Hello there to all the good people of the unraid forums. Long time Windows /flexraid user but soon to be unraid user here. I am currently running an HP n54l with 2 external expansion bays to give me a running total of 30tb of usable space but I want to consolidate everything into one place if possible. I won't be doing a massive amount of transcoding or heavy lifting with the server but over the few years I have been running the HP Microserver I have come to th conclusion that I would rather be looking at other than looking for it when it comes to power! I want to put together a fairly powerful, 24 Bay server and during my research I came across the following http://www.ebay.ie/itm/152451757022

and I was wondering would this do the trick. I am aware that the hardware is fairly dated but I was wondering if it would do the job with regards to possibly transposing 2 streams max at one time and not taking an eternity to do parity checks. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. 

It's a large, noisy, power hungry, rack mount server that could do the transcoding you want.  It may be a good deal as well, not sure - that's always a local market question and I see you appear to be in Germany.  

I would wait until something better comes along, those CPU's were end of life ten years ago and that thing is huge. There has to me something more recent and perhaps not quite so big that would be of better value, but you are on the right track.

Thanks for the comments guys. Server will be used in my house so noise would be a big issue. Think I am just going to bite the bullet and build myself. Thanks again

I purchased this system from ebay and havent had any problems, i have 14 hard drives in it currently and it pulls 350 watts at full load (6 or 8 users on plex) and about 180 at idle.

Upgraded Supermicro 4U Server 32GB ECC 12 Core 4XUSB3 He Power Supply New Fans _ eBay.pdf

What sort of budget do you have? If you're considering old tech, a bunch of us jumped on some monster dual xeon builds from a server farm refresh. I think the prices have gone up a bit, but if you're willing to source a case, you can get a mobo/64GB ECC ram/ dual e5-2650 for US$358. That monster scores a 15200 on Passmark, vs 4594 for the one you listed. If you want to spend a bit more, you can even go to the e5-2670 for US$489 with an 18353 Passmark.

 

Speaking as an owner of a dual 2670 system, these cpus are crazy! Mine lives in my basement in my home theater (at the back), and noise is a non issue. It can get noisy on parity checks, but for everyday operation, my fans tend to spin at their lowest setting. I'm running 5 or 6 dockers, 2 VMs, a whack of plugins, and my cpu load rarely breaks 10%.

 

You'll still need case and psu, so total will be quite a bit more than you initially were looking at, but you'd be getting way more system for a lot less than you'd pay for something more current...

Edited March 7, 20179 yr by DoeBoye

Thanks DoeBoye and Sch1308 fir the responses. I was actually looking at the dual 2670 system you mentioned DoeBoye but I cant seem to find a motherboard to suit the CPUs for less than €550/$600. I can source a 24 bay case from x-case in the UK and would be willing to go up to about €1,000 for the complete build if it meant getting something which was going to last me a while. 

Perhaps this could be an option:

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/4U-Supermicro-Superchassis-SC846E1-R900B-24-Bay-SAS-SATA-Chassis-JBOD-Server-/142272702571?hash=item21201d286b:g:-fQAAOSwEjFXfqqV

 

Dezent case. Perhaps you can find a mobo cpu and RAM on ebay too.

That case/backplane can't handle drives over 2tb

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Yeah, saw that later too. Better option would be a sas846A backplane or a SAS2 backplane. All the nice stuff seems to have vanished.

7 hours ago, beanbag said:

I was actually looking at the dual 2670 system you mentioned DoeBoye but I cant seem to find a motherboard to suit the CPUs for less than €550/$600.

So sorry! Forgot to include the link to the packages:

2670

http://www.natex.us/Intel-S2600CP-Motherboard-Package-Deal-p/s2600cp-cpu-64gb-12800.htm

 

2650

http://www.natex.us/Intel-S2600CP-Motherboard-w-Dual-E5-2650-SR0KQ-6-p/s2600cp-cpu-64gb-12800-2650.htm

 

You may want to confirm that the E5-2650 SR0KQ is the one that supports virtualization. Even if you have no plans now, for a few bucks you give yourself definite future proofing

 

7 hours ago, beanbag said:

I can source a 24 bay case from x-case in the UK

 

Just make sure whatever case you get comes with 120mm fans. Some server cases comes with smaller 80mm fans that do a great job cooling, but sound like small jet engines :).

 

EDIT: Unless you get a great deal and can swap 120mm fans in... I did that with my Norco (I think they come with 120mm standard now), but not all cases will let you do that.

 

I like my norco 4224, but not sure of the availability outside of North America. There's some great deals on ebay as well for used cases, but you have to dig around a bit...

Edited March 7, 20179 yr by DoeBoye

Thanks a million for all your help guys. I just emailed Natex to get a quote for shipping to Ireland and we will take it from there. Definately tempted by the 2670 though 

31 minutes ago, beanbag said:

Thanks a million for all your help guys. I just emailed Natex to get a quote for shipping to Ireland and we will take it from there. Definately tempted by the 2670 though 

 

It's hard to say no to one! Good luck! Hopefully they won't charge you an arm and a leg!

 

Just beware of 'feature creep'! Once I got mine, I then decided since I had all this power, I may as well use it, so I ended up scrapping my bare metal PCs, and went on the journey of virtualizing them... Because it's more efficient... right?! right?!

I know what you mean!  6 months ago I was all set to get a tower with an i3 but look at me now maw! 

Good times!

2 hours ago, beanbag said:

Thanks a million for all your help guys. I just emailed Natex to get a quote for shipping to Ireland and we will take it from there. Definately tempted by the 2670 though 

Hi, 

 

I'm also mailing natex to get a deal för a MB -->  INTELS2600CP2J-CUSTOM.  So far I have get a $98 for shipping costs Via DHL.

 

What did you got? is it a better way to get shipping to Europe (Sweden)

 

EDIT

I will go for this case:  Enthoo Phantam Pro case

//Peter

 

   

Edited March 7, 20179 yr by peter_sm

They just quoted me $54 to ship a motherboard to me. Delighted with that. Just want to clarify with them that the 2670 bundle doeboye picked above is suitable for vms

They just quoted me $54 to ship a motherboard to me. Delighted with that. Just want to clarify with them that the 2670 bundle doeboye picked above is suitable for vms

Great, what carrier did they use?

DHL

Natex confirmed that the 2670 bundle is suitable for VM so I think I am going to go ahead and order from them. 

4 hours ago, beanbag said:

Natex confirmed that the 2670 bundle is suitable for VM so I think I am going to go ahead and order from them. 

 

Excellent! You're going to love it! Performance/price can't be beat on those packages

This is probable a silly question but I take it I need 3 of these SAS controllers in order to connect the 24 drives in this case??

23 hours ago, beanbag said:

This is probable a silly question but I take it I need 3 of these SAS controllers in order to connect the 24 drives in this case??

 

It looks like there are 14 ports on that board, so technically 1 8-port, and a 4-port would be enough, though there seems to be a few revisions of the board floating around, so I would confirm exactly what ports the board comes with from Natex (including the chipset behind the ports as their are some issues with some Marvell chipsets).

 

That said, for a few extra bucks, 2 8-port controllers would give you a bit of cushion if on-board ports have issues.

 

Also, I just noticed when trying to figure out how many ports are onboard, that you also need to buy an io shield.

 

Finally, don't forget heat sinks and fans! Which ones are you going to get? (Oh, and the right cables! sas to sas, sata to sas etc).

Edited March 9, 20179 yr by DoeBoye

Seriously considering getting 2 of the hba cards from natex along with the evga psu and heats ink bundle they offer (even though that bundle is currently out of stock)