Hello everyone.
I'm looking at expanding my NAS (a seagate 4bay nas populated with two 4TB HDD in Raid 1) as it's soon full.
Here are the function i need from my NAS:
- I use my NAS as my main storage/backup solution.
- There are mac and windows files on it (also a Timemachine).
- The NAS is backed up on my Google drive.
- The NAS is accessile from anywhere over the internet and I can browse the files and download them.
- I can create download links for specific files on te NAS and share them with others.

Buying two other 4TB HDD would cost me a little less than 300$. So that's my initial budget.
I am also pretty sure that my storage usage is, during the following years, going to increase. To about 1-2 TB per year (until now I've filled 4TB in 6 years).

I already own a rackcabinet for various other apparels. Pro-grade server chassis aren't an issue to me.


As a long time LTT youtube subscriber I've always wanted to take the "unraid plunge" seeing what Linus and his team are doing with it.

So I did a little research on the subject and on the hardware side of things. And I found what seems to me to be a great deal.
I found a "Supermicro SC846 24x SATA Storage Server" up for sale at 150$
Here is the list of components:

- Motherboard Supermicro X7DBE+
- CPU 1 Intel Xeon E5410, 4x 2.33GHz, 1333Mhz FSB, 12MB Cache

- CPU 2 - empty -
- RAM 16GB ECC DDR2 FB RAM (4x 4GB),

- 24x HDD Trays, SAS/SATA SAS846A BPN-SAS-846A 6G Backplane

- Controler 3Ware 9650SE-24ML SATA II RAID Controller, PCI-E, 24port, incl. BBU

- Rack rails

- 2 x PWS-902-1R (900W), redundant PSU
The seller is also able to add a second CPU+heatsink for 30$, and 12 sticks or less of 4gb RAM at 10$ per stick.

I also scrapped 10 x 1TB drives of old PC builds that are lying around that I could throw in for free.

I also would like to make this chassis as silent as possible. For this endeavour, I've thought of replacing the 5 stock fans with 5 NF-R8 redux-1800 PWM (16$/unit, 80$ total).
And also replace the passive CPU cooler with the NH-U12DX i4 (80$).

Summary:
150$ for the server
80$ for the fans
0$ for 18TB of HDD
80$ for the CPU cooler

129$ for the Unraid license
439$ Total
(+150$ eventually for the full populated motherboard)
 

 

First of all, does this seem doable?
What about those redundant PSU, are they noisy? Should I swap their fans too?

Is one CPU going to be enough for my application? Or should I buy the second?
Is 16gigs of RAM enough? Or should I fill up per CPU?
Is the CPU cooler going to fit on the LGA771 socket? Or should I look for the older version:  NH-U12DX?  

Thanks for your time and help.

Edited October 10, 20187 yr by yaneck

I don't think that controller will work with unraid, maybe you could get the seller to swap for a LSI that can do IT HBA instead of RAID only?

Thanks for the tip!
I'l be in contact with him to see if he can swap the controller with another IT HBA one.
I'll also ask him if he can swap the psu with a PWS-920p-sq. It seems those are much more quiet.

Is the SAS-846A backplane alright? I read here and there that there might be some limitation to the number of drive?

Edited October 10, 20187 yr by yaneck