Recommend a Storage Chassis

[Alpha736]

[H]ello [H]ard|onites,

I am planning on building a NAS/Home File server. I will be building it out of many salvaged parts. One thing I need is a chassis (tower or rackmount, doesn't matter) that can fit an Extended ATX dual-socket server motherboard such as a SuperMicro X7DBN or X8DTI-F.

I'd like the chassis to fit the maximum number of drives for the least cost, it doesn't have to be pretty. I'm planning on building this out of many used hard drives of different capacities and models, so I'd like to be able to hot+cold-swap drives easily.

I have a few 1TB, a few 750GB, and a few 500GB drives I could use. Additionally, I have TONS (MANY DOZENS! ) of 250GB and 160GB SATA drives I could use, but the small capacity of these ends of taking up a lot of physical space. The smaller drives would be better for hot-swapping and then cold storage archiving. However, I still need at least a few terabytes of always available NAS, preferably with some redundancy.

Probably didn't need to elaborate so much...

Long story short, I need lots of 3.5" drive bays for the least amount of money, with room for a giant Extended ATX motherboard.

Thanks!

 

[staticlag]

norco 4224

 

[Alpha736]

norco 4224

Definitely a good suggestion. Wondering if I can find one cheaper than $400 though...

 

[Zedicus]

chenbro rm41416
mine just arrived late last night. i got it with the N+1 PSU, and the SAS backplane.

if not chenbro then my backup plan would have been supermicro.

i hear enough mixed reviews about norco that i do not think i will ever bother with them. i know the build quality of chenbro and supermicro.

 

[hotcrandel]

A thought, assuming you're not set on hot-swap.

It may be cheaper to buy a new motherboard and a cheap case (like this NZXT Source 210) plus a $23 4-in-3 ) which gives you 12 bays to work with for $63 before shipping/tax.

$150 for a server grade mobo, 4GB Unbuffered ECC for $70, and a ECC Supported CPU for another $70.

$350

 

[artbird309]

I have a smaller Chenbro with 12 drive bays and a SAS backplane. I like it, it works well and I haven't had any problems with it.

You could also get a used Supermicro like this and gut it for just the case.

 

[spankit]

I scored a used Supermicro SC846 for 300USD from ebay.

 

[staticlag]

$300-$400 is about the bare minimum for a quality server case.

 

[TeeJayHoward]

Check craigslist and ebay for used SuperMicro cases. 16-24 3.5" bays shouldn't run ya more than $300 or so. Heck, I threw away a SuperMicro case recently that supported 15 drives. Nobody wanted it at any price.

 

[terahz]

I got one of these just for the case (like the suggestion above). So glad I did.
Still have all the guts and need to sell them...

 

[spankit]

I got one of these just for the case (like the suggestion above). So glad I did.
Still have all the guts and need to sell them...

This is exactly what I did as well. Same seller and everything.

 

[Zedicus]

I got one of these just for the case (like the suggestion above). So glad I did.
Still have all the guts and need to sell them...

great chassis. i owned one and ended up selling it thinking i would never need that much space. at the price they are going for they are a bargain.

 

[Ciamician]

Those SuperMicro cases are impossible to find at those prices here in Europe. I envy you guys .

Best case scenario (if you pardon the pun) here is a Norco RPC-4220 (4U, 20 bays) for around 390 EUR.