Question Efficient way to hook up many HDDs (10+)

zantaff

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Dec 31, 2012
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So I have 20-something 2.5" SATA 500gb hard drives procured from various reclaimed PCs. Right now they're just collecting dust. I want to put them to use in some kind of home server/ NAS. What's an efficient (cheap) way to hook them up? For any ground-up build I would need to get a case, mobo, power, etc.
  • Cheap PC case with a mobo that has a billion SATA slots? Like this x16 one or this x10 one?
  • Link up a bunch of SAS cards to 4x SATA to SAS cables? Like This and This?
  • Buy a bunch of PCIe SATA cards?
  • Get some kind of rack mount server? (16 Bays / 25 Bays)
  • Something else that's probably really simple but I'm missing?
My goal is to save money and use the HDDs I have.
If I need to go out and buy $$$$ worth of equipment when I could instead, spend less and buy larger drives and cheaper equipment... Then it defeats the whole project.

Thanks!
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Those rack servers don't seem to include drive caddies so you would have to buy those separate. What you get depends on what you have already. If you have a case that can fit a bunch of drives then you can use a few of the PCIe SATA cards to add the drivers, or RAID cards.
 

zantaff

Distinguished
Dec 31, 2012
55
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18,530
Those rack servers don't seem to include drive caddies so you would have to buy those separate. What you get depends on what you have already. If you have a case that can fit a bunch of drives then you can use a few of the PCIe SATA cards to add the drivers, or RAID cards.
I'd be building this pretty much from scratch. I have an old Gpu and some cables lying around but that's about it.
I've never messed with a rack server, but if I got one, I'd be treating it pretty much like a standalone tower.

What specific type drives are these?
SAS, SATA, other...

They are 2.5" SATA III drives.