Crap! I've outgrown my Praetorian, what should I get?

N

NecessaryEvil

Guest
*edit*

I did it the [H]ard way, and broke out the dremel. Now the drives fit ;)

My Coolermaster Praetorian has served me well for the past 6 months...the chassis design has served me for well over a year (Praetorian + 3 ATC-111s).

Unfortunately...my upgrade to a RAID 5 has proven the CoolerMaster to be too small., as I cannot mount the hdds in the floppy bay area as planned.


So, I need a new chassis.

It should be:
0. Black
1. Aluminum
2. Of similar size to the Praetorian.
3. Have front USB & firewire (if it doesn't, it's not an option. therefore the PC-61 is not an option.
4. Support 4 RAID hdds, and 4 non-RAID hdds
5. Support 2 CD-ROMS, and ideally have room for 2 more Vantec EZ-Swap SATAs (2 of the non-RAID hdds will go in the Ez-Swaps)
6. Be of the same quality as the Praetorian. I won't take anything less than a Lian Li.




It has to fit in this area:
IMG_0003.jpg

IMG_0006.jpg


Unfortunately, when I moved home to finish up college, I had to limit the space I used in my bedroom. I don't have room for the tower I'd like (Lian Li 2000)
 
What I wanna know is why exactly you need 3 dual layer DVD burners and a grand total of 10 different hard drives?

Seems innefficient to me.

First of all, if I were you, I would build a more efficient disk array. 4 Maxtor Maxline III 300GB drives with 16Mb buffers and NCQ would provide you a similar amount of disk space with improved performance that would work even better in RAID 5. You could not only keep your current case but reduce the power, space, and cooling requirements of having 6 separate drives.

...or, you could buy a couple of Coolermaster Cooldrive enclosures to move the first two disks into the 5.25" drive bays.

To be honest your options are very limited given your requirements for a chassis, so I don't think a new chassis is your best option. I just think you need to build a better disk subsystem. 10 drives is ridiculous. Arrays that big are usually put into very expensive external enclosures with their own separate power supplies and monitoring systems.

Also I don't know why you insist on aluminum. The only advantage to aluminum in a chassis is weight savings... and with this particular system obviously you aren't going to be lugging it around on a regular basis. With 8 HDDs and 2 optical drives spinning up in a an aluminum chassis your are going to get a large amount of vibration and hum in the chassis, not to mention aluminum (particularly the thin aluminum used by CM and LL) has a tendency to warp and bow and create fitment issues. Steel is much more sturdy and resistant to vibration.
 
First off, what in the world do you need that kind of storage space for?

If you want that many hard drives then you need to think about just setting up a box for storage and network the two machines togethor or put the drives in an external enclosure.

You could also try the 5.25" bay devices like Stellar said and just install a couple extra hard drives that way maybe.

Your not going to find that kind of efficient storage space in a mid-tower case. You would have to go with something big like the Cooler Master Stacker.
 
The system is going to be my file server as soon as Server 2003-64 comes out. Until then, it's playing double duty as a gaming system.

Right now, I have an OS drive (the raptor), a drive for games (the Seagate), and the 4 WD drives as a RAID 5 for file storage. While I don't have plans for using up the 2 other SATA ports my motherboard supplies, I don't want to be limited in what I can and cannot do with this tower. I would like to eventually set those up to be in the Vantex external enclosure.

As for why I have the DVD burners...1 is an external for use with my laptop/other systems.

As far as my needing 2 in this tower, I don't. But...I went ahead and got them because I don't plan on upgrading again in the near future, and I might as well max out what I plan on using.


FWIW, I have the drives already in the case.
RAID5.jpg

I had to do it the [H]ard way and dremel the tabs that were causing me the problems. No need to expand..for now. However, this tower is getting pretty fucking cramped.

And yes it's a fucking mess, and no I don't give a damn. I've got way too many drives in there and way too little room in which to hide them to concern myself with making it look pretty.
 
We have the same desk ^_^. As for a nice large case for a lot of drives and that stuff, I would probably reccommend a large case with fans for all the hdd's, since you like CM I would probably say the stacker.
 
While only part-aluminum, the Stacker would serve you well.

Also, chances are it won't fit in your weird desk. That is probably for the best, because it looks like that placement absolutely kills airflow.
 
The stacker doesn't have enough 3.5" bay mounts...plus I'm honestly not at all enamoured with the case. I've not cared for any of the CoolerMaster Steel chassis
 
I mostly had concerns with it fitting on my desk. It looks like it wouldn't have been an issue though. Actually, if I had to with a new chassis, I'd probably have gone with the 2000b and simply re-arrange the bedroom for it to fit.

As it is though, I'm still using the Praetorian, and will likely continue to do so until I build my next tower, in which case I'm fairly likely to get a standard server (Chenming clone?) and transplant the system, and keep the Praetorian for my gaming system.
 
NecessaryEvil said:
I mostly had concerns with it fitting on my desk. It looks like it wouldn't have been an issue though. Actually, if I had to with a new chassis, I'd probably have gone with the 2000b and simply re-arrange the bedroom for it to fit.

As it is though, I'm still using the Praetorian, and will likely continue to do so until I build my next tower, in which case I'm fairly likely to get a standard server (Chenming clone?) and transplant the system, and keep the Praetorian for my gaming system.
Click to expand...

V1000 Dimensions: 210x490x525mm(W,H,D)
Praetorian Dimensions: 196x 452x497mm(W,H,D)

Therefore the V1000 is approx. 0.5" wider, 1.5" taller, and 1.1" deeper than your current case.

In other words, just by looking at your picture, I know it will fit.
 
wasn't sure if those included or excluded the shroud & wheels.

But, yeah, if I wanted to stick with this desk, the 1000b had my interest.

But, it doesn't matter...as I modded the case enough to fit the drives in there
 
NecessaryEvil said:
wasn't sure if those included or excluded the shroud & wheels.

But, yeah, if I wanted to stick with this desk, the 1000b had my interest.

But, it doesn't matter...as I modded the case enough to fit the drives in there
Click to expand...

Well, FYI, the casters can be removed, and most people do. I know I would.
 
Exactly why I hate desks that try to impose restrictions on the size/placement of things.
 
I dont like the V1000 because the cooling isn't that great and it has a few other flaws like no reset switch and it will roll back and forth a little even when the wheels are locked. It has 2 120mm fans for cooling but the compartments block alot of airflow and there is no intake over the motherboard and the PSU is in a bottom compartment so it doesn't help in cooling much. Its also very difficult to fit larger PSU's like the PowerStream in the mid-tower V series cases cause the PSU compartment is too small.

I also personally dont like the look of Apple G5 cases so i wouldn't want a Lian-Li that looks like one ither :).
 
NecessaryEvil said:
The stacker doesn't have enough 3.5" bay mounts...plus I'm honestly not at all enamoured with the case. I've not cared for any of the CoolerMaster Steel chassis
Click to expand...

I seen this a couple days ago, http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=56-999-209&depa=0, A couple of these with the Stacker and you will have more than enough drive space. They allow you to place 3 Hard drive into 2 5 1/4 slots. I dont remember how many 5 /14 slots the stacker has but it is alot, thay also have 80mm fans in them 2 keep the drives cool.

Theres also this one, http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-119-403&depa=0, that would be good for possible your Hot swap Drives. i know there not cheap, but with what your spending on hard drives, it shouldn't be much of a problem.
 
isp said:
Exactly why I hate desks that try to impose restrictions on the size/placement of things.
Click to expand...


I have a 6'x6' L-desk in the storage shed. Unfortunately, I didn't have room in my bedroom for the desk, so I had to find something under 48" wide. This desk was cheap, and had plenty of storage. When I bought it, I had a Shuttle SB65G2. Didn't have plans on getting a tower at the time.
 
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