Hi, I am about to build an offsite backupserver for myself.

 

• Budget: On the cheap side, if there is a very good reason up to 1000
  
• # Drives: 8 absolute minimum, 10 or 12 would be better
  
• expandability: not really, except the number of drives (up to 12)
  
• unRAID Add Ons: no
  
• Drives: I will not buy drives, I already have 8x 2TB drives
  
• Spare parts: None except the 8 drives
  

What I am aiming for:

• offsite Backupserver with 8-12 HDD's
  
• Up and running only once a week
  
• offsite --> iKVM like IPMI or ILO is a must have
  
• Ram: ECC
  
• powerconsumption: does not realy matter
  
• price: main decision criteria is "price / 8 HDD's" and "price / max-#-SATA-Ports"
  
• Parts should be available in Germany i.e. available on the site www.geizhals.de
  
• performance: Initial backup will be using 1Gbit/s Network.
  In the offsite location connection speeds are: 10Mbit/s write, 40Mbit/s read.
  In other words: Performance does not really matter but double-parity is a must
  
• Drives: I will start with 8x 2Tb drives I currently use for backup. I will add/buy mor drives as I run out of space up to the number of SATA-ports and HDD-mounting-points. Then I will start swapping drives for bigger ones.
  
• Case size: Does not matter
  
• Hot-swap / cold-swap: Not needed.
  

At this moment I have two setups in mind:

• ASRock-Rack C2550D4I
  12x SATA
  4x 2,4GHz (2,6GHz boost)
  
• 16 GB Ram
  
• Fractal Design Node 804 - 10x3.5"HDD
  
• ~ 510 € + PSU + Sata-Cabels + Fans
  

or

• Supermicro X11SSM-F (8x SATA, socket 1151)
  
  
• Pentium G4500 (2x 3,5 GHz, no hyper-threading, no turbo-boost)
  
• 16 GB Ram
  
• Fractal Design Node 804 - 10x3,5"HDD
  
• ~ 462,80 € + SATA-expansion-card + PSU + Sata-Cabels + Fans
  

Possible better CPU's for the last build would be:

• I3-6100 (2x 3,7GHz, hyper-threading, no boost)  +44€
  
• I3-6320 (2x 3,9GHz, hyper-threading, no boost) +98€
  
• E3-1220 V5 (4x 3GHz, no hyper-threading, 3,5GHz boost) +146€
  
• E3-1230 V5 (4x 3,4GHz, hyper-threading, 3,8GHz boost) +207€
  
• E3-1270 V5 (4x 3,6GHz, hyper-threading, 4GHz boost) +289€
  

but to be honest, I see no reason to go for a better CPU.

• Do you see a reason to go for a better CPU?
  
• What is your oppinion on my first two thoughts?
  
• Do you have other recommendations for an "as cheap as possible ~10 Drives in unRaid" build?
  

I would really appreciate your comments,

best regards

blue_Bandana

Have you considered a used server?

 

e.g. http://www.ebay.de/itm/16x-SATA-Storage-Server-9650SE-16ML-SATA-II-Supermicro-X7DBE-Gewahrleistung-/152237231359?hash=item23720bccff:g:psMAAOSwFdtX1IoI

Have you considered a used server?

 

e.g. http://www.ebay.de/itm/16x-SATA-Storage-Server-9650SE-16ML-SATA-II-Supermicro-X7DBE-Gewahrleistung-/152237231359?hash=item23720bccff:g:psMAAOSwFdtX1IoI

 

Did some thorough research:

 

Pro

• Price
  
• # SATA-Ports
  
• HDD-Trays
  
• PSU / Case / Mainboard / Ram etc all included
  
• Dealer is within 1hour by car
  

Con

• no fun of building my own server
  
• Raidcontroller can not be flashed to HBA-Mode, therefore:
  
• HDD's can not be taken off the controller and used on any standart SATA-Port as the Raid-Controller messes with the disks ... which eliminates an (for me) important feature of unRaid
  
• upgrading RAM or CPU would be a pure waste of money as
  
• Ram: 16 GB of DDR2 fully-buffered ECC RAM costs more than 16GB of unbuffered DDR4-ECC ram
  

I think i will call the dealer and ask about an used case + PSU ... looks like he is into the "refurbished server business" so i will give this a try

best regards

blue_Bandana

 

Have you considered a used server?

 

e.g. http://www.ebay.de/itm/16x-SATA-Storage-Server-9650SE-16ML-SATA-II-Supermicro-X7DBE-Gewahrleistung-/152237231359?hash=item23720bccff:g:psMAAOSwFdtX1IoI

 

Did some thorough research:

 

Pro

• Price
  
• # SATA-Ports
  
• HDD-Trays
  
• PSU / Case / Mainboard / Ram etc all included
  
• Dealer is within 1hour by car
  

Con

• no fun of building my own server
  
• Raidcontroller can not be flashed to HBA-Mode, therefore:
  
• HDD's can not be taken off the controller and used on any standart SATA-Port as the Raid-Controller messes with the disks ... which eliminates an (for me) important feature of unRaid
  
• upgrading RAM or CPU would be a pure waste of money as
  
• Ram: 16 GB of DDR2 fully-buffered ECC RAM costs more than 16GB of unbuffered DDR4-ECC ram
  

I think i will call the dealer and ask about an used case + PSU ... looks like he is into the "refurbished server business" so i will give this a try

best regards

blue_Bandana

 

i would totally hit it on budget. Forget about a CPU/Massive RAM/crazy raid controllers ect...

 

Instead grab a used case off craigslist. Look for possible like an antec 900. If you are NOT around but other people ARE around, then be careful of external drive sleds. Curiosity/stupidity are rampant in society. If its secure then get a 5 in 3. Get a mobo like an AM3+ with 8+ SATA ports, for cheap, new. I think I saw one at frys for 30 bucks and it had 8 sata ports. Then get a cheap AM3+ cpu, dont go like sempron 145 cheap, but 4100. stock cooler. Do get a quality PSU AND battery backup for the offsite. Ensure you have a USB cable for the APC/UPS so it can graceful shutdown. Should be about 300-400 depending on that 5-3. At first you could skip it.