Alright so I got me a new Antec 1200 on Black Friday, now im looking for some quality hot swap enclosures. What are people here using. When its said and done ill be putting at least a dozen drives in. I've been looking at some the Supermicro but they are expensive, but I do know with them comes quality.
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3.5" Hotswap cages
- Thread starter davef139
- Start date
SUPERMICRO CSE-M35T-1B Black 5 Bay Hot-Swapable SATA HDD Enclosure - Retail
Since fellow [H]ers (ockie?) pointed those out to me I have bought over a dozen of them for work and a couple for home and they are just plain awesome. Replace the fan with a quieter one for desktop ops and you are golden.
Since fellow [H]ers (ockie?) pointed those out to me I have bought over a dozen of them for work and a couple for home and they are just plain awesome. Replace the fan with a quieter one for desktop ops and you are golden.
The Hunter
Limp Gawd
- Joined
- May 29, 2002
- Messages
- 414
If you don't need the density of 5in3's, these are an excellent choice:
Kingwin KF-4000
4in3 (3in2 also available), and no trays required. Very good build quality, and at a reasonable price.
Kingwin KF-4000
4in3 (3in2 also available), and no trays required. Very good build quality, and at a reasonable price.
Keep in mind. If you decide to go high density hotswaps, you will need to either A) cut off your case tabs or B) hammer them flat (not as easy as it seems).
The high density hot swap units leaves no cutouts for tab'ed cases, so this may be an issue for you if you don't enjoy modding or making things work (ghetto rigging).
The high density hot swap units leaves no cutouts for tab'ed cases, so this may be an issue for you if you don't enjoy modding or making things work (ghetto rigging).
epimetheus
Gawd
- Joined
- Jun 20, 2004
- Messages
- 815
Does the 1200 case have tabs? I really shouldn't be asking as I have one at home, but I really don't remember.
I haven't tried the Supermicro cages, but I like the iStarUSA BPN cages. Trayless and they seem to be of decent build quality. I have a pair of the Athena cages from Fry's, not to fond of them, didn't really like the quality.
[edit] I just checked my case. Dang, it has tabs. Oh well, I'll have to stick to the 3-in-2 drive cages. The tabs in the 1200 are pretty fragile; the paint flakes off mine real easy.
I haven't tried the Supermicro cages, but I like the iStarUSA BPN cages. Trayless and they seem to be of decent build quality. I have a pair of the Athena cages from Fry's, not to fond of them, didn't really like the quality.
[edit] I just checked my case. Dang, it has tabs. Oh well, I'll have to stick to the 3-in-2 drive cages. The tabs in the 1200 are pretty fragile; the paint flakes off mine real easy.
You had me until I saw the 2x60mm fans... It'll give me flashbacks of the dentist's office.
Adidas4275
Supreme [H]ardness
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2006
- Messages
- 5,986
i like this hotswap, but cannot comment really since i dont own one. but i will soon
http://www.circotech.com/bpn-230sas-sata-sas-hot-swappable-trayless-raid-cage-for-5-hard-drives.html
epimetheus
Gawd
- Joined
- Jun 20, 2004
- Messages
- 815
I have 2 of the hotswap bays that Adidas refers to above, except mine are black instead of red. I haven't had any trouble with them. I will probably try the Supermicro ones on my next build just to see what they're like though.
The Antec 1200 *does* have those metal tabs, and they're pretty damn strong.
I tried to hammer them down but it just ended up bending the surrounding metal too.
I fudged it back into place and returned the 5-in-3 multibays I bought.
My suggestion, get either 4-in-3 or 3-in-2s as they usually have
the indentations on the sides for the metal tabs. Save you lots of frustration.
Or just get the Norco 4020 instead, which has 20 hotswap bays already, for
probably cheaper than the cost of the multibays.
I have 3 of the Kingwin 4-in-3s and I have to say I can't recommend them.
While I thought the trayless thing was a nice bonus, there's a lot of problems:
1) For drive LED / drive presence LED status to work, you need to use their
funky SATA to 4-pin-LED and molex connector. Four of them.
Because of that, and because of the depth of the multibay,
you'll run into a wiring mess in your case, even the 1200, since
the depth just isn't deep enough. To make matters worse, that
adaptor doesn't fit in securely and tends to come loose, leading
to dropped drives in RAID. I ended up modding the multibays by wiring
the LEDs directly by 2-pin cables and direct-connecting SATA
power using right angle plugs for more secure connections.
I also ripped out the pitiful 40mm fans as they were useless.
2) Inadequate cooling. As you can see there's only 2 40mm fans,
and they aren't up to the job of cooling 4 densely packed drives.
I ended up velcroing a 120mm fan to the front-face, which makes
hot-swapping more of a hassle since you have to take the fan off.
3) SATA only. This might not matter if you don't care about SAS,
but it doesn't have the 2nd SAS port supported.
4) Tray actually helps by dissipating some of the heat and
helping for more secure placement. As some have said the
drives arent 100% locked in when they go in, so they may have
loose connections. I stuck some padding to the front of the door
to ensure a tight connection.
5) No drive locks. The trays are only held by a tiny metal tab.
If you, for example, tip your case over, those tabs can easily
disengage by themselves and drop out your drives to the floor.
Although in my case, they're covered up by the velcroed fans.
In conclusion, the Kingwins get a thumbs down from me.
Get a proper multibay or get a server case like the Norco.
I tried to hammer them down but it just ended up bending the surrounding metal too.
I fudged it back into place and returned the 5-in-3 multibays I bought.
My suggestion, get either 4-in-3 or 3-in-2s as they usually have
the indentations on the sides for the metal tabs. Save you lots of frustration.
Or just get the Norco 4020 instead, which has 20 hotswap bays already, for
probably cheaper than the cost of the multibays.
I have 3 of the Kingwin 4-in-3s and I have to say I can't recommend them.
While I thought the trayless thing was a nice bonus, there's a lot of problems:
1) For drive LED / drive presence LED status to work, you need to use their
funky SATA to 4-pin-LED and molex connector. Four of them.
Because of that, and because of the depth of the multibay,
you'll run into a wiring mess in your case, even the 1200, since
the depth just isn't deep enough. To make matters worse, that
adaptor doesn't fit in securely and tends to come loose, leading
to dropped drives in RAID. I ended up modding the multibays by wiring
the LEDs directly by 2-pin cables and direct-connecting SATA
power using right angle plugs for more secure connections.
I also ripped out the pitiful 40mm fans as they were useless.
2) Inadequate cooling. As you can see there's only 2 40mm fans,
and they aren't up to the job of cooling 4 densely packed drives.
I ended up velcroing a 120mm fan to the front-face, which makes
hot-swapping more of a hassle since you have to take the fan off.
3) SATA only. This might not matter if you don't care about SAS,
but it doesn't have the 2nd SAS port supported.
4) Tray actually helps by dissipating some of the heat and
helping for more secure placement. As some have said the
drives arent 100% locked in when they go in, so they may have
loose connections. I stuck some padding to the front of the door
to ensure a tight connection.
5) No drive locks. The trays are only held by a tiny metal tab.
If you, for example, tip your case over, those tabs can easily
disengage by themselves and drop out your drives to the floor.
Although in my case, they're covered up by the velcroed fans.
In conclusion, the Kingwins get a thumbs down from me.
Get a proper multibay or get a server case like the Norco.