[Raion]

Hello folks,

So currently IRIX Network runs three VPS servers and one dedicated server. The costs are roughly $94/mo, and there's compounding costs from domains, DDOS protection etc. that are not charged on a monthly basis. 

I am considering rolling some of these boxes into one or more colocated servers. At least one of them would go to Lenoir, NC which is a DC within driving distance. Another would probably either go to Florida or somewhere on the west coast. Colocation costs aren't terrible, but there's expense and risk involved.

So I'm asking the community and the other staff if they think it's the right time to consolidate some of our services. This will likely reduce our fault tolerance, but on the bright side I can switch at least some of our  servers to all-SSDs which should improve reliability and performance. The up-front costs would be paid by me and the savings would, until the servers were paid off, come out of the donations and other methods I have of monetizing the site. 

The second question I have is if anyone has any recommendations for a cheapish, Ivy or Haswell-era server I can look into. In particular, I need:

2.5 in SATA/HDD bays, at least 4, if not 6 or 8
1U 
Intel Network card (not realtek or atheros)
JBOD-compatible RAID controller

Any suggestions there as well?

The main reason I'm considering all of this is in the interest of cost reduction over the long term.