HP DL380 G7 and use external Disk Shelf?

[AllTheGoodNamesWereTaken]

Hope it FreeNASses...

Hey guys I am looking at building my second FreeNAS box and moving away from the m-itx consumer grade build that i have at the moment.

I am looking at buying a second hand server, HBA and a disk shelf.
I plan on using the drives from my current server which are 3.5" 4tb drives.

The server i am looking at buying is HP dl380 g7 or similar. Link to the server bellow.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/HP-DL38...451011?hash=item1c99903c83:g:pH8AAOSwiYlaH0WX

The issue with this server is that it has 2.5" drive bays so i will need to buy a HBA and disk shelf which I plan to use external SAS connectors to connect to the disks.

Does anyone have any recommendations or suggestions on a different direction I should go prior to buying the server?

Thanks for the help.

 

[tvsjr]

Rather than buying a server and attaching a drive rack, why not buy a server purpose-built for large storage? The Supermicro 4U chassis (in 24-bay or 36-bay configurations) are quite popular and are usually quite widely available. Plus, you get a Supermicro box, motherboard, etc., which are *very* well supported by FreeNAS and by the community here.