On 4/25/22 08:25, Tom Browder wrote:
I am looking for a commercial grade server (for home use) to replace my
remote ones. I am looking at Dell's site and an almost-empty chassis with a
low-end Intel, 1 TB SATA, and 8 Gb ECC RAM is in the $800 ball park. It
looks very upgradeable.
Anyone have any suggestions on whether to buy or not? I would add at least
two 1 Tb SSD from Crucial to it.
I bought a COTS server for SOHO storage about 3.5 years ago. Instead of
new, I bought a ~3 month used Dell PowerEdge T30 on Craig's List for
$375 with Xeon E3-1225 v5, 8 GB memory module, 1 TB 3.5" SATA desktop
HDD, and DVD+-RW slim drive. I removed the 1 TB HDD and added a used
matching 8 GB ECC module, new PCI slot 2.5" SATA drive rack, used 2.5"
SATA 60 GB enterprise desktop SSD (OS), PCIe x1 dual SATA 6 Gbps HBA,
and four new previous model 3.5" SATA 3 TB enterprise storage HDD's
(data). As a storage server, it can easily saturate the Gigabit
connection. The mini-tower size is nice. The fans are quiet. Cooling
is marginal. The HDD's are attached directly to the drive cages, so the
chassis acts as a sounding board and drive access noise is distracting
in the living room. The price was around $800. There is room for two
more 8 GB memory modules and a PCIe NVMe drive.
I recently built a backup storage server based on the Fractal Design
Define R5 chassis:
https://www.fractal-design.com/products/cases/define/define-r5/black/
The chassis supports ATX, Micro ATX, and Mini ITX motherboards, and ATX
PSU's. It has two internal 2.5" drive bays, eight internal 3.5" drive
bays (with vibration isolation grommets), and two external 5.25" drive
bays. The chassis is lined with sound absorbing material. It comes
with two quiet 140 mm fans and a fan speed controller (up to three
fans). The internal drive bays are reconfigurable. There are
removable/ reconfigurable panels for radiators and more fans. I
installed a used Intel S1200V3RPL motherboard, used Intel Xeon E3-1225
v3 processor, used heatsink, used CPU fan, four used 4 GB ECC memory
modules, used desktop 450 W PSU, used dual 2.5" SATA drive rack, used
2.5" SATA 60 GB enterprise desktop SSD, new 3.5" SATA drive rack, new
3.5" 6 TB enterprise HDD (backups), new 8 port SATA 6 Gbps HBA, and four
new previous model 3.5" SATA 3 TB enterprise storage HDD's. It can
easily saturate one Gigabit port; I have yet to try bonding the two
Gigabit ports. The mid-tower size is as expected. Cooling is
excellent. The system is very quiet in the bedroom. There are two 2.5"
and four 3.5" free internal drive bays. The price was around $900.
There is room for two 2.5" drives and four 3.5" drives.
David
