this post was submitted on 05 Nov 2023
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homelab

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I am currently looking into upgrading storage for my homelab. The two routes I am looking at are grabbing a dell r730 or a disk array. They are both about the same price, but my major purchase concern is heat and noise. My office/homelab is in a 10x10 foot room. I have worked hard to get the sound floor at my desk to be around 44dB, and the temps to top off at 79f, 74 on a good day with the door open. Is a disk array going to add more heat and noise to the room than a dell r730 server running proxmox with trunas?

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

R730 is a dual socket server right? I would expect a fair amount of heat and power consumption from that just for storage. I’d definitely expect less heat from a shelf cause it’s only power+disks, no cpu(s). I’ve been looking for a way to separate out my storage too, with similar concerns. Maybe add power consumption too. I also want something that can fit in a shallow rack. I’d just get a synology if they weren’t so expensive.

Anyway, I found the EMC KTN-STL3 which is a 3u 15 bay disk shelf. They are dirt cheap and all over ebay. Was thinking about pairing that with a r230 or something. I think both units have a relatively low idle power usage. Don’t know about noise, everything you read is very subjective, so it’s hard to tell without just getting one. I like the r230 cause it has 2 pcie slots for hba + 10gbe nic. But if you don’t care about that or have something else already, there are lots of other options.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

as of right this moment I run an R430 1U dell server, which is a dual socket server with 4 3.5 drive bays up front, averages about 90w. Just being a 1U enclosure and having those tiny fans it tends to get loud. Was looking into a 3U disk shelf as well, but have seen 40mm fans on the back of them. I have too many 40mm fans as it is, I don't need to add more with more noise. I know a 2U or 3U server enclosure would have larger fans and be quieter, and if I get the same generation or newer, use the same or less power.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Oooh, I assumed a 3u shelf would have bigger fans, but I just realized I never actually saw any fans inside that thing. Reading more about it now, apparently it has some kind of nonstandard squirrel cage fans? Damn.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

This is why I’m concerned about noise. I swapped the 40mm fans I have in my switches to noctuas, helped a bunch. Would hate to have this disk shelf I grab to be louder than my switches.