First build, ebay server, a few questions

[Arbies]

What I am looking to do with my server:
Plex (max 4 streams / DVR HDHomeRunPrime)
Currently have 4 IP cameras, might ad a few more.
DSLR Photo backups, wife takes a lot of pictures. Would be nice to store on the server and allow editing on main desktop (Lightroom)
Offsite back up for my parents (BitTorrent Sync)

What I have:
6 3TB WD Greens (Currently using 5 in Windows storage spaces (yea this NAS is long overdue))
Slowly collecting 8TB drives to shuck when BBY runs sales.
A old small SSD, might use as a boot drive.

What I am looking at
https://www.theserverstore.com/Supermicro-2U-12-Bay-Freenas-Unraid-JBOD-Server-W-Rails_p_768.html

I am looking at this mainly b/c the price (+/- 100$)(its never -). I am not opposed to buying parts and building myself, but looking at all these parts separate this still seems like a good deal.

Slight concerned about the age of the equipment. Not to concerned about the power draw (should I be?). Not to concerned about the noise of a 2U sever (in the basement and willing to replace fans).

I have googled enough to know the back plane and LSI controllers will work. Can't seem to find a straight answer as to if they will operate at 6Gb/s or if they will support 8TB drives. Does anybody know for sure?

Will use the 6 drives I have and build a Z2.
Later I will either slowly replace the drives with 8TB, or wait till I have 6 and build a second Z2.
Probably add a 10Gb NIC in my main desktop and the server and connect directly (20 feet from each other).

 

[jgreco]

The unit quoted there has an 826A backplane which is just a SAS passthru backplane and will work fine at 6Gbps. There are no drive size limits with current drives, or any likely to arrive during the serviceable life of that chassis (let's call it 10 years).

No obvious flaws stick out to me.

 

[Arbies]

Thanks for the input jgreco. I'll pull the trigger soon.

 

[NanPatterson]

Did you end up ordering the server? I was thinking of getting the same one for use as a datastore for an ESXi server I have built. So I did not need it to have a lot of features.

 

[Arbies]

@NanPatterson yes I did. I am burning it in in my spare time. It came with 32G (4x4GB per CPU) or ram. I went ahead and bought additional 4GB sticks to fill all the DIMMS. Bumps me up to 96GB should serve all my needs.
As far as the server (as shipped) It was well packed, little to no signs of wear and tear. Inside the case it was super clean. I was expecting to have to take a can of compressed air to it at the least, but there was no need. All the HDD trays also had the plastic "dummy" drives, which I also did not expect. There was a little bag or HDD screws included as well.

Overall I am impressed. I think they just dropped the price a little too.

 

[jgreco]

Inside the case it was super clean. I was expecting to have to take a can of compressed air to it at the least, but there was no need.

Most of the time, when gear comes out of a decent data center, there's very little dust. Some of the data centers are really ramping up their game and using things like sticky pads to remove dust and dirt from shoes and wheels as you enter, in addition to all the standard air filtration and other things that are done to minimize dust.

https://www.dataclean.com/c-4-contamination-control-mats.aspx

etc.

 

[l@e]

I designed a couple of small DC and buffer zone and keeping allways positive air presure was projected to keep the dust from entering too.

 

[Arbies]

Not to worry, a few months in my basement will get it nice and dirty.
Or I try to convince my wife to let me build a clean room.

 

[l@e]

If you take the bother to clean it twice a year it will be fine. Our first server was not a deticated room with ac and the rest 15 years ago, instead on one of the offices and we thought at the time was better to keep the windows open so the server had fresh and “clean” air from the city main road.
Results were tremendous, after a year of operation there was formed a mass like a cloth in air intake

 

[NanPatterson]

@NanPatterson yes I did. I am burning it in in my spare time. It came with 32G (4x4GB per CPU) or ram. I went ahead and bought additional 4GB sticks to fill all the DIMMS. Bumps me up to 96GB should serve all my needs.
As far as the server (as shipped) It was well packed, little to no signs of wear and tear. Inside the case it was super clean. I was expecting to have to take a can of compressed air to it at the least, but there was no need. All the HDD trays also had the plastic "dummy" drives, which I also did not expect. There was a little bag or HDD screws included as well.

Overall I am impressed. I think they just dropped the price a little too.

What did you do with the boot drives? I had thought about something similar to this Drive Holder and Power Cable. Did not see a better way to mount and power them.

 

[Arbies]

@NanPatterson I picked up one of these on Ebay for 6$.
Supermicro SAS510T SATA/SAS Server Backplane (Ebay item #322823214909). I got a molex extension for power, had 2 sata cables lying around. I used the two white sata on the motherboard, they are SATA3.
I made a bracket to screw the two ssds together and double sided taped it to the side of case between the fans and the pcie cards.
It's a little hacky but it works.