New Home Server to Replace ageing Micro-Server for Plex/Virtual Machines recommendation

saayinla

saayinla

saayinla

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Hi All,

I am in the market for a new All-in-One Server.

I currently have a struggling Microserver 54NL AMD box and I recently added a Hp Deskpro SFF PC as the AMD on the micro server was a pain . I use it for Plex , backs etc. I would love to have a couple of VMs etc for seeding (Behind a VPN of course).

I have 4 x 4TB drives. WOuld love the ease of the swappable Microserver drives in a bnew server but also want some grunts like a Xeon processor for plex/VM hosting.

Any advise will be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.
 
Many thanks all for taking your time to respond.

I have been looking at the Dell T30 also, just a bit ****** i ll need an additional controller to be able to use more than 4 SATA connection which is annoying and pushes me back to the Gen8 range. I suppose I can get a used Gen 8 for about £200+ on the bidding site plus aboht £100 for the Xeon E3-1230V2 for an upgrade.

What is the maximum amount of RAM I can stick in the Gen8?

I ll just have to make do with the 4 Bays for now.
 
BongoHunter said:
Spending 300 on a gen8 at this point surely cant be better value? This years i3 would out perform that v2 Xeon I would think (well almost) and its cheaper!

Anycase with 3 5.25 bays will allow you to use a bay converter to give you 4-5 Hotswap 3.5 drives

E.G:

My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £143.64 (includes shipping: £11.70)
​

Edit: that ASrock board I posted above has 6 Sata and an m2 slot on a x2 link
Click to expand...


This is brilliant, I didn't even realise they do hot swappable standalone kit like this.

Is it safe to assume the hot swap drive bays will fit into the 3 5.25" bay of this case or any case for that matter?

Whats the best bang for buck CPU I can get for the above board both in terms of grunt and performance.

many thanks for your help.
 
BongoHunter said:
They will fit most cases - but not all, some cases have protrusions into the drive cage (normally handy for installing a single 5.52 drive) but they can stop some cases being compatible - though 2 mins and a pair of tin snips would sort you out if you got a case you needed to do this to, though it's normally obvious if it will work or not if you look at a few pics.

You can get versions of these that will put 3 hdd into 2 bays, or 4/5 drives into 3. InWin, Supermicro, Icy Dock and Silverstone all have products in this space.

Might be better off getting a case like the Silverstone CS380 (£100) if you don't already have a case, or the CS350 if(££££££!) if you want something you could rackmount.

Best case for a home server like this right now is probably the InWin MS08, but they are very very hard to find in Europe for some reason at the moment: https://www.in-win.com/en/ipc-server/ms08/

Good value CPU for that ASrock board would probably be the i3 - it's sits squarely in the middle of the Pentium and Xeon for price and performace. But the Xeons are worth it if you need the extra cache or performance for Virtualisation - worth checking on the ASrock site to find out if all versions of that board will support the very latest Intel CPUs - you might need to flash the BIOS for support if your unlucky enough to get a board that's been sat in a warehouse for a while.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your detailed analysis and time once again.

I love the Silverstone case and found this while searching online as my Computer Cabinet is not very deep, I ll struggle to plug the power cable at the back plus no clearance to be able to open the case door at the front.

What do you think of the Mini ITX form factor?

I would prefer to go for the Xeon Option once and for all as it will save me the trouble and hassle of upgrading in the very near future.
 
Okay so to update this Thread, I got a really good deal on a Gen 8 with i3 installed. My next dilemma is installing Windows on a SSD drive so that I can use my 4 drive bays for 3.5" drive.
 
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