Least expensive way to build 16TB+ external storage

J

Jeffman

Gawd
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Jul 23, 2008
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Hey guys,

Looking for a way to build some external storage for data. I'd like to get to 16TB or more us usable space, while still having a few spare drives for possible drive failures.

Let's say I'm starting with nothing, so let me know what you think works best? Should I look into an eSATA/USB 3.0 enclosure, a NAS, or build something using parts? I'm guessing I'll want to look at 4TB drives, probably 6 or 8 or 'em? Should I use RAID, or something else?

Any ideas work for me, I'm just looking to keep it low budget, about at low as we can get while keeping it a decent setup. I could go with like 10TB-12TB for now, as long as I can upgrade down the road with ease.
 
As cheap as possible?

Find a cheap case / PSU combo that can hold 6 HDDs. Should be possible to find one for well under $100 if you sacrifice quality and convenience (for example, $40 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811237035 )

Then get a cheap motherboard / CPU combo with 6 SATA ports and onboard ethernet. As cheap as required. Should be easy to find something for well under $200 (for example, $80 http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.1455430 )

Wait for the 4TB Seagate HDDs to go on sale. They have been as low as $150-$160 with special deals.

Install a free OS like linux (create a small system partition on one of the HDDs, or run the OS from a USB thumbdrive). If you can afford to dedicate one drive to parity, then use snapshot RAID with SnapRAID.
 
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I have a few copies of Windows 7, so I could use one of those for a build. I also have a copy of Home Server 2008 to install. I was running an 8TB home server before, but I dismantled it and sold the mobo/CPU/RAM and the case/PS.

I have an Antec case that will hold up to 4 3.5" drives, and a 2.5" drive. It has I think 3 ext 5.25" bays that I could put something in, and I think 2 ext 3.5" bays. I don't mind using that case, I honestly forgot I had it. I also have some socket 775 Pentium Dual Core CPU's, so I could get a cheap 775 board and some RAM, and a power supply and use that, if anyone thinks I could build something useful and decent out of it let me know.

If I get a board/RAM/power supply for $100-$150, and maybe a cage to add more drive in the 5.25" bays, then I'd be set and just need drives.

Does this seem like a viable option? Is there a 775 board that will run a setup like I want? Or do I need to buy a card to use?
 
fractal design node 304
ASUS C60M1-I
6 x 4tb drives
ram
psu

not the fastest but run freenas great.
 
I bought the NZXT Source 210 Elite for my server. I really like it because I can fit a lot of drives. If you only need 18 TB, you could get away with using 4TB drives in the Fractal Design Node 304, which is a pretty nice looking case.

The source 210 has 8x 3.5" bays, and if you use a 5.25-3.5 bay converter, you can fit up to 12x 3.5" drives.
NZXT Source 210 Elite: $50
5.25 bay converter to 4x3.5 bays:
$26
 
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Great info so far, thanks guys!

I've been looking at those old SuperMicro servers that are being sold on eBay for $300ish. It looks like it would suit my needs well, and give me space to add more drives in the future. Since I have a bunch of drives right now (Being used), I could toss those in and just add some a few more to keep the cost down a bit. If I added 3-4 2TB drives to my current 7, I'd have enough to get by for now and I can just toss pairs in as I need more. It makes sense to me.
 
See here for a 12-bay hotswap server under $300 shipped. Replace the P212 with an HBA for another $90 or so (LSi9211, M1015, etc). Load up your favorite storage OS and you are all good. Less than $400 before drives...
 
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If you're wanting to use 4TB drives you might want to look at using the ZFS file system available on Unix and Linux based operating systems. It's built specifically to handle the potential issues involved with putting so much data on single drives.

Also 4-5 drives is right at the comfortable limit of using RAID5/RAIDZ1 (1 parity drive) including the parity drive. Adding 1 more for RAID6/RAIDZ2 won't hurt, but it will add another $150-$200 to the build.
 
I put together an external RAID 5 box as a backup for my server this weekend using one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003YFHEAC/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I put three really old Seagate 7200.10 500GB drives in it and set it for RAID 5. It set up under Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials no sweat.

I connected it via USB 3.0 (it also has eSata) and I'm really quite pleased with the performance. Even with those old drives, it's moving data at 80-90 MB/Sec.

I'm waiting for a super-sale on hard drives somewhere to buy 4 new 1 or 2 TB drives for it. Maybe Black Friday will hold some surprises :)
 
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On newegg 3TB drives are less per GB, so they may be worth considering.
Especially if they go on sale.
 
Thank guys.

I'm sure this has been asked before, but what would be the best situation, and why?
I have 7 2TB drives a a 3 TB drive right now, building 2 RAID's. One for data and one for backup (8TB data RAID, and 9TB backup RAID that also backs up my 500GB SSD).

I'd be open to using those drives in a new setup, as long as I get the data off them onto something new first. It wouldn't be too hard, I could just pull the backup drives, format them, and put them in a new build, then copy the data over and add the other 4 drives after that.

Should I use something that'll hold 12+ drives, and just add a few more drives down the road? This will let me use a few of my current drives for parity (2 I'd think), and the rest for data storage? I don't know all the different options and why I'd want to select one.

In the end, I want data protected against drive failure. It's not data I'd die if I lost, just want to prevent any data loss. I understand the best situation is offsite, I'm not doing that.
 
TechLarry said:
I put together an external RAID 5 box as a backup for my server this weekend using one of these:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003YFHEAC/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I put three really old Seagate 7200.10 500GB drives in it and set it for RAID 5. It set up under Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials no sweat.

I connected it via USB 3.0 (it also has eSata) and I'm really quite pleased with the performance. Even with those old drives, it's moving data at 80-90 MB/Sec.

I'm waiting for a super-sale on hard drives somewhere to buy 4 new 1 or 2 TB drives for it. Maybe Black Friday will hold some surprises :)
Click to expand...


My external RAID for backups is one of these. It's been great, just need more storage. If I buy new drives for this, and new drives for my internal RAID, I'd be spending a lot of money. If I go to 3TB drives, it would still be about $800 in drives, which is why I'm looking for a different solution. Sure I could sell my 2TB drives then and get some of that back, but if I find something that'll take 12+ drives, then I can use my current drives and add more later without breaking the bank.
 
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Jeffman said:
My external RAID for backups is one of these. It's been great, just need more storage. If I buy new drives for this, and new drives for my internal RAID, I'd be spending a lot of money. If I go to 3TB drives, it would still be about $800 in drives, which is why I'm looking for a different solution. Sure I could sell my 2TB drives then and get some of that back, but if I find something that'll take 12+ drives, then I can use my current drives and add more later without breaking the bank.
Click to expand...

Amazon has 2TB Reds for just over $100 right now. I'm tempted :)

http://www.amazon.com/WD-Red-NAS-Ha...e=UTF8&qid=1381855228&sr=8-1&keywords=2tb+Red

3TB are $30 more.

4's are $200. I think that makes the 3's the Sweet Spot over all.
 
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Jeffman said:
My external RAID for backups is one of these. It's been great, just need more storage. If I buy new drives for this, and new drives for my internal RAID, I'd be spending a lot of money. If I go to 3TB drives, it would still be about $800 in drives, which is why I'm looking for a different solution. Sure I could sell my 2TB drives then and get some of that back, but if I find something that'll take 12+ drives, then I can use my current drives and add more later without breaking the bank.
Click to expand...

Question... Has a Firmware update ever need to be issued, and if so how was it applied?
 
I would restrict storage to machines that hold 6 drives, a 5-disk raid6 plus a hot spare. Advantages:
  • Use cheap 3-to-5 slot SATA enclosures
  • Use run of the mill motherboards with Intel AHCI, or newer AMD chipset's AHCI. These controllers are a huge advantage over random hardware controllers which might fail, have driver issues, you name it
  • This system makes it easy to sync important data between 2 or more of these individual machines, which is then protected against major failure such as a bad PSU killing everything connected to it
  • If you have a motherboard blow up you can either get a run of the mill board locally or you can switch things around so that the least important box is down
 
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