The bench notes
Server guides & buying advice
Model comparisons, platform explainers and configuration advice — written from the hardware we refurbish, test and ship every day.
Buying guide
8SFF, 24SFF or 12LFF: How to Pick a Drive Bay Layout
Front bay layout is one of the few server decisions you cannot change without swapping the chassis. Here is how 8SFF, 24SFF and 12LFF differ in...
server selection
Storage or Server: Where Should Capacity Live?
Capacity can live inside the compute (storage-heavy servers), beside it (shelves), or apart from it (SAN/NAS). Each placement changes failure domains, growth and cost. A decision...
data security
Hot Spares, Rebuilds and Why RAID Is Not Backup
The dangerous hours in storage are the ones between a drive failing and its replacement finishing. What hot spares actually change, why rebuild windows grew with...
Server hardware
Adding a Disk Shelf: JBODs and Enclosures
When the bays run out, the answer is a shelf: a dumb enclosure of drives cabled to the server's SAS card. How JBODs work, what D3610-class...
HPE ProLiant
SAN Starter: What an MSA 2050 Actually Does
Entry SANs like the MSA 2050 solve one problem: shared block storage that survives a controller failure. What the dual-controller design means, how hosts connect, where...
Performance optimization
SSD Endurance Explained: DWPD, TBW and What They Mean
Endurance ratings translate into each other with one formula - and into purchasing decisions with one honest question: how much do you actually write? Decoding DWPD...
data security
Used Drives: Reading SMART, Hours and Wear
Every used drive carries its own service record - if you know which SMART fields to read. Power-on hours in context, the sector counts that predict...
server selection
SFF vs LFF: The Drive Size Decision
2.5-inch or 3.5-inch bays is a decision you make once, at purchase, and live with for the server's whole life. Capacity-per-bay versus flash flexibility, what each...
Performance optimization
SAS, SATA or NVMe: Picking Drive Interfaces
Interface determines latency ceiling, queue depth and what the backplane can accept. Where SATA is still the right economics, what SAS's dual ports and deep queues...
Server hardware
Hardware RAID or HBA: Why ZFS Wants IT Mode
Hardware RAID and ZFS solve the same problem in incompatible ways. Why checksumming filesystems need raw disks, what IT mode actually is, which Dell and HPE...
data security
RAID Levels in Practice: 1, 5, 6 and 10
RAID levels are trade-offs between capacity, speed and how many failures you survive - and the right answer changed as drives grew. Why RAID5's era ended...
data security
A Backup Target That Holds: Repository Server Hardware
A backup repository has one job on a bad day: restore fast and be there at all. Sizing drives for capacity and rebuild time, why repository...
Buying guide
A TrueNAS Build That Makes Sense: Choosing the Chassis
TrueNAS cares about three things: drive bays, an HBA that passes disks through untouched, and enough RAM for ZFS. Refurbished 12LFF and 24SFF platforms deliver all...