Snarfsmojo

I was gifted a tricked out PE R730 by a friend of mine, 256gb ram, 2 cpus, ALL the expansion slots in the back (3 half height, 4 full height (two of which can be used for graphics cards!)

The only drawback is that the backplane and drives are 2.5 inch. I have a LOT of data, and the cost of reliable 2.5 inch drives is sort of prohibitive to my using this awesome new server. Also I already have 8 3.5 inch 8tb drives in my current server, being able to use them in my new server would be a HUGE boon.

Does anyone know if it's possible to swap the 8 port SFF backplane and front part of the chassis for a 12 port LFF backplane and chassis?

I have found 12 port backplanes for sale on ebay (like this guy) but i'm not really certain what else I might need.
ETA - This backplane is for an R730xd, and I have an R730. The R730 didn't come in a 12LFF config, it had a max 8LFF config, which would be sufficient for me.

TIA for anyone who can lend some advice :)

A friend gifted me a Dell R730 server, with the 8 2.5inch bay chassis. I'm trying to figure out what would be the best drives to put in it.

My current esx host (which I'm replacing) is a MUCH older dell with 8 3.5 inch bays in it. Those bays are filled with 8tb WD reds, but I am only using about 10tb of that array.

I plan on having the new drives in a RAID array (50, 60, maybe just 6, idk yet)

I am trying to figure out what the best path forward will be for new 2.5 inch drives. This is what I've come up with so far

• Seagate ST5000LM000, 5tb (slow, best price per tb, reliability / how easy would it be to find replacement drives down the road?)
• Crucial MX500 series
• Samsung EVO series
• M.2 to SATA adapter like this (I have no clue if something like this would even work, but it's an interesting thought....)

TIA for any thoughts / suggestions you can provide :)

Snarfy

ETA details