To rack or not to rack.

[IkeaGnome]

I've been toying with the idea of doing a rackmount set up for a while. Originally it was going to be a NAS(later decided on Unraid), UPS, Network switch and what ever else came up down the line. Last month a forum member was asking about cases for NAS. I offered them my spare case. Once we figured out what shipping cost, it didn't make sense. Even if I gave it for free and only charged for shipping. That turned into an overkill NAS/Server for MC for friends, Arma 3 server hosting machine. Completely overkill for Unraid, but did well at the other two. So the rack idea got scrapped.

Looking around on Craigslist today I found what looks like a good deal to someone that doesn't know about server specific hardware. Boards, CPUs etc. 

https://anchorage.craigslist.org/sys/d/anchorage-supermicro-x9drw-7tpf-server/7261316209.html

My thoughts are does this seem like a good deal knowing most everything is expensive in Alaska. If they were asking $500 in the lower 48 or even Canada, how's it look as a deal?

I'm set up on Unraid but haven't done the majority of file transfers yet to it. I'm already using more than 4 drives. I'm at 5 now. Is it possible to get a rackmount hard drive bay and "expand" the 4 HDD limit of this set up? 

My thoughts are to "expand" the limits on hard drives to fit my needs, get a server rack that would fit the server, expansion unit, network card, and UPS. Then I could use what is currently my NAS as just game servers. Would that make more sense than just migrating everything over? I really have no clue what to look for in server hardware, rack mounts, etc. 

 

TLDR: Built overkill NAS, what looks like a good deal popped up. Would I be dumb to get it?

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 hour ago, Voluspa said:

Looking around on Craigslist today I found what looks like a good deal to someone that doesn't know about server specific hardware. Boards, CPUs etc. 

https://anchorage.craigslist.org/sys/d/anchorage-supermicro-x9drw-7tpf-server/7261316209.html

 

Yea thats not a awful deal in a area with expensive prices. 256gb of ram isn't cheap. I don't know the cpu model, but probably a 2650 v1 at worst, so not that bad.

 

 

ALso how much is power, those are power hungry, and pretty loud. A 10th gen desktop system is probably more than fast enough, simmilar pricing, and uses like 1/3 of the power.

1 hour ago, Voluspa said:

I'm set up on Unraid but haven't done the majority of file transfers yet to it. I'm already using more than 4 drives. I'm at 5 now. Is it possible to get a rackmount hard drive bay and "expand" the 4 HDD limit of this set up? 

That would be a jbod enclosure and those would work the best here. Look at prices though, as it might be cheaper to just get a 2u 12 bay in the first place.

 

 

[IkeaGnome]

6 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Yea thats not a awful deal in a area with expensive prices. 256gb of ram isn't cheap. I don't know the cpu model, but probably a 2650 v1 at worst, so not that bad.

 

 

ALso how much is power, those are power hungry, and pretty loud. A 10th gen desktop system is probably more than fast enough, simmilar pricing, and uses like 1/3 of the power.

That would be a jbod enclosure and those would work the best here. Look at prices though, as it might be cheaper to just get a 2u 12 bay in the first place.

 

 

Power isn't expensive for me. I do rotation work, so I'm only home half the time. Right now my server is on an i9. I'm still paying the minimum at $60 a month. We're about $0.117 per kWh. Since October we're actually the cheapest in the state. I know with one of these running full time it'll go up a bit. 

https://www.mea.coop/news/members-see-slight-overall-decrease-in-4q-rates

The other "hidden" cost is shipping to Alaska. If I can't source a rack locally shipping could get costly. I did find a 2U that was compatible with that board CPU and Ram combo. It was like $300 on eBay. 

It's kind of one of those things I want to do, but am not sure if this is the right excuse. My current set up is i9-9900k, 5x8tb Ironwolf NAS drives on Unraid. A 1tb 850 EVO I had laying around waiting for a use(probably going to use it for emulators) and 4x8 Vengeance LPX. When we're playing on Arma 3 (fairly heavily modified) there's usually 5 or 6 of us. There's usually helicopters involved so a lot of loading different parts of the map at the same time it does use the 32 gigs. My thoughts are the cost of stepping up to 64 gig makes that server make a lot of sense at $324 for 2x32 sticks. There's also talks of a Valheim server floating around our Discord currently as well. 

The more I talk about the reasons why I'd get it, it makes more sense to change things up a bit. Get that for the deal it is and run servers/emulators on it. 4 drives would be plenty. Then leave my i9 as the NAS/HTPC(using it to stream movies to TVs around the house).

[Electronics Wizardy]

10 minutes ago, Voluspa said:

Power isn't expensive for me. I do rotation work, so I'm only home half the time. Right now my server is on an i9. I'm still paying the minimum at $60 a month. We're about $0.117 per kWh. Since October we're actually the cheapest in the state. I know with one of these running full time it'll go up a bit. 

https://www.mea.coop/news/members-see-slight-overall-decrease-in-4q-rates

The other "hidden" cost is shipping to Alaska. If I can't source a rack locally shipping could get costly. I did find a 2U that was compatible with that board CPU and Ram combo. It was like $300 on eBay. 

It's kind of one of those things I want to do, but am not sure if this is the right excuse. My current set up is i9-9900k, 5x8tb Ironwolf NAS drives on Unraid. A 1tb 850 EVO I had laying around waiting for a use(probably going to use it for emulators) and 4x8 Vengeance LPX. When we're playing on Arma 3 (fairly heavily modified) there's usually 5 or 6 of us. There's usually helicopters involved so a lot of loading different parts of the map at the same time it does use the 32 gigs. My thoughts are the cost of stepping up to 64 gig makes that server make a lot of sense at $324 for 2x32 sticks. There's also talks of a Valheim server floating around our Discord currently as well. 

The more I talk about the reasons why I'd get it, it makes more sense to change things up a bit. Get that for the deal it is and run servers/emulators on it. 4 drives would be plenty. Then leave my i9 as the NAS/HTPC(using it to stream movies to TVs around the house).

The i9 you have is probably faster than than the server in almost all users.

 

Id keep the server you have now. Id go 128gb of ram as its not that much mow. 

[IkeaGnome]

21 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

The i9 you have is probably faster than than the server in almost all users.

 

Id keep the server you have now. Id go 128gb of ram as its not that much mow. 

With 128 gigs would you be looking more for latency or speed? To me latency would seem to make more sense. This kit seems to be right about the middle of speed and latency. I've only ever used Vengeance and had good luck with it.

https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Categories/Products/Memory/VENGEANCE-LPX/p/CMK128GX4M4E3200C16

If speed makes more sense, Amazon does have this kit. Steps down to C18, but goes up to 3600 mHz. 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B085WQXKM2?tag=pcpapi-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1

Or is there a different magic brand for this use that I'm missing?

 

Edit: First link makes no sense. I thought I was going to be able to find it cheaper on Amazon or Newegg. Or even eBay. Wasn't able to.

[Electronics Wizardy]

5 minutes ago, Voluspa said:

With 128 gigs would you be looking more for latency or speed? To me latency would seem to make more sense. This kit seems to be right about the middle of speed and latency. I've only ever used Vengeance and had good luck with it.

https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Categories/Products/Memory/VENGEANCE-LPX/p/CMK128GX4M4E3200C16

If speed makes more sense, Amazon does have this kit. Steps down to C18, but goes up to 3600 mHz. 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B085WQXKM2?tag=pcpapi-20&linkCode=ogi&th=1&psc=1

Or is there a different magic brand for this use that I'm missing?

 

Edit: First link makes no sense. I thought I was going to be able to find it cheaper on Amazon or Newegg. Or even eBay. Wasn't able to.

Any of those kits will be pretty simmilar in terms of performance, id probably just get the cheaper one of the two.