New member - new build - business server solution!

[Weapons of Mass Creation]

Budget (including currency): $2000-3000

Country: USA

 

Workloads that it will be used for: The system will be used as a creative agency's central repository for projects and visual assets. Ideally I'd like all team members to work from or check in/out files from a central system. I don't know if this is possible, but ideally the system would check file changes in with offsite storage nightly (something like S3 or any other offsite you might recommend).

 

Other details:

Hey everyone, I've built a few workstations and gaming systems, but I have a server chassis I want to build into an onsite business server (which, if possible, would then automatically update an offsite storage solution nightly).

I'm not as experienced with building something like a storage system that I'd like to rely on for business use, and I'm looking for recommendations on how to finish this well enough (somewhere in the space between budget and awesome). I don't want something that'll *just* get by, but I don't need something earth-shatteringly fast. Here's what I have so far, followed by what I'd like suggestions for:

 

Current supplies:

- Chenbro 24-bay chassis with dual power supply, all fans and a dual SSD drive bay at the rear of the system for boot/os

- Chenbro 24-port 6gb backplane installed

- A basically-new ASUS Z270... but I don't imagine this is the right board for this build. I'll probably throw this in a PLEX build in the future.

- x24 IBM 3TB/7200/SAS-6 enterprise hard drives (with a few spares) - P/N 99Y1169

- all the cables I'd likely need

- all 4 modular chassis fans

- dual-redundant hot swappable power supplies, tested and OK'ed

- And yes, I definitely got this chassis from a trash-pallet during my tenure at a major OEM electronics company. I got the proper permission to snag it, and the manager kindly OK'ed an RMA on the broken backplane for me, so I have a fresh one. Super stoked about that.

 

Hardware and config recommendations requested:

- Mobo/processor(s) and ram

- The most reliable RAID and network card for the above SAS/backplane configuration

- Recommended RAID config? Thinking RAID5 for a balance of speed/redundancy/recovery. Any other thoughts? Won't be using for video editing, more just for long-term storage, archives and static design assets

- Recommended OS, file system and network share settings (We're a combo of PC and Mac users here). Was thinking Windows 10 Enterprise but open to FreeNAS... I just don't know enough.

- Base-level GFX card (if needed... dual screens maybe for some direct file management if using an os like Win 10 enterprise)

- There will be a max of 6 people working from the storage during the day right now, but expect to prepare for up to 12 team members over the life of the system

- Has anyone set up a system to sync up just recently added/changed files with offsite storage on a schedule like this?

 

With deepest gratitude, from a designer and creative who knows a little about building systems but not enough to probably do this correctly.

Thanks!

 

 

[Weapons of Mass Creation]

Okay, so here's what I've put together for a wishlist if anyone cares to weigh in - comes out to about ~$2200:

 

- ASUS WS C246 PRO ATX Server Motherboard LGA 1151 Intel C246

- Intel Xeon E-2136 Coffee Lake 3.3 GHz LGA 1151 80W BX80684E2136 (6-core)

- x4 Sticks - Crucial 32GB DDR4 2666 (PC4-21300) SDRAM Server Memory ECC Registered

- x2 SAMSUNG 860 Pro Series 2.5" 256GB (RAID-1 for OS and any virtualization software we may run in the future)

- LSI MegaRAID LSI00330 (9271-8i) PCI-Express 3.0 x8 SATA / SAS RAID Controller (a friend in the industry mentioned this should be able to drive the x24 drives connected to the backplane expander)

- LSI LSI00297 CacheVault

- Titan Adjustable Dual Fan PCI Slot VGA Cooler (I've read the LSI 9271 gets REALLY hot and a PCI-based cooling solution can keep it stable)

- PNY VCQP2200-SB VCX VCQP2200-SB QUADRO P2200 (I know I probably don't need a GFX card... but I may set up a virtualization pool)

 

Thoughts? Under or over powered for what I want to do? Thanks!