JBOD case suggestions needed

[Crashless]

I have an HTPC that I've made, now I've gotten into the vicious cycle of buying new hard drives all the time. Now, my HTPC case is full, and I have two ugly external cases hidden behind my theater setup. So now I want to make a wife-friendly external case to put my new drives in. Luckily, (or unluckily) I recently fried a stereo receiver beyond reasonable repair, so I got a new one that matches my HTPC case nicely, and I also have a good candidate for a JBOD case.

I ripped all the guts out, I was amazed with the amount of crap that came out of this thing. (The Harmony remote came separately )



I think the front panel will work nicely if I cut out the control panel and original glass, and replace it with a large piece of acrylic. Then I can mount the drives and power supply inside with a neon blue light and a couple of large fans.

The place I'm looking for suggestions is for how to mount the drives. I think they would be best mounted vertically in a row, and then buy 4 or 5 dual channel firewire bridges and link them together. I'm not ready for RAID5 yet, though that is down the line, right now I'm just after a JBOD configuration.

I would like to isolate their vibrations somehow, but they have to be secure. I found a powersupply that doesn't need a MB to work (It's old, but it works.). I can rig that to the original power button, and once the whole thing is painted silver, I think it'll work nicely.

So any ideas about how to proceed? This will be my first case mod, so please be as descriptive as possible.

Thanks so much.

Thanks to ImageShack for Free Image Hosting

 

[mobiux]

If it were mine, i would have them mounted vertically, but slanted for clearance, above the slits in the bottom of the case. leave enough room to put a couple 80mm fans under them, since they are going to get warm.

that shouldn't be too bad to come up with.

 

[Othersider]

Not sure how many drives you're talking about here, but have you considered (if you have the room) removable drive trays? It'll make things much easier on you if you're swapping drives in and out as much as you say.

Also, external SATA > "firewire"

Even if they're parallel drives, get some SATA converters.

 

[uzor]

I would look into maybe getting a bunch of these and bolting them to the bottom of the case. Tuck the PS into the back corner and then run your wires accordingly. I too second the use of SATA. You can get an external bracket for your main case, or just run the cables through an open riser slot. Get a bunch of 24" SATA cables, and you're set. On the PS front, if you get a supply with a switch on it, you can just wire the power on leads together and use the switch on the back to apply power to the unit without a motherboard.

 

[Crashless]

I like the idea of those drive cases to make it easy to mount the drives. The problem is that at 129mm, they're a very tight fit for my case. I really do like the 120mm fan though. I'll probably be incorperating those somehow.

I'm wondering if there's a way to shock mount them with neoprene or foam to isolate their vibrations from the case. Is there a way to use that material and make it secure too?

Any pointers here would be very helpful.

I agree with the ideas expressed about SATA drives too. Two issues though, I'm already invested in a bunch of EIDE drives, and I don't have a RAID5 controller yet. I have one on my MB, but it's only two channels.

My overall plan is to fill this case with movies, both recorded and ripped, then once this case is full, build a server with my current HTPC, get a 12 channel SATA RAID5 that has OCE, and move all the movies to that so they're safe. Then repurpose this case to be TV storage, as I'll need the extra space for HDTV (everything is SD for me right now). And buy a new living room front end to play everything. As this will take place over the next year, I'm counting storage prices coming down to the point where once the case I'm building is full, it won't be a big deal to buy 3 or 4 500gb SATA drives to start the RAID with and have room for this entire case's data.

Thanks for all the tips.

 

[Othersider]

I found a powersupply that doesn't need a MB to work (It's old, but it works.). I can rig that to the original power button,

One thing.

DO NOT DO THIS.

This thing should not have a power button, especially in the front, nor any easy way to turn it off. Parallel ATA drives shut down without the computer are not happy drives.

I'm guessing the HTPC is always on, but the safest way to power this thing up and down is with a relay linked to the PC's PSU (there are many tutorials on this). Failing that, at least please, please put the power switch on the back.

 

[uzor]

For your shock mount, just use some rubber washers between the bottom of the cage and the case. As for interface on the drives, for now get some long IDE cables, and when you do upgrade to SATA, you can always convert your IDE drives to SATA, instead of pitching them.

edit: how much vertical room do you have in that case? Other manufacturers sell internal drive cages, but they're not as nice.

 

[Crashless]

You know, I was so caught up trying to make things work with the case, I didn't even think about it being turned off unintentionally. This is a great suggestion, thanks.

That leads me into a filling question. There are a bunch of buttons on the front that I'm going to remove, and I need a substance to fill the holes. I was thinking wood filler, but I'm worried that it wouldn't be smooth enough to match the smooth plastic case. Any suggestions here?

It's funny, those exact grommets came into my brain as I was driving this morning. That's exactly what I need.

 

[Othersider]

That leads me into a filling question. There are a bunch of buttons on the front that I'm going to remove, and I need a substance to fill the holes. I was thinking wood filler, but I'm worried that it wouldn't be smooth enough to match the smooth plastic case. Any suggestions here?

Uh, you original post said you were just going to cut them out and place a big piece of acrylic there. Why would you need to fill them?

In your place I'd pretty much just toss the front plastic entirely and cover the whole front with one big piece of black acrylic. It has nothing to display on the front anyway, so just let it be a mysterious black box.

 

[Crashless]

I should have been more clear. This is the section that is getting lost. The power button, mute, etc. is what needs to be filled.