Best Storage Server Under $5,000 (Refurbished)
Capacity-tier storage at this price point dominated by Dell PowerEdge R740xd2 (24 LFF bays) and HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen10 in LFF configs. Pair with enterprise 16-22 TB drives for 200-400 TB usable capacity.
Top Picks at This Budget
Dell PowerEdge R740xd2 — $3,500-5,000
Specs: 24× 3.5" LFF + 2× 2.5" rear, dual Xeon Silver 4214
Best for: NAS, Veeam target, video archive — 400 TB usable in RAID-6 with 22 TB drives
HPE ProLiant DL380 Gen10 LFF — $2,500-4,500
Specs: 12× 3.5" LFF + 4× 2.5" mid/rear, dual Xeon Silver
Best for: Smaller capacity tier, ~180 TB usable
Supermicro 6048R-E1CR36L — $3,000-4,500
Specs: 36× 3.5" LFF chassis (4U), dual Xeon E5 v4
Best for: Massive single-server capacity (530 TB usable)
Workload Fit
Excellent
- File storage (Windows SMB, TrueNAS Scale, ZFS)
- Veeam backup target
- Video surveillance archive
- PACS / DICOM medical imaging
- Object storage (MinIO, Ceph node)
Marginal
- High-IOPS database storage (need NVMe, not LFF HDD)
Frequently Asked Questions
What's included for $5,000?
Typically the chassis + CPUs + memory (no drives, since drives are sold separately at $200-400 each for 22 TB enterprise SAS). Budget another $4-8K for 24× 22 TB drives.
Can I run TrueNAS Scale on R740xd2?
Yes — pre-flash the PERC H730/H740 to HBA mode (we do this free) and TrueNAS Scale sees raw disks for ZFS pool creation.
Get a custom quote
Email sales@prodisknetwork.com with your budget and workload requirements. We will match you to the best refurbished options within your budget.