Does this simple case just not exist?

[JP]

Admittedly, I haven't looked at cases in ages.  I built my unraid server about 10 years ago with pretty much some spare parts and an Antec Tower case.  It has worked stunningly well until two days ago where either the CPU or MB has failed on me.

 

So I've been looking to upgrade and I started to try and find a case I would like.  I would have really thought there would be plenty to choose from, but I'm not finding anything.  I thought my requirements were pretty simple, but maybe not.

 

• A desktop style or rack mount case.  I don't really like the way I have to access the motherboard from a tower case.
• 8 front drive bays.  It doesn't need to be hot swappable, but I would like an easy way to access the drives.
• Room for an ATX motherboard.
• Somewhere around $200 or less.

 

Again, I didn't think this was asking too much, but maybe it is.  The only cases I've found that meet this criteria cost way over $200 and in those cases they are hot swappable and are probably made for enterprise environments driving the price up (I'm assuming).  I'll keep hunting, but if anyone knows of something, I would really appreciate the guidance.  Thanks.     

[Hoopster]

14 minutes ago, JP said:

• A desktop style or rack mount case.  I don't really like the way I have to access the motherboard from a tower case.
• 8 front drive bays.  It doesn't need to be hot swappable, but I would like an easy way to access the drives.
• Room for an ATX motherboard.
• Somewhere around $200 or less.

I really like the Silverstone CS380 case

 

8 front-accessible hot-swap bays and I put a 4 x2.5" SSD adapter in one of the 5.25" bays and a Blu-Ray drive in the other for ripping with MakeMKV.

 

I got mine for $130 a few years ago but it looks like they are a little over $200 these days.

Edited September 15, 2022 by Hoopster

[JP]

1 minute ago, Hoopster said:

I really like the Silverstone CS380 case

 

8 front-accessible hot-swap bays and I put a 4 x2.5" SSD adapter in one of the 5.25" bays and a Blu-Ray drive in the other for ripping with MakeMKV.

 

I got mine for $130 a few years ago but it looks like there are a little over $200 these days.

 

Thanks, but that case sort of misses the mark on my first bullet, a desktop style case.  I do appreciate the recommendation though because I have read about that case and the reviews haven't been great.  Seems there are a lot of complaints about the backplate breaking and poor cooling, but if you are having success then that says something completely different.  I certainly give it a closer look should I not be able to find something that checks all my boxes.  Thanks again.

[Hoopster]

On 9/14/2022 at 9:03 PM, JP said:

Seems there are a lot of complaints about the backplate breaking and poor cooling

I have had no issues at all with the backplane and I have had the case almost 4 years.  As to cooling, yes, it can be improved and there is actually a thread in these forums addressing that specifically with this case.  Some fairly easy mods wil take care of that.  The smaller version of this case (the DS380) had much greater cooling issues.

 

The sides pop off easily (rear thumbscrews) and the motherboard is easy to access.  There is a limit to GPU length that some do not like.  For me, that was no issue as I always go with a CPU with iGPU and do not have a need for discrete GPU.

 

I hope you find something that meets your needs perfectly.  For me, that was the CS380.

Edited September 21, 2022 by Hoopster

[KingfisherUK]

Not sure what price you will find it for where you are, but I've got this:

https://www.servercase.co.uk/shop/server-cases/rackmount/4u-chassis/4u-short-storage-chassis-w-8x-35-sata-hot-swap-bays---eatx-motherboard-support-sc-43400-8hs/

Current UK price is £202.40, so (assuming you are in US), that's around $230, only just over your $200. Might be worth looking to see if anyone outside the UK stocks the LogicCase SC-43400-8HS.

 

I've also found what looks to be an identical case here for $200 plus shipping:

 

http://www.plinkusa.net/web4U08S.htm

[JP]

4 hours ago, KingfisherUK said:

Not sure what price you will find it for where you are, but I've got this:

https://www.servercase.co.uk/shop/server-cases/rackmount/4u-chassis/4u-short-storage-chassis-w-8x-35-sata-hot-swap-bays---eatx-motherboard-support-sc-43400-8hs/

Current UK price is £202.40, so (assuming you are in US), that's around $230, only just over your $200. Might be worth looking to see if anyone outside the UK stocks the LogicCase SC-43400-8HS.

 

I've also found what looks to be an identical case here for $200 plus shipping:

 

http://www.plinkusa.net/web4U08S.htm

 

Thanks.  I actually have seen those cases.  They look like they might work.  Those connections on the backplate are new to me  I was just expecting to see a bunch of SATA connections.  What connections are those?  I'm assuming it takes a specific motherboard to leverage them....correct?

[ConnerVT]

Mini SAS.  Scroll down to the Technical Details.

 

Quote

8x SATA/SAS Hot-Swap Bays with 2x SFF-8643 12Gb/s HD MiniSAS Connectors - Supports SATA 6Gbps and SAS 12Gbps Drives
2x Molex Power Inputs

 

[JP]

14 hours ago, ConnerVT said:

Mini SAS.  Scroll down to the Technical Details.

 

 

Sorry, this is new to me. Do you simply use a mini sas breakout cable that provides maybe 5 sata data connectors to one mini sas connector?

[ConnerVT]

Since this is a server case, it is designed with server hardware in mind.  A server motherboard or RAID card would have SAS/Mini-SAS connectors.  So in this case, you would have 2 data cables and 2 Molex power cables, vs 8+8 cables you would have in a consumer computer with 8 drives.

 

A Mini-SAS to 4 SATA drives cable is common.  But I do not know if it would work going from 4 to 1.  My best guess is it doesn't, and it defeats the purpose of how this case is designed - to reduce cabling and the number of required connections.

[wgstarks]

Rosewill makes quite a variety of 4U cases with different numbers of bays and fans.

Heres a link to one of their 8 bay cases.

https://www.rosewill.com/rosewill-rsv-l4412u-black/p/9SIA072GJ92813

[JP]

23 hours ago, ConnerVT said:

Since this is a server case, it is designed with server hardware in mind.  A server motherboard or RAID card would have SAS/Mini-SAS connectors.  So in this case, you would have 2 data cables and 2 Molex power cables, vs 8+8 cables you would have in a consumer computer with 8 drives.

 

A Mini-SAS to 4 SATA drives cable is common.  But I do not know if it would work going from 4 to 1.  My best guess is it doesn't, and it defeats the purpose of how this case is designed - to reduce cabling and the number of required connections.

 

Thank you for the clear explanation.  This makes sense now.  My hope is to get a motherboard with 8 SATA connectors and to never go beyond that amount of hard drives so a RAID card would never be needed.  I have sort of a JBOD card now that I'm hoping to get rid of.  Thanks again for clearing it up.

[JP]

20 hours ago, wgstarks said:

Rosewill makes quite a variety of 4U cases with different numbers of bays and fans.

Heres a link to one of their 8 bay cases.

https://www.rosewill.com/rosewill-rsv-l4412u-black/p/9SIA072GJ92813

 

Yea, I've seen those cases.  I don't really need hot swap, but I do want easy access to the drives.  I'm sort of surprised a desktop case isn't made where they don't add the expense of making them hot swap and just accessible from the front.  I must be in a minority I guess for looking for this kind of equipment.  

 

That Rosewill RSV-L4412U would fit the bill for me and I've seen people recommending it a number of time, but Rosewill has really raised their price on it.  On Newegg that case used to cost under $200.  Now the only place you can find it is directly from Rosewill for $360!

 

Ultimately, to keep cost down some, I think I'm just going to have to settle on a Tower case.  I hear mixed reviews with this case, but it does seem to tick most of the boxes for me:  Silverstone CS380

[KingfisherUK]

31 minutes ago, JP said:

 

Thank you for the clear explanation.  This makes sense now.  My hope is to get a motherboard with 8 SATA connectors and to never go beyond that amount of hard drives so a RAID card would never be needed.  I have sort of a JBOD card now that I'm hoping to get rid of.  Thanks again for clearing it up.

 

For backplanes with these connectors you would need a reverse breakout cable - this will allow 4 SATA ports on a controller card/HBA/motherboard to connect to a single SFF-8087 or SFF-8643 connector on a drive backplane.
With the LogicCase 43400-8HS I linked to earlier, mine has the "older" SFF-8087 6GB SAS connectors but the website now shows it comes with SFF-8643 12GB SAS, so if you do go for one of these cases, I'd either check with the vendor or wait until you have it to check which connector it has and therefore which cables you need since you could get "old" stock.

[wgstarks]

51 minutes ago, JP said:

Now the only place you can find it is directly from Rosewill for $360!

Maybe that depends on your location? When I open the link I see a price of $190 with free shipping but that’s probably US only.

[JP]

1 hour ago, wgstarks said:

Maybe that depends on your location? When I open the link I see a price of $190 with free shipping but that’s probably US only.

 

Oh, you are probably looking at the RSV-R4000U.  I'm referring to the RSV-L4412U.  I don't need 12 bays in the front, but I do need at least 8. 

[wgstarks]

5 minutes ago, JP said:

 

Oh, you are probably looking at the RSV-R4000U.  I'm referring to the RSV-L4412U.  I don't need 12 bays in the front, but I do need at least 8. 

Yes but that’s an 8 bay server.

[JP]

2 hours ago, KingfisherUK said:

 

For backplanes with these connectors you would need a reverse breakout cable - this will allow 4 SATA ports on a controller card/HBA/motherboard to connect to a single SFF-8087 or SFF-8643 connector on a drive backplane.
With the LogicCase 43400-8HS I linked to earlier, mine has the "older" SFF-8087 6GB SAS connectors but the website now shows it comes with SFF-8643 12GB SAS, so if you do go for one of these cases, I'd either check with the vendor or wait until you have it to check which connector it has and therefore which cables you need since you could get "old" stock.

 

Thanks for that.  Yea, I'm not all that familiar with those kinds of connections and I know it might be able to help me if I did, but I'm also willing to bet it will drive my costs up some.  

 

Basically, at this point, I feel like a good price/performance option might be:

 

• Silverstone CS380 case
• Intel I5 12400
• ASRock Intel Z690 Steel Legend ATX Motherboard (8 SATA connections, all I need)
• 32 Gigs of some kind of ram

My primary goal is to get my unraid server back up and running and there isn't any doubt this will get the job done since it is way more than what I put together 10 years ago.  My secondary goal is to eventually add a decent video card and hopefully be able to take advantage of VM and do 4K video editing from it.  I know I won't be able to have just about anything running in the background to accomplish this, but this would be nice to have, if possible.  

[JP]

1 hour ago, wgstarks said:

Yes but that’s an 8 bay server.

 

 

Sorry, I should have been more specific.  In my original post, it requested 8 FRONT bays.  I think that one has most of them internal.  I know it probably doesn't sound like much, but my LAN closet is a little tight so not having to open the case when a hdd fails is a plus.  

[wgstarks]

Yeah, that was an revision they made after I bought the 12 bay model I have. Looks like the server has drive modules that slide in. 4 HDD and a fan to each module so they are internal technically but still just slide right out of the front of the case. Really not sure why they added the front fans. I’ve never had any heat buildup problems without them.

[JP]

11 minutes ago, wgstarks said:

Yeah, that was an revision they made after I bought the 12 bay model I have. Looks like the server has drive modules that slide in. 4 HDD and a fan to each module so they are internal technically but still just slide right out of the front of the case. Really not sure why they added the front fans. I’ve never had any heat buildup problems without them.

 

Yea, either I'm really missing something or there are just some weird idiosyncrasies with this case.  So I can see where the module of 4 HDD bays do pull out as one from the front, but that doesn't do you any good when you have to open the case and disconnect power and SATA connections from all four drives to do so.  All of a sudden my antiquated Antec case isn't looking so bad.  

[wgstarks]

4 minutes ago, JP said:

 

Yea, either I'm really missing something or there are just some weird idiosyncrasies with this case.  So I can see where the module of 4 HDD bays do pull out as one from the front, but that doesn't do you any good when you have to open the case and disconnect power and SATA connections from all four drives to do so.  All of a sudden my antiquated Antec case isn't looking so bad.  

Yeah, I can’t find any good YouTube videos for this case but I think you’re right. Doesn’t look like it has a backplane so all the connections would have to be removed before pulling the drive assembly or you would need to leave a lot of slack on the wires and remove them after you slide the drives out.

 

I have an older model of the 12 bay version with the fans in the backplane. Really a lot better.

[JP]

8 minutes ago, wgstarks said:

Yeah, I can’t find any good YouTube videos for this case

 

I think this might be what you were referring to.  

 

 

I really thought after so many years there would be options available, but it seems that you are either going to play an overpriced amount to fit the criteria here or the option doesn't exist.  As I mentioned above, because of that I started looking at Tower cases again and had just about planned on the Silverstone CS380 until I saw all the heat issues and the mods you have to do to get it to cool properly.  What a mess by Silverstone.  

 

So, as much as I didn't want to, I'm giving a lot of thought of just staying with my old Antec Sonata II case.  This thing is something like 18 years old, but keeps all the drives cool and I guess I can save money here.  I just hate having to open the case to get to the hard drives.  Oh well.  Thanks again for all the recommendations and guidance.  

Edited September 19, 2022 by JP
typo

[ConnerVT]

23 hours ago, JP said:

I'm sort of surprised a desktop case isn't made where they don't add the expense of making them hot swap and just accessible from the front.  I must be in a minority I guess for looking for this kind of equipment.  

 

These days, you are.  There was a time where every computer case needed space a floppy drive, an optical drive, and one or more spinning hard drives.  With the introduction of cloud storage, M.2 NVMe and USB 3.0, both home and corporate systems no longer need a large case to hold everything.  Even where I work, many who aren't using a laptop for everything have NUC sized systems as their "desktop" system.  The demand for cases that hold a half dozen or more drives has decreased, and likely will continue to do so.

 

A system to hold a large amount of data for multiple users or archival purposes is a server.  A market remains for server systems, and the cases available reflect where demand is - new builds with server hardware.  DIY raid systems such as Unraid, et al, came about when server hardware was terribly expensive and difficult for the average person to obtain, and used consumer grade components (many which people already had on hand) to replicate servers costing 10 times as much.  These days, the price difference is much less.

Edited September 20, 2022 by ConnerVT

[JP]

28 minutes ago, ConnerVT said:

 

These days, you are.  There was a time where every computer case needed space a floppy drive, an optical drive, and one or more spinning hard drives.  With the introduction of cloud storage, M.2 NVMe and USB 3.0, both home and corporate systems no longer need a large case to hold everything.  Even where I work, many who aren't using a laptop for everything have NUC sized systems as their "desktop" system.  The demand for cases that hold a half dozen or more drives has decreased, and likely will continue to do so.

 

A system to hold a large amount of data for multiple users or archival purposes is a server.  A market remains for server systems, and the cases available reflect where demand is - new builds with server software.  DIY raid systems such as Unraid, et al, came about when server hardware was terribly expensive and difficult for the average person to obtain, and used consumer grade components (many which people already had on hand) to replicate servers costing 10 times as much.  These days, the price difference is much less.

 

Very good point.  Thanks for explaining it so well.

[JP]

On 9/14/2022 at 10:12 PM, Hoopster said:

I have had no issues at all with the backplane and I have had the case almost 5 years.  As to cooling, yes, it can be improved and there is actually a thread in these forums addressing that specifically with this case.  Some fairly easy mods wil take care of that.  The smaller version of this case (the DS380) had much greater cooling issues.

 

The sides pop off easily (rear thumbscrews) and the motherboard is easy to access.  There is a limit to GPU length that some do not like.  For me, that was no issue as I always go with a CPU with iGPU and do not have a need for discrete GPU.

 

I hope you find something that meets your needs perfectly.  For me, that was the CS380.

 

@Hoopster - Can you expand on the mods that you specifically did?  Was it exactly what this post reflected or did you possibly do something different?  Still can't believe I might spend $225 on a case that has cooling issues, but I guess that's where I'm at.