Hello everyone!
I’m building a new NAS/server and was wondering where my fellow Aussies buy their hard drives from.
I’m happy to buy new or refurbished or second-hand drives if they’re from a reputable seller.
Does anyone have any websites, eBay sellers, or other places they’d recommend? Any good or bad experiences would be appreciated too.
Thank you!
Hallo everyone,
I just got into reading about home servers a week ago. After watching a lot of Videos about people setting up basic home systems I'd trust myself enough to give it a go.
My usecase would be mainly for saving Fotos as my GoogleDrive storrage is constantly full. Also I want to use it to host my own video streaming as I allready have 1TB of movies on my PC.
Now the important part:
Because I'm on a budget and have an old windows machine laying around I'm looking for used HDD drives. As far as my googled knowledge takes me I decided I want to run my server in RAID (haven't decided what kind). So I know that the drives have to have the same compassity or othewise RAID will only use as much storage as the smallest drive has.
Here is my main question:
Can I just use any HDDs with the same amount of storage in my System or do I have to look for ones of the same manufacturer?
I hope my question got to the point. Pls let me know if I forgot something completle. I really apreceate anyone sharing knowledge with a newbie.
Thanks for reading and Have a nice Day :)
I found a deal where new TOSHIBA P300 4TB is available for 100 dollars which seems like a great deal but its a desktop drive. I already got a WD Red Pro in my nas so will it be a conflict of interest or will it be fine since the speed and cache is almost the same. (I plan on making it work beside the drive no raid or anything)
Lots of people seemed to enjoy my other post about my 1u wall mount home server here: https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeServer/s/XZZMRXfYju
So I thought I’d share some upgrades I’ve made to it.
Firstly the motherboard ended up dying, so I replaced it with the newer generation from the same series, the Asus P11ci. This still has the SAS port meaning I can use up to 6 drives which was a must. I took this opportunity to change the CPU from the previous Xeon to an i3 9100T. Same performance but less power and newer architecture.
I also took the opportunity to add a passive heatsink to reduce noise. Speaking of which, I changed the PSU to an Enhance unit because the PSU was by far the loudest part of the old build.
Most importantly, I wasn’t happy with how warm the hard drives were getting previously. Even zip tying some fans near the old hard drives arrangement wasn’t helping because there was no room for airflow and the cable management was horrible. So I designed and 3d printed a bracket to hold the hard drives which gave them more space. The bracket also houses a PCB I took from a hot swap enclosure, meaning I can power all 6 drives from 2x 4 pin molex rather than 6 individual connectors and adapters. It also means the data cables all come from the same place which also helps. The bracket mounts into existing holes in the case. It could be better but this is a first prototype which I intend to use because I paid a 3d printing service for it. The fans aren’t aligned because I had to avoid some metal studs protruding from the base of the case.
All in all the server is much quieter (barely audible) and when all the drives are spinning up, the temperatures have improved by up to 10 degrees per drive, with the warmest maxing out at 43 degrees which I’m okay with.
Hello All,
I have a HP ProLiant MicroServer Gen8, 16G Ram, Xeon processor is this OK for a media server, if I config with no parity, backup it would hold my whole DVD library am I stepping into a hornets nest or should I opt to go with something newer/better.
Guten Abend, ich würde gerne einen Heimserver aufsetzen. Nun habe ich mich für ZimaOS entschieden da es Einsteigerfreundlich sein soll. Ich versuche nun aber jetzt schon mit dem 4. USB Stick überhaupt den Installer drauf zu flashen. Ich probiere es immer wieder über Balena Etcher. Er flasht den Stick, anschließend findet mein Laptop den Stick nicht mehr und auch der Mini PC erkennt den Stick nicht als Flash Drive. Hat jemand ähnliche Problem und sogar eine Lösung ?
Been working on this homelab setup.
Got GitLab hosted (Pi5 with NVMe) at home along with a GitLab runner for CI/CD (Pi4).
The Pi Zero is a PiHole and serves DNS.
I am now working in an application that'll run on another Pi server (Pi5), code will be maintained in GitLab locally.
Took it apart to put it together in this neat build.
Will post again in a few weeks when it's all up and running again.
Edit: Fixed spelling and grammatical errors.
​
## Hardware
- **Erying Q1J4** (Core i5-1340P, Raptor Lake mobile-on-desktop board) from AliExpress
- **32GB DDR5 RAM** from Amazon AU
- **LSI 9305-16i HBA** (16-port) from Taobao
- **Jonsbo N6** case from AliExpress
- **EVGA 550 GT** PSU
- **5x 10TB SAS** (NetApp X380) from FB Marketplace
- **4x 8TB SAS** (X376) from FB Marketplace
A note on the HBA: I originally had an 8-port card (IBM M5110 / SAS2308), but with 9 drives I hit its 8-drive limit. I returned it and moved to the 9305-16i, which has 16 ports, so all 9 drives connect with room to spare.
## Installation
I connected all the drives to the N6 backplane. The HBA slot took some work. This board's slot layout meant I had to order a PCIe riser (x4 to x8) to physically fit and connect the card.
One thing worth knowing if you buy used enterprise SAS drives: they sometimes come formatted at 520-byte sectors instead of the standard 512, which is common on drives pulled from enterprise arrays. Linux reports them as 0 bytes in that state. The fix is sg_format to convert them to 512-byte sectors. Five of my drives needed this, so I ran sg_format on them (in parallel to save time) and they came up fine afterwards.
## Software
I spent a while torn between Unraid and OMV with SnapRAID and MergerFS. I went with OMV because it is free, flexible, has no lock-in, and SnapRAID's checksumming appealed to me for protecting long-term data.
Using an LLM to guide me through the process, I got the whole stack running as separate Proxmox containers and VMs:
- **Proxmox** as the hypervisor
- **OMV** for storage, running SnapRAID (dual parity) and MergerFS, giving roughly 62TB usable, all on XFS
- **Jellyfin** in an LXC, with Intel Quick Sync hardware transcoding (iGPU passed into the container)
- **Nextcloud** for files and documents
- **Immich** for family phone photo backups
- **AdGuard Home** for network-wide DNS ad blocking
- **Homepage** as the dashboard tying it all together
As a first-timer, having an LLM walk me through the HBA passthrough, the sg_format process, the LXC iGPU permission mapping, and the SnapRAID config turned what would have been days of forum-diving into a guided build.
Is this good and low power efficient for media server? I7 3770k 1070 ti 16gb ram I don't have these part yet .
Hi everyone! I’m a complete newbie at all tech stuff, but lately I’ve gotten really tired of everything working on a subscription type model, and got the crazy idea of having my own server to do the most basic stuff:
- delete my Google Drive subscription and access having my own “cloud”
- digitalize my movies and have my own “Netflix” to stream them
But I have no idea where to start, how to do it, and obviously I’m kind of in a budget 😅
If any kind souls could give me some advice on how to start, I’d be really thankful. (How to start, estimated cost/budget and stuff)
FYI, English is not my first language so sorry for any grammar errors. I’m located in Mexico, in case that is relevant in any way.
PS: here is a photo of my dog as a thank you for reading :)
Hey hey, new here. I just set up my first homelab using proxmox and running a headless debian install hosting Pihole. So far everything is great except SSH. Anytime I try to connect to or from my remote server im hit with falls. Either permisson denied or silent denial (reprompts).
I have tried editing the config files based on what others have suggested on forums as well as what AI recommends with no success (password authenication, PAM)
Im stuck and getting very frustrated on something that is seemingly very simple.
Thanks to all - Hazel 🍄
My current server is my old Dell with 12 GB RAM, 250 GB SSD, and i7. But I am running out of space super soon, as I use it to download some live market data. What would be the best way to increase its storage? Like simply attach an external SSD with a USB?
I dont have a budget (its not unlimited, its just that I havent thought much about it yet as to what I can afford).
I am just getting into this game, and I am only picking up whats NAS, DAS, etc. So please feel free to give me all options you think are appropriate, even some simple ones that you think anyone would already know (I dont!)
I built my firs home server, for SMB, adblocker, torrent, and some lil things
AMD Opteron 3365 8core, clocked down 1,6GHz@0,975V max
960G Mobo because the IGP
2x4GB DDR3
1x480GB SSD
6x500GB 2,5" 5400rpm
1x640GB 2,5" 5400rpm
2x1TB WD Blue 7200rpm
Overall 5TB HDD
I made powersaving things, so Idle 37W, max CPU load with reading all drive is 78W. With normal usage it is 46-52W from the wall.
Hello everyone!
I’m trying to decide between a few used desktop options on Facebook Marketplace for a home server build. I would like to host a jellyfin media server, navidrome, and a NAS drive. I am debating running adgaurd or pihole, or immich, but I honestly don't know much besides the posts I've read about them.
My plan would be to run Debian + Docker with a wired Ethernet connection, and expand storage over time if needed. I’m mainly trying to figure out what kind of hardware makes the most sense from the used desktop options I’m seeing, and whether any of these services might be too ambitious for a basic setup.
Here are the options that I am considering:, from highest to lowest cost.
| COST | MODEL | CPU | RAM | STORAGE |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $120.00** | Lenovo IdeaCentre 3 | i3-12100 | 8GB DDR4-3200 | 256 SSD |
| $110.00 | Dell OptiPlex 3080 SFF | i5-10500 | 16GB DDR4 | 500GB HDD |
| $85.00 | Dell Optiplex 3060 | i5 (8th gen) | 16GB | 1TB HDD |
| $80.00 | Dell OptiPlex 3080 SFF | i5-10500 | 8GB DDR4 (x1) | 512GB HDD |
**The IdeaCentre also would come with an Acer K3 monitor for that price. I suppose I could ask if they would be willing to sell just the desktop, as I already have a monitor.
I’ve been able to find a lot more info on the OptiPlex machines than the IdeaCentre, but not much on the IdeaCentre 3, so I’m unsure how it compares for a 24/7 server. The 12th gen processor seems nice, however I would have to add storage sooner than the alternatives.
Any recommendations on which one you’d pick (or avoid) would be really appreciated.
Hello,
I started looking into HomeServers, and after a day of reading on Reddit and watching videos, I am lost...
At first, I had two things I needed that made me look into it :
\- I want, for me and my wife, to be able to save our photos automatically from our phones and to be able to look at them from all our devices, in and outside the house
\- I want to set up different VLANs on my network to separate the computers and the IOTs on two different wifi networks, and the NAS on a third VLAN with a wired connection to the router/switch.
But then I also got interested in setting up a media server with torrent download (though my protonVPN), Vaultwarden, a cloud with documents and maybe some other stuff later (but probably nothing heavier than the media server).
So for the router, I am thinking about an TP-Link Omada ER706W. Power effective, easy to setup, all-in-one...
I didn't go for a PFSense/OPNSense option because I don't have the PC for it, and I would need to buy a mesh for the wifi I guess.
Then for the NAS, I am a bit lost.
\- My first option was getting a Synology that would do all of this (DS225+). It seems very easy to use, it should be able to do everything I need, and it seems safe for someone with my level of knowledge.
\- My second option was a cheaper Synology (DS124 or 223 or beestation), and a mini PC for the transcoding part
\- My third option was a more powerful NAS that would run on TrueNAS (I was thinking of a pre built NAS with the possibility to install a different OS) with everything on it. I am thinking of a pre built NAS because it seems to be the best option in terms of price and power consumption for this type of needs.
I love the idea of having everything opensource and to have something more powerful for a slightly lower price. But I am a beginner in cyber security and I am worried that it would be dangerous to run something all by myself compared to something easier to setup like DSM.
I would obviously like to setup a VPN tunnel for my connections to the NAS from outside (from my router and not the NAS itself I guess), and to completely block any access to the admin pages from devices that are not physically in the network (so no VPN).
Do you think it is doable for a beginner to setup TrueNAS safely, without having to constantly check it ? Is it worth the trouble ?
What do you think about these ideas of setups and do you think of a better idea (with the price and power consumption in mind) ?
Thank you !
I've been running the jankiest setup possible for a couple of years now; a Raspberry Pi 400 running OpenMediaVault attached to a NAS, and separately an old desktop I built for my grandmother six years ago running Ubuntu Server with a Jellyfin server via Docker. I decided to start gathering components to make something a little less ridiculous.
I have...
I want it to run...
But I don't really know what the overall starting point should be. I don't need detailed instructions, I run Linux full time on all of my devices and have a fairly decent grasp on what I'm doing. I've seen Unraid recommended a lot, but do I really need to get a proprietary OS? Should the OS live on a separate SSD? Where do I go to figure out how to set up a certificate so I can access the servers via HTTPS?
Hi guys,
I have the below homelab network design (already implemented). Wanted to get your views on this.
I have 2 HP Elitedesk 800 G3 minis. But thought to replace them with Raspberry pi 4 4GB for the sake of 24x7 operation.
Thank you
Theres a 120mm intake fan at the top of the picture, which is located at the front of my case.
My SAS are constantly sitting above 50 degrees C and hitting 60 on a really hot day here in London (35º +)
Unfortunately I cannot put any more space between the drives due to the location of the 2nd CPU cooler.
Is the answer a bigger better faster fan than the cheapo one that came with the case ?
Many thanks for your help reddit
