I have around 30TB of data scattared around between cloud services, external hard drives, a small plex server, etc.
I would like start a storage server to store everything, with a bit of computing power for other task (plex as mentioned).
I'm looking on ebay at the Dell Edgeserver t330 or similar, starting with 3x 18TB drives, and since it has 8 bay, I'll have plenty of space for future upgrades. It seems have also a decent cpu, so it should handle plex and some other tasks without issues.
My concerns is about noise; it is going to be put under a desk in my lab and not inside a rack, I saw some videos on youtube and it doesnt seem too noisy, but hard to tell from a video. And for power usage, it will run mostly at idle I think, so I dont think it will drink too much.
Do you think it make sense? Any suggestion?
As said, the only hard requirements are quite a bit disk spaces for future expansion (6x-8x 3.5 drive support) a decent cpu, and doesnt have to be too noisy.
I've also evaluated buying a parts a built it from scratch, using like the new intel n100 with is very powerful with low power usage, a big case and so on for a similar price.
Yes do that. You wont need a very powerful CPU. Consider that you'll saturate your gigabit ethernet before your CPU when using SMB thus it doesn't make sense to have all powerful hardware. Another important thing to consider is the software: if you go bare Debian fully headless / no desktop environment and install the things you need manually - avoid Docker overheads, TrueNAS and other useless overheads - you'll use WAY less resources and your system will run considerably quieter.
Here is a real-world example with am i5-7400 + 8GB RAM + 20 TB BTRFS RAID 1 NAS I built:
While transferring a big file from a Windows machine the NAS CPU is handling it just fine while the network is already saturated. Btw I got that CPU+Board+RAM for 70€ second hand.
The only thing to consider is that if you for plex you'll most likely want a CPU that has good support for video decoding. Do your research on that but believe me with I say under gigabit speeds and mechanical hard drives ANY CPU will make it.
Thats the current approach, I've a small asrock j3455, in a microatx case with debian all bare metal, but does not have any room for more than 2 disks, so thats why I'm looking for an upgrade and so concentrate everything.
The reason why I'm also checking out used server stuff is mainly costs, here (EU) I can get that Edgeserver for around 250/300 eur, and I have just to pop in some disks and thats done, while for that money, you just get a decent cpu+mobo+ram combo, and than add on top a case, ps and cooling. Ofc everything 2nd hand, let alone the buying new stuff.
EU here as well. Thing is that old server hardware is always more expensive comparatively less older consumer hardware and wastes a LOT more power. That is why I would avoid it.
On the power I agree, but as I said I found on ebay that dell t330 (250/300 eur) for the same price of a i7 6th, a mobo and 16gb ram, which on top I have to add cooling (a decent one for around 50 eur), case (for that many disks, around 150 eur min) and psu(something not too shitty, so 50-60 eur), thats why I started considering it.
Which case are you using? The only affordable thing that I found available that is able to house 8 disks is the enthoo phanteks, for around 120 eur.
I went for cheap with this https://www.nox-xtreme.com/en/chassis/forte . Pair with a MicroATX board and a few 3D printed hard drive mounts you can fit 8 disks on that case. 9 if you convert the bay on the top. Also used a 500W 20€ power supply from OCZ.
I've also recently gone this way. I used my old gaming PC motherboard, ram, and CPU. Put Ubuntu server on it and it's been running great. Mine is running in software raid5 and has room for 7 drives (though I'm only using 3 at the moment). I did put a gtx1650 in it for Plex transcoding and that works great as well.