40TB+ unraid server options?

Smurfin

Hi all

I think it's time to retire my 20 bay unraid server...I'm looking for something compact and reasonably quiet, but I don't want to spend too much money!

I have 4 x 6TB hard drives that I plan to re-use, and the total capacity needs to be around 42TB.  Any suggestions?  I love the idea of the HP pro-liant microserver, but with only 4 bays I'm a bit screwed!

Any recommendations? (don't mind building).

Hillskill

End of an era!

Side thought...would you consider flipping any h264 content to h265 to save space? or are your rips mostly BD images?

Sloppy Bob

Synology 1817  or whatever the newer model is.

8 Bays so plenty of space for a bit of expansion. Remember when you pop your old drives in it will wipe them.

If you need to transcode on the fly then you'd need a bit more oomph and cash. Something similar from QNAP perhaps?

Smurfin

Why will that happen?

Smurfin

Mostly BD folders, quite a few H264 reencodes in there too.  I know nothing about the different formats now, is H265 that much more efficient?

Hillskill

The difference is big! The bigger your input file the more dramatic the reduction in data footprint. I've seen 7GB 4K files down to 1.5GB. I travel a lot so taking a bigger media library with me is nice luxury. That kind of file compression is a game changer in terms of what can be feasible fit on a 128GB USB key

brunation

U-NAS NSC-810A Server Chassis

Chenbro SR209 plus 2U 3-Bay trayless hot swap and an  ICY DOCK MB971SP-B Duoswap should give 8x3.5 and 1x2.5 bays. I use the latter two in an old midi-tower  case to extend its useful life ...

mickevh

Some devices regard any HDD you plug into them that they don't "know" about as a kind of "foreign invader" and treat it as if it were a brand new disc, wiping and formatting it. It would be wise to assume so and be pleasantly surprised if it doesn't rather than the other way around.

If the HDD's are part of a RAID structure such as a stripe or mirror, then they would be highly unlikely to survive without some careful husbandry and a cooperative operating systems. JBOD disc might stand a better chance.

It would be best to read the manuals first and make sure you have a backup of the data (certainly any irreplaceable data) before you try.

Smurfin

I have unRAID, not RAID, so the data won't be wiped.

Sloppy Bob

And a pre-purchased NAS doesn't work on unRAID, it works with their own proprietary OS and traditional RAID or in the case of Synology, the option of using their own Hybrid RAID.

It might be fine, but I wouldn't gamble that it will all work. The first thing the NAS does when you pop a disk in regardless of the file system that's on it, unless it's a previous Synology array, is tell you it's going to format the disc.

After that it installs the Synology OS on it IIRC.