Storage oriented case?

dgingeri

dgingeri

2[H]4U
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Dec 5, 2004
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I'm looking for an old fashioned storage oriented case, but I can't seem to find a decent one. I need a minimum of 6 3.5" drive bays, preferably 8, with direct cooling, plus at least 1 5.25" bay. I do need to keep the budget within reason, too, so nothing beyond $200. Anyone know of a case that would fit this need?
 
I've been using the Fractal Design Arc Midi for a number of years with 10 drives for storage. The cooling is perfect with updated fans. I think I saw Arc Midi R2's (updated version) for about $85.00 on eBay.
 
SilverStone SST-DS380B SFF Mini-Tower Case missing 5 1/2 inch bay but hits all other points
 
Vengance_01 said:
SilverStone SST-DS380B SFF Mini-Tower Case missing 5 1/2 inch bay but hits all other points
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For 5.25 he'd want the CS380B, aka the atx version. It has 2 5.25 bays plus the 8 hot swap bays. That said, it uses the same backplane system of the itx version and same basic cooling setup (there was a thread here talking about it, the drives get hot). Two 120mm fans from the side. I fear the cooling on those will be as bad as the itx version is. I also don't think the atx version has a top exhaust port. Having used the itx case, I can't recommend it and would be wary of the big version for the same reasons. Its one of those designs that would benefit from about $50-100 or so worth of upgrades and a better hd cage/swap bay design. Silverstone probably figures people wouldn't pay that much though.
 
I was seriously considering the Fractal Design Define XL and the TT Core V71, but they're only at a decent price from NewEgg, and I have a $50 Amazon gift card I wanted to use for this. So, I was kinda stalling. That DS1 looks really nice, and is available from Amazon, so that's looking better all the time. The one thing I'm worried about, though, is cooling for the HDs. I'm using 6 Ultrastar 4TB drives, and I'm not sure how well they'll get airflow with that sound dampening in the front of it. Do you think that will be OK?
 
dgingeri said:
I was seriously considering the Fractal Design Define XL and the TT Core V71, but they're only at a decent price from NewEgg, and I have a $50 Amazon gift card I wanted to use for this. So, I was kinda stalling. That DS1 looks really nice, and is available from Amazon, so that's looking better all the time. The one thing I'm worried about, though, is cooling for the HDs. I'm using 6 Ultrastar 4TB drives, and I'm not sure how well they'll get airflow with that sound dampening in the front of it. Do you think that will be OK?
Click to expand...

I was considering a Nanoxia DS5 for a home server build, until I saw a couple of Amazon user reviews which mentioned unacceptably high HDD temps when all the drive bays are occupied. Looking at images of the drive cage design, this doesn't seem all that surprising. The DS1 has an almost identical setup apart from using 120mm as opposed to 140mm fans, so I imagine the outcome would be pretty similar. The DS6 looks like it should be a bit better due to larger ventilation holes in the drive cage plus the option for a push-pull fan setup, but it's... errr... rather large and considerably more expensive.

Unfortunately most wellknown tech sites only ever seem to test enclosures with one HDD installed, so this kind of information can be hard to come by.

You could probably get a Fractal Define R5 (8 HDD bays) for well within your budget, or an R6 which theoretically has 11 bays but only 6 drive sleds supplied - you'd have to find the extra sleds on eBay, craigslist or wherever as Fractal for reasons best known to themselves are refusing to sell the sleds seperately.
 
Those Fractal Design cases seem to have the same problem as the Nanoxia cases: not enough space for fan intake. I think with either I would have to remove the sound insulation to get enough airflow to the fans. The Define XL has bays that can rotate to point forward, giving them better airflow from the fans, if there is enough room for the fans to get air.

As for that huge Rosewill case, it's a bit above what I would prefer to spend, and I can't use my Amazon gift card for it. It is below my previously designated $200 scope, but without the ability to use that gift card, and with what NewEgg is wanting to charge for shipping, I think it is about out of my reach.
 
I think you might be over-thinking it a little bit - you can't always necessarily tell how a case will perform thermally just by looking at it, unless there's an obvious example of egregious bad design as in the Nanoxia DS1/DS5.

I have 4x WD Reds in an R6, they're sitting at 31-33C idling, rising to 37-38C under sustained load (ambient temperature mid 20s at the time of writing). I'm controlling the two 140mm intake fans using SpeedFan, using the HDD temps as a reference point with the fans set to spin at maximum speed if any of the drives hit 40C, and most of the time they're running at 500rpm or less.

I can't speak personally for the R5, but it's been around for a long time and from reading around various forums it seems plenty of people have been using it for server duties without any significant HDD overheating problems.

The sound insulation isn't really an issue, as there's plenty of airflow through the side vents in both Fractal cases with the door closed, and I'd guess it's not the main bottleneck in the Nanoxias either. What matters is that the fans are blowing virtually unobstructed over the drives in the R6, and the R5 drive cages have large cutouts to maximise airflow. The Nanoxias on the other hand have the fans blowing at almost a solid wall of steel with only a couple of small oval holes per drive slot.

I think you should be fine with any Fractal case unless you live in the tropics and/or you have particularly hot-running drives.
 
Maybe a Supermicro chassis?
https://www.amazon.com/Supermicro-C...d=1532044601&sr=1-26&keywords=supermicro+case

I am using an older Intel case, but it only has 6 bays, but has 3 5-1/4, so technically you could have 8 drives and a DVD drive.

Machines are in the garage which is kinda warm right now, 85* or so but the drives are relatively cool.
IMG_2126.JPG plex-crystaldisk-samsung.jpg
 
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I think I'm going to go for the Thermaltake V71. It's inexpensive and features enough drive bays for my use. In addition, it has 3 200mm fans included. (I'll probably disable the LEDs on those fans, though.) I can get it from Amazon for only $120, which is really a good thing.
 
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