Looking for advice on media server build (wall of txt)

[road hazard]

I've been scouring the interwebs reading articles and watching tons of videos and came here for advice.

 

A long time ago, I built a media server (SSD boot drive (C:), 2, 4TB drives in RAID 1 (D:) and 2, 1.5TB drives in RAID 1 (E:), 1150 Micro ATX board, 8 gigs of RAM and a 4690K CPU. This has been my data store/Plex server for about 1.5 years and has been rock solid. Right now, I have less than 1TB of free space but plan on ripping a lot more Blu-ray/DVD movies to it and will start storing some OTA TV shows on there as well. So basically, I need a little more room.

 

My goal is to ultimately use 6, 4TB drives and go with a single, RAID 6 array. I want to re-use as much hardware as I can to keep prices low so I'd like to keep my existing motherboard/RAM/CPU. When I have a hard drive failure down the road, I'd like to be using a server case (for the hot-swappable drive bays) so I can easily eject the bad drive and insert a cold spare. This brings me to the first juncture. A case. Norco RPC-2106:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811219043

 

This case only supports 6, SATA drives. This is another spot where I need help filling in my knowledge gap. I have virtual no experience with servers but I believe these SATA drives all need to plug into a backplane which THEN plugs into either a RAID card or a HBA. Right so far?

 

Lets say I wanted to minimize the points of failure and eliminate the backplane and plug these drives straight into my motherboard? This leads to the first casualty..... my motherboard. The board I have, only has 6 SATA ports. I want my OS to boot from a SSD and leave the 6 ports free for my drives. I could go with something like XPEnology, FreeNAS, unRaid and boot those from USB but I think I'd rather have a dedicated SATA drive for the OS (my logic for that is coming up). All of that leads me to this board: GA-Z97X-UD5H

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128707&ignorebbr=1

 

The thing I love about this board, it supports my existing CPU and RAM and it has 8 SATA ports. 6 for the Intel chipset and 2 are bolted on using a Marvell (I believe) controller.

 

Now, the reason I’d prefer to have a dedicated SATA drive for the OS is because I’m leaning towards Linux Mint and MDADM RAID 6 (software RAID). I’m a n00b when it comes to Linux but have managed to get Plex installed and working fine in a VMWare session and since this is just going to be a media/Plex server, I think I know enough about Linux to get it up and running then leaving it alone. I’d love to use Windows Server but the problem here is, I’d have to get a RAID card to pull off RAID 6 in a Windows Server OS and it seems that every article I came across that discussed which RAID card for Windows Server was best for use in a media server, I’d see somebody come along and trash the recommended RAID card and frankly, since I have virtually no understanding of backplanes/RAID cards in servers, the cables that hook backplanes to HBA/RAID, reverse SAS 8086? 87? cables, etc….. I think software RAID 6 in Linux (and hooking the drives straight to the motherboard, is easier for me to comprehend.

 

Regarding software vs. hardware RAID, I’ve read that if you’re using software RAID, unless you want to spend $500 on a nice hardware RAID card (which I don’t), modern CPUs are more than fast enough to keep pace with older RAID cards that people often recommend buying off eBay. True?

 

Speaking of cases again, looking around on NewEgg, I spotted some mid-tower cases that have 6 3.5” drive bays oriented perpendicular to the front so it looks like I just need to pop off 1 side of the case and can eject the drive when I need to replace one. These cases are anywhere from $100-$200. In your opinion, is it worth it to save a few dollars and go this route vs. a Norco or some 2U type case. Even though the case will be in the basement, I sit down here to game and poke around on the internet. I don’t want to have to deal with a jet engine when my server is on (which will be 24x7) and this is what worries me about some Norco type case. Loud fans. My existing server case would make it a pain in the butt to have to swap out a drive when that dark day arrives.

 

Oh, and you might be thinking….. get some honking 4U case for future expansion. Yeah, I might need 30TB in the future but based on my current needs and some estimations I did….. 6, 4TB drives in a RAID 6 array will last me for 3-5 years. I’ll cross the ‘expansion’ bridge when the time comes. Best case scenario, I just replace my 6, 4TB drives with 6, 8TB drives.

 

Well that’s it….. thanks for reading and I look forward to any and all feedback and suggestions!