I have a file server that currently has an 80GB boot drive, and

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OP here. Heres my actual file server. its a Dell Optiplex 330.
Core2 Duo @ 1.8 GHz.
2 GB RAM
Debian 7
RAID via mdadm
File serving via nfs

>>60982673
I'd go with snapraid and then some sort of drive pooling solution. Or if you want to go with paid software, look into unraid as well.

You can save space by just using parity drives instead of a mirrored configuration, and you can have all your data in one pool, even with mismatched disks. Keep in mind that only the largest disks can serve as parity drives.

This isn't making much sense to me.

It also seems like cheaping out might actually be costing you more.

Why are you running them externally? Are you out of SATA ports on the mobo? Physical case space?

I'm guessing you only have 4-SATA port's on mobo in their based on LGA775 mobos.

Do you already have all the SATA->USB3 enclosures/adapters you need? Those things cost money themselves. If you need 4 of them that's already like $40+ (depending on if you go with an actual physical enclosure) or just a USB3->SATA cable.

For comparison a 2TB WD Red drive is like $80 USD. A 'refurbished' 1TB drive can be found on newegg for $31+USD.

If you do lack the ports, you could also look at buying a new mobo.

Is that shitty Optiplex/cpu going to support USB3 speeds and enough performance for software raid?

Are you considering that the core2duo and PSU might end up costing you more money due to power efficiency?

Whats the actual workload/performance requirements? Is it running in a company or hosting your TV shows. Are you able to ghetto mount the drive in the case or does it need to be professional.

In my experience with USB storage for SATA drives isn't great. When I tried it, things like S.M.A.R.T. stats didn't get passed through and the speed was horrible (this was a USB2, but only a single drive so it should have been enough, was a cheap Chinese adaptor though).

Also I don't know how well USB3 would handle the bandwidth being access on multiple devices simultaneously and I'm guessing a cheap drop in 4port USB card wouldn't help.

PCIe add in SATA cards are also an option but have also been bad in my experience, get heaps of dmesg error messages. Once again these are cheap cards not the $120+ ones.

Trying to shoehorn RAID10 into this is just silly.

>>60983627
I will use mdadm as my RAID software

>>60983735
>Why are you running them externally? Are you out of SATA ports on the mobo? Physical case space?
Yes both. I have no SATA ports left nor do I have drive bays available.

>Do you already have all the SATA->USB3 enclosures/adapters you need? Those things cost money themselves. If you need 4 of them that's already like $40+ (depending on if you go with an actual physical enclosure) or just a USB3->SATA cable.
I do not have them but they are $8 each, so $32 for 4 of them. Theyre actual enclosures

>If you do lack the ports, you could also look at buying a new mobo.
This is a small form factor BTX machine. My current plan will only cost me about $65. I dont see anything else that will come near that cost

>Is that shitty Optiplex/cpu going to support USB3 speeds and enough performance for software raid?
Yes and yes. Its a Core2 Duo. I am not running a parity RAID, so it uses very little CPU

>Whats the actual workload/performance requirements? Is it running in a company or hosting your TV shows. Are you able to ghetto mount the drive in the case or does it need to be professional.
Its just where I store my files; movies, tv shows, music, pictures, etc.. Not a demanding environment. But on the few times I have to copy around or move a couple hundred GBs Id like it to go fast; really just saturating my gigabit network is good enough

>Trying to shoehorn RAID10 into this is just silly.
Im not going for RAID-10 for high performance. Im doing the mirroring for reliability, and the striping just to increase the storage space. USB3 is capable of 5Gbps; the drives Id be using are SATA 3Gbps; so USB3 is actually faster than the drives. The 4 port PCIe card I plan on getting is about $32

(cont. from above)

It seems to me your best options would be:

• If you have 4-SATA ports on the mobo.

Ditch the 80GB boot drive, software RAID1 the 250GB drives. And install the OS onto the RAID.

It costs nothing and you have everything.

Might have to deal with the OS going down if the raid goes down but if it's just an NFS server a reinstall shouldn't be a huge issue if you backup the config files and/or use something like Ansible (plus you could backup the OS to one of those other drives).

But it could be a problem if this is a production high reliability system.

This also won't work if you can physically put the drives in the case somehow (unless you just dangle the SATA cables out the back and stack any extra drives on top :p)

• Buy a new budget/used mobo/cpu and use those drives without USB.

A cpu+mobo with more SATA ports would be under $100 and be faster. But you might also need a new case to cram everything in since the optiplex seems to be one of those 'thin' ones (or a cardboard box).

On the plus side a new CPU should save you money on the electricity bill and might pay for itself in a year.

You might also be able to sell the old stuff on ebay for almost the same price that you paid for the 'new' stuff since at this low end everything costs the same.

Maybe you need new RAM?, C2D's seem to support DDR2 and DDR3 I dunno which yours has, maybe you can find a cheap budget mobo that supports the ram and has more ports. or just add $45 for new ram.

The mobos with more ports do cost a bit more though. 6 port ones starts at $50+, 8 ports jump up to $110+ but for a little more you get 10 ports at $119.

• Use a webbased cloud backup service to move off some stuff until you have some money. https://www.lifewire.com/g00/online-backup-services-reviewed-2624712

• Buy 2 x 3TB (or 4TB) drives, move data and sell the 2TB ones 2nd hand at a bit of a loss.

• Is there a Raspbery Pi with 2xSATA ports? (like the Banana Pi).

• Stop being cheap.

>>60983938
No reason to be adamant on mdadm, it's not the end-all-be-all of storage administration software. Especially if you're a poorfag..

RAID1 is also a waste of space for non-critical data. Try a less autistic approach and be open to other solutions.

>>60984044
>• If you have 4-SATA ports on the mobo.
I only have 3 SATA parts on the main board.

>Stop being cheap
I seriously am/was considering getting a 2-port USB3 PCIe card and only 2 external enclosures, and just running 2 drives in RAID-1. This would cost half as much, about $32 total.

But I decided to really splurge and get the 4-port and 4 external enclosures, at $65 total.
My current setup is running fine, great actually. I just need a couple hundred GB more to get me through the next year or so. When I can afford it yes I will spend a couple hundred and build a new server with real drives and not shitty laptop drives

>Yes both. I have no SATA ports left nor do I have drive bays available.

You mentioned 80GB boot and 2x2TB. So 4 ports in total, does that leave 1 spare?

>Im not going for RAID-10 for high performance. Im doing the mirroring for reliability, and the striping just to increase the storage space.

Fair enough, but I think trying for RAID-10 for TV and music is a bit much, especially as it's to try and avoid upgrade.

You might be able to get away with 3 drives and RAID5.

> USB3 is capable of 5Gbps; the drives Id be using are SATA 3Gbps; so USB3 is actually faster than the drives. The 4 port PCIe card I plan on getting is about $32

In theory USB3 is capable of that and should be enough.

But it might not work in reality.

The $32 pcie card could suck and not handle 4 hdds well. Your USB3 enclosures might also suck. I had a cheap USB2 dock that should have been fine for 1 HDD, but the speeds where shit and no S.M.A.R.T. stats means less reliability.

There is a high risk of buying a bunch of crappy USB adaptors and finding the system sucks or no workie.

> This is a small form factor BTX machine. My current plan will only cost me about $65. I don't see anything else that will come near that cost

What do you consider as being 'near that cost'.

Paying $65 for a bunch of USB stuff that you won't need in future. +electricity costs from old CPU. High chance being horribly unstable, ghetto with enclosures on top.

If you don't have the money, there isn't much you can do. But if you can go to $150 it would be financially worth it. No waste of $65 on USB adaptors you wont need later and a system that will keep going for a while longer.

$142.87 for a case+mobo+cpu+ram supports 8 drives. Use all your spare drives.
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/JQLZ7h

$137.98 for 2x3TB Hitachi HDDs.
https://pcpartpicker.com/product/dHtWGX/hitachi-ultrastar-7k4000-3tb-35-7200rpm-internal-hard-drive-hus724030ale641

>>60984720
Well, when I setup my $65 RAID-10 over USB3, Ill be sure to benchmark it. I will compare it to the 2x 2TB WD Reds in RAID-1 currently in there. Im going to go with the 4x 250GB drives. Thatll give me a 500GB array. I have written a custom script for benchmarking the speeds of SD cards in the past, it should work great for this purpose as well. Will be making the purchase this wednesday

>>60984111
>No reason to be adamant on mdadm, it's not the end-all-be-all of storage administration software. Especially if you're a poorfag..

but, its free as in beer, free as in freedom, and open source. Not too many other options out there that match that criteria.

I am not very experienced with servers, but I want to build mine on my house and use it as a media center, seedbox and a server for a website and maybe games like Minecraft or the old armagetron, so I'd need some ram. The problem I have is that I don't know if I should go with a powerful CPU or just a shitty one would be enough.

I want to toss both of my HDDs there, will I be able to run programs/games off of it? One of these HDDs have a problem that freezes my PC for half a second or less.