Rackmount case discussion

[NAS]

Ive not seen much discussion on rack mounted cases for unRAId projects here so I thought i would start a thread.

 

I am potentially in the market for a rackmount case that can support a full SATA install of unRAID.

 

From what i can see there doesnt seem to be a perfect option whith some being cheap and completely nasty and other so high end they would be for data centre use only.

 

has anyone had any experience with cases of this type (by that i mean 16 SATA + hot swap cage 3U+ rack cases)

[limetech]

Welcome to the club of those trying to find the perfect rack mount solution!

 

Of these:

1. Inexpensive.

2. Quality drive carriers.

3. Able to hear someone talk to you with it in the room.

 

Pick 2 and you can find it.

 

Actually, the best solution so far is our own MD-1500/AO-R.

 

Advantages:

- Inexpensive.

- Quality drive carriers.

- Able to be quiet with fan controller option (but not silent).

- Locking door

- Air filter

- Extremely high-quality case

- Less deep (24" vs. most rack mount cases which are 26" deep)

 

Disadvantages:

- Takes up 5U

- Still too deep (like to be less than 20")

- Relatively heavy because of all the steel (case plus drive cages)

- Has a floppy drive (!).  Of course you could ditch the floppy and put something else in there.

 

I'm in the process of putting together a "components" page on our website where we will offer many server components, including the H800 at very good prices.

[NAS]

I am embarrassed to say i have never seen that page before

 

Nice looking options. Being in Europe and not in the USA i suspect buying direct will end up not as a viable option. Import TAX (which is hit and miss) can add a ridiculous amount on the to end price here and postage of something this big half way round the world wont be cheap either.

 

I will keep posting interesting options here though. You will probably have seen them before but you never know.

 

I like your criteria list though

 

The main down side of the MD-1500/AO-R for me would be 5U only giving 15 drives. I assume that at some point unRAID will support more than 16 HDDs and you dont want to have to buy a new chassis etc to add those last few drives

[Suse User]

I've also been looking at rackmount solutions, including the MD-1500/AO-R.  I have located this case in the UK, however it doesn't seem very easy to get the Rackmounting Kit for it here.

 

Once you add up the cost of a decent server cabinet and server compatible cases (needs to be DEEP enough to take a server compatible case plus the leads out the back, and helps to be fairly wide too for cable routing), slide mounting rails for access, power strips, cooling trays, rack mouted Gigabit switch, possibly kvm access to them it's actually quite an expensive option.

 

I think I'm going to stick with Tower servers for now, but I'm not ruling it out for the future.

 

Mark.

[NAS]

This looks interesting but not cheap.

 

http://www.chenbro.com/corporatesite/products_detail.php?serno=41

 

[cool_runner]

Does anyone know where I can purchase the rackmount version of the AOpen H800 case sold by Lime Technology?

 

I am only interested in the case since I have old hardware I can use.

 

Thanks.

[CiXel]

This looks interesting but not cheap.

 

http://www.chenbro.com/corporatesite/products_detail.php?serno=41

 

Wow-

That's a great case! I love the fact that it can house a full sized CD rom (as opposed to slim one in the 3U racks) also the 4U design should be better for noise and heat. I think perhaps now I'll try to build my own unraid using that case. The only tricky part would seem to be looping back the esata to the 16th bay, but it seems doable. I'll look into things and let everyone know how it goes.

[Billped]

For $1100, it better be perfect.

 

 

Bill

[roparker]

Check out this one.

 

http://rackmountmart.stores.yahoo.net/rm4uracchas11.html

 

[CiXel]

For $1100, it better be perfect.

 

 

Bill

Where are you getting $1100?

It's like $550 with the backplanes...

Each 5 in 3 costs between 100 and 125 so 300-375 and this one can support all 16 with room for a extras.

A good case runs about 150. So with that said it's in the ballpark.

 

The biggest disadvantage is that it's an eatx case so it's Long. 26"

We'll see how it really is built once it arrives.

 

I'm already running a Stacker system with the 4 in 3's and they work great. You can put a 16 bay case together for less than half (with no room for extras). That's not exactly a small case either nor is it rackmountable. Taking apart the whole loaded system to change a drive can be a real pain for setting up a longer term system. There's always a premium you pay for the backplanes.

 

During the site upgrade I started looking at case alternatives and I did come up with this:

http://www.supermicro.com/products/chassis/3U/836/SC836TQ-R800V.cfm

 

 

It's a 3U 16 drive unit and also comes with a Slim optical drive and 800w dual redundant supply (also in black)

Of course this drives the unit cost up to a little over $855 but it's pretty robust in a 3U package and supermicro makes good backplanes as well. If you price it out, it should still come out cheaper than the Lian Li 1500 system

 

 

[Billped]

For $1100, it better be perfect.

 

 

Bill

Where are you getting $1100?

It's like $550 with the backplanes...

 

Pricewatch.  However, I went back and looked at that was for a unit with a big beefy powersupply, maybe some other stuff as well.  It was a 10 second price search and obviously not a good one.

 

 

Bill

[NAS]

 

 

This may sound silly but as its white i would never buy it.

[CiXel]

 

 

This may sound silly but as its white i would never buy it.

Agreed. That's why I mentioned it also came in black

 

[Gog]

I'm also looking for the perfect rackmount case.

 

So far, I was down to two options. 

 

expensive:

http://www.mypccase.com/bl3urachwsas.html

 

and cheap:

http://www.plinkusa.net/web5101.htm

 

And if I endup buying my own drawers, it'll probably be this drawerless thing:

http://www.kingwin.com/product_pages/kf4000-bk.asp

 

I'm impressed by the chenbro though.  A quick search gave a few options under 400$  Edit: never mind, that's without the backplane.  Comes up more than the "expensive" case above

 

Gog

[NAS]

Image for this link posted earlier:

 

http://rackmountmart.stores.yahoo.net/rm4uracchas11.html

 

 

 

Can someone explain exactly what a backplane is and how it works in the context on unRAID and associated hardware?

[bubbaQ]

Many people overlook the *fans*.

 

These type racks generally have a bank of fans between the front drive area and the rear mobo area.  These are VERY important to cooling as they intake air over the drives, then exhaust it over the mobo/cpu.

 

Some cases have 2 or 3 120mm fans in the middle bank.  That is good.  4 or 5 80mm fans are *not* good.  They are 1) loud, 2) don't move as much air, and 3) often don't have cowlings or mountings that extend all the way to the top of the inside of the case, so it permits backflow.

 

Unless it is a squirrel-cage type, those dinky little fans on the 5-in-3 devices are inadequate and noisy.  Don't depend on them for coolings and don't use them if you want a quiet system.

[Gog]

Can someone explain exactly what a backplane is and how it works in the context on unRAID and associated hardware?

 

The backplane is the system of drawers and connectors that connects all the drives. 

[NAS]

From what i can see the term seems to be used interchangeably between just the drive connectors presented at the back of the drives (via a cage or whatever) and other technologies like 3wares multilane connectors.

 

Its a tad confusing

[BillK]

Having discovered that most rackmount cases pre-designed with built-in drive caddies are very expensive (as seen above), I went the DIY route:

 

1.  I started with a relatively inexpensive 4U rackmount case (model S411/RA455A) for $139.

2.  Added a large power supply (Enermax NoiseTaker II 600W) for $149.

3.  And threw in two 4-in-3 SATA caddies (3141SATA Back Plane) for roughly $100 a piece (you can find similar ones at newegg).

 

No, my case can't physically hold 16 drives (right now it's running with 8; 6 SATA, 2 IDE).  But for $490 it can easily accommodate 10 drives by filling up the last two caddies, 12 if I didn't mind connecting another 2 IDE drives, or up to 14 if I went with twin 5-in-3 units.

 

BillK

 

P.S.  I selected the 4-in-3 units (vice 5-in-3) because:  a) availability/price, and b) the Promise controllers I was using could only handle 4 SATA drives, so I didn't see the need.