I've been a big fan of Synology NAS devices...I've bought four, including one for my church...but, recently, I've been looking at self-hosting my own web sites and I've run up against the limitations of Synology's semi-proprietary (Linux-based, but with...tweaks) operating system. I still don't mind using them for offline storage; they excel at that, but for hosting a CMS-based web site (about 4 web sites, actually) I want something with more horsepower and expandable memory.
I've never been server shopping before (and, truth be told, I won't be going for at least a little while...I'm currently out of work), but I'd like to do my homework before hand and I'm hoping that I can get some good advice as to what to look for. Here's some of the factors I'm looking at now:
- Form Factor: Preferably 1U rackmount, although 2U would be fine also. The biggest concern is depth: My rack is 24" deep, and with airflow and cabling considerations 21" depth is about my hard limit.
- Budget: Low. I need to keep it under $1500 max; preferably under $1000. This will most likely limit me to used/refurbished machines.
- CPU: No Intel...see also Spectre/Meltdown. If I'm looking at a used machine I don't want to make myself any more vulnerable than necessary.
- Memory: Doesn't have to be huge, but I would want to be able to expand it in future. Say 8 GB or so to start, expandable from there.
- Storage: Not a big concern; I've got several terabytes of off-line storage in the Synologys and the sites I'm hosting are not going to be excessively data-intensive. But I would like to have at least 2TB of storage available with the option of adding an M.2 SSD of 1TB or so when my budget situation improves.
- Finally, I do have the chops to put a machine together myself if someone can recommend a suitable shopping list of components.
Thanks for any advice or pointers as to where to find such.
