Is there a 12-bay hot swappable case available?

jfromeo

n00b
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Jan 13, 2010
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29
Hello fellows.

I am currently building my own NAS, but I cannot manage to find a 12-bay hot swappable enclosure to accomodate the parts in.

I already have the 1U psu, m-ITX board, i3 cpu, 2x4GB DDR3 ram and 12xhitachi 7K4000 4TB parts

It would be ideal something like this U-NAS NSC-800 model:

T1JDCTXlBhXXcX4o.9_104847.jpg


But with 12 bays, instead of 8 (there are also some 2, 4 and 6-bay models).

I have read in TPU that ********** has released some nice chassis for hot swappable drives, being the 10-bay model the biggest one:

220a.jpg


I am looking for an alternative to the Synology/Qnap/Thecus options, being more affordable, and more powerful as I would be choosing myself the hardware, planning to throw FreeNAS in it.

PD: I forgot to mention, I would need to "fit" in an horizontal space behind the TV, so it cannot be some mid/full tower chassis with a tons of HDDs in it. And I have not found any HTPC case with 12 hot-swappable bays either.

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: I have seen SSI has a 10-bay model too, having e-SATA and USB 3.0 connections, apart from a 140mm fan. That would be pretty perfect if it had 2 more bays.

1363839041gryrh0.jpg
 
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Can't say I have seen any unless you put a rackmount case on it's side?

Another possible option I would have thought is a ATX case with plenty of 5.25" bays then use 5in3 hot swap kits to add 15 bays.

Just an idea anyway
 
If you are looking for prefabbed mid tower, 12 is probably a tough sell; full tower or rack mount might be the way to go. As noted above, you could find a case with 9 5.25 bays and put in 3x 5in3 hot swap bays but expect to pay ~$100 each. Economically, you are better off getting a Norco 42xx.
 
Rackmount: Norco 2212, supermicro many choices, etc.

Buy used HP dl180 on eBay, strip it and reuse the case/PSU

Tower: Antec 900 + 3x 4in3 hotswap racks.
 
Thanks a lot for the inputs.

I really like the Norco option, but it is way too long for my available space (I have LxWxH 46x46xA in cm), being A (Height) variable.

I will check the Antec 300 too, mounted horizontally it hits my maximum width (45,8cm), and I could add several 5in3 hot-swappable cages in it. I will check some CoolerMaster mid cases too, as I recall there is some model ideal for adding some 3x5in3 hot swap modules in it.
 
I was considering something similar. 10 disks in the 10-case chassis, and extra 2 disks in my PC. 12 disks in total. Software raid such as ZFS handles that without problems. Hardware raid can be trickier.
 
If you see any chance of expanding in the future, pay up and get a proper 20- or 24-bay case. Just do it and worry later about where to put it.

Behind the TV? Why? 12 spinning disks don't make a good movie background. Place it in the closet or the corridor and expand your network while you're at it.

Just do it right :)
 
I have such a thing. 12 bays plain black case it has 6 bays in use and six blanks and has a built-in psu.
 
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