In short, I’d recommend option B/C, where you buy used enterprise grade equipment, learn to run Linux, and build out that way. I can’t overstate just how good a deal can be had on eBay, even from reputable sellers. This goes for everything, from the computer itself, to disk shelves, to HDDs and SSDs. Plus you’re reducing on e-waste! Used HDDs are a great deal if you buy enough to run redundancy (RAID 6 or equivalent), because the seller will often include a warranty (up to 5 years!). I’ve only had a handful of drive failures and 0 issues with warranty refund/exchanges.

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You’re running roughly the same services as I do (though a bit more storage), so if it means anything, I’ve ended up using the following (all purchased used)

spoiler

- HP Z440 Workstation (upgraded over time) - CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2698 V4 (20 core) - RAM: 128GB DDR4 2133MT/s - GPU: Intel Arc A380 - Storage: Boot SSD + HBA card for bulk storage - 2 x Dell EMC KTN-STL3 JBOD - 15 x 3.5" bays - Mix of HDDs spread across the two JBODs - 7 x 12TB - 6 x 14TB - 6 x 10TB - 2 x 16TB - 1 x 8TB - 1 x HP QR490A JBOD - 24 x 2.5" bays - Mix of SSDs - 6 x 3.84TB - 5 x 1TB ___

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Broadly, I find the following with my setup:

• Pros
  • Easily expandable storage using a HBA
  • High reliability (ECC memory, server grade equipment)
  • Used equipment is cheap
• Cons
  • Running mostly older-gen hardware, not cutting edge performance
  • Bulky, noisy cooling, less power efficient