Italian Hobbyist

[devster]

Hi everyone,

I recently joined because I really need a new solution for media storage. I'm still a bit worried about the ZFS tax and the inability to easily grow my pool but I'm gradually getting convinced.

I'm also gradually upgrading my network and improving the quality of my movies, so the limitation of my current Synology are starting to show.

The idea is to get something bigger. Buy a small server with about 8-10 drives and run Plex/Transmission and stuff on it; this seems a bit costly right now though.

 

[danb35]

Welcome! "Small server" and "8-10 drives" aren't entirely consistent with each other; we typically think of "small" servers as being six or fewer drives, and those can be accommodated with some very inexpensive pre-built hardware (the current bang-for-buck winner appears to be the Proliant ML10 for under US$200). Going for more drives than that is likely going to be significantly more expensive.

 

[joeschmuck]

Welcome to the forums!

this seems a bit costly right now though.

It amazes me how many people want to create a media library and as you stated, it's a bit costly.

(the current bang-for-buck winner appears to be the Proliant ML10 for under US$200).

Assuming you go down this path you will need to add RAM to this machine, we recommend one 8GB stick at a minimum which would give you 12GB RAM. If you go down this path, plan before you buy. I don't know if you want to max out the RAM in this machine or just want it to do the things you stated above. @gpsguy has one of these machines so he could give you good advice if you need it.

 

[devster]

Thank you for the suggestions.
I definitely will plan ahead, from what I understand it's the only option with ZFS.

"Small server" and "8-10 drives" aren't entirely consistent with each other; we typically think of "small" servers as being six or fewer drives, ...

Mh, then no, not so small.

Going for more drives than that is likely going to be significantly more expensive.

Why is that? I've seen the FreeNAS Mini XL for example is 8 drives, which I see as a good balance. What would make the price go up significantly?

It amazes me how many people want to create a media library and as you stated, it's a bit costly.

This for me is because I really didn't know about server hardware and I didn't expect the price difference to be that big. But FreeNAS can't run (shouldn't run) on consumer hardware from what I understand.

 

[joeschmuck]

Why is that? I've seen the FreeNAS Mini XL for example is 8 drives, which I see as a good balance. What would make the price go up significantly?

I'd say that most people creating a large storage would also typically require more resources in the way of more RAM and a better CPU. The main consideration is what the system will be used for. Additionally the cost of hard drives is where most of your budget will be used. And yes, while FreeNAS can be run on consumer hardware (non-ECC RAM basically) it should be run on server grade hardware. This is purely from a reliability/stability point of view. Lets say someone has one heck of a gaming computer, super fast and lots of RAM, that is great but when it crashes for some reason the user just reboots it and jumps back into the game. On a NAS that kind of stuff is not acceptable at any time so we only promote good quality and stable hardware and ECC RAM is a must with that point of view in mind.

 

[danb35]

FreeNAS Mini XL is $1500 plus disks, IIRC. The ML10 is $300 with the necessary RAM upgrade. I call that significantly more expensive.

Edit: Correction, the Mini XL is $1349. Still a delta of over $1k. I'm not at all saying it isn't worth it, just showing that going larger than 4-6 disks results in a significant cost increase.