Server for small studio

[Krzym]

Hello,
I'm looking for a solution to build a storage server (10TB) max. for 3 users.
We will save mostly images / software / caches / audio etc / scripts etc.
Not sure if that's important, we can save/delete about 3/4gb every day - so it has to be stable.

We can't afford any professional solution for now and also I have no knowledge about building them yet. (but this would change I hope ;) ).
I would really appreciate some help, where should I start and what hardware I need from the beginning.

First of all, I was thinking about the refurbished pc and these I've found, what do you think?
Do I needy any SSD cache for that? Or is there anything I have no idea for now and should carry about?

Option1:
HP Proliant DL360 G6 1U
2x QuadCore X5570 2,93Ghz 8M 5,86GT/s
24GB DDR3 12x2GB
4x2,5” Chassis
P410 256M
iLo2 standard
2xPSU 460W

Option2:
Dell 380 SFF
INTEL CORE 2 DUO E7500 2x2,9GHz
INTEL Q45 EXPRESS CHIPSET
4GB DDR3



Please let me know what do you think

Best,
Krzym

 

[kdragon75]

it has to be stable.

refurbished pc

Those usually don't go together. Specifically the PC part. You can get second hand server grade gear cheap, thoroughly test it and it should be much better than any desktop grade hardware.

Option one is a decent starting point but is getting old and will consume more power than needed. You also need to get an appropriate HBA. You cannot use a RAID card with ZFS (the thing that keep you data safe) and have a server that is trustworthy.
Option two should be thrown in a dumpster.
This should be read and re-read. https://www.ixsystems.com/documentation/freenas/11/intro.html#hardware-recommendations
Also to keep your datasafe, you will lose space to redundancy. With larger (4TB+) drive the recommendation is two drives of redundancy. If you need 8TB and buy/build a machine that supports 4 drives, you need to take 8TB / (4 minus 2 (for redundancy)). So a minimum of 4, 4TB drives.

 

[Krzym]

Thank you, I will read that and search for some nice servers. But maybe it would be better/easier and cheaper to use small QNAP?
Like:
QNAP TS-451A 4GB or
QNAP TS-419U II 2.0GHz Rack 1U

 

[kdragon75]

It may be cheaper and easier but I would not use a proprietary NAS. What if the unit dies? How do you get your data? With ZFS as long as you can boot from USB and connect your drives, generally you can get you databack. Always plan for failure.
You could consider something from iXsystems (the makers of FreeNAS) https://www.amazon.com/FreeNAS-Mini...?srs=9199424011&ie=UTF8&qid=1542487953&sr=8-5