green LAN and one for Red WAN, my motherboard already has two Gigabit LAN ports built-in, but finding a motherboard like this is difficult, and usually expensive, so it’s likely you will need to use an expansion card to add another LAN port.

Most Mini-ITX mobo’s come with either a Mini PCI-Express port, a PCI-Express x1 slot or a traditional PCI slot, so you will need to buy an expansion card to suit. If you have any choice between them, choose Mini-PCIe first, then PCIe x1 and lastly PCI. If one of the last two options, you will likely need to buy an extension ribbon cable depending on the size of your case (see links and pics below).

1-Port PCIe Gb LAN Mini PCIe Module 8111ME
1-Port PCIe Gb LAN Mini PCIe Module 8111ME
2-Port PCIe Gb LAN Mini PCIe Module 8111ME-D
2-Port PCIe Gb LAN Mini PCIe Module 8111ME-D
TP-Link TG-3468 PCI-Express x1 Gigabit Ethernet Card
TP-Link TG-3468 PCI-Express x1 Gigabit Ethernet Card
PCI-Express x1 Riser Extension Ribbon Cable
PCI-Express x1 Riser Extension Ribbon Cable
Intel 1-Port 10/100/1000 PCI Network Adapter PWLA8391GT
Intel 1-Port 10/100/1000 PCI Network Adapter PWLA8391GT
TP-Link TG-3269 PCI Gigabit Ethernet Adapter Card
TP-Link TG-3269 PCI Gigabit Ethernet Adapter Card
PCI Riser Extender Card Angle
PCI Riser Extender Card Angle
PCI Riser Ribbon Cable
PCI Riser Ribbon Cable

Most firewalls use a Red, Green, Blue and Orange network topology with a physical LAN port required for each. As a minimum you’ll need Red and Green (2 LAN ports) but you can also add LAN ports for Orange DMZ or Virtual Server or Blue for WiFi network.

IPFire Red, Green, Blue, Orange Network Topology Diagram
IPFire Red, Green, Blue, Orange Network Topology Diagram

Hard Drive & CD/DVD Drive

There are two hard drive options I would like to show you; the first being a standard SSD hard drive which is the easier option, the second is a special SATA to SDHC Card Adapter that enables the use of an SD card attached to the SATA interface to act as a normal hard drive. Either of these options are fine and they both attach to the SATA data and SATA power cables the same way. The SDHC option is a little slower to install but will run fine after that. Be sure to buy at least an 8GB SD card and as fast as you can afford with 90Mbp/s read/write speed preferred.

I am going to use a Fujitsu 64GB SATA-III SSD drive which you can pickup on eBay for under $40, along with a USB DVDRW optical drive for the operating system installation (these can be purchased for under $20) because we don’t need a permanent optical drive like a PC.

Fujitsu 64GB SSD SATA-III Hard Drive
Fujitsu 64GB SSD SATA-III Hard Drive
SDHC to SATA Adapter Card
SDHC to SATA Adapter Card
16GB Sandisk Extreme Pro SDHC Card
16GB Sandisk Extreme Pro SDHC Card
External USB DVDRW Optical Drive
External USB DVDRW Optical Drive

PSU/Power Supply

Mini-ITX has a number of options for power supply and it does partly depend on the case you’re using. Some Mini-ITX cases can fit a full ATX PSU unit, some can fit smaller sized PSU’s like TFX, Flex-ATX etc, some have built-in DC jacks ready for a power pack (like the Intel D945GSEJT mobo) but most of you will have a motherboard with a standard 24pin ATX connector like my J1900N-D3V, so your best option in a small case is a PicoPSU of 160 watts with a 10 amp 160 watt power supply adapter.

160 Watt PicoPSU Mini ATX 24 Pin + 4 Pin ATX12V Power Supply
160 Watt PicoPSU Mini ATX 24 Pin + 4 Pin ATX12V Power Supply
160 Watt Power Supply Adapter or Powerpack
160 Watt Power Supply Adapter or Powerpack

Case

For this project I don’t want a large Mini-ITX case, I want the smallest option available, and it’s not easy finding something super-small at a reasonable price plus shipping (Postage to Australia is often twice the cost of the case). I managed to source the ubiquitous Universal M350 case on eBay for $25 dollars, and you can expect to pay around $40+ buying new. There are a number of other suitable cases for this project, but I recommend the M350 or similar (ie. the Morex 557 case).

Important note on front panel headers – Mini-ITX motherboards usually have standard front panel pinouts (Power Switch, Power LED, Reset Switch & HDD LED) but some Mini-ITX cases, particularly the smaller ones like the M350 and Morex 557, have a 2×3 pin block with 4 pins actually being in use for Power Switch and Power LED. If you come across this issue, just download the product spec sheet (M350 here) and look for the pinout which will tell you which pins go where, or see this screenshot.

M350 Universal Mini-ITX Computer Case
M350 Universal Mini-ITX Computer Case
M350 Universal Mini-ITX Computer Case
M350 Universal Mini-ITX Computer Case
Morex 557B Mini-ITX Computer Case
Morex 557B Mini-ITX Computer Case
Morex 557B Mini-ITX Computer Case
Morex 557B Mini-ITX Computer Case

Setup LAMP Server on Raspberry Pi 3 – [Updated 2019] Complete DIY Guide

Introduction

[This guide has been fully updated in 2019 to reflect the changes to MySQL in Raspbian “Stretch” v9.x and the FTP issues have been fixed] You wouldn’t think a little PC like the Raspberry Pi 3 could handle the job of being a Web Server, but it does, and performs flawlessly too. Today I will show you how to source genuine Raspberry Pi 3 hardware, then setup a fully fledged LAMP Server (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) along with instructions to install WordPress. You’ll also know how to access your web server via FTP, SSH and PHPMyAdmin. We will be using the latest version of Raspbian “Stretch” v9.x.

Contents

  1. Introduction, Hardware, Download & Burn Raspbian Image
  2. Setup Raspbian
  3. Install LAMP Server Packages, Setup FTP
  4. Install WordPress, Summary

Hardware

My first experience buying a Raspberry Pi 2B didn’t go very well, I unwittingly purchased a fake knockoff from China via eBay that didn’t even work, needless to say I was very disappointed. Since then I have learned you have to be very careful where you buy any Raspberry Pi hardware. There are several official Raspberry Pi hardware suppliers that I’ll list below, but first let’s go through the list of parts you will need for this project.
  1. Raspberry Pi 3 motherboard/SBC
  2. A suitable case for your Pi (I like metal cases)
  3. 8GB (or more) MicroSD card class 10
  4. Raspberry Pi Micro USB power supply
  5. LAN Network cable
Raspberry Pi 3 SBC
Raspberry Pi 3 SBC
Official Raspberry Pi 3 USB Power Supply
Official Raspberry Pi 3 USB Power Supply
Raspberry Pi 3 Metal Case Black
Raspberry Pi 3 Metal Case Black
8GB SanDisk Ultra MicroSD Card Class 10
8GB SanDisk Ultra MicroSD Card Class 10
There are really only two official suppliers of Raspberry Pi gear: RS Components and Farnell/Element14. Both sell world-wide with Farnell selling smaller quantities via authorized resellers. Below you will find links to the entire list of resellers for Element14, Farnell, and a link to all the countries that RS Components serves. I do strongly urge you to only buy from these suppliers or their authorized resellers. Once you have your Raspberry Pi 3 board and case you can go ahead and fit the board into the case carefully, some of the components on the board are prone to being crushed so be gentle and if something is not fitting, don’t force it.

Download & Burn Raspbian Image

Download Raspbian

Raspbian is the official operating system for the Raspberry Pi, and based on the excellent Debian Linux distribution. Raspain comes in to flavors: full Raspbian with the Pixel desktop, or Raspbian Lite with no desktop, which is the one we want. So go ahead and visit the Raspbian Downloads page, download the Lite version .zip file (if you have a BitTorrent client, choose the .torrent as it’s faster).

Burn Raspbian to SD Card

Once you have finished downloading the Raspbian Zip file, follow the instructions below to burn the IMG file to your MicroSD card.
  1. Unzip the .img file and take note of the file location
  2. Visit etcher.io and download the Etcher Image Burner for Windows, MAC or Linux and install
  3. Insert your MicroSD card into your PC’s card reader, take note of the drive letter assigned to it
  4. Run Etcher and select the .img file you unzipped earlier
  5. Make sure Etcher has selected the correct drive letter, if not then change it to your SD card’s drive letter (Important!)
  6. Once you’re sure the right .img file and drive letter is selected, click the Flash! button
    How to flash MicroSD card with Etcher Image Burner
    How to flash MicroSD card with Etcher Image Burner
  7. Once Etcher has finished, remove the MicroSD card and insert into your Raspberry Pi with the terminal contacts facing up as shown below
    How to insert a MicroSD card into a Raspberry Pi 3
    How to insert a MicroSD card into a Raspberry Pi 3
  8. Now connect up a USB keyboard (mouse not required), HDMI, LAN network cable and have the power supply plugged into the power socket and unit but don’t turn it on just yet

Budget 6TB RAID-5 Network-Attached Storage (NAS) Under $600 DIY Guide

Budget 6TB RAID-5 Network-Attached Storage (NAS) Under $600 DIY Guide

Introduction

Today I’ll show you how to build your own budget 6TB RAID-5 Network-Attached Storage (NAS) System for your home or small business for under USD$600. We’ll be using a second-hand desktop PC and a dedicated hardware RAID controller card, but purchasing new hard drives. We’ll also be installing OpenMediaVault as the NAS operating system.

Nowadays, used computers are cheap-as-chips on websites like eBay and Amazon if you know how to search. I am very good at getting bargains so I will include eBay.com links that will direct you towards getting what you need for this project in each section.

Contents

  1. Introduction, Parts
  2. Hard Drives, RAID Card, NAS Operating System
  3. The Build (with slideshow)
  4. Setup Motherboard BIOS (with slideshow)
  5. Setup RAID Card BIOS (with slideshow)
  6. Installing OpenMediaVault (with slideshow)
  7. Setting up Users, Shares, FTP & SSL on OpenMediaVault
  8. Initial Results, Tweaks, Final Results

Motherboard, CPU & RAM

If you have an older PC you’re not using and it’s at or newer than 2011, you can use it for this project. If not, then eBay will have hundreds of options including Motherboard & CPU Combos (that usually come with RAM too) or complete PC’s you can purchase cheaply. Let’s go through each option.

Motherboard

Any motherboard that meets the following specs will do fine for our NAS system, if you’re not sure about any of these specifications, stick with made after 2011 and you should be fine.

  • GUIDELINES
  • Motherboard made after 2011
  • Supports DDR2 RAM (preferably DDR3)
  • Supports at least 4GB RAM (preferably 8GB)
  • Has at least 1x SATA port (for the NAS operating system)
  • Has 1x PCI-Express x16 slot for the RAID card (yes graphics card slots can be used)
  • Has on-board video (graphics slot will be used for the RAID card)
  • Budget $50-$60
  • Predefined eBay search for Motherboard

The motherboard I chose for this build is an ASUS P5G41T-MLX Micro-ATX mobo that uses Intel’s G41 chipset, supports up to 8GB of DDR3 memory and Quad-Core CPU’s with a 1333MHz FSB.

ASUS P5G41T-M LX Motherboard & Face-plate
The ASUS P5G41T-M LX motherboard will perform very well for our NAS box and it supports quad-core CPU’s with a FSB of 1333MHz

CPU

Obviously the most important thing is to buy is a CPU that matches the socket and capabilities of your motherboard, to do this just search for the motherboard brand and model (ie. “ASUS P5G41T-MLX“) and usually the first result will be the manufacturers dedicated page for it. Go to the specifications section which will tell you what CPU socket, speed and type of CPU your motherboard supports. Manufacturers also have lists of supported processors for each motherboard so you might want to check those as well. Processors you want to stay away from are Intel’s Celeron and AMD’s Sempron because these are budget CPU’s and generally run too slow for our NAS.

  • GUIDELINES
  • Matches the socket and capabilities of your motherboard
  • Intel Core 2 Duo/Quad, Core i3, i5, i7 or XEON (stay away from Celeron or Sempron)
  • Dual-core or more
  • 1.6GHz per-core or higher
  • Comes with CPU heat-sink and fan
  • Budget $50-$60

For this build I chose an Intel Core 2 Quad Q9400 (SLB6B) that runs at 2.7GHz with 4 cores, a 6MB cache and 1333MHz front-side bus. This is more than enough for running our NAS and will give me lag-free performance.

Intel Q9400 Core 2 Quad CPU SLB6B 2.66GHz 6M 1333FSB
This Intel Q9400 Core 2 Quad CPU SLB6B runs at 2.66GHz more than enough for our NAS box.

RAM Memory

Again, the most important aspect of buying RAM is that it matches the capabilities of your motherboard. Just as with the CPU, search the brand and model of your mobo to find the official page for it, there you will find the RAM specifications and a QVL list of RAM. Motherboards nowadays are quite forgiving in terms of RAM speed and timings and will fall back to a lower speed if necessary. This means if your mobo supports DDR3-1600 but your RAM is DDR3-1866 it will simply fall back to 1600MHz and vice-versa.

  • GUIDELINES
  • Matches the RAM type and capabilities of your motherboard
  • Highest speed your motherboard will accept non-overclocked (ie. DDR3-1600 1600MHz)
  • At least 4GB Gigabyte (preferably 8GB)
  • Quality brand (Samsung, Hynix, Micron, G.Skill, Corsair, Kingston etc)
  • Budget $40-$50
  • Predefined eBay search for DDR2/3 RAM memory

I had some spare DDR3 1333MHz 4GB G.Skill module and one Generic DDR3 1333MHz 2GB module giving me a total of 6GB as a start, but I will be purchasing an 8GB matched kit soon off eBay to fully max out the mobo capabilities.

G.Skill F3-10600CL9S-4GBNT 4GB RAM Module and Lemel DDR313332GB-RLL641 2GB RAM Module
Although not matched, these two DDR3-1333 RAM modules will give me a total of 6GB memory which is plenty for OpenMediaVault

Case & PSU

Case

Now comes the PC case which is just as important as any other part in this build because we need to cram 4 full size 3.5″ hard drives into it along with a 2.5″ SSD for the operating system and a RAID card. I don’t need a internal DVDRW drive because I have an external USB DVDRW drive I will be using to install the NAS operating system. If you don’t have one of these you can buy one for less than $20 bucks, otherwise you can just use a 5.25″ DVDRW drive connected to a SATA port and power of the PC to install the OS, then remove it afterwards.

You also need to choose a case that fits the motherboard you have, so a Micro-ATX mobo will fit into a mini-tower or midi-tower case, but be sure it has the slots for the hard drives (4 x 3.5” 1x 2.5” as a minimum) or you can also buy 5.25″ to 3.5″ slot converters on eBay. Larger full size ATX cases will fit tons of hard drives and will also fit a Micro-ATX mobo too, larger cases will fit smaller mobo’s but not vice-versa.

  • GUIDELINES
  • Matches the size of your motherboard
  • Has minimum 4x 3.5″ slots, 1x 2.5″ slot (or equivalent 5.25″ converted)
  • Tower case, not a flat desktop case
  • 1x Chassis fan
  • Budget $30-$40
  • Predefined eBay search for PC Cases

I repair computers for a living and end up with a lot of used PC’s from customers who have upgraded, so I had a nice mini-tower case set aside for this project, but it didn’t have quite enough 3.5″ slots. I finished up taking out a hard drive cage from another case and riveted it into the bottom of this case.

You can also purchase 5.25″ hard drive cages that slot into the top of your case where the DVDRW drive normally lives and converts the space into 5x 3.5″ slots for your drives, check them out on eBay.

Generic Mini-Tower PC Case
This Mini-Tower PC case left over from a client upgrade will be perfect for our NAS box

PSU/Power Supply

A good power supply is essential in a NAS system of any type. You need quality and reliable power to your motherboard, hard drives and RAID card. This means sticking to well known brands with good specs. As a minimum you will need around 400 to 500 Watts of power to run efficiently and 5x SATA power connectors (or Molex to SATA converter cables) for the drives. Sometimes you can pickup 2 or 3 year old PSU’s that are cheap but still fine to use in this situation so long as it’s a quality model.

I had an older Thermaltake 430NP-A2 430 Watt PSU from a scrapped client PC that’s very well made and performs flawlessly. The only issue was it didn’t have enough SATA connectors so I used 4x Molex to SATA converters to do the job.

Thermaltake 430NP-A2 430 watt power supply PSU
Thermaltake 430NP-A2 430 watt power supply PSU will provide stead, reliable power