Building my first file server, need help

[LemonJuice147]

Hello all,

 

Planning on buying auctioned old PCs and Frankensteining a file server, just had a few questions.

 

Base is probably going to be hp elitedesk 800 g3 i7-7700 (probably slap in a i7-8700 from another computer listed)

 

Has 4 dim slots so will probably have 4x 8gb ddr4 sticks (32gb) salvaged from other used desktops.

 

Was gonna have 4x used 2.5 ssd's, and some m.2 ssds with a cheap m.2 expansion card, with probably 250gb cards and RAID it all together.

 

Want so allocate all spending on multiple desktops ($20-100 each), use as many parts and start a storage with all the rest, only buying m.2 expansion card and sata splitters if needed.

 

Question is:

- I'm not too fussed on speed so pcie lane allocation isn't important, will RAID work fine with multiple different SSD's (M.2's/2.5's) of different sizes and probably brands, age and usage?

 

[Attached are screenshots of the 3 types of desktops, prices will increase to probably 100-200 each in the last hour, so this will probably be using other components later, chose the HP over the rest due to watching teardowns and is best suited out of the options]

[LIGISTX]

2 minutes ago, LemonJuice147 said:

Hello all,

 

Planning on buying auctioned old PCs and Frankensteining a file server, just had a few questions.

 

Base is probably going to be hp elitedesk 800 g3 i7-7700 (probably slap in a i7-8700 from another computer listed)

 

Has 4 dim slots so will probably have 4x 8gb ddr4 sticks (32gb) salvaged from other used desktops.

 

Was gonna have 4x used 2.5 ssd's, and some m.2 ssds with a cheap m.2 expansion card, with probably 250gb cards and RAID it all together.

 

Want so allocate all spending on multiple desktops ($20-100 each), use as many parts and start a storage with all the rest, only buying m.2 expansion card and sata splitters if needed.

 

Question is:

- I'm not too fussed on speed so pcie lane allocation isn't important, will RAID work fine with multiple different SSD's (M.2's/2.5's) of different sizes and probably brands, age and usage?

A 7700k is more then plenty, it’s actually extremely overkill, so don’t worry about upgrading to an 8700k. 
 

Why exactly do you want to use small nvme drives for this? Just use normal harddrives unless you have a specific need to SSD’s…. Unless your infrastructure is all at least 10 gigabit, harddrives are plenty fast to saturate gigabit networking. And don’t use different size drives. 

[LemonJuice147]

2 minutes ago, LIGISTX said:

A 7700k is more then plenty, it’s actually extremely overkill, so don’t worry about upgrading to an 8700k. 
 

Why exactly do you want to use small nvme drives for this? Just use normal harddrives unless you have a specific need to SSD’s…. Unless your infrastructure is all at least 10 gigabit, harddrives are plenty fast to saturate gigabit networking. And don’t use different size drives. 

Ah okay, that actually helps a lot thank you, and the reason for SSD's is purely to salvage them from the other desktops at auction, but it might be better buying high capacity HDD's

[LIGISTX]

9 minutes ago, LemonJuice147 said:

Ah okay, that actually helps a lot thank you, and the reason for SSD's is purely to salvage them from the other desktops at auction, but it might be better buying high capacity HDD's

What is the use case for this machine? Is it just going to be a home NAS? 
 

For reference, I ran my homelab on an i3 6100 and 28 GB of RAM. And that ran 10x4TB drives in truenas, multiple Ubuntu server VM’s, Plex server, docker containers, and a few other assorted things.

 

If this is just for home use, an i3 from 2015 or new would be PLENTY, and you likely just want to run harddrives. SSD’s, ESPECIALLY NVMe, is not exactly “easy” to correctly set up in RAID. Most OS’s and hardware just isn’t intended to deal with the speeds SSD’s can run at, it can just cause issues. Theoretically these issues “won’t matter” since your likely only on gigabit anyways, which is so slow the “issues” you run into wouldn’t even be relevant. But, it is way easier to just buy some large harddrives and use those. 
 

Id try and determine what OS you want to use first, I’d recommend looking at unraid or truenas, likely unraid… and then start thinking about what all you want to do hardware wise. 

[BiotechBen]

My newest revision for Plex server runs 3700u mobile Ryzen (binned 3500U quad core with better graphics) and a single OEM WD blue sn520 (SATA interface) and it's been working beautifully even on wifi only (100ish Mbps)

[LemonJuice147]

6 minutes ago, LIGISTX said:

What is the use case for this machine? Is it just going to be a home NAS? 
 

For reference, I ran my homelab on an i3 6100 and 28 GB of RAM. And that ran 10x4TB drives in truenas, multiple Ubuntu server VM’s, Plex server, docker containers, and a few other assorted things.

 

If this is just for home use, an i3 from 2015 or new would be PLENTY, and you likely just want to run harddrives. SSD’s, ESPECIALLY NVMe, is not exactly “easy” to correctly set up in RAID. Most OS’s and hardware just isn’t intended to deal with the speeds SSD’s can run at, it can just cause issues. Theoretically these issues “won’t matter” since your likely only on gigabit anyways, which is so slow the “issues” you run into wouldn’t even be relevant. But, it is way easier to just buy some large harddrives and use those. 
 

Id try and determine what OS you want to use first, I’d recommend looking at unraid or truenas, likely unraid… and then start thinking about what all you want to do hardware wise. 

Windows for OS and usage will currently just be for file storage to use instead of onedrive, and would Synology Hybrid Raid work better with different sizes and types?

 

And probably will buy some HDD's

[LIGISTX]

23 minutes ago, LemonJuice147 said:

Windows for OS and usage will currently just be for file storage to use instead of onedrive, and would Synology Hybrid Raid work better with different sizes and types?

 

And probably will buy some HDD's

Unraid is likely what you want if you plan on using different sized drives. It’s not actually RAID, which is why it works well for that. And it is easy to add storage later.