[olug] RAID chassis recommendations

[Obi-Wan]

> I know this misses your requirement by 2 drives but I have a couple of
> Dell PowerEdge 2950s with FreeNAS  .... They are cheap, solid and I like
> them alot.
> 
> Here are a couple quick ebay examples....
> 
> http://www.ebay.com/itm/POWEREDGE-2950-GEN-2-DUAL-2-66-DUAL-CORE-5150-8GB-1X73G-15K-SAS-RAID-DRAC-RPS-/170871894643
> 
> http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-PowerEdge-Gen-2-2950-2x-Dual-Core-2-66GHz-8GB-/180919031079
> 
> It is hard to beat for the money.

Yes, those look pretty slick, and I'm not against buying something like
this (except the drives) off eBay.  However, once I install mirrored
system drives, this only leaves me with 4 data drives, which just isn't
enough for the long haul.  At RAID 5 with 2TB drives, that only gives me
6TB of usable space.  I'd fill it before the drives were out of warranty.

Are there any other similar servers (with 8+ bays) that I should watch
out for on eBay?

>> Minimum requirements:
>>   * 2U tall
>>   * holds at least 8 hot-swap SATA drives
>>   * has at least 2 GigE NICs
>>   * external USB3 is a plus, but not required

-- 
Ben "Obi-Wan" Hollingsworth    obiwan at jedi.com    PrairieRimImages.com
   The stuff of earth competes for the allegiance I owe only to the
     Giver of all good things, so if I stand, let me stand on the
       promise that You will pull me through.  -- Rich Mullins