How to scale from 20TB to 100TB

[pallys]

Hi guys,

After some advice.

Currently I have 20TB storage over 5 disks in an Antec 300 case, running windows 8.1 pro, i5-2500k. This also (under)powers a gaming rig + plex so I have a 3900x coming.
The antec 300 case and MB can take 1 more drive.

Before I purchase a b550/x570 board + 32GB ram to complement the 3900x I wanted some advice;

I want to be able to scale up on storage increases over the coming years e.g. ~100TB slotting in storage as I need it.

Options running through my mind is;
- Going down the homelab/rack setup (feels abit excessive? + probably wasting my 3900x?)
- Get a bigger PC case seems the easiest for now but will still hit a limit
- Consolidating the drives by exchanging them out for higher capacities over time;dont know why but this feels my least favoured option.

How would you go about this?

Can you recommend me some hardware? particulary interested in the rack setup as it might be the most future proof option for me?

Other things I may migrate to this machine in the future is dropbox replacement,CCTV and eventually pfsense.

Many thanks.

 

[pallys]

20TB is single drive territory now, 100TB is potentially 5 drives, why do you think you need a rack for such a small drive count? Even if you use 10-12TB drives, it’s still only 17-20 drives, you’re better off buying a single 24 bay (good luck finding a decent cheap one).

The internet is littered with people who thought it was a good idea to buy ex corp hardware, got a ‘cheap’ rack and the discovered that filling it with ‘cheap’ servers that often have not so cheap running costs, and little things like rail kits that can cost as much - if not more - than the hardware you are racking. That’s before we get to efficiency, power, cooling, noise and that anything you might want to run is probably cheaper to buy/build/run in desktop form. For example I had to purchase two lots of rail kits last month, nothing fancy and as it’s only rails for home, I went used, that was £150, and I would consider that cheap.

Hi thanks for advice, yeah gonna rule out the rack setup and just go with my pc tower case which can take 11 3.5" drives with some modification.
However mobo im looking to purchase only has 8 SATA ports, Asus X570 tuf gaming plus.

To add extra SATA ports was thinking of getting an HBA SAS card - can somone recommend?
Or is this overkill too and I should just get a vanilla SATA 4 port pcie expansion card?

Thanks for advice guys.

ps. those rails - are they universal or chassis manufacturer specific?