cheap home storage server

[AlTech]

Hi, for quite a while I've been thinking of moving my OneDrive files and other files offline to a local home storage server.

 

Part of what I'm looking for is the ability to have decent capaciticies, good speeds, and redundancy such as hardware raid if possible.

 

I've been looking on eBay and found some used HPE ProLiant MicroServer Gen10 PCs but they're close to being out of my budget and are around £300-400. I was wondering if there were more economical options I could explore.

 

I'm not willing to buy components and build a separate PC right now so I'm mainly looking at pre-builts and pre-built mini server PCs.

 

I'm mainly looking for this to store backups of my laptop files, backup of my main desktop PC files, just other files in general and possibly sync frequently used files using SyncThing.

 

Edit: To be more clear I'd like to spend closer to £100-200 leaning more towards £200.

 

Any recommendations?

 

I'm not terribly interested in anything older than Haswell on Intel. For AMD the CPU gen doesn't really matter so long as it's got an iGPU and is from 2013 or newer.

Something running Linux is preferable to Windows.

 

Thanks in advance

[LukeSavenije]

hm... @leadeater might be the best person here

[Zando_]

> not being interested in X58 xeons

 

Those and LGA1366 server mobos are plentiful and cheap, as are large amounts of ECC registered DDR3. 

[AlTech]

Just now, Zando Bob said:

> not being interested in X58 xeons

 

Those and LGA1366 server mobos are plentiful and cheap, as are large amounts of ECC registered DDR3. 

Do X58 Xeons have Spectre and Meltdown patches on Linux?

[Zando_]

1 minute ago, AluminiumTech said:

Do X58 Xeons have Spectre and Meltdown patches on Linux?

Isn't that done with microcode? Not the OS itself? 

[AlTech]

2 minutes ago, Zando Bob said:

Isn't that done with microcode? Not the OS itself? 

Should be but microcode on Linux is distributed through the OS or at least by linux distros.

[Zando_]

1 minute ago, AluminiumTech said:

Should be but microcode on Linux is distributed through the OS.

looks like it's done through the BIOS, if you can't find one for your board you can apparently mod the BIOS yourself but IDK how to do that: https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/meltdown-and-spectre-patched-bios-for-x58-motherboards.246101/

 

https://forums.evga.com/Unofficial-Spectre-Patched-BIOS-for-EVGA-X58-Motherboards-m2838898.aspx

 

 

[AlTech]

4 minutes ago, Zando Bob said:

looks like it's done through the BIOS, if you can't find one for your board you can apparently mod the BIOS yourself but IDK how to do that: https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/meltdown-and-spectre-patched-bios-for-x58-motherboards.246101/

 

https://forums.evga.com/Unofficial-Spectre-Patched-BIOS-for-EVGA-X58-Motherboards-m2838898.aspx

 

 

Is there any official support for it? I need it to be secure and supported.

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, AluminiumTech said:

Is there any official support for it? I need it to be secure and supported.

Those shouldn't be a big issue here for your use, as a storage server, as only trusted code should be ran.

 

The os patches should be fine, but not all older boards have the microcode updates.

 

Personally, I wouldn't worry about it.

[NoxiousOdor]

13 minutes ago, Zando Bob said:

> not being interested in X58 xeons

 

Those and LGA1366 server mobos are plentiful and cheap, as are large amounts of ECC registered DDR3. 

Plus I know a guy with a x58 serverboard and xeons with included heatsinks

Which he would sell cheap :]

[mariushm]

If you don't need performance, you could also look into those boards with CPUs soldered to them.

 

Here's an example : https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157728

 

4 sata ports, though not sure about raid support , cheap ddr3 memory, would work with any cheap psu ... silent...

 

If you search a bit, you may find some of these boards that have DC In connectors, so you could power them with a 12v or 16.5..18v adapter which would be cheaper than an ATX power supply. Asrock makes some, both with Intel and AMD chips.

Jetway also makes some "industrial" style boards, but they're a bit too expensive for your needs, here's a $160 example : https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIAB948NM2692&ignorebbr=1

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

3 minutes ago, mariushm said:

4 sata ports, though not sure about raid support

You want to be using software raid here normally, and motherboard raid is bad, so ignore what raid the motherboard says, just use your software raid solution.

[AlTech]

1 minute ago, mariushm said:

If you don't need performance, you could also look into those boards with CPUs soldered to them.

 

Here's an example : https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157728

 

I want to avoid anything soldered. The system needs to be upgradable in case I need more performance in the future or in case something needs replacing.

[mariushm]

9 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

I want to avoid anything soldered. The system needs to be upgradable in case I need more performance in the future or in case something needs replacing.

The benefit is passive operation (no need to worry about fans) and low power consumption and option to power from a DC adapter which is again passive. No fans, no moving parts etc. It's also cheap.. there used to be an Intel board with CPU and a 65w adapter in the package for $100.

 

Another option would be any B450 chipset based board (or a B350 board) plus a 60$ Athlon 200ge processor. So basically mb+cpu for around 100-110$ ...

The 2 core / 4 thread cpu would be good for a start and if you'll feel you need to upgrade, you can go up to ryzen 3 when they'll show up..

[leadeater]

2 hours ago, AluminiumTech said:

Do X58 Xeons have Spectre and Meltdown patches on Linux?

Yes, those HPE Microservers are pretty nice btw.

[AlTech]

9 minutes ago, leadeater said:

Yes, those HPE Microservers are pretty nice btw.

So I could conceivably buy a X58 based HPE Microserver? In 2019?

[leadeater]

4 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

So I could conceivably buy a X58 based HPE Microserver? In 2019?

lol, nah just addressing both at the same time. I know someone who has one of those microservers and he's pretty happy with it. Only down side is limited expandability but the size is rather nice trade off.

[AlTech]

1 minute ago, leadeater said:

lol, nah just addressing both at the same time. I know someone who had one of those microservers and he's pretty happy with it. Only down side is limited expandability but the size is rather nice trade off.

They are expensive though and I was hoping to find something slightly cheaper.

[leadeater]

1 minute ago, AluminiumTech said:

They are expensive though and I was hoping to find something slightly cheaper.

Most pre-built things are unfortunately, building something yourself is pretty much the only way to control cost and get the best balance you're looking for. Unless you have rather high performance requirements you won't need a lot of CPU power though, a more modern 4 core from Intel would probably do slightly better than an older LGA1366. There should be plenty of used Xeon E3 options on ebay which is on the same architecture as the standard desktop CPUs.

[AlTech]

3 minutes ago, leadeater said:

Most pre-built things are unfortunately, building something yourself is pretty much the only way to control cost and get the best balance you're looking for.

I thought there were some older Dell options for a lot cheaper.

[leadeater]

3 hours ago, AluminiumTech said:

I thought there were some older Dell options for a lot cheaper.

Depends, there would be some Dell and HP tower servers on ebay with those E3 Xeons in them for cheaper as well as higher end ones with E5 Xeons. Most of the used servers are rackmount.

[AlTech]

12 hours ago, leadeater said:

Depends, there would be some Dell and HP tower servers on ebay with those E3 Xeons in them for cheaper as well as higher end ones with E5 Xeons. Most of the used servers are rackmount.

Is there any software you'd recommend installing for a home storage server? And should I use software raid?

[Electronics Wizardy]

7 hours ago, AluminiumTech said:

Is there any software you'd recommend installing for a home storage server? And should I use software raid?

Software really depends on what you want to do. Something like freenas or unraid can be good for plug and play, or put proxmox/xcp-ng/esxi if you want a full hypervisor and want to mess with more advanced features.

 

Software raid is normally a good for a user like this, but it depends.

[Required]

Hi

This was the newest Post about the Microserver here.

I need some kind of Backup Server. I run currently a 2 CPU Machine who run quite in Idle. Just some W7 Machines on my ESXi who do some basic Jobs like TV Recording.

 

Now I need an dedicated Server for Storage. I have an "old" Raid Controller fromer LSI from my Pc with 4 1TB HW Encrypt (!) HDD.

The plan would be put an ESXi onto the Home Server on on that put some Open Cloud Storage onto.

Since 16Gb Kingston Ram are so cheap (~73€ excl) I would buy just one Bar at first.

 

I looking for the P04923-421:
P04923-421HPE MicroSvr Gen10 X3421 EU/UK Svr/TV ~400€ excl

745823-B21HPE TPM Module 2.0 Kit ~25€ excl

KTH-PL424E/16GKINGSTON HP 16GB DDR4 2400MHz ECC Module 73€ excl

 

Raid -> Home

4x HDD .> Home

ESXi -> Free

 

How about the Deal?

I know stupid question but how powerfull are the CPU?

I have an N36L (the first Homeserver) and the CPU laggs a lot.

My Laptop run an i7 6600U and my Desktop this i5: https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/88189/intel-core-i5-6600t-processor-6m-cache-up-to-3-50-ghz.html

So I have no idea how to compare the CPU with that I have home and who I know what run and what not.