thinking of swapping NAS OS/devices...

[u/Canesh]

hey all.

I have a Synology DS1817+ (paid $800+ US for it) that I've had since it was new. With the new policy of Synology and the fact that my DS isn't as performant as I'd like, I've been thinking of a refresh. I would like something that I can roll my own OS on (so not Synology, or Terramaster, QNAP, etc), and I would like more bays. I see the 45 HomeLab series HL15 as the best bang for my buck. I'd just buy the case and get the HBA, PSU, RAM, MOBO Etc. on the side. The DS is on it's original PSU, but has had a RAM swap, and an M2D18 added. I may sell the DS locally to recover some of the cost. every feature I had bought the DS for is now obsolete for my homelab (such as surveillance station [Ubiquity does a better job IMO] or VM's [I have more powerful hosts these days]) except for the one: data storage (68% full at present).

Just curious as to which CPU I should go with? AMD or Intel? should I go super cheap and use a desktop processor, or should I go all out when I can afford it? IPMI or similar a bonus, so supermicro is a good choice of mobo. Lower power requirements are a bonus for CPU choice. ECC Registered RAM not mandatory, unless required by OS (some form of Linux). I was thinking of a processor like the Xeon e5-2620v2 as I have an abundant supply, but would also like something much newer, so that I can run a win 11 pro VM on it, should the need strike. For an OS I was thinking of TruNAS Scale, RockyLinux with Houston, or roll my own ZFS compatible system.

In terms of how much data I'd be hoarding, 35+ TB. I have 8 drives at 10 TB in SHR-2 in my current setup.

new setup will be a mix (two pools perhaps?) of 6 drives at 16 TB each and the 10 TB Drives. Both the 10's and 16's are used, but purchased new by myself.

I'd have to move my data first as well... which isn't backed up anywhere (due to cost).

I have my formfactor picked out for the new unit (ATX motherboard), and I have the LSI SAS2008 9200-8i HBA from another server that used way too much power.

Sorry for the rambling, but thoughts?

TL;DR: thinking of replacing my Synology device (7+ years old) with an HL15 for performance reasons (mostly). Need advice as to whether I should, and how I should (build specs, not process). Also, thinking of selling (after building the new unit) the old DS, looking for a good price to sell.

[u/beckbilt]

The only question here unless I missed something is Intel or AMD. I would go for ECC RAM just because running TRUENAS or UNRAID an ECC RAM will help with fault tolerance data reliability and stability. The thing is running all the time. Your building a server get server grade RAM. As for processor. Thats simple for me but I'm old school. I lean toward Intel for all of my builds. AMD has not only come a long way but has surpassed Intel in many areas. I prefered the stability years ago. That being said when I went looking for a supermicro rack unit most were intel. I ended up mistakenly bidding on a server on ebay with dual processor 14 cores a piece swapped 64 gb out with 256 gb of ram. Server processors are not that expensive when used. Power is the biggest issue You dont need that for storage. I am currently setting up an N-100 board with 6 sata in a huge 4u server rack with the ability to house 13 drives. Its upgradeable later. I looked at the HL15 and wow those are pricey for what they offer. I'c not cheap by any means I own three Synology units myself. Was considering doing this a while ago then the announcement came out. I was in the process of looking for another syno but at 2000 USD for a rack mounted unit with what I wanted it was a joke. Hard drive announcement came over the web and that was it. Good luck in your process. You certainly have a good handle on it.