I want to build a proper server with room for 40+ HDDs to move my media server to and have RAID 1. I know a lot about PCs and software, but when it comes to server hardware I have no clue what I’m doing. How would I go about building a server that has access to 40+ RAID 1’d HDDs?
40-drive RAID is moving out of homelab territory and pretty deep into enterprise storage systems.
Do you already have these 40 drives or are you spacing out a new NAS from scratch?
If it’s from scratch I’d first see if I could get it down to 20 or 24 larger drives to allow the whole thing to fit in a single 4U rackmount case.
Bigger than that and you’re probably stuck with proprietary NAS hardware to link together multiple racks.
With 140TB+ of existing data, I would need 16 18TB HDDs to have RAID 1, and I also need the ability to expand. Really, I just need to have all the data accessible over the network so I can manage it from my main PC and stream it via a Plex/Jellyfin server. Maybe 4 smaller DIY NAS systems accessed by a separate system? I would really prefer no proprietary software if I can avoid it, and enterprise is out of my price range after I’ll be spending $3,000+ on HDDs.
Ifnots effectively a back up of existing media, why to you want raid 1?
The data is currently stored on external drives, but once I’ve got the new setup with RAID I’ll erase the drives and sell to friends, or use in other projects like an emulation station. 15+ wall plugs is excessive.