Pre built server options - UK

[hilly]

Hi All.

 

I currenlty run 2 HP N40L servers. While these are great i would like to combine them into a single server and put everything in one place and migrate from 5.xx to 6.xx in a controlled and steady way. Total storage is currenly around 15TB and so to use most of my existing drives and gain some space from only having 1 parity drive. I would like something quiet and around 8 3.5"bays.

 

My needs are quite low - its for storage, i watch movies from the server but this is only streamed to 1 Samsung smart TV, music streaming, general stuff and a bit of downloading (Sab ...), but i am not a heavy user looking for cutting edge performance.

 

I just wanted to ask if people had some options of pre built servers they would recommend? I have looked at the Lenovo TS440 but seems limited stock and big price variation, maybe its being phased out? I was looking to build my own using an R4 case and take the hardware from some other recent builds i have seen people speaking about on here, but if there is a comparable pre built option i could use and which would meet my needs then i would prefer this out of the box approach.

 

Thanks in advance for any input

[CHBMB]

I'm not aware of any other than the HP microserver range, there is definitely a gap in the market for home server devices.  All three of my machines have been self built and I can't see that changing any time soon.

 

If you just can't be bothered to build your own, then you're out of luck..

 

If you've never built a PC before then don't worry it's just like grown up Lego.  Plenty of help to be found on the forum.

[thestewman]

Highly recommended. You cannot build or find another prebuilt server of better quality.

 

http://greenleaf-technology.com/

 

 

 

Hi All.

 

I currenlty run 2 HP N40L servers. While these are great i would like to combine them into a single server and put everything in one place and migrate from 5.xx to 6.xx in a controlled and steady way. Total storage is currenly around 15TB and so to use most of my existing drives and gain some space from only having 1 parity drive. I would like something quiet and around 8 3.5"bays.

 

My needs are quite low - its for storage, i watch movies from the server but this is only streamed to 1 Samsung smart TV, music streaming, general stuff and a bit of downloading (Sab ...), but i am not a heavy user looking for cutting edge performance.

 

I just wanted to ask if people had some options of pre built servers they would recommend? I have looked at the Lenovo TS440 but seems limited stock and big price variation, maybe its being phased out? I was looking to build my own using an R4 case and take the hardware from some other recent builds i have seen people speaking about on here, but if there is a comparable pre built option i could use and which would meet my needs then i would prefer this out of the box approach.

 

Thanks in advance for any input

[CHBMB]

Highly recommended. You cannot build or find another prebuilt server of better quality.

 

http://greenleaf-technology.com/

 

 

 

Hi All.

 

I currenlty run 2 HP N40L servers. While these are great i would like to combine them into a single server and put everything in one place and migrate from 5.xx to 6.xx in a controlled and steady way. Total storage is currenly around 15TB and so to use most of my existing drives and gain some space from only having 1 parity drive. I would like something quiet and around 8 3.5"bays.

 

My needs are quite low - its for storage, i watch movies from the server but this is only streamed to 1 Samsung smart TV, music streaming, general stuff and a bit of downloading (Sab ...), but i am not a heavy user looking for cutting edge performance.

 

I just wanted to ask if people had some options of pre built servers they would recommend? I have looked at the Lenovo TS440 but seems limited stock and big price variation, maybe its being phased out? I was looking to build my own using an R4 case and take the hardware from some other recent builds i have seen people speaking about on here, but if there is a comparable pre built option i could use and which would meet my needs then i would prefer this out of the box approach.

 

Thanks in advance for any input

They're not based I'm the UK though....

[hilly]

Thanks for the quick input.

 

i have built PC's before but wanted to avoid the selection of components etc as well as the build. If that is not so simple as no one has a good offering then maybe i take someone elses list, use the R4 case which seems to get good reviews and build myself something.

 

Yes, needs to be in the UK as shipping and tax can be very expsensive for these things and service etc becomes an issue.

 

Will wait to see if others have options otherwise i will look at a shopping list for a self build. I have even considered getting some large drives for the N40L but feel it will run out of steam some time soon, as well as the migration issues i would need to contend with.

 

More thinking needed :-)

 

[hilly]

Looks like limited options for the UK for larger capacity of drives pre built servers - if only HP made a N54l with 8 or 12 bays !!

 

Will have to steak someone elses kit list and see about a full build and then a migration to 6.0 as it comes around - looks like timing could be about right.

 

Thanks for the info, the whole of this forum is much appreciated by those of us less technical and who need help along the way without being made to feel stupid.

[CHBMB]

For what it's worth I've been very happy with my current build and would recommend, but it is last gen i5. 

[garycase]

... use the R4 case which seems to get good reviews and build myself something.

 

The Fractal R4 is indeed an excellent choice if you decide to "roll your own".    It can hold a LOT of drives [8 in the built-in bays, 3 more in a 3-in-2 cage mounted in the optical drive bays; and 4 more in an add-in drive cage that easily fits next to the existing internal bays].

 

In addition, since it will hold full size ATX motherboards, you can use any motherboard you want ... ITX, micro-ATX, or ATX with plenty of working space internally.

 

Finally, it's exceptionally well insulated, so is VERY quiet => I can't even hear systems in this case unless I'm within a few inches of the case, and even then have to listen carefully.

 

Note that "rolling your own" these days is a FAR cry from building PC's in the early days of the PC revolution.    The systems I built in the mid 70's required THOUSANDS of solder joints to built multiple boards; and there were a LOT of VERY static-sensitive components.    These took many hours to assemble and a good bit of electronic skill.    Today's systems are very much like CHBMB described:  "..grown up Lego ".  Not QUITE that simple -- you DO have to be very static sensitive when installing the CPU and memory and mounting the motherboard => but the actual amount of effort is quite small.

 

Basically you plug in the CPU;  mount the motherboard in the case; plug in the memory; connect a few cables and the power supply ... and you're done.

 

One thing to note r.e. the R4:  Pay attention to the dimensions ... this is NOT a small case.    I've had a couple folks buy these who were surprised at how large it is relative to what they had anticipated.    It's not bad ... especially for a case that can hold 15 drives and be so amazingly quiet ... but just be sure it will fit in the space you plan to install it.

 

[hilly]

Thanks both for the additional input. I have built a few PC's for friends so it not so much of an issue. There are good suppliers in the UK who will do a full motherboard bundle i.e the have a MB, memory, CPU and heatsink / cooler that they fully assemble and test so even less to do.

 

Good hint on the R4 case, i have heard others who have said about the size. I am just wondering with 6.0 coming along would it be daft to put windows in a docker / virtual machine and have one box which was the family windows machine AND was my UnRaid store as well? We are not heavy windows users and there would only be 2 or max 3 accounts - but as i need to think about a new PC as well is there an option to both on the smae hardware now that things are more separated and independent of each other - or are we not there yet or is it not that simple?

 

Thanks again

[garycase]

Whether or not to combine your PC's into a single physical machine is an ongoing debate.  It's not clear either is "better" => and which you might favor very much depends on how you use the systems.

 

On the one hand, you can build some very nice, exceptionally low-power UnRAID boxes these days ... and you may want one of those and a separate, dedicated Windows machine that you can simply set to sleep when not in use => the combined power draw is likely less than a more powerful combined box that might have to be on longer [i.e. when you're using the UnRAID NAS it has to be on].

 

On the other hand, if the only time the NAS is needed is when you're using Windows [i.e. you don't have other devices that use the NAS (media players; tablets; laptops; etc.)], combining everything into a single box may be more attractive.

 

Another consideration is what else the NAS is doing besides just being a storage device => if it's running Dockers and other apps that require that it always be on; and that it has a fairly healthy amount of "horsepower", then running a VM to support Windows probably doesn't add much at all to the power draw of the system => so this setup would tend to support the "one system for all" approach.

 

Whatever you do, don't forget to have a good backup strategy => and THAT needs to be on a different system 

 

[hilly]

Thanks garycase, all useful info. I lean towards 2 machines, it just makes it easier for me and the family to understand, one for general use and one they leave to me to play with :-)

 

I have my PC backup to an additional internal drive and also to my unraid server, this then is connected to my crashplan for cloud storage - i do this for alll "critical stuff" - 4 instances of the date with 2 different machines at home and 1 off site, for less important but would be painful i just use crashplan. about twice a year i also take another copy of the critical stuff (there is not so much of this in reality) and put it on a hard drive i leave at my dads house, its not so much a strategy as somethign as an ulitimate back stop for the really needed or not replacable stuff. If i build another new unraid machine and migrate my 2 servers to one i will set up one of my old N40L's as a backup destination and leave that at my dads and use the cloud, then it will just run in the background. I have read your sticky about backups - its a good input on what to consider.

 

So 2 new machines, one a bigger server for all the storage and background jobs and a small windos machine for the family to play with seems to be where i am going. Just need a shopping list, the time, for 6:0 to be final - oh and a wad of cash !

[garycase]

I agree with the 2 machines concept [i actually have about 8, but that's a different story  ]

 

Most newer systems do very well with the s3 sleep state (wasn't always the case), so your Windows machine will draw virtually no power when it's not being used.  And it lets your NAS be on all the time.

 

In addition, if you want to "play" with other systems, you can build THOSE on VM's on your UnRAID v6 box and there won't be any disruption of the family's Windows box(es).

 

[HellDiverUK]

No recommendations, but try Scan or Overclockers.  Both custom-build servers I think.  But they will not be cheap.

[hilly]

Garycase, or anyone else ... additional advice

 

As my N40L's currently do all that i need and i am only looking for a route to upgrade my amount of storage and also to make a "6" box could i fit 2 of the new seagate 8TB drives into a box with a SSD for apps etc and then expand this with my existing drives as i clear them by transfering to this new platform? This would mean i would have a spare N40L to rebuild as a backup server again and have plent of space as i could use some of my exisitng 4TB drives. This would give me 8TB parity plus 8+4+4+2 = 18TB storage (yes i did the drive mod to allow full speed and so can fit 5 drives plus the SSD on the esata port) - all this in a box the size of the N40L would be great, and all for the price of 2 drives, although expensive ones !

 

My usage is pretty light. I store movies and music, i download some stuff but not a lot and not so often and i stream to a smart TV and so no need for transcoding etc.

 

My question is are the new seagate drives OK for unraid? i read here http://www.storagereview.com/seagate_archive_hdd_review_8tb that they have some inbuilt control that means they should not be used for raid - but does that also mean unraid type setup or using them as a parity drive?

 

Would an N40L with these drives be a medium term route for more storage and an upgrade to 6. Should i consider more than the 2 gig of ram i have currently instaled etc?

 

EDIT - OK, so now i have read the sticky on these, and it seems its an option as long as i am happy with the performance of the N40L, which currently i am as it does all i need. So would 6.0 be faster on an N40L as its 64bit and would it benifit from some more memory - this could be my easiest route to a larger 6.0 box using the hardware i already own.

 

 

[garycase]

Yes, I think that would work fine.    Sounds like you've already read the sticky I started on these, so you are aware of how well they've performed in some basic tests of their performance in UnRAID.

 

I'm out of town at the moment (doing this on my laptop), but will add a bit more to the sticky next week when I'm back -- but there's nothing that I'm aware of that would preclude using these drives in UnRAID.

 

[HellDiverUK]

I'm also very happy with their performance.  I'm over a week in to use on my pair, and they've been fine. 

 

They do need a little active cooling - in my Supermicro 731D case they got to 50C+ before I aborted the parity check.  That case only has a single 92mm rear fan. 

 

I moved everything in to the big Chieftec Bravo, and there's a pair of 92mm Fractal R2 fans running at 500rpm blowing across the Seagates which is keeping them down below 33C.  Ambient is around 21C.  Even with that low airflow, it's enough to keep them cool.  They run warmer than the 5TB Reds they replaced, but nowhere near as warm as the 5TB Toshibas or 4TB Deskstar NAS.