BUILD Deciding on the Right Build for My Needs

[TigerShark458]

Greetings,

My current setup is just a extra machine running windows vista (yuck) with a network share with a 2TB hard drive. it was more of a way for me to just store my digital movie library, but now it is time for an upgrade.

My first thought was to do a synology or western digital NAS and just fill it with some drives and be done with it. The problem with that of course is limited transcoding ability and plugin support.

Along with this server build I will be building a HTPC running Kodi so I am not sure that I will even need transcoding.

Now on to the FreeNAS builds:

Option 1: Buy a pre built Lenovo or Dell T20 shove 8GB of ECC RAM and and 4 3TB hard drives for Zfs2

Option 2: Custom built build that would probably be overkill but really fun.

I have a build form newegg here

The main purposes for this server are: Computer Backups, Old Design Projects for my portfolio, DVD and Blu Ray Rips, and storage for random documents and pictures for future projects etc.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

For strictly storage as indicated, option 1 seems entirely suitable. The only obvious potential concern is if your storage needs grow so quickly that you become frustrated with only having room for 4 hard drives. The TS440 doesn't have that restriction, but it costs quite a bit more than a TS140 or T20.

 

[TigerShark458]

Honestly I haven't even filled half of the 2TB that I have now, my only worry is of course is with my current setup there is no backup for that data because it started as something that wasn't a big deal and has evolved into something that I need, granted it has been running just fine for a year and a half, but now I feel like it is a race against time.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

it started as something that wasn't a big deal and has evolved into something that I need

That's how it goes with a NAS, in fact with so many things, once you have it, you find more ways to make use of it. If anything on your NAS is important and doesn't exist elsewhere, you must have a backup, regardless of the platform it's running on. No type of RAID storage is an alternative to keeping backups.

 

[TigerShark458]

Seriously thinking about the dell T20 since it is on Newegg for 279.99 right now which is an awesome deal, just trying to figure out if it is the right move or not.

 

[gpsguy]

Looks like it's only $157.22 from Provantage (and they are in Ohio). See - http://www.provantage.com/dell-snp96mctc-8g~7DELL33Y.htm

 

[TigerShark458]

Never heard of Provantage before might have to look into them.

 

[gpsguy]

I've bought a number of items from Provantage, over the years. I've never had a problem.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

$157.22 from Provantage

That's mind-boggling.

 

[TigerShark458]

does the dell T20 have any IPMI like monitoring, can you run it headless?? I haven't been able to find any info.

 

[gpsguy]

Supposedly it does, see the technical manual for it - http://partnerdirect.dell.com/sites/channel/Documents/Dell-PowerEdge-T20-Server-Technical-Guide.pdf

Doing a Google search, turns up this comment on a Dell forum (http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/servers/f/956/t/19565419). "You would need to connect the server to a KVM or monitor for the initial startup and configuration. After that you can iDrac into the server directly and use the remote console to remotely manage the system. Now to use remote console you would need to have the iDrac Enterprise."

I don't own a Dell T20. Given the price, it's very tempting. But, realistically, it would probably sit in the box and depreciate, before I had time to work with it.

 

[ChriZ]

Most Dell entry servers support IPMI but need an optional add-on card for KVM.
But I think there is the ability for remote turn on/turn off