Old HP Z440 workstation?

Chris Moore

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Are you still using This hardware
First of all, this is my machine config:
- Core 2 Duo 2.2GHz
- 2 Gb RAM
- 1x 4Tb HD (yes, just one for now)
If you are, this would HP workstation would be a great upgrade for you. It has two external 5.25 drive bays that would allow you to install three 3.5 drives in addition to the two internal 3.5 drives. So, you could have a 5 drive RAIDz2 using 4TB drives that would give you 10 TB of storage that would be protected against up to two drive failures.
 

Frederico

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Are you still using This hardware?

Not really. I haven't been using any NAS lately. I just started doing a lot of filming and video editing (just personal stuff) and my laptop's 512GB SSD isn't cutting it anymore.

Also, I don't think I need that kind of redundancy. I'm planning on doing just a two-disk mirror setup with cloud sync to an S3 bucket. I think that's plenty for non-professional work, don't you agree?
 

Chris Moore

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If I agreed with just a mirror, why would I suggest RAIDz2?
If you are comfortable with it, enjoy.

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Chris Moore

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I don't think I need that kind of redundancy.
I have had two drives fail at once before. If you only have two drives, it leaves you with nothing. I use RAIDz2 for anything that is important at all and then I have a backup or two.
 

Frederico

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I have had two drives fail at once before. If you only have two drives, it leaves you with nothing.

Don't get me wrong, I understand your point, but if both drives die at the same time I can restore my files from my S3 bucket. I'm not running any mission critical applications, just storing some personal photos and videos :)
 

IQless

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I have been in the situation where I trusted my only "cloudbackup", well shame on me. I had stored my whole dataset in the cloud, but when my (then Raid5) died and I thought that "no problem, I have a backup in the cloud". That was when the shit hit the fan.

What had happened was that some of the files transferred initially to the cloud provider had been reported as successfully transferred, but it resulted in an error when I tried to retrieve it again, and since they had never received the file, they could not provide it back to me. This was some years ago (4-5), so I hope they have solved these kinds of problem, but I no longer trust these services 100%.

I am not saying that this is going to happen to you, but be aware of the potential problem that might occur.

Always check your backups, don't trust that the backup you made will work flawlessly after X-amount of years.
 

Frederico

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Always check your backups, don't trust that the backup you made will work flawlessly after X-amount of years.

Good point. Is there an easy way of checking the backup? Or would I need extra drives to restore the backup to?
 

Chris Moore

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The reason for the rule of having 3 instances of your data is about ensuring that one will be valid as much as it is about trying to eliminate down time. I have a little more than 9TB of data and I am not about to pay for it to be stored in the, "cloud," because I don't want to pay the bill. I have enough bills already. I would rather buy a second server for the home, but I am a hardware junkie.

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warllo

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@Federico Boldori

I think the system you linked would be a great choice. Personally I think a mirror would be fine as long as use some kind of backup. Whether that be cloud based, or some type of external disk. The other important aspect that I always think about is an off site backup having another device in your home does you no good in case of a natural disaster, theft or fire. Many people will argue that the odds of one of these is unlikely, and I agree but after being on the receiving end of this I was very thankful I had an off site backup.
 

Frederico

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@Federico Boldori
The other important aspect that I always think about is an off site backup having another device in your home does you no good in case of a natural disaster, theft or fire.

Totally agree. And honestly, about the cloud bill that @Chris Moore mentioned, if you save 9TB of data in Glacier, that's less than 20 bucks a month. I can afford that for peace of mind of having an off-site backup.
 

Chris Moore

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that's less than 20 bucks a month.
Or, $240 a year, money that I could spend on something else, like sending my daughter to summer camp.
 
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...this HP (Z440) workstation would be a great upgrade for you. It has two external 5.25 drive bays that would allow you to install three 3.5 drives in addition to the two internal 3.5 drives. So, you could have a 5 drive RAIDz2 using 4TB drives that would give you 10 TB of storage that would be protected against up to two drive failures.

Hey Chris, working on my first build and was wondering what would be the minimum of RAM you would use on this? I have 2x8GB (16GB total), that I could deploy today. Would this be a working solution? Not that I couldn't find some more 2x 8GB's to make it a full 32GB, but something to get it up and running now. This is exactly the config I would like to do... as I also have a few 4TB hd's that would work perfect for this... and some for replacements if needed.

I do have other sticks (2x 4GB and 1x 16GB), but not sure how that would play out if also used (including the above 2x8GB) in this build.

Any insight would be appreciated.
 

Chris Moore

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I have 2x8GB (16GB total), that I could deploy today. Would this be a working solution?
Sure, 16GB is plenty to start with and is enough for most people in a home uses situation. Upgrading to 32GB is usually more about getting a bit more performance out of the system.
 
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