Reddit mentions of QICENT USB 3.0 to 2.5" SATA III Converter Adapter 2.5 inch Hard Drive HDD and SDD with 1.6 Ft Detachable Micro B Cable for 9.5mm 7mm Hard Disk Support UASP Window / Mac / Linux

>> The Nic chip used is the Realtek RTL8111F.
> Does that help at all?

Yes, it helps to get confirmation.

Since I looked into the Windows driver I downloaded from the Zotac website, I did some additional research and found out that there are a whole host of network controller chips that can all be grouped together into one large family. Realtek has been selling one version or another of it over a long period of time, the oldest of which I could find was the RTL8111B in 2003, but that doesn't mean the first release couldn't have been even older than that.

The downside of a mini PC is the lack of customization, whereas on a desktop (to some extent even on the smaller form factors like Mini-ITX, based on slot availability) you have a wide range of modular components to add. If the onboard network controller doesn't work for you and compiling the driver yourself isn't an option, there's no way to simply put in a PCIe NIC extension card, you'd have to use an USB ethernet adapter instead or go wireless through an adapter too.

What does it mean for you, or anyone in practical application? It doesn't matter if the controller is an RTL8111, *B, *C, *CP, *D, *DL, *DP, *E, *F, *G, *GUS, RTL8168, *B, *C, *E, RTL8411 or RTL8118AS. They're all very close siblings to one another, while some are probably even functionally identical with only changes in the manufacturing process. In other words: if you have a problem with one, you'd have a problem with any of them.

That being said, while I've always been of the opinion that Realtek is crap and this research of mine hasn't convinced me otherwise, I also believe that it's simply a larger number of individual cases at play. This family of network controllers is used as the default onboard chip in more than half of all current and past generation desktop motherboards and also a lot of other connected devices. I didn't check the even older boards except for two I bought in 2009 and 2011, both of them had variants RTL8111C and RTL8111E which worked just fine under various Linux distributions back then and until a year ago. I can only guess, but with so many computers, some of which also run Linux, it doesn't make sense that the issue either hasn't been solved yet after such a long time or that there haven't been more complaints.

> WD makes a case, and HDD for the Pi. Have a look at this solution, and tell me if you think it might be worth buying.

Yes, why not, if you think the price is right. Personally, I would never buy anything like that, because the 375GB disk space isn't enough for those scenarios where a separate data storage device is needed.

In terms of performance, well you can expect 25-30 MB/s read/write speeds across the board. It's roughly the same no matter if it's via USB 2.0 or USB 3.0, if it's SSD or HDD, if it's 2.5" or 3.5" HDD.

> I saw on the WDLabs site that they suggest getting the 3A Power Adapter. I guess that makes sense, so I went with that over a 2.5A version.

I have tried some very old SATA HDDs (read 80GB capacity manufactured in 2007 or so) that I removed from salvaged laptops and neither of them worked on a Pi. I used a SATA to USB adapter like this and it worked fine with some newer models. Power, most importantly the power spikes at drive bootup, is definitely a consideration when attaching USB devices to your Pi and also when choosing an USB charger for your Pi.

The advantage of a 2.5" HDD that was built to be very efficient is that you can easily connect it to the Pi directly and power it through that alone without an extra USB power supply. PSA: it may be necessary to unlock the maximum USB output on the Pi first.

> I'm still very much into the idea of getting the Zbox.

If you run Windows on it, then yeah it'll be the easiest solution by far. No doubt about it. Linux is a great philosophy because to many people it is much more than only an operating system, but the hardware support for which it has to rely on hardware manufacturers to supply them with drivers is a never-ending point of contention. Software too for that matter, but only on the consumer side.

It's a bit like the hen and egg question, which was there first? If more people used Linux, the software would quickly be developed by commercial entities seeing an emerging market and manufacturers would provide better driver support. Many consumers can't (shouldn't, if we're being honest) switch to Linux without at least the assurance that their own unique collection of hardware components runs fine first.

Ok and so will this type of adapter work for the hard drive shown in the photo?

https://www.amazon.com/QICENT-Adapter-Converter-Detachable-Support/dp/B01M6VY0HF/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&dd=12KyoIKu0fGMSHe_FyTYYg%2C%2C&ie=UTF8&qid=1495373188&sr=1-1&keywords=USB+3.0+to+SATA+III+Adapter+for+2.5%22+SDD+HDD+Hard+Drives.&refinements=p_90%3A8308921011