TLDNR; Without having more info on what I described in the first paragraph. I'd say just buy a couple 10TB Easystores on sale ($180ea) and use your current SBCs and smaller server setups. After I wrote all of this I saw that you are from AUS(I think), so no clue if you can get close to $18 per TB in your area, but prices are coming down every year so sometimes better to just save $$$. It is super fun to think about a new and more powerful setup, plus buying it and putting it together, but as you can see I've done a lot of this thinking already. You are also probably feeling guilty that you have to make use of all your 2TBs, but lots of little HDDs do require more electricity to power up and cool. You need storage density and you cant get around that. Upgrade to 10TB and use the 2TB as a cold storage (backup). You are at a heck of a crossroads because the cost to go from SBCs to a "Proper" server plus buying storage isnt a cheap one. Currently there are limited stepping stones, but more powerful SBCs and Ryzen Embedded are here and on the way so wait if possible. Either way you go, you will spend more money and use up storage faster than you planned... The more powerful SBCs arent always cheap either, once you factor in cost of: memory card, power supply, case, possible heatsink/extra heat sinks, a fan, etc. Their lower price starts creeping into the middle range...


What brand, how many, and how long have the 2TBs been powered on for? It sounds like you are currently swapping out the 2TBs for others depending on what you want to watch and on which HDD it is? Do you have any projected storage numbers and what is your current and future budget? You mentioned that you have a small dedicated server? Is that another SBC or what is with that setup and how many sata ports? I'd forgo the transcoding ideas and nix buying any sort of new "Server" options. Focus on reusing what you have or going with a "Used" setup, so you can start saving that money for when 8TB or 10TB Easystores go on sale.

IMO for a true new build you'd want to price in ECC RAM, UPS, and I personally prefer a case that has hot swap access to HDDs. The Rosewill that meemo linked cant be beat for the price especially since it comes with 7 fans, but it requires extra steps to access the HDDs (internally only), which may be fine for you. There is Mediasonic (JBOD version only) that you could plug into your SBC, but that technically isnt hot swappable either, plus it is USB 3.1 to USB-C which isnt the worst but it isnt the best... I know you wanted to get away from SBCs, but if you disable transcoding there are some SBCs that use SATA to SATA connections that are very viable. Any SBC or standalone storage that uses USB is a potential risk, since USB can suffer connection issues when doing rebuilding, parity, and scrubbing maintenance (same if your power goes out, hence a need for UPS). Helios4 is a time restricted option, since they only open up orders once or twice a year (they are currently taking orders). *I saw a post saying that since the Helios4 is a 32bit processor, so it is limited to 16TB volumes. You get 2GB ECC + 4x SATA and I believe you can use any HDD size with that (double check tho), so 4 separate 10TB volumes (4x$180sale=$720+tax), not including parity... I'm not sure how the 32bit and the 16TB volume limit effect drive pooling... I gotta research more into that. I'm not familiar with the UnRaid, FreeNAS, or the other options that you mentioned, but OpenMediaVault4 has MergerFS drive pooling and Snapraid plugin, you could run 3x storage HDD and 1x parity or you could forgo parity for now. If you prefer Windows (You can also run omv4 on windows in a VM) there is Stablebit Drivepool (Not free) for pooling and then Snapraid (not completely novice friendly) for parity. Depending on the HDD type you could reuse the discarded Easystore enclosures and put your 2TB drives in there (still USB connection). If they are a different brand (non WD/HGST) I think you have to desolder something on the Easystore board? I lost the link on how to do that. You could also just keep the 2TB as cold storage backups, but that still carries a risk, but it's cheaper. You could also get 2nd Helios, but for about the same price you could use that money on a 10TB. That would replace 5x of your 2TB drives... Not too mention the extra electricity to power and cool 5x drives vs 1x drive... As you can see, storage density starts coming into play here, big time.
UPS https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00429N18S/
Mediasonic https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078YQHWYW/
Helios4 https://shop.kobol.io/collections/frontpage/products/helios4-full-kit-2gb-ecc-3rd-batch-pre-order?variant=18881501528137
https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/as17od/helios4_batch_3_available_for_preorder/

There are other SATA SBCs that you could use and you could also do a janky setup and put the SATA SBCs inside a hot swappable case like this Silverstone one. There are other cases, but this is the only name that came to mind. This case also doesnt have any power supply or fans to cool the HDDs so there will be extra cost there, plus you'll need a power supply, PLUS a way to turn on your power supply (with a power board), since that SBC setup wont have a motherboard. You can also make your own "Dumb" JBOD HDD enclosure and connect that to your mini server. Another option to SBCs is the ASRock cpu+mobo line: J3455-ITX, J4105-ITX, annd J5005-ITX. The issue with this that it appears you are still limited to 4x SATA or other variations of these boards have a PCIe 2.0 x16 slot at x1 or x2 transfer lanes/speed instead of x8 or x16... Also you have to factor in the price of ram and a mini PICO power supply. There is a subreddit+website that focuses on used parts for cheap server setups, but you might want to verify the power consumption of those setups when they are idling. With the NAS killer option, you gotta make sure all of the parts are still available on ebay or refurb sites, plus make sure you have time to build your setup to verify everything is working plus stress test it before the return window closes to weed out any weak used parts.
Silverstone https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IAELTAI/
HDD enclosure option https://www.amazon.com/Rosewill-5-25-Inch-3-5-Inch-Hot-swap-SATAIII/dp/B00DGZ42SM/
Power Board https://www.amazon.com/Super-Micro-Computer-Supermicro-Cse-ptjbod-cb2/dp/B008FQZHZE
J3455-ITX https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=13-157-728
https://www.serverbuilds.net/nas-killer-v30/

Another option if you really want transcoding and a more powerful "Server" would be a Dell Optiplex 7010, which are used business computers that are "Refurbished", but I think they just take them from that company and wipe the hard drive, nothing else. The Minitower Desktop version is roomier than the slightly cheaper SFF (SmallFormFactor) version, which might be important if you want to swap out the power supply, watch the youtube video to get an idea of what you are getting into. Since a cheap power supply is a weak point plus a potential hazard I'd recommend swapping in a new power supply, but you could risk it with its current power supply. Everything else should last for a good while. You'll also need to install a HBA card. You can get Genuine used cards that were in good working order or you could get a new knock off from China. Both options are viable, but personally I prefer the used option. Theartofserver, ebay seller, also has a youtube channel, so I purchased from him, but I have also purchased from other sellers and got good working parts (I think Ebay still has the most honest and accurate rating system out there?). Since the Optiplex doesnt have room for internal HDDs then you are left with a few options with various HBA cards (internal vs external), expander cards, and adapter setups (SFF-8087 to SFF-8088). If you want it to look "Proper" there will be a lot of wasted money on 2x adapters (1x Optiplex + 1x external HDD enclosure) and an extra SFF-8088 cable between the two. I'd just go janky with it and get a longer reverse breakout cable of 3.3feet (4x SATA to 1x SFF-8087), which should be long enough to go from your external HDDs setup into the Optiplex case and internally connected to the HBA card, like the popular 9201-8i. The janky part being that you'll have the reverse breakout cable snaking directly into each case, instead of plugging into an adapter in the back.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01K0GNUOG/
https://www.amazon.com/Cable-Matters-Internal-Breakout-SFF-8087/dp/B018YHS9GM
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Genuine-LSI-6Gbps-SAS-HBA-LSI-9201-8i-9211-8i-P20-IT-Mode-ZFS-FreeNAS-unRAID/162958581156
Single adapter https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816133055
Double adapter https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01GPD9QEQ/
SFF-8080 cable https://www.amazon.com/Norco-Technologies-C-SFF8088-External-SFF-8088/dp/B003J9CZCK/

Let's compare Apples to Apples (Red Pro to Iron Wolf Pro)

Hard Disk | US price | In my country (India)
---|---|----
WD Red 8TB NAS Hard Drive (WD80EFZX) | $259.00 | ₹32,499.00 ($499.95)
WD Red Pro 8TB NAS Hard Drive (WD8001FFWX) | $309.79 | ₹30,587.94 ($470.75)
Seagate 8TB IronWolf Pro (ST8000NE0004) | $315.54 | ₹34.990 ($538.27)

Looks like it's actually cheaper for you to buy the WD Red Pros than the non-Pros in India? Seagate was offering $50 off per drive, which makes them cheaper than WD Red Pros but pretty much no one here needs Pro drives. That's where they missed the buck, in my opinion.

They looked and made decisions on the data rather than the community. Granted, we all took their poll and generated that data for them, but they should have weighed the topics more heavily where we all talk and enjoy plain and simple Reds. Had this sale been for the regular IronWolf, I'm sure there would have been significant amounts of praise; I definitely would have bought some.

Granted, some people would have complained that it's still not close to the price of a "shucked WD Red" but really, $50 off an IronWolf 8TB drive would put it ~$62 under the regular WD Red 8TB drive. For a ~$12 difference I'll still buy Reds but for a difference of ~$62 or more? I'll purchase Seagate.

Well, setting up a 24-bay fileserver is certainly one obvious approach, but it costs some money. I put together a new 24-bay hotswap server recently. Assembly was required. You can buy ready-to-go solutions, but you will generally pay much more. I could pull up the parts list if that's of interest to you.

You can sometimes buy used servers for less than the cost of a new setup, but a lot of the used ones floating around have backplanes that won't recognize drives greater than 2TB.

Edit: as requested, parts list + setup notes below.

PARTS

CASE:

NORCO RPC-4224

https://www.amazon.com/NORCO-Mount-Hot-Swappable-Server-RPC-4224/dp/B00BQY3916/

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA00Y5105458

OS SSD:

https://www.amazon.com/Kingston-Digital-256GB-SKC400S37-256G/dp/B019SDOHMQ/

128GB

** connected to one of the onboard SATA slots on the motherboard and installed internally ... duct tape against one of the sides of the case works fine as a mounting solution.

CPU:

Xeon E3-1225 v5 SkyLake 3.0 GHz 8MB

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1UH3ZC0476

RAM:

DDR4, 16GB, ECC

https://www.amazon.com/Kingston-Technology-ValueRAM-KVR21E15D8-16/dp/B01DKBPY2E/

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820242215

MOTHERBOARD:

SUPERMICRO MBD-X11SAT-O ATX Server Motherboard LGA 1151 Intel C236

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813183022

"3x PCI-E 3.0 x16 (run at 16/NA/16 or 16/8/8), 1x PCI-E 3.0 x1 (in x4), and 1x 5V PCI 32-bit slots"

POWER SUPPLY:

http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-Supernova-Supply-Certified-110-B2-0850-V1/dp/B00KYK1CC6

SAS CABLES:

http://www.amazon.com/Monoprice-30AWG-Internal-36-Pin-SFF-8087/dp/B008VLHOR2

Quantity: 6

HBAs:

SUPERMICRO AOC-SAS2LP-MV8 PCI-Express 2.0 x8 SATA / SAS 8-Port Controller Card

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816101792

http://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/addon/AOC-SAS2LP-MV8.cfm

It says "Windows 2003, 2008 and Vista" but I downloaded the driver and it explicitly states in the readme that it is WHQL certified: "Certified for Microsoft Windows 10 Client family, x64". I'm personally using this HBA driver with a Windows 10 system and a Server 2016 system with no issues.

Also - this comes with a full height bracket as well as low profile. Mine have come with the low profile bracket installed by default, so you probably need to swap them.

You could use LSI/etc cards, but these actually come as HBAs - that's all they do, so there's no need to go through an annoying flash process to get IT mode. Also, they're cheap, and they work well for me. I can't vouch for their unix driver status, however - so do some research if you will be using linux/bsd/etc.

Quantity: 3

FAN CONTROLLER (Optional ... see below)

Sentry AC SEN-MIX2-M1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DN3IT7M/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&th=1

Total ATM : $1661

SETUP NOTES:

You will need extra molex connectors beyond what the EVGA PS above supplies. You can either order another 3-Molex lead (it's a modular power supply) and install that into one of the free modular "Accessory" power ports, or you can use splitters to convert 3 SATA power -> Molex.

As with other Norco models, you kind of need to take the fan wall out, unscrew the fans, remove the metal "finger guards", install the guards on the other side, then mount the fans on the other side. So that the fans are on the opposite side of the cage as when you first started, but the air flow is still moving in the same direction. If you don't do this, you won't have enough room to comfortably fit non-right-angle SAS + Molex connectors into the backplane. The downside is that the chassis includes a little metal shelf that hangs off the other side of the fan wall on which you can mount 2 SSDs. You can't use that if you flip the fans. If you can find right-angle connectors for both SAS + Molex, then you could do that instead of having to bother with this.

Including the CPU fan, you will need 6 x 3-pin fan power headers to drive all the fans. I ended up being 1 short. I used a fan controller instead (the above), but I had a heck of a time fitting it into the chassis. I managed to sorta-kinda screw it in against the back of the chassis along the top, but it was a pain. I would probably just try to find and use some Molex -> Fan adapter cables instead.

WHAT I WOULD DO DIFFERENTLY IN HINDSIGHT:

• Find some right-angle SAS and right-angle molex connectors or adapters so I didn't have to swap the fan arrangement on the fan wall.
  
• Buy shorter SAS cables. I just automatically ordered long ones, but they were way way too long, and it was messy trying to tuck all the excess behind the fan wall.
  
• Avoid using the fan controller (though it helps to be able to spin loud, high-RPM fans down)
  
• Possibly buy an M.2 SSD for the OS SSD instead... though M.2 SSDs can get awfully hot. Still probably the better option.
  
  

Seagate's archive drives would be good for this - very big storage density and reasonable prices too, but there's a reason. They use SMR (shingled magnetic recording) which means as it's writing data to the disk it actually partially overlaps the data currently on the track's concentric circles. This means write speeds are rather slow but read speeds are essentially no different. But for archival these are perfect as you're not going to be constantly accessing them!

The thing about bit-rot or the magnetism used to store the data wearing away is true and you can read more about that here. But often this is for when the data is not accessed for a really long time. We're talking years though. 3 or 4 years would be fine, the data would unlikely rot away during that time - but past 5 years without being powered on or rewritten it's likely to start degrading.

The solution to this is to power them up every now and again and refresh the data by formatting and rewriting it. It sounds like this is what you intend to do anyway where you said you'd update them every few months. In that case, the only thing you'd realistically have to worry about it the drive not being able to spin up after being left for, again, a really long time. But again, a few months or ever a few years is not going to affect it - especially if you power them up and refresh them every now and again.

If you didn't want to go with hard drives, you could always go with magnetic tape but of course then you would have to have the equipment to be able to read and write from them which is an additional cost, although the tapes themselves are much cheaper than hard drives and have much larger capacities for the price too. However, they're agonisingly slow.

So, here's some drives which I recommend for long-term archival storage:

• Seagate Archive v2 8 TB
  
  
• Seagate Archive 8 TB
  
  
• Seagate Archive 6 TB
  
  
• And here's an amazon search link for more (UK link). Don't just go for Seagate because I said so, there are many other brands like Hitachi, HGST and WD who make good archive drives - take a look at WD's data center drives and enterprise drives!
  
  And if you'd like to read more about the troubles with data rot on hard drives:
  
  
• ServerFault Question - Does an unplugged hard drive used for data archival deteriorate?
  
  
• ServerFault Question - Is bit rot on hard drives a real problem? What can be done about it?
  
  
• Electronics StackExchange Question - How often does "bit rot" occur?
  
  
• Wikipedia - Data degradation
  
  
• Wikipedia - HDD Magnetic recording
  
  
• Wikipedia - HDD Integrity and failure
  
  Hope this helped!

SMR drives sound perfect for this workload. As /u/evemanufacturetool pointed out, the Seagate archive 8 TB drives win many $/GB contests, though at $229 they're somewhat outside your budget. The external version was $179 a week or two ago. These drives have 3 and 2 year warranties, respectively – and of course the external has no warranty if you pry it open and extract the drive.

If you're okay having mystery meat and you trust your backups (you have backups, right?), you might consider one of these $149 6TB drives. It's almost certainly a Western Digital drive, but that's about all anyone can say for sure. The pricing reflects the unanswered questions, but if spending less on a drive lets you spend more on backups, this still might be a win.

Many of us here use WD Red drives in our NAS setups, using multiple drives to serve always-on workloads. Those would work fine for you. Then again, you're a single user that won't be using the drive that much, so WD Green might also be a reasonable pick. Both of these have 4 TB models in or near your price range.

WD Mybook 8TB for £119.99 (until midnight UK time on the 16th of July):


https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01LWVT81X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=B01LWVT81X&linkCode=as2&tag=amoves-21&linkId=109e41ed89969139d870a312cd99835b



We can finally feel like Americans for a day with these bargain prices. You need to sign up for Prime as well but if you don't have an active prime membership, you can also start a new Prime trial if you haven't used your 30-day trial in the last 365 days. I just checked and these are the lowest prices these 8TB hard drives have ever been sold for in the UK.

They also have the WD Elements Desktop 8TB on a Prime Day sale for £124:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07FNK6QMT/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=amoves-21&camp=1634&creative=6738&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B07FNK6QMT&linkId=7a13bc41e7e1867b91417ef49df553e1


From what I've read it's quite similar to the MyBook but doesn't offer backup, encryption and password protection by default. Both are good for schucking. The main advantage of the Elements Desktop 8TB seems to be the ease of adding another drive in its case later on if you decide to schuck it.


The Seagate Expansion 8TB is on sale for only £109 and I've heard only good things about it in comparison to their smaller drives which seem to be problematic. I went with the MyBook 8TB myself.


https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07DQBFQ2D/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=amoves-21&camp=1634&creative=6738&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B07DQBFQ2D&linkId=28f3f183cd50ec9d3adf5c102ece5daa

The only other good deal I found was the Western Digital My Passport 4TB Portable. Still debating whether to buy it as well or get another Mybook 8tb. It is currently on sale for only £75 which is the second lowest price ever for it in the UK:


https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01LQQH86A/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=amoves-21&camp=1634&creative=6738&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B01LQQH86A&linkId=54e3c55ae8c90b3e6a3f373dfb0b7335

That budget makes this hard.

You have 2 options, DAS or NAS. A DAS would attach via usb, or a simmilar interface, while a NAS connects over internet.

For the DAS option, Id probably get something like the segate archive drives https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Expansion-Desktop-External-STEB8000100/dp/B01HAPGEIE/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1480446876&sr=1-1&keywords=8tb+external+hard+drive

These are really cheap because they use SMR on the hdd. SMR makes it so that writes can be very slow, but reads are fine. I probably buy a second one or use a clould service like amazon's unlimited acd to back it up.

For NAS, Id probably get this https://www.amazon.com/Synology-DS216j-NAS-DiskStation/dp/B01BNPT1EG/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1480446978&sr=1-2&keywords=synology+nas

And 2x 4tb hdd's to go with it. Any hdd will work, but there are nas optimized drives like wd reds, that are lower power, have longer warranties, and have firmware that is designed to handle errors better.

Here is a drive id pick https://www.amazon.com/Red-4TB-Hard-Disk-Drive/dp/B00EHBERSE/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1480447066&sr=1-1&keywords=wd+red

...where in the living room is it going to sit?
what's your budget?
what type of style are you looking for? what size footprint?

do you want them to be externally hot swappable or fully internal?
something like this is great if you've got 3x, 6x or 9x 5.25" drivebays and want external hotswap access

does hotswap access on the inside after removing a side panel matter?
if this is what you're looking for, corsair drive cages are great for easy access with tool-less removal, and there are other models that have drive trays and hot swap panels for the back

CT16G4WFD8266 edit: also make sure to only run it in pairs of two. Odd numbered ECC does not work well, if at all in Ryzen for whatever reason.

​

I'm running 4 of these sticks in an Asrock X370 Taichi and Ryzen 1700 (another user reported they work with the 2700X and another board). First boot, ECC was enabled and automatically set to 2666mhz.

​

Generally most Asus/Asrock motherboards have great support for ECC. I wouldn't be too concerned on the number of SATA ports though and would opt for higher quality motherboard like the aforementioned Asrock Rack or the X370 Taichi (12k capacitors, debug LED, stupid strong VRM, 10 SATA ports). With any board though you can always add an HBA like this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0085FT2JC/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_1?smid=A3SCB8M3AWX80L&psc=1

​

last edit: Taichi is ATX, you're looking for MicroATX. Definitely if you're not going the Asrock Rack route (IPMI is a nice selling feature) I would opt for the B450M Steel Legend. It has THE highest build quality of any consumer MicroATX board on AM4.

I've taken 4 drives on a flight once. basically yes, this is your best option if you trust yourself more than strangers. buy a pelican case, get anti static bags, make sure it has foam padding inside, and fits in the carry-on dimensions

https://www.amazon.com/Pelican-1450-001-110-1450-Carrying-Multipurpose/dp/B0090XXY92

This case looks pretty nice also

If 8 bays is all you need right now, consider something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Norco-4U-Rackmount-Components-RPC-4308/dp/B00N5C6GYY/ref=sr_1_16?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1536045035&sr=1-16&keywords=short+depth+rack+mount

or

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0055EV30W/ref=psdc_572238_t1_B00BQY388A?th=1

​

What I would do is use:

-Full size atx asrock taichi motherboard (Which has 8 sata ports, with all the pci-e slots you'll ever want for expansion. The taichi ultimate has a 10gb port)

-A Ryzen APU (The Ryzen 5 2400GE 3.8GHz 35W looks interesting https://www.quietpc.com/amd-2nd-gen-ryzen-cpus)

-ECC ram. A single 16gb stick would be fine, which gives plenty of expansion potential later.

-Openmediavault with the zfs plugin

-Reuse a power supply I have around, but really good new ones aren't much these days.

​

And boom, you'll have everything you need as well as future expandability for much less than a prebuilt nas that locks you into an ecosystem. The norco case would allow you to add another five disk bay in the middle, and you could use the pci-e slot to get an hba card and use sas to sata cables to connect those drives.

My case supports 36 drive bays. I paid a good amount for it.

As for power... make sure you have enough "room" on the +12VDC line on your power supply for all of your drives. IIRC, 2A per drive is a good idea (plenty of room for spin up, and other components).

As for space, the 5 in 3 or similar backplanes allow you to convert the 5.25" bays into hard drive bays.

SAS is another way to go. If you don't mind the sound:

• https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LSQOY6G
  
• https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002QJZLCA
  
  That gets you at least 24 bays, and possibly more. And some nice looking enclosures.

Where do you see that?

8 TB Easy Store $199.00

8 Tb WD Red (which is in the easy store) $288.00

Also, the Seagate 8TB externals (which generally carry the Archive drives) are the same way. Over $200 for the bare drive and $170 External.

I use the LSI LSI00244 for FreeNAS. FreeNAS prefers HSB (Host Bus Adapters) over actual Raid Cards.

This card uses a SFF-8087. This is a major confusing point for most people. If you have a SFF-8087 Back-plain that hard drives slide into. For example in this NORCOR 4224 Case (that I'm using and love by the way) you will need a SFF-8087 REVERSE BREAKOUT CABLE if you are planning to go from the back-plain directly to sata ports like on a motherboard.

If you are looking to plug four drives into the LSI card listed above for example you would need a SFF-8087 BREAKOUT CABLE(notice this is not a reverse cable)these cables are different and can't be interchanged I can't stress that enough I see many reviews complaining about these cables not working because they are being misused.

And the easy cable is if your going from a back-plain (SFF-8087) to a raid or HBA card (SFF-8087) there you would just need a plain double sided cable like this

I was about to pull the trigger on a couple of Seagate 8TB units from Amazon UK for pretty much the same price at £129.99 but would this be a better drive to shuck? Looks like I still get free shipping to UK.

A lot of people here are buying external drives in bulk and shucking them since it's substantially cheaper than buying plain drives. This is a really weird dynamic. Why on earth is it cheaper to buy a drive with additional hardware and packaging around it than to just buy the drive itself?

e.g. this external drive is $180, but a bare archive drive is $228. WTF? It is almost $50 more expensive to buy just the drive without the enclosure around it. (And that's assuming the 8TB external is an SMR archive drive inside, rather than a regular PMR drive -- which is even more expensive!) You might say "oh, it's on sale!" -- yeah, they're always on sale at those kinds of prices from one brand or another.

With WD products instead of Seagate, this has gotten absolutely ridiculous. BestBuy is regularly advertised on here offering external drives containing shuckable 8TB WD Reds in the price range of $150~$200 while the drive by itself often goes for nearly $300! It's twice as expensive to buy the plain drive?! WHY?!

Depends on your use case. If you're just looking to add SATA ports, aren't planning anything crazy, and don't want to shell out extra for something enterprise-grade, they should work fine.

I have a similar one in my NAS, along with a free 2-port card that came bundled with it. They work pretty well, and I haven't had any issues with either.

Not sure of the specs of your QNap (how much free space you have), but if you use the MediaSonic it'll just appear as four separate disks you can with as you please. You could pool them with Drivepool as suggested. I have a 130TB Drivepool array that works well made up entirely of multiple MediaSonic enclosures.

If you can use the QNAP as a backup, you could just not have disk redundancy with the MediaSonic. Drivepool only supports duplication, not parity, so double however much data you would put on it to see how much space you'd have left.

I have these enclosures x 8: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01CFLOV4M/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Pair of 10TB Seagate IronWolf drives as a mirror will do the trick for WAY less than $2,000.

Note that you said ARCHIVE, and I am responding as such. These are not super high performance drives. This is also live storage only, and does not include backup. But hey, good news - since you're only spending $800 on the pair, you can afford to buy two pairs of them instead, and back up from one mirror to the other, preferably in separate machines! Problem solved!

I strongly recommend building a proper NAS (well, two, really). This doesn't have to be hard - standard PC parts will do the trick, including "the older machine I have lying around". You said "safest", so I'm recommending ZFS. If you don't know what the hell that is - that's ok, google NAS4Free. (FreeNAS is also an option, but in my opinion is a lot more fiddly to deal with. NAS4Free is very, very straight forward.)

If you build two of them and back up from one to the other, you'll want ZFS replication to handle it. This will want a little command line help. I built a tool called syncoid that can do the trick pretty easily, if you aren't allergic to the command line. If you are allergic to the command line: I recommend investing a couple hundred bucks in getting somebody more technical to assist you with this part of it.

I ABSOLUTELY ONE HUNDRED PERCENT DO NOT recommend RAID5 as a "safe" way to store your data. No way, no how, don't do it.

I have a similar question. I am running Windows 10 and am out of ports. I was looking into getting an IO Crest card from Amazon. Would something like the 9211 be recommended over the IO card for me?

IO Crest SI-PEX40062 4 Port SATA III PCIe 2.0 X2 Controller Card https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AZ9T41M/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_WAM.ybWGT24EH

I currently have 4 6tb red drives and am using Drivepool with the mirror set to X2. I just purchased 2 of the 8tb drives from best buy. ^I should probably move onto one of the other software raid systems with parity drives.

I bought 3 on Amazon for about $350/ea a month ago - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IA9GU0Q/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Running great so far in my Synology NAS, runs as cool as Red drives while being 7200RPM, so not bad. - Registered for 3 year warranty as well on Seagate's site.

Your best USB-powered external hard drive option is the WD 4TB Elements for $99.

Western Digital 4TB Elements Portable External Hard Drive - USB 3.0 - WDBU6Y0040BBK-WESN https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0713WPGLL

Seagate has a 5Tb usb powered external but seagates reliability is more questionable so I’d go with the WD.

All external drives bigger than that are not USB powered and require an AC adapter be plugged into a separate power source.

I am shucking STDR4000100's. There's an older-ish article on them. They now have the newer SKU of internal drive, ending in 24 instead of 16, no longer the exact same as article but might as well be. They are low wattage and run cool which is nice.

le edit: There's a 5TB model now too. Can't personally vouch for them, but same enclosure so they're shuckable. Is almost certainly a ST5000LM000 internally.

Thanks man! Here is the link to the case. It's a Rosewill RSV-R4000, which as you can see has quite a few variants to fit your needs. Highly recommend it!

well I haven't seen anyone mention the obvious for you, a disc writer...

​

a thousand year disc...

​

https://www.amazon.com/Archival-Verbatim-M-Disc-Inkjet-Printable/dp/B01B99WWXI

​

a hundred year disc...

​

https://www.amazon.com/Verbatim-M-Disc-BD-R-Branded-Surface/dp/B011PZALWA

​

either way you can get one drive to use all the various medium and change your mind as you want and decide to put some things on more expensive discs and less expensive discs based on what you feel like...

​

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827129090

​

or

​

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16827136307

​

based on the numbers you cited disc might be the best choice, if you do a lot more annually, then perhaps tape will make more sense...

LSI LOGIC SAS 9207-8i Storage Controller LSI00301


Mini-SAS to 4x SATA Forward Breakout Cable


I picked up one of these cards and the breakout cables and it handles 8TB drives, easy to install. Works great

Just seconding what /u/EchoGecko795 said. I've been using these cages and my drive temps are doing pretty good. I just finished a resilver after 24 hours and the temps are still around 30C. The fans are a bit loud, but I've got them on "high", so that is to be expected.

These are the cages I am using:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004IMKTX4/

If you don't care about hotswapping, the Rosewill one will be fine for you. Keep in mind there is a HUGE price difference between hot-swap and non hot-swap cages.

Mediasonic makes a USB 3.1 4 bay enclosure. I've been running it for about two weeks and I've been pretty happy. Temps are fine but I do have the fan set to max as it sits in my basement so noise isn't an issue.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B078YQHWYW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

​

EDIT: This model does NOT do RAID.

Gutted I missed out. As the WD 20 TB My Book Duo for £333.99 is out of my budget, is the Seagate 8 TB Expansion (STGY8000400) for £109.99 a good value consolation prize?

​

EDIT: Removed unintentional Amazon affiliate links.

Does this also work with the 2.5" WD passport like this? https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0713WPGLL/

If you want to go on the cheap end then most nas's allow you to create external raids through their USB ports. So you can buy this and be good to go.

https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Portable-External-Photography-STDR5000100/dp/B01LZP2B23/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1538241919&sr=8-2&keywords=seagate+5tb+backup+plus

i used those and an icy hot dock. Since the first pair is already showing uncorrectable errors, I'm going to run the mirrored pair until failure but nix my plans of expanding another pool of storage on them.

I had plans of 6 x 5tb in 2 icy hot docks, using 2 5.25" bays that are currently idle in my nas case, and utilizing a dell h310 flashed to IT mode for pass through. it looks like for reliablity in the smaller size I'm limited to WD blacks.

[amazon.de] (https://www.amazon.de/Seagate-STEL8000200-Festplatte-integriertem-Photography/dp/B01IAD5ZC6?psc=1&SubscriptionId=AKIAJ4JFVUCARNEOF3LA&tag=xxx-00&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B01IAD5ZC6) actually just updated to 162 euro for the external! thanks for the notifcation email haha

It looks like the same OEM that makes the iStarUSA products. If so, those hot swap cages each go for like $100.

iStarUSA Group 3x5.25 to 4x3.5 SAS Cage Black Trayless (BPN-DE340SS-BLACK) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004IMKTX4/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_8XLFDbZD4WDWA

Weak link is the fan, which can be swapped out with a Noctua.

Depending on the price delivered this thing looks like a score.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0759567JT/ref=psdcmw_160354011_t1_B06XYL599P is the one I just ordered to replace it. I'll also try using a desktop with the adapter I currently have. Thanks for all the help!

Good question. I’m running this on a white box/DIY NAS. It’s got an older AMD A10-7860k processor, 32 GB of DDR3. 6 SATA III ports on the motherboard. 4 SATA ports on a IO Crest SI-PEX40062 SATA III PCIe 2.0 x2 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AZ9T41M/ref=cm_sw_r_sms_c_api_aUQNAbW3Q9WG

I’m not sure the best way to diagnose the iowait issue. I just know that when Duplicati starts a database rebuild, the CPU is pretty idle (5% in use), but the load average is 3.4/3.7/3.8, and WA shows around 20-30%.

What is the best way to find what is blocking IO?

Like these https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-External-Duplicator-Function-EC-HD2B/dp/B0759567JT

​

And, got it. I've just read on this very sub that the Rock64 makes for a decent NAS over the Pi. Thanks!

i'd spend $60 more and get the sweet hard case :)

https://www.amazon.com/SiForce-Internal-Protective-Suitcase-Transport/dp/B015QHHCPC/

I have four that I shucked from:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LZP2B23/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

and put them in one of these:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817998243

Do they work fine?

Yep.

I have had them almost a year and no complaints. They are trouble free enough that when I sit down and plan expansion I forget they are there and think "WTF? I could swear this pool was supposed to be 20TB bigger." Where I come from, that's a good thing.

Keep in mind, I am using them in a pool with Stablebit DrivePool so I can't vouch for performance in a true RAID or ZFS setup.

The only thing that caught me off guard was that they are 15mm thick so adapters and bays made for your standard 7-9mm drives won't work.

It is a type of optical media, there are DVD versions and bluray versions. Basically rather than a laser burning the organic dye stuff for a normal one, it is a slightly stronger laser burning a rock like material. It is supposed to last at least 1000 years.

You can get it off amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/LG-Electronics-Internal-Rewriter-WH14NS40/dp/B007VPGL5U

https://www.amazon.com/Verbatim-M-Disc-BD-R-Branded-Surface/dp/B011PZALWA

There have been some reports of things going strange with the multilayer, so I only trust the single layer (25GB) discs.

Edit: switched amazon link to write drive. linked to dvd only one at first.

There is also a 2.5" bus powered version of the WD Elements 4TB.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/WD-Elements-Portable-Hard-Drive/dp/B0713WPGLL

So the maths.

Backblaze DIY $10,398.57 = .0511 $/GB = 5.11c/GB

Magstor - $5500 for the device. $200 for 30TB (compressed) = .00667 $/GB = .66c/GB

If my maths is correct, he breaks even after 107TB of data.

For additional info:

Seagate Ironwolf 8TB - $281 = .0351 $/GB = 3.5c/GB

WD red 10TB = .03 $/GB = 3c/GB

(assuming he just has a shitload of docks)

I like these. Just connects to your computer over USB 3.0 for easy additional storage, and works with Plex.

In the UK you can get the Seagate Backup Plus Hub 8TB for ~£180 from a few places. From what I read they contain Seagate Archive 8TB drives, which may not suit your usage scenario, but it's a pretty decent price for 8TB (£22.50/TB).

• Amazon UK
  
• Argos

WD 10TB Elements 220eu 213 from amazon.de
Just bought this 3 days ago also for 220., all of them came with EMAZ Drives. Need the enclosures for my other drives which are naked right now >.>

otherwise i would just have bought the WD MyBook's for 20 less.
WD MyBook 10TB 200€ From Amazon.de was not so long ago for 175. which is the lowest GB/eur ever?

But Mybooks has hardwareencryption.. which makes it impossible to read it on desktop if you are swapping around without formatting the drive..

Edit:
Amazon.de has a nice offer..

Seagate external 8TB for 135€

WD Elements 8TB for 155

WD MyBook 8TB for 161

WD MyBook DUO 20TB for 463 (amazon.fr) Guranteerd REDS! no whities

Oh I gotcha. You think I should just move to Stablebit DrivePool? What do you think about the Seagate Archive HDD 8TB SATA 6GBps 128MB Cache SATA Hard Drive (ST8000AS0002) for just storing blu-ray's and tv shows?

I'm just looking for a low cost, stable solution, with plenty of space for growth.

I got this HBA and flashed it. Working great. UNIX Surplus included the SFF-8088 cable you'll need. Mine was short though and only 1 m long so I'm getting a longer one.

Before I pull the trigger on this I have one more question to bother you with, if you wouldn't mind?

To connect the SAS9211-8I to the RES2SV240 I just need a SFF-8087 cable like this? Is there a specific port I need to plug it into on the RES2SV240? Or will it just be able to auto connect in any port or is there sofatre to set up the input?

Thanks again!

I just picked this up yesterday for $99 and it's 4TB. Looks easily shuckable too if I weren't using it as a backup.

I'd also check out /r/buildapcsales for good deals on quality hard drives.

I'm hoping these go on sale again, they're a bargain at £119!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Seagate-Backup-Desktop-External-Integrated/dp/B01IAD5ZC6/

This is what I bought building my new rig: https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0085FT2JC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I paid less than the current price listed there. Shop around for the LSI 9207-8i, it's best bang for the buck HBA that's new in box I've found.

I used a Zalman MSM800 case https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811235039 (out of Stock, but they pop up from time to time on ebay) and three 5x3.5" in a 3x5.25" enclosures (2xiSTARUSA http://www.ebay.com/itm/iStarUSA-BPN-DE350SS-BLACK-3x5-25-to-5x3-5-SAS-SATA-6-0-Gb-s-Trayless-Hot-Swap-/301380759356 and 1xSuperMicro http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-OEM-Supermicro-CSE-M35T-1-B-SATA-Rack-Black-/381655616118) along with two IT firmware flashed Dell H200 8 port raid controllers to build my unRAID NAS Server. I'm in the process of getting a KingWin 5 drive enclosure https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01BMJ1WD6 to replace the SuperMicro because I keep having issues with the drives in it getting hot. The trayless enclosures seem to be much better about allowing air to circulate so the drives are staying cooler in them. I had previously been using esate enclosures like the one you linked and kept having problems with drives vanishing on me and Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows 10 both locking up on me when the esata enclosures would go wonky.

If its for important stuff family related 1 copy on the 1tb drive (ext) off site and on a nas like https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01BNPT1EG/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1491200099&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=synology
Then run rclone on it automatically and sendit to acd

it is also $399 for a new one on Amazon... free shipping (https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B01IA9GU0Q/)

These are my favorite.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01BMJ1WD6/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Honestly, I wouldn't even spend money on the NAS, just find one of those drive toasters (https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-External-Duplicator-Function-EC-HD2B/dp/B0759567JT/ref=sr_1_5?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1535769910&sr=1-5&keywords=hard+drive+docking+station) and stick your drives in it.

If it's just for backups, copy your data unto the drives regularly and just store them when it's not being used.

I use these spliters for more SATA power connectors and These hotswap cages for housing the drives. They are often on sale at newegg for $40-60, this card Flashed to IT mode will add another 8 sata connections via two sas connectors(sff-8087) via a breakout cable

Currently I am running 8x3tb drives in my pc with a gtx 970 and my 550watt PSU handles it just fine.

I had an sff 8088 to 4x SAS left over from a broken lto project, and mounted 4 drives with vibration dampening screws to some simple metal rails. Works good enough for me but you could also use something like this

Slightly smaller than yours but probably requires 4x molex on the back.

That's just a convenient way to mount internal hard disks.

True hot swap bays don't require you to open the chassis at all. Some use a drive tray that you have to screw onto the drive, but my favorite one (in my limited use) was one that you can load bare drives into directly.

>or is hotswap the connections are built into the drive cage or whatever?

Ding ding; essentially this is it. Loading the drive (or the drive that's been screwed into a tray) into the bay is all that's required to connect the electrical and data ports to the system.

Anything else where you secure the drive and then later plug in those connections to the secured drive is just a fancy mounting system. You do not want to try an actual "hot swap" where you don't power off the system with one of those, as moving the wires around at all is a recipe for an accidentally disconnected drive and a degraded RAID array.

Edit: a backplane similar to my favorite one: http://www.amazon.com/KingWin-5-25-Tray-Less-Mobile-MKS-535TL/dp/B01BMJ1WD6/

you can build a file server using a old desktop and freenas. recommend starting simpler and buy a retail NAS.

https://www.amazon.com/Synology-DS216J-NAS-DiskStation-DS216j/dp/B01BNPT1EG/ref=s9u_simh_gw_i1

Amazon.com was the seller of that herring, and in the US at least, they also directly sell 10TB Ironwolf drives like the one in the OP's picture. ADDED: which he's confirmed was also the case with this disk drive shipment.

How about either of these:

Seagate 8TB: £119 @ Amazon (today only)

Seagate 6TB: £89 @ Amazon (today only)

These are the rosewills in question: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DGZ42SM/

You could also get some of these with molex -> sata adapters, but seriously be absolutely sure they are crimped: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01BMJ1WD6

>I'll just leave this here...

>http://www.amazon.com/SAS9200-8E-8PORT-Ext-Sata-Pcie/dp/B002QJZLCA

>http://www.amazon.com/Ably-Feet-SFF-8088-26Pin-Cable/dp/B00VYVS7EK

Know you're trying to help, but that's an external sas card. Not what the OP needs/wants.

The Seagate 8TB backup plus hub is now £134.99 at amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01IAD5ZC6/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_TBagAbTA711KV

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Seagate-Desktop-External-Creative-Photography/dp/B01IAD5ZC6/

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Seagate-Desktop-External-Integrated-2-Port/dp/B07173WR4B/

Also on amazon same price for EU shipping

107 USD or 133 CAD on Amazon last week.
https://camelcamelcamel.com/Seagate-Backup-Portable-External-STDR5000100/product/B01LZP2B23

Those are LTH discs, not great for archiving. You want HTL discs like these ($41.80/50-disc spindle): https://www.amazon.com/Verbatim-DataLifePlus-White-Inkjet-Printable/dp/B004477BQQ/

Edit: I was wrong, they're HTL discs which should be good for archiving.

Or these Verbatim branded M-Discs ($66.75/25-disc spindle): https://www.amazon.com/Verbatim-M-Disc-BD-R-Branded-Surface/dp/B011PZALWA/

Or the ones you linked earlier, Milleniata branded M-Discs ($64.13/15-disc spindle): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KGWV6MI/

The above three products may or may not all use the same chemistry and manufacturing process. Nobody really knows.

its a Seagate 8 TB Backup Plus Hub USB 3.0 Desktop 3.5 Inch External Hard Drive for PC and Mac https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01IAD5ZC6/ref=pe_3187911_189395841_TE_dp_1

does that mean a 1.5A power brick plug would work fine with it?

the power brick plug that came with this drive was 3A output

I was/am looking into Lenovo SA120s and LSI SAS9200-8E for my expansion. My only concern with the SE3016 is the backplane & max drive capacity.

Buy this

And 3 of these

You can move your compaq's components into it and maybe get a couple of SATA PCIe cards. Use FreeNAS that will let you use RAIDZ and it has a plex server package too.

The drive in those are these https://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Archive-6GBps-128MB-ST8000AS0002/dp/B00XS423SC

Seagates 8TB equivalent for $218

http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-Archive-6GBps-Internal-ST8000AS0002/dp/B00XS423SC/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1463375577&sr=8-2&keywords=seagate+8tb

For drives: https://www.amazon.com/SiForce-Transporter--Rugged-External-Carrying/dp/B015QHHCPC/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1467892402&sr=8-2&keywords=silicon+forensics+transporter

There are also larger variants available from turtlecase and pelican directly (those are more expensive).

https://www.amazon.com/Kingwin-Enclosure-Internal-Backplane-Optimized/dp/B01BMJ1WD6/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1527639395&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=kingwin+5+in+3

How about;
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01BNPT1EG/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1496069850&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=synology&dpPl=1&dpID=31d8-qntl9L&ref=plSrch

Also the Seagate 8TB is at 181€.

https://www.amazon.de/Seagate-STEL8000200-Festplatte-integriertem-Photography/dp/B01IAD5ZC6/ref=pd_cp_147_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B01IAD5ZC6&pd_rd_r=73782885-414a-11e8-9ebb-bf9575d72a0d&pd_rd_w=HOz5z&pd_rd_wg=8GFFW&pf_rd_i=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_m=A3JWKAKR8XB7XF&pf_rd_p=1672214207&pf_rd_r=E1TRQ819EPQZQHWEBREE&pf_rd_s=desktop-dp-sims&pf_rd_t=40701&psc=1&refRID=E1TRQ819EPQZQHWEBREE

What's your opinion on this?

I know it's not a red, but I haven't seen many opinions on the archive drive inside it (I think it's 5900RPM).

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Seagate-Backup-Desktop-External-Integrated/dp/B01IAD5ZC6

> up to 4 TB.

Up to 5 TB: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LZP2B23

Again, they're 15mm so check first.

Here you go: https://www.amazon.com/Elements-Portable-External-Drive-WDBU6Y0040BBK-WESN/dp/B0713WPGLL/

If I was you I'd get a 2-bay USB3 drive dock ($35, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0759567JT/) and then buy two used refurb HSGT 3.0TB drives (run for around $35-40). Then plug that into your existing laptop.
Edit:. You can also get a Rock64 and power supply for less than $$35. That'll put the Rock64, 2 drives, and drive dock within your $150 budget.

uk link for english speakers

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Seagate-Expansion-External-PlayStation-STGY8000400/dp/B07DQBFQ2D

This 8TB drive for €138.99 maybe: https://www.amazon.de/Seagate-STGY8000400-Portable-Festplatte-Exclusive/dp/B07DQBFQ2D?ref_=Oct_DLandingS_PC_8097cc00_NA&smid=A3JWKAKR8XB7XF

Just get a media sonic enclosure, 2 bay, 4 bay or even 8 bay. It will be cheaper than building your own. Youll still need a case, power supply, and the das card.

Mediasonic USB 3.1 4 Bay 3.5" SATA Hard Drive Enclosure - USB 3.1 Gen 2 10Gbps Type C/USB-C (HF7-SU31C) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078YQHWYW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_GMf3Db66ZDC25

The reviews are not complimentary. Apparently there are two disks in there.

Jesus Christ, is there a reason that these start at $3000? You're not going to be running a whole lot of VMs on an i3. Why not an E5 Xeon setup with a DAS or two?

Edit: if you don't want a beefy CPU build something and go with a couple of these

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00LSQOY6G/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1466224279&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=sa120&dpPl=1&dpID=41AYVHtwgRL&ref=plSrch

Along with this

https://www.amazon.com/SAS9200-8E-8PORT-Ext-Sata-Pcie/dp/B002QJZLCA

That leaves you a ton of money for drives and the system

I think the budget may be what ends up deciding it. I don't want to go with something that is going to be too slow though. I am using the storage area for my Plex media if that matters.

This the LSI HBA I've found so far and from what I see they're both 6Gb/s so I'm not seeing the advantage.

For the motherboard I didn't really notice any difference in my power bill when I starting using this one so I've never thought too much about it. Can you give me an example of a board you're talking about? The only thing that's ever been a little annoying with this box has been how loud it can be.

This is the case I'm using if that helps.

How about a rosewill? It's a little over the price range you mentioned, but i've had my eye on it for a few weeks. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0055EV30W/ref=ask_ql_qh_dp_hza

EDIT: Ignore the bot below, that one link has several chassis in it at different prices. Check out the 12 bay hot swap one.

Cheap? $100-150 is going to be cheap. Anything cheaper, is shitty and you will have issues.

And fuck crossflashing. Get one of these: https://www.amazon.com/LSI-9207-8i-Storage-Controller-LSI00301/dp/B0085FT2JC

>Seagate Archive HDD 8TB SATA 6GBps 128MB Cache SATA Hard Drive (ST8000AS0002)

That is the drive which is inside the chassis, I shucked one a couple of years back and actually bought one from Costco on Tuesday with that deal so I could load it up with some data for a client and just ship it to them without them blinking at the line item.

As a random aside, look at this list of greedy mofos trying to sell the shucked drives for ridiculous prices on Amazon (I particularly like the meatbag trying to sell one for $1225 because in that case, you'll pay about the same in sales tax as the purchase price at Costco)

It is painfully slow, it is going to take me about 18-24 hours to fill it but it is what it is.

For my own use, I have always bought enterprise class Seagate drives and they've been rock solid for me. I've heard plenty of shit about the lower end ones but I don't have any experience with them first hand - save the odd exception to the rule use case like the above.

Hell, I've got four 1.5tb 7200s that I bought in 2008 and stuck into a ReadyNas NV+ (that I use for cold-line storage these days) that are still humming along 11 years later.

Generally speaking I paid a bit more but got better/faster/more solid drives with longer warranties...

I mean right now, this 8tb Barracuda drive is $149 on Amazon. Whereas I just bought 4x 8tb Exos (btw the title is wrong, they have 256mb cache, not 128mb) for $212 - Paying $62 more got me additional years of warranty, and a 7200 spindle instead of a 5400 - and somewhere around 5x the annual writes... Seems foolhardy not to spend the extra 30%.