If I do this right I’m going to end up having a ton of disks. Maybe, 100 plus. I’m trying to figure out how to get them online rather economically. So far the best options seem to be a Raspberry Pi with a HAT getting four disks up for about $25 each. I did figure out a cpu and mobo combo that could definitely get this up for about $6 less per disk. I figure with RAID cards it’s possible to get a cheap mobo hosting 40 or more disks. How much performance would I actually need for 40 disks?
Another option is plugging a bunch of disks through a USB hub to something economical. That might even be less than $19. Issue here is it seems unreliable, and requires SATA to USB converter cables. Some of those seem rather sketchy. I could also try a SATA splitter, but that just sounds like a good way to lose multiple disks.
Nuc’s seem like an option too. I just have not found any with enough SATA ports to make it economical. Have any recomendations?
That’s around purchasing a used server. I’d assume replace some of the hardware too. I think that’s probably the most economical, securest, and easiest to manage long term. In the short term I’m fine with something less than ideal.
I just wish I knew how much ram I needed per disk, and how strong the cpu should be. What type of server boards should I look for? I understand the consumer products, but don’t know which board features I should want.
Sorry, I thought you meant just bringing the storage online, but I see you mean actually setting up a full plotting and harvesting farm. I’d start with a basic guide to farming Chia and take it from there. What you will end up with all depends on how fast you want to fill all that space with plots.