Microserver replacements?

howamidifferent

I hope this is the correct forum to ask my question since its a storage rig I want to build.

I have two HP Microservers with 4 x 2TB drives in each, an external esata 4 bay hardware raid caddy with 4 x 2TB drives, an 8 bay esata enclosure with 8 x 2TB drives and multiple other smaller capacity sata scratch drives I use for moving stuff around using a dual dock. Each has 8GB of ECC ram running Win 2008R2. I also record to them via two IP cameras for security.
I want to eliminate all of the power plugs, cables, flashing leds and if possible the noisy fans to try and put together a decent home server which will mainly act as a NAS streaming video to several media players, with two possibly three VMs running on it. One for WHS2011 to do client backups, one for W7 for usenet downloading, torrents etc and possibly one to act as a testing ground for any new stuff I feel like playing with.

So currently my microservers handle all of this nicely while being relatively low on power consumption. I'd like to build a replacement server to house all of the drives and handle the VMs but still be as low power consumption wise as possible. In the microservers I also have a HP410 hardware raid card and a highpoint 2680 raid card which I currently use for raid 5 sets as well as a software raid solution FlexRaid.
I may or not use any or all of these solutions in the new build. I’m open to all ideas.

Where I’m lost is in the selection of the appropriate psu, motherboard, processor and ram to accomplish these goals while keeping power consumption as low as possible.
Its been many years since I last built a system so am not uptodate with all of the available hardware choices. I want to put all into a full tower case maybe something like the Lian-Li PC-D8000 when available.

Can anyone advise me on the best hardware to accomplish this goal?

Many thanks for taking the time to read this.


1. What is your budget? [ ~ €600] for motherboard, cpu, psu , ram

2. What will be the main purpose of the computer? Mainly NAS. With an opencloud instance, with a VM for WHS2011 to look after client pc packups, and a W7 VM for usenet downloads.

3. Do you need a copy of Windows? No

4. Can you use any parts from an old computer? Have more than enough storage with existing 2TB disks. Would hope to use existing 4 x 4GB sticks of ram. ( Would sell microservers with original 1GB ram put back in ).

5. Do you need a monitor? No, will RDP in if needed.

5a. If yes, what size do you need. Not needed.

5b. If no, what resolution is your current monitor and do you plan to upgrade in the near future? Not needed

6. Do you need any of these peripherals? [Keyboard/Mouse/Wireless Card/Card Reader/Speakers/etc.]Have keyboard and mouse but hoping to run a headless system.

7. Are you willing to try overclocking? Yes

8. How can you pay? [Bank Transfer/Credit Card/Laser] Any of these

9. When are you purchasing? In October ( Waiting on a specific tower case )

10. If you need help building it, where are you based? Help not needed to build.

vibe666

and i thought i had a lot of storage!

i think your biggest issue is going to be to find the right case for your needs.

looking at your current disks, it looks like you've got at least 16 hard drives to find a home for?

space wise, i'd go for some of these icybox internal caddies to house your disks: http://www.cclonline.com/product/27329/IB-555SSK/External-HDD-Enclosure/ICYBOX-IB-555SSK-5-Bay-3-5-SATA-Hard-Drive-Enclosure/HDD3264/

that's 5 disks per caddy taking up 3 5.25" bays, so you'd be looking at a minimum of three of those (plus another internally) or 4 of them, which is going to take up either 9 or 12 externally accessible 5.25" bays which would limit your case options considerably.

you'll need to calculate your power requirements for all those drives as well and then add the power requirements of the system itself to ensure you've got enough juice to keep it all running comfortably.

my own config is with 8x 2tb disks connected to a HP M110 G6 which I have running ESXi v5 with a freeNAS 8 VM looking after the disks directly via RDM's.

it as a little awkward to get set up initially, but it's going great now and I can add new VM's to play with as and when needed without having to faff around too much and just shut them down when not in use.

howamidifferent

Its currently 20 x 2TB and 8 x 500GB plus other random drives.
I have in mind either the Norcotek RPC 4224 or the Lian-Li PC-D8000 as a case.

Its really the mobo,psu,ram and cpu I'm wondering about and looking for recommendations for.