I'm fed up with Qnap and Synology!

[beertastic]

Hi all.
I've purcahsed several PCs from PC specialist. Nocomplaints at all, quite the opposite.
But for home NAS use, I've always gone generic Off the shelf options.
But Qnap has annoyed me for the last time.
To that end, I'm looking to change my QNAP TVS-h1688X
To a RACK server with TrueNAS and room to grow.
BUT, I've questions.
Is a 1u, 2u etc, simply the height of the box I'm buying?
If I wanted just an OS and then hardrives galore (no GPU, No fancy PCI cards (well, a 10Gb ETH one maybe if the MoBo didn't have that)Do I need 2u, 4u?
I currently have 140Tb on 20Tb drives.
I'd like to 'downgrade' to more 10Tb drives as they're cheaper and easier to replace. but I'll ned a LOT more space in the box.

So I guess the TLDR is:
What size box (1u, 2u etc), to house say up to 20 x 10Tb HDDs and some m.2 for OS etc.
I'm going to house some software on docker on the server too, but I assume that that's standard and the box size is irrelevant?

 

[RichLan564]

You will struggle to find commercially available none specialist 1U chassis that will take 20 x HDD, would need to be 2U at minimum i would think.

 

[beertastic]

2u. Cheers.
That's the first piece of useful info I've gotten.
Now to find a beast that is 2u min and does what I need. Cheers!

 

[RichLan564]

2u. Cheers.
That's the first piece of useful info I've gotten.
Now to find a beast that is 2u min and does what I need. Cheers!

Doesn't need to be a beast if its just TruNAS, but you don't mention what you are using docker for...

PCS do 2U chassis, but you are going to need some way of expanding the SATA capabilities as most MB's won't support 20 HDD's so your no fancy PCI cards rule is straight out the window

Have you even got a rack to put a 1U server in? Also just bear in mind a server chassis is LOUD so unless its locked away in a basement you will hear it screaming on boot or heavy work load.

 

[beertastic]

I have nothing..
I might have to put this off until I move. I'm in a smallish London flat.
I still hate my Qnap though!!
Cheers so much for the thoughts and education!!