16TB Storage Server parts list:

Nemockulous · October 14, 2015

How many users streaming media at one time? What quality of media will you be streaming, and will it be transcoded? If you don't have much of a media need, you can get away with a really inexpensive CPU, and put that money towards better storage.

Do you need 10 gigabit connections? How much storage do you estimate you'll need a few years from now? How many drive failures do you want to be able to withstand?

Do you want good value for your money, or do you want overkill?

I would recommend avoiding a dedicated HBA add-in card unless you are up for doing compatibility research -- it adds unknowns in terms of compatibility with motherboards. If you do, I'd recommend the LSI 9207-8i as a starting point, because it doesn't need any firmware flashing to be fully compatible with FreeNAS.

So streaming would be normally 1, max of 3 from the server. It's intended to be a FreeNAS server with Plex running on it as well, which, as I understand, will trans-code a good deal of my media files on the fly. The media being streamed will almost always be 1080p video.

The intention of the now planned 8x3TB drives in RAID 6 (z2? for FreeNAS) includes planned expansion as well as current needs. If FreeNAS supports it, which I believe it does, I'd likely run 8x3TB in Z2, with a hot spare, for 9 total drives.

For this I don't want a hint of struggling on the servers part. This doesn't necessarily mean overkill, but adequate for the planned solution and a little extra.