I currently use a box I built a couple years ago.  I7-4770k (or something like that).  24 gigs of ram. and 9 hard drives 3.5" from mixed 4 and 3 tb drives.  

 

I have been looking at either rack mounted, or just getting another desktop rig. 

 

I see a lot of people use dell r710's?   I don't want to spend a ton on some top end system.   Been looking at ebay.   

A dual Xeon board would be nice.  

one question.  well, recommendation. Since I have so many 3.5" drives.   And not all rack mounted servers support that many.   What does everybody do here?   What boxes? manufactures?   What Xeon would I get?

 

I will be running plex, a couple dockers,   A couple vm's (windows 7 or 10) and an arch linux vm.   

Might run pfsense on it along with Blue Iris security cam software.   

 

Also don't want a huge power hog either.    

 

Lots of question.  Somebody please point me in the right direction.   Help me focus. 

 

Thanks!

I currently use a box I built a couple years ago.  I7-4770k (or something like that).  24 gigs of ram. and 9 hard drives 3.5" from mixed 4 and 3 tb drives.  
 
I have been looking at either rack mounted, or just getting another desktop rig. 
 
I see a lot of people use dell r710's?   I don't want to spend a ton on some top end system.   Been looking at ebay.   
A dual Xeon board would be nice.  
one question.  well, recommendation. Since I have so many 3.5" drives.   And not all rack mounted servers support that many.   What does everybody do here?   What boxes? manufactures?   What Xeon would I get?
 
I will be running plex, a couple dockers,   A couple vm's (windows 7 or 10) and an arch linux vm.   
Might run pfsense on it along with Blue Iris security cam software.   
 
Also don't want a huge power hog either.    
 
Lots of question.  Somebody please point me in the right direction.   Help me focus. 
 
Thanks!

I have just bought HP ML150 Gen9 tower. It has 2 CPUs, 10x 3.5" drive bays and SATA connections. Happy camper so far.

How is power usage?  I have the opportunity to pick up an older HP server being decommissioned at work.  Dual cpu board.  Only one slot full.  I can easliy buy a second processor and put it on there.   HP Proliant ml350 G6 server.  I don't know a ton about it. 

How is power usage?  I have the opportunity to pick up an older HP server being decommissioned at work.  Dual cpu board.  Only one slot full.  I can easliy buy a second processor and put it on there.   HP Proliant ml350 G6 server.  I don't know a ton about it. 

After ML110 Gen9 this is my second server from HP. You need to buy a second drive cage for 4 more 3.5" bays. I don't know its power usage. But don't think it is high. No idea about older gens. But in general pretty solid boxes.

One of the biggest complaints about HP is their unnecessarily complex website and getting the newest firmware after warranty period. No big gripes for me.