You are basically going for a unicorn. So be prepared to pay:

This fits the bill. I have a few and they are great little servers.

This would more than cover the passmark.

Both those towers have 4x3.5" hotswap drives and spots for a pair of 2.5" SSDs. Plus you get an SATA M2 SSD slot. Up to 128GB if you are willing to sacrifice body parts.

The D-1541 a bit shy on the passmark, but hits all the other marks. Only the highest E3s come close on passmark, but they are still short of the Xeon D. And I dunno about having something prebuilt in that nice little form factor. Those Xeon D towers really are great little servers.

nvidia shield, or a lenovo ts140 and use a rpi with rasplex as a client

Only 64GB? Haha, you pleb.

This + This + These + Stickmount

Seriously though, walking around with a cable dangling from the device is not ideal.

Not addressing the points you are asking but more toward the original issue...

You can always buy a high-power used enterprise server for under $1k and shell out the $800 for windows server standard. I purchased a Dell new server for $10K for our company and it's worse then the $700 used Dell R710 that i bought.

With the money you save means you can buy a few for redundancy and replication purposes. I bought one very similar to this one.

I've been on both sides of the fence in IT as well. Worked for the company that supported the company that i work for serving break-fix services when we bought the new server. When I got hired on directly the first thing i did was buy a good used server for our second office, i regret not having the same one in our main office.

If your goal is simply hosting your own websites and programs for testing purposes, something simple, inexpensive and not too power hungry would do the trick. As OP said, think along your needs. Are you planning on hosting a dozens of things on a single machine? (That's what I do.) And I'm not being hyperbolic by saying dozens, that is actual numbers.

If your learning plan is having a server to learn programming with, my suggestion would be one (or more, who knows?) HP ProLiant Micro Servers. They're small, quiet and not too power hungry, though they're not the most powerful beasts around (like some Dell R710s as mentionned by OP). But for an entry-level programming lab, I think it would do the trick. I would install Ubuntu Server and Docker to experiment with Linux and containers, which could be stepping stones to full blown virtualization, if that's what you're into.

If you want to stay on Amazon, for a little bit more you can get this DL380 G6 which will be DDR3 and much better on power usage.

Edit:
The same seller also has
R610

DL380 G6

DL360 G6

Any of these would be a better choice than the G5.

These magazines are combining "Hello fellow kids" meme with a "cringe compilation".

Edit: This is what I got for the UPC code on the magazine.

> How small an office? Could you get away with 2016 Essentials?

This is a serious suggestion. If you don't have more than 25 users, you can use 2016 Essentials.

Windows Server 2016 Essentials costs approx. $350, with no cals required.

Only downside is that it's up to 25 users. But if you grow beyond 25 users, you should be able to afford 2016 Standard.

Considering that an HP Microserver Gen10 can be had for $370 (amazon link) which will run that 2016 essentials just fine, you have a complete server, including Windows for a little over $700. Although with the price of an SSD added and some labour, let's round to $1000.

Sure, it lacks things that "real servers" have, like iLo, but so does a NAS.

I've had it running in a Jail in Freenas for a little over a year now without any real issues. I don't have to reboot it after awhile either. I've had the boot usb drive die (mini-samsung didn't like the constant heat I think) and the network card die (realtek is realshit).

Hardware List:

• Freenas box
  
• InWin IW-MS04 ITX Case
  
• AsRock J3710
  
• 8GB Crucial Ram x 1
  
• HGST Ultrastar 7k4000 3TB x 2
  
• Aeotec z-wave adapter
  
• Intel PRO/1000 Pt Network adapter
  
• !! Note, x4 PCI slot where motherboard only has x1. I modified motherboard to fit card, don't really recommend. Still better than Realtek.
  
• 16GB USB drive x2

I bought an HP micorserver for mine. I actually use it as an esxi host, and run a freenas install as a VM. Its dead silent, can take 8GB of Ram, has a dual core 1.5 GHz amd chip, has 4 drive bays, and I believe 8 USB ports. I have no issue running 7 Linux VMs on it with the NAS, including a soft firewall (smoothwall), Wiki (twiki), and a few other misc boxes (backtrack, Damn vulnerable linux, etc). It is all of one cubic foot.

My current config is a Zpool of 2X 2TB raid 1, with a hotspare, via 3 internal 2TB drives, and 2 External 2TB drives. This gives me 3.6TB of usable space. If I want to expand, I just remove the hot spare, slap in another 2TB disc, make a mirror, and then add it to the Zpool. Redundant, easy to expand storage. The writes are slow, running about 4MB/s, but the reads are more in the 12MB/s range. Fine for media. Freenas does automatic smart warning via email, has easily configuarble shares, SNMP reporting, snapshotting, ZFS data autohealing, etc. Its beautiful.

A warning: Freenas loves Ram, so it worth going from the stock 2GB to 8 right off the bat. 4GB sticks run about $40 each.

Just curious. What would be the benefit of a Nuc vs something like the Dell T20? The power consumption is very similar, more expansion, and option to run a dual NIC.

This is what I was considering for myself. It uses 3.5inch drives so I could use it as a NAS too.

High-End Virtualization Server 12-Core 64GB RAM 12TB Raid PowerEdge R710 (Renewed) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01KU2UQME/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_08EQDbE1A690J

>My main idea was to create a nas that would be able to transcode my media with plex and i could access outside my network and act as a file server and backups for my laptop

Backing up data is the one thing where you'd benefit from ZFS but everything else can be done as well and perhaps better with Linux.

>but dont fully understand all thier is to freenas

The linked comment in my previous post is a good place to start (especially Cyberjock's Guide), as are the links provided by u/dxm765... I second what he said about asking further questions.

>but looking around everyone always recommends it

FreeNAS is great at what it does but there are certain people who think it's the answer to every NAS / Server question... it isn't. There's also a tendency to not mention certain limitations in the same way you'd say a Ferrari is a fantastic car without mentioning the servicing costs.

>so i just figured my build would be ok since it seems like a good htpc but was i way off. Im not competely set on freenas and if you could suggest other os and programs i could use that would be great apperciate the help.

Am I right to assume that you're not a Linux user?

If that's correct, I'd recommend Ubuntu as it's very user friendly and has the largest community and therefore the largest resource for troubleshooting problems and learning. I'm also partial to the Gnome desktop environment with a few extensions. I can tell you more about what a desktop environment and Gnome extensions are and which extensions I use if you're interested.

As for what applications to use, that depends on what you want to be able to do. You might like to checkout Atomic Toolkit. That should cover pretty much everything you'll need for a HTPC server apart from secure WAN access. There is more than one way to skin the cat though. You could dockerise your server (use a docker image for each application) or you could install everything manually... it all depends on what you want to be able to do.

One thing that might be worth considering is looking for a cashback deal on either a Dell T20 or a Lenovo TS140 (which is known for being very quiet). They're both home/small business servers and they're often on sale. I've actually seen the TS140 with a Xeon e3 1226-v3 being sold for less than the RRP of the processor alone. The reason I mention this is that they're designed for 24/7 as a server.

Here's a TS140 with 4GB of RAM and an i3 4150, which is beefy enough for two simultaneous 1080p transcodes. You'd need to add some RAM and a HDD (as it doesn't come with storage) but for $219, it's certainly worth considering.

[EDIT] Same model of TS140 on offer for $189 - http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-ThinkServer-TS140-70A40037UX-4U-Tower-Server-Intel-Core-i3-4150-3-5Ghz-/291591988601?_trkparms=5373%3A0%7C5374%3AFeatured

This is considerably better for about the same price.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01230V2U6/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_nfIMybWC7AJQQ

It has a much better CPU and it's in a platform where you can easily upgrade parts.

It also comes with a 500GB HDD and 8GB of Ram for on $10 more than what you posted.

Also it has a fan to cool the CPU. Fanless stuff is not good for anything that requires a decent amount of CPU usage. It will just thermal throttle.

I'm going to second going for an actual server here. I generally hate HP, but I like their servers. Personally, I have the HP Micro Gen8 server: https://www.amazon.com/HP-ProLiant-MicroServer-Server-783958S01/dp/B00LGJ9NHK and I love it.


The latest Freenas isn't compatible with it though (FreeBSD boot issue), so I'm stuck on one version lower than current. Hopefully next major version the issue will get fixed...

I ended up doing a bit of research on this.

https://www.amazon.com/Supermicro-SuperServer-5028D-TN4T-D-1541-Hotswap/dp/B00Z7O7EAS/

This is essentially the same system, with a built-in Xeon-D, 2x 1Gbps, 2x 10gigE, and support for ECC memory.

https://www.amazon.com/Supermicro-Barebone-Components-Other-SY-528LTN2/dp/B0188QLIIK

This one is similar, but instead of the built-in Xeon-D it has an empty socket that supports a Xeon e3, also ECC memory (but no 10GigE).

Both have only one usable expansion slot, so if you need SAS drives, you'll need a card - so you'd want to select the first one (unless you don't need 10gigE)

Cheaper than Synology, and can run a Linux distribution (but technically is not a NAS)

https://www.amazon.com/MICROSVR-GEN10-X3216-ENTRY-870208-001/dp/B0732T8YN4

These are pretty small, though a bit on the pricey side:

https://www.amazon.com/Supermicro-SYS-E200-8D-FCBGA1667-2-5inch-Express/dp/B01K1JVM0Q

Currently running my server on a mid 2009 13" Macbook Pro with the following services

• Plex
  
• Sonarr
  
• CouchPotato
  
• SABNzb
  
• Transmission
  
  Here are the Macbooks Specs just for reference
  
  Type | Item
  ---|---
  CPU | 2.26 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
  RAM | 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
  Storage | 500GB Internal HDD
  
  I'm looking to upgrade as the other guy in this thread stated, it's becoming a power hog. Also, I'm constantly jockeying the last 50GB of space on my HDD. Probably doesn't help that the battery is failing. Anyway, does anyone have any experience with or know if any of these pre-built servers are any good?
  
   
  
  https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-ThinkServer-70A40037UX-Server-i3-4150/dp/B0167MYLL8/ref=sr_1_4?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1484936718&sr=1-4&keywords=server
  
  Type | Item
  ---|---
  CPU | Intel Core i3-4130 processor 3.4 GHz
  RAM | 1 x 4 GB PC3-12800E 1600MHz DDR3 ECC-UDIMM UDIMM / 4 Slots Total
  Storage | None, would add my own storage (SSD for OS/sys, HDD for Media)
  
   
  
  https://www.amazon.com/Dell-PowerEdge-T20-Mini-tower-Server/dp/B011ZB45LM/ref=sr_1_5?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1484936718&sr=1-5&keywords=server
  
  Type | Item
  ---|---
  CPU | Intel Xeon E3-1225 v3 Quad-core (4 Core) 3.20 GHz
  RAM | 4 GB Installed DDR3 SDRAM
  Storage | 1 TB HDD
  
   
  
  Reason I ask is a build like rage1234 put together (only other post in this thread at the time I'm typing this) costs more than just grabbing one of these towers installing Linux and running with it.

Oh, I've gotten e-mail from them, but only general stuff. No "time to order" yet. Also, the address I used for that doesn't have a spam filter on it, but good thought. Other accounts I have do, and I'm always forgetting about it.

I've almost given up on using the RPi for what I want. Since I won't be able to get more than one in the foreseeable future, I can't really make a product around it. I want to build 30's-era console radios into net radios, and sell a few. The only other SoC board I've found that seems like it'd be great for that is the Dreamplug, which costs around $180. Everything else (Shivaplug, Guruplug, BeagleBone, etc.) has bunches of people talking about problems with the audio. I am trying to figure out whether I can get a USB audio dongle working with a Pogoplug, as they can be found pretty cheaply on sale.

Wow. I'm rambling. Check spam folder. Always a good suggestion!

Why not a HP microserver?

In the UK they are pretty much < £120 due to HP having £100 cashback on them. They're small and efficient.

This answer hits all the right points. PC/GPU mining isn't what it once was. You'd probably start burning out components before hitting $100.

I would also recommend the Antminer U3. It's cheap, easy to use and I think it looks cool. If you're interested in learning about cryptocurrencies and want to start experimenting, this would be a great way to get a feel for mining. Related links below.

U3 @ Amazon

Setup guide from bitcointalk

This might not have enough grunt for your purpose but the HP microserver n54l has ECC ram. I got one recently for low-use file serving etc. Works well.

Lovely when they do that.

What's your budget? I could see this as an easy upgrade path:

• Purchase an HP ML10 Server
  
  
• Move your disks over
  
  
• Move RAM over (if you'd like.)
  
  
• Sell off your current computer (or use for a media PC/friend/Whatever.)
  
  Gives you 4 clean easy to use drive bays plus a fifth if you take out the cdrom. Better CPU and RAM. This one would be even faster for PLEX and more VMs.
  
  

I’ll let you know when I get home.

Edit: I’ll do you one better, here’s the exact link to what we bought. Supermicro SuperServer 5018D-FN8T Xeon D Mini 1U Rackmount,10GbE LAN, SFP+, IPMI https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LXUATHB/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_SyK0Ab0Z5ZB4B

I'm in college, similar aspirations. I bought this HP Proliant N40L

You can use a dreamplug, but its a bit expensive. It looks you can install a ftp server on a pogoplug. There are probably a lot more ways you can do what you want, but those are just a few.

I’m seeing some good deals related to Synology NAS’s. I’m watching for a second for my remote “home” lab.
Along side that, I’ve been saving up for some servers powerful enough to use as virtual servers, yet fit within this cabinet... namely the Supermicro 5018D-FN4T Xeon D-1541 8-Core Front IO Mini 1U Rackmount w/ Dual 10GbE https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01M0X365V/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_dTjfAb7ZZST13
Aside from new hardware for this cabinet, honestly EBay has some awesome deals on enterprise servers.

I highly recommend unRAID for an OS. It can do everything you asked (not sure about the email portion) and more! It has a free trial you can use. I played with the free trial for about 10 minutes and knew that I had to have it.

As far as hardware, I'm sure most will recommend something like this from from Amazon. But personally, I like traditional servers, ebay is your best bet for prebuilt goodness, like a Dell R710. But, I digress, I'll let other recommend hardware because I always go over board, you know, for expandability because, I don't know what I may be into in the future.

Yeah I bought one of these guys about 6 years ago and it has been running strong ever since. Handles all my plex needs fine along with a couple of other VM's.

I was going to recommend a HP Proliant N54L as they're insanely cheap here in Japan.... (I bought mine for around $140) and load on FreeNAS.

Apparently they're not so cheap in the US though.....

I've had my eye on this but honestly the pfSense XG-1541 model might be a better idea simply because of support.

Edit: Didn't notice the comment about top of rack switches. I've been using mostly Huawei and Extreme Networks for a while now.

Along with Pfsense & VyOS, you may want to check out Untanagle NG. There are a lot of virtual router and firewall options out there right now. I assume you would need something with SFP+ to accept the 5Gbps ISP connection. That's the hard part since most routers & firewalls that support speeds greater than 1Gbps are pricey. A combo like this may work for you. Since the Microtik router has two SFP+ ports, you can use one for the ISP link and one for a 10G link to the server running Pfsense or whatever. And then use the remaining router RJ-45 links to span out to your switches.



https://www.amazon.com/Mikrotik-CCR1036-8G-2S-Router-Gigabit-touchscreen/dp/B00HWXBHLO



https://www.amazon.com/Supermicro-SuperServer-5018D-FN8T-Rackmount-10GbE/dp/B01LXUATHB

I hope you're using wired Ethernet ports, as 30 WiFi radios in a small space will be not fun.

My stock recommendation for SOHO is a http://www.amazon.com/HP-658553-001-ProLiant-Server-System/dp/B005KKJPCO/ which can take up to 4x 3 TByte SATA drives. It can be upgraded with a remote administration card and up to 8 GByte ECC DDR3 memory. It is possible to install the OS (Linux, *BSD (e.g. FreeNAS), Illumos or Windows) on the internal USB slot on a large high-speed USB stick. Installing the stick is trivial, installing the RAM and the remote administration card will require unplugging the motherboard and sliding it out, which can be daunting to hardware novices (and will cause some fingertip wear and cursing even for seasoned N36L and N40L buyers as moi).

Make sure to use at least mirroring for your drives, or higher RAID levels (raidz2/raidz3 or RAID 10).

I mean on the server side; I stream to everything. Laptops, phones, TV, no changes.

I've seen stuttering with large file sizes, usually with movies 4GB or larger, but that's not what you're describing. As far as equipment goes, my server is a Lenovo TS140 but for nowhere near that price.

Get one of these, although it only has 4 hdd bays. Upgrade it with extra RAM and maybe an SSD. It can plex-transcode several files at once, but if you lack power you can also upgrade it with a Xeon.

No Amazon?

Edit

Well fuck it, here's a new storage device to go with what my dumb ass found.

DELL PowerEdge R710 2 x 2.53Ghz E5540 Quad Core 72GB 6x 1TB 6i 2PS https://www.amazon.com/dp/B011M6MSDW/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_M8cJAbGN60D4H

Enterprise Dell PowerEdge R710 Server 2x 2.66Ghz X5650 6C 72GB (Certified Refurbished) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073VR9P1K/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_C9cJAbV992WW6

Mid-Level Dell PowerEdge R710 Server 2x 2.53Ghz E5540 QC 32GB (Certified Refurbished) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077GZNXMD/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_p-cJAb23FEC2W

These are the ones I’m looking at right now. I’m looking for the 64gb ram range. I have a 2 4tb HD’s and 1 2tb in my desktop now. I run Plex from it. I also run a 240gb (I think) ssd for os. I do some gaming on my desktop so I would like to move a lot of the file sharing stuff to a server.

• So, get this guy - http://www.amazon.com/HP-658553-001-ProLiant-Server-System/dp/B005KKJPCO
  
• Run this software - http://www.freenas.org/
  
• Also, get some huge HD's.
  
  How to I connect it to the iMacs? The photos I edit are in RAW and they are huge files sizes so USB would be too slow.

I know this is heresy to say in /r/buildapc, but I built three miniITX systems on my own, and for the fourth one, I just used a HP microserver N54L. One of the best decisions. Very quiet, reliable, server-grade everything, uses ECC RAM, etc etc. For a small system like this, there's not much difference in building from scratch and modifying a system anyway.

I got mine for a little over €180 with 4GB RAM included, so you would need to shop around (Amazon price is much too high).

All your purposes could be served by installing FreeNAS on it (needs 8GB RAM, though).

> Stick to the 1Gbps switches, but you will also need a NIC that can run at 1Gbps. You can use two NICs to aggregate for redundancy or use MPIO for more throughput.

Don't almost all newer motherboard support 1Gbps? I'll most likely get a decent NIC for the NAS system, though I don't think I'll benefit from using NICs for the PCs themself.

Would it be better to buy 2 of these Intel Gigabyte NIC over a more expensive dual Gigabyte NIC like this broadcom NetXtreme II or this Intel NIC?

If I were to use MPIO, would I need a more intelligent switch to handle the errors? Or is getting 2 NICs enough to get that running? Since NICs aren't too expensive, this seems like a good option.

> Do yourself a favour; don't go out and spend too much money right now. You will regret it if you purchase something that will be made redundant 2 months later because it doesn't fit in with your setup. Have a look at this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/HP-G1610T-ProLiant-Micro-Server/dp/B00DDIC1DA/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1427034818&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=dell+gen+8+microserver

I'm here to find the right solution, though I don't want to get a low end system that will need to be replaced in a few years. That would be more expensive in the long run, especially since the file sizes have been increasing extremely fast. I've seen these HP Proliant servers, which are nicely priced, but won't meet my "storage needs". I've almost filled the 4 drives I have, so that doesn't seem like a good option.

Are there other things I could have overlooked? Thank you for the advice!

For the chromecast option, look at VideoStream (an addon for chrome).

Because your NAS is essentially just storage, it's just storage space so will of course need compute resources (CPU/RAM) etc. for the webserver to run.

Stick to the 1Gbps switches, but you will also need a NIC that can run at 1Gbps. You can use two NICs to aggregate for redundancy or use MPIO for more throughput.

The cluster solution; it is possible (stick to the same hardware).

Do yourself a favour; don't go out and spend too much money right now. You will regret it if you purchase something that will be made redundant 2 months later because it doesn't fit in with your setup.

Have a look at this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/HP-G1610T-ProLiant-Micro-Server/dp/B00DDIC1DA/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1427034818&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=dell+gen+8+microserver

Antminer U3 for $75 would be a good place to start. Or if you want a stand alone unit get an S1 or S3 used. Keep in mind that regardless of what you buy there is a 99% chance you will not earn enough to cover hardware+power costs. For example the $75 U3, will not earn you $75 worth of BTC.

A little above your budget, but this SuperMicro 4-bay Xeon-D server is what I am planning to get for my next NAS:

https://www.supermicro.com/en/products/system/midtower/5028/SYS-5028D-TN4T.cfm

https://www.servethehome.com/supermicro-sys-5028d-tn4t-review-small-box-big-power/

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B00Z7O7EAS/

Hey Guys, I'm planning on building a Plex Server/Nas box. I would like to FreeNas as the OS but I am open to any options. I usually stream to clients they use Direct play but sometimes I transcode 2 streams at once.

Would it be better to buy a Xeon TS140 for $370 and add 8GB of ECC Ram to it or build one with different parts?

I am planning on starting with either 2 or 3 3TB Western Digital drives or 2 4TB Western Digital Drives. Then adding more later down the road.

I did add a post in /r/buildapcforme but I didn't get any responses yet. Link

Thanks again for the input everyone. After searching around with this advice I've narrowed this down to two systems:

Pricier but with 10GbE:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01K1JVM0Q/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_1?smid=AHG2MI785YUY7&psc=1

More reasonable pricing but less power:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07944RYM7/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=AEELF2HAVZFED&psc=1

As long as the 2nd option wouldn't struggle with virtualization and databases, this seems like a good fit. Thoughts?

I use these for lower end hyper v hosts and set up them up as replicas... Memory is still kind of expensive for them though:

Supermicro SuperServer 5018D-FN8T Xeon D Mini 1U Rackmount,10GbE LAN, SFP+, IPMI

​

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LXUATHB/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

You could get by with less than what I suggest here, pretty much any PC that support ECC ram will run server 2016 and most mother boards have RAID support, but for for not crazy money you can build a server that should perform well for years. I looked high and low and wrung my hands and this is what I'm building:

​

Supermicro TN4T Server

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00Z7O7EAS/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

supports 128GB of ECC ram (i'm running 64)

512 GB M.2 SSD for OS FMS and internally stored containers (my solution stores a few documents in internal containers)

1TB SSD for referenced Containers

2x 2 TB hard drives for backups configured as a mirrored raid at.

Off machine backup to a NAS (Synology DS413) on our LAN

Off site backups to Backblaze.

​

​

Fire at will.

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

Still a bit pricey but it basically has the same features as the gen8:
https://www.amazon.com/ProLiant-Server-System-Dual-core-i3-4150/dp/B01230V2U6/

Edit: this is a discontinued model as well, I bought this server before I bought a Gen8, it's more modern though.

I built my own nas a few year ago using an HP Microserver thats similiar to this one. If you wait long enough you can usually find a decent deal (I think I paid $250 for mine with a 250GB hard drive and 4GB of RAM).

I loaded Freenas on it, which install to a USb flash drive you plug directly into the motherboard. (install is easy, you can either burn a CD with the install ISo or make a bootable USB flash drive to install it from).

The Microserver has space for 4 drives. I have 3 x 3TB drive's running in a RAIDz1 giving me just about 6TB of useable storage.

My all in cost was about $650ish, including the hard drives. It works fantastic and was significantly cheaper than going with a Buffalo type unit.

Hey OP, depending on what Gen Nuc you have ( I have the 6th gen-core i5-66260u) You can go with the XeonD-1518 with 10gbe that /u/Netwerkz101 linked or you can go with this XeonD-1528 which has a better passmark score than both the 6th gen Nuc and the Xeond-1518 and has 2 10gbe ports as well. Either way both don't have the same single threaded score as the I5-6260u but they have multiple ethernet port. I think you might have to weigh your preferences but I'm just throwing this out there so you know what your options are

if you just really like the form factor, inwin has a similar case for mini-ITX:

https://www.amazon.com/Inwin-Development-IW-MS04-01-S265-Server-Tower/dp/B0167NCADS

https://www.in-win.com/en/ipc-server/ms04/

The server you show is an 8-core.

The 4-core one would be : https://www.amazon.com/Supermicro-SuperServer-5018D-FN8T-Rackmount-10GbE/dp/B01LXUATHB/ref=sr_1_1

That's an $800 chassis (without the hot-swap drives.)

The UAS has a $75 boot SSD, two $100 data drives, and $200 for 32GB RAM ($300 for the ECC).

So I could build something like this for $1200 but I would not have the hot-swap drive bays. I would have more LAN ports, and fewer USB ports.

Here is a similar spec'd server (with no RAM) for more than what they are charging. https://www.amazon.com/Supermicro-5018D-FN4T-D-1541-8-Core-Rackmount/dp/B01M0X365V

If anything these are under priced for the hardware that it includes but I do agree they fall outside of the typical pricing model.

One option to consider, if you want to do any kind of 10Gbe, the SuperMicro 5018D-FN8T can be a very well-priced option - it's current generation, very efficient, and really well-priced for what it is. It's a little bit pricier than recycled-enterprise gear, but not much.. and it's basically top of the line for a little low power server. https://www.amazon.com/Supermicro-SuperServer-5018D-FN8T-Rackmount-10GbE/dp/B01LXUATHB

A simple install mining app would be multiminerapp.com ... it has a user interface and what now. I use this with my Antminer U2 USB based miners.

I started out with the U2 USB miner. http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00ITD5NV6/ref=sr_1_1_olp?ie=UTF8&qid=1421524190&sr=8-1&keywords=antminer+u2&condition=used

A newer model would be the U3 miner http://www.amazon.com/Bitmain-Antminer-Bitcoin-Miner-Domestic/dp/B00OQSXMA2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421524228&sr=8-1&keywords=antminer+u3

You might be able to make your money back over time with the U3 miner if you dont take electricity into account (which im assuming your not when u use the word 'hobby')

I personally enjoyed my Synology NAS, but I outgrew it quickly. Not in terms of storage space - in terms of what I could physically do with it. If you get one, I would recommend an x86 based model rather than ARM-based. Or, look into an HP MicroServer. Not the most powerful specs out there, but cheap, and can run Windows/Linux/FreeNAS.

Edit - This is the HP I'm referencing. However, I wouldn't recommend it at this price point. Newegg puts it on sale all the time for less than $300.

HP 658553-001 ProLiant N40L Ultra Micro Tower Server System AMD Turion II Neo N40L 1.5GHz 2C 2GB (1 x 2GB) 1 x 250GB LFF SATA https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005KKJPCO/ref=cm_sw_r_udp_awd_OvDWtb0DQ8GJFJT8

Keep an eye out for these:
http://www.amazon.com/HP-ProLiant-MicroServer-704941-001-Server/dp/B00AKWUZ58/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1377204072&sr=8-1&keywords=microserver

They often have cashback deals that make it a really good deal for a low-power server.

Actually, that said...

If you go with the older model you can put an adapter in the 5.25in bay and a SATA controller in the PCIe slot and get 8 drives instead of 4, which is a much nicer sized ZFS pool.

The MD10000 - https://www.amazon.com/DELL-POWERVAULT-MD1000-BAY-STORAGE/dp/B014VUI1QY

R620 - Similar model - https://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-PowerEdge-R620-2x-2-9GHz-E5-2690-8-Core-Barebones-Server-H710p-Rails-/302368417405?_trksid=p2349526.m4383.l10137.c10&nordt=true&rt=nc&orig_cvip=true

If you don't mind my asking, why is this bare tower 380, when a refurb dell rack r710 server with motherboard and dual cpu and loads of ecc ram included will run about 400 (granted that only has 6 drive bays but 6x8tb is still a healthy 48tb)

https://www.amazon.com/DELL-PowerEdge-R710-2-53Ghz-E5540/dp/B011M6MSDW/ref=sr_1_7?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1503972363&sr=1-7&keywords=Poweredge

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00OGMGECQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

• 8x146gb drives, 16gb, 2x 750w for just over $200 after shipping.
  
  The L5530 (versus E5540) is nice for lower TDP... but you'd still need drives...
  
  With your offer - you'll probably spend more on buying drives than the core system: https://www.amazon.com/418367-B21-146GB-Dual-Port-Drive/dp/B0038FWD90/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1503555577&sr=1-1&keywords=146+GB+10000+RPM+SAS+2.5
  
  I'm sure you could find a better deal on eBay, though.
  

https://www.amazon.com/DELL-PowerEdge-R710-2-53Ghz-E5540/dp/B011M6MSDW/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1502936350&sr=8-3&keywords=Dell+r710
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-PowerEdge-R710-SFF-8-core-L5520-24GB-2X-146GB-SAS-Perc6i-2PSU-iDrac6-NIC-/322020247918?hash=item4af9e7096e:g:pDIAAOSwU8hY5sI0
I don't know the two would satisfy u or not. but u can take a look.

I'd say it's expensive for what you're getting, especially considering it's basically the same specs as the TS140, which often runs for ~$300 on sale. It's a newer Skylake based Xeon, which means you're getting a 5-10% performance boost, which is going to be pretty unnoticeable for what you're doing. You're really just going to want as much ram as you can stick in the thing, as that's normally the limited factor long before cpu cycles.

I'd look at a T20 or TS140, and put that extra money towards ram or storage (or in your pocket). You're going to get similar performance at a much lower price.

This is what I get for my friends/family when they ask me to "build them a new pc" At the price point they want to pay anyways, it's hard to beat with a custom build, especially if your time is worth anything.

https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-ThinkServer-70A40037UX-Server-i3-4150/dp/B0167MYLL8/