u/Cute_Smell6977

Building a Server

Hi dear-hopelessly-not-toxifying-community-that-probably-won’t roast me alive (but no promises) :D

So I recently entered the world of server hosting and I am currently doing what I would call: emotionally supported chaos.

I started with a cute little Western Digital home server running RAID 0 (yes… I also enjoy living dangerously and making bad financial decisions). It was all fun and games until I realized I have used up ~13.5 TB out of 16 TB… and my data hoarding disease is clearly progressing into its final form.

I am based in Europe and trying my best to write this in English, because German is my native language and I refuse to suffer in two languages at once. ( yes i used A.I. to correct my text from German to English. )

Now the plan:
I want to turn an old PC into a proper server before I start emotionally attaching external drives like some kind of digital dragon hoarding gold.

Specs of the ancient beast I plan to repurpose:

CPU: Intel i7-8700K (still fighting for its life)
RAM: 32 GB DDR4 Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO @ 3600 MHz (yes, it glows, no, it doesn’t improve performance)
GPU: GTX 1080 11 GB (just sitting there questioning its existence in a server build)

Motherboard: usable
Case: absolutely not. It is violently too smol °-° (like “I tried to close it and heard a scream” kind of small)

So I come to you, wise internet beings:

I need recommendations for:

  • a case that can actually fit more than emotional damage and 2 drives
  • HDDs that won’t decide to retire mid-transfer out of spite
  • anything I’m obviously forgetting while building my first “I swear this is a serious server” setup

Budget reality check: I am not rich :D
Goal: ~30 TB+ of somewhat safe storage (keyword: somewhat, we respect realism here)

Bonus goal: I want this thing to run without sounding like a Boeing 747 during takeoff.

Please help before I start naming individual hard drives and treating them like pets.

Thanks :D

reddit.com
u/Cute_Smell6977 — 2 days ago