I have an Antec 1200 case with 4 fan cooled cages (12 drive slots) and 10 active array attached HDD's.   The other two currently have hot spares, one of which I'm about to use.

 

I also have 4 SSD's.  2 are cache and 2 are in the array.   They are in pairs in this type of bracket:

https://www.amazon.com/Kingwin-Mounting-Internal-Included-Installation/dp/B00IB6I43K/ref=pd_ybh_a_6?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=SGTP3B0QBFXJXJPXXS3K

 

They array drives always hit 41-43 during a parity check.  I dont like it but I've been told its OK.  Ever since upgrading unraid to 6.9, my cache drives stay hot, upper 30's to lower 40's all the time and they never seem to turn off (going to post separately about that).  Those brackets don't allow much air space between the drives either.  I've always wanted to find a way to cool those drives a little better but this is enough to push me to find a better answer.

 

So all that said, what is the best way to actively cool SSD's?  

 

The obviously answer was removing one of the 3 bay cages and using a 2 x 3 cage (for HDD's) and a 1x4 (for SSD's).    (something like these, but there are a handful of options)

https://www.newegg.com/istarusa-bpu-124de-ss-hot-swap-backplane-raid-cage/p/N82E16816215367?Description=fan%20cooled%20backplane&cm_re=fan_cooled%20backplane-_-16-215-367-_-Product

https://www.newegg.com/athena-power-bp-tla2131sac-other/p/N82E16817995109

 

I've looked at every variety of those and some have better reviews than others.  However all of them have someone complaining about noise, and some say the 2.5" version doesnt cool very well in the end.

 

I've thought about something kept outside the case for SSD's, but would prefer not to have to go that route.   

 

One options is to not keep any warm spares in the case and just use a 2 drive bracket in each of spare slots I currently have.  This may end up being my best option but makes a drive replacement a little more troublesome.  

 

- Does anyone out there know of a good quality backplane/cage that isn't overly noisy?

- Does anyone have any good solutions other than this for cooling SSD's?  

 

All thoughts on the subject welcome.  Thanks in advance.

 

 

 

 

 

I am very happy with my Icydock MB998SP-B.

It's a bit overkill for most people (I only use 4 of the 8 bays myself for the moment). The temps are quite good and I don't really hear the fans over the case fans (that are not noisy themselves).

 

 

If 8 bays is too much for you, there are options for 4 and 6 I think.