help with server build

[zack099]

So, I recently came across

and was really interested in building an personal server/NAS. I need some suggestions to start off. I have a budget of 100$ and I don't know if its a good budget or not but I am just starting off. In the video, Anthony used an "old pc" which I unfortunately don't have. However, the only "old pc" related item I own are lenovo thinkpad x1 carbon 3rd gen and an old hp laptop. I was thinking to stop buy an old PC from freegeek store near my house and want someone to suggest what to buy as I don't have much experience to what to look for.

 

I want something that is good enough to access remotely and around the house for a total of 5 people. We would be using it primarily for family pictures, videos, important docs and maybe some games through home network or remotely. I also will be afford for any upgrades if this build goes all well, so if any suggestions for something that can hold for few years will be appreciated.

 

thanks

[zack099]

is my post private?

[Needfuldoer]

You can easily get an old office desktop or workstation with a Haswell CPU and 8 or 16 gigs of RAM for around $100, but you're going to need to budget more for storage. You'll want a boot SSD that's separate from your drive pool, and at least two hard drives for data. (Mirror them if you get two, run single parity if you get three.) 

 

In general order of expense:

 

- Used enterprise drives are usually fine, and you get a lot of storage space for your money, but you should buy a couple cold spares to keep on the shelf for if when one dies. Also make sure the drives you buy are SATA, not SAS. If they're SAS, you'll have to buy a SAS controller (HBA) because most non-workstation or server PCs can't talk to SAS drives without one.

- Shucking NAS-grade storage drives out of externals can be cost effective, and you do get a warranty, but it's not as long as a new bare drive's.

- New NAS or enterprise drives are expensive, but reliable and usually come with 5 year warranties.

 

I wouldn't buy anything older than Sandy Bridge for this job. Nahalem used substantially more power for less performance, and Core 2 was another step in that direction.

[zack099]

thanks for the reply. Do you know how can I check if the office workstations would be able to support dual hard drive connections? I found a Dell OptiPlex 5040 and Dell OptiPlex 7040 micro from ebay for 100$ just don't know how to check if they will support dual hard drives and also boot from an ssd. I saw the internals of the 5040 and 7040 micro and it seems they only hold one hdd so like do you have a idea that if I were to buy sata cables i can mange to run dual hdds? or is it depended on the psu if I can add more hdds.

 

I have a good enough budget for the drives but I want to make a budget server that is cheaper than a ready to go NAS like one from synology or whatever. Otherwise I feel like it will be pointless to build a pc/server that is expensive than a plug and play one NAS.

 

thanks for the reply btw.