# HL15 Beast Has Arrived! 🔥

**URL:** <https://forum.45homelab.com/t/hl15-beast-has-arrived/3943>\
**Category:** General\
**Created:** [October 10, 2026, 10:33am UTC](https://forum.45homelab.com/t/hl15-beast-has-arrived/3943 "2026-10-10T10:33:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![alexjenkins](https://forum.45homelab.com/user_avatar/forum.45homelab.com/alexjenkins/32/2542_2.png) [@alexjenkins](https://forum.45homelab.com/u/alexjenkins)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2026, 10:33am UTC](https://forum.45homelab.com/t/hl15-beast-has-arrived/3943/1 "2026-10-10T10:33:51Z")

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The wait is finally over, and my **45Drives HL15 Beast** has arrived! Couldn’t be happier with it. The build quality is fantastic, and I’m really looking forward to getting everything up and running.

I’m still working through a few things before I can finish the build, but here’s what I’m putting together.

**The plan is to run Proxmox VE (PVE) with:**

- **14 ×** 16 TB **HDDs** across 2 ZFS RAID Z2 vdevs (7 drives each), plus 1 hot spare.

- **2 × 2TB SSDs** in a ZFS mirror for the Proxmox OS using the rear 6-bay SSD bracket directly to the motherboard.

- **5 × 4TB SSDs** in ZFS RAIDZ1. I’ve already got Proxmox Backup Server running on my Synology, so I’m comfortable using RAIDZ1 for this pool eveytally all 8 but we all know the cost of hardware!

- **3 × 4TB Samsung 970 NVMe drives** for additional high-speed storage.

- **ASUS ProArt X870E-CREATOR WIFI motherboard** with 192GB RAM.

- **LSI 9305-24i HBA card**

- **NanoKVM PCIe** for remote management.

- **NVIDIA RTX A2000 16GB** GPU.

The HDD pool is the one I’m being more cautious with, as the drives are considerably older. That’s why I’ve opted for two RAIDZ2 vdevs rather than RAIDZ1. I’d eventually like to add a second hot spare, leaving one bay free, but at the price of these drives, that will take a few Christmases and birthdays! 😂 Unless anyone in the community has other ideas on the best configuration, I’m still learning this part.

I’ve pretty much maxed out the motherboard, and the process is more than just moving hardware from one case to another. It’s about building a proper Proxmox and ZFS platform that I can keep expanding, experimenting with and learning from.

**A few thoughts on the HL15 itself…**

I’m genuinely impressed with the build quality. It’s a serious bit of kit!

The only real frustration was bringing my own PSU. Getting access to the SSD backplane to sort out the power connections was much harder than expected. It’s definitely worth considering if you’re planning to use your own power supply.

There have been a few challenges along the way, but the 45Drives team have been incredibly supportive throughout. A special thanks to **Lidsay and Vikram** , who have both been fantastic to deal with.

Despite the wait and a few challenges, it’s absolutely been worth it.

I’ll write another post when I get some time, with more details, photos and hopefully the finished build!

In the meantime, wishing you all a fantastic weekend! 😎

 ![HL15_Beast_Inside](https://forum.45homelab.com/uploads/default/original/2X/5/53047e7659d8084fbd67b7402d9ca6dd5d2cba8b.jpeg)

 ![HL15 Beast Racked](https://forum.45homelab.com/uploads/default/original/2X/1/158ea4ad8b2d73e5a44db619e2607a72a353ecd1.jpeg)

#45drives #45HomeLab & 45Drives News