Hi everyone,

 

Firstly, sorry for my poor English, hope that you could understand what am I seeking for.

 

I have a spare Acer s2660g running unraid, which can maximum carrying 2 hdd drives. Now I wish to add new drive but there is no more additional space, changing case is quite complicated for branded CPU, what is the best way to add drive externally, instead of using USB?

 

I heard about hdd external closure, is there anyway I can add the drive, that can working like internal drive, reading the SMART info and temperature?

 

 

You want to use E-SATA connections as USB connected array drives are often unreliable.   Here is an example of what I am referring to:

 

     https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076ZH262B/ref=sspa_dk_detail_3?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B076ZH262B&pd_rd_w=HMahN&content-id=amzn1.sym.89ee1d2e-380f-4a05-89e5-d22eb0a17762&pf_rd_p=89ee1d2e-380f-4a05-89e5-d22eb0a17762&pf_rd_r=H1NA0NW6244XBSH84R4H&pd_rd_wg=QxLxs&pd_rd_r=efb37694-02f7-4dbf-b3bf-2d4abf58c6d5&s=pc&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9kZXRhaWxfdGhlbWF0aWM&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEzVENNMTI2UUdYRzJLJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNzUwNzI1RDAwRUM2WklYNjVUJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTA4NDk0MjcxSU0xR0REOEJKMzY2JndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfZGV0YWlsX3RoZW1hdGljJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

 

Good luck.  You might want to check to see if the MB is a standard size that would fit into a new/used case.  (New cases with more than a couple of drives are not common.  Old cases (>five years) often have more drive slots.)   You would need a new PS in any situation where you are going to be powering addition HD's with a single PS. 

Edited March 21, 20233 yr by Frank1940

Do you have a spare PCIe slot? You can also get an HBA with external SAS port which you can connect to a SAS connected SATA enclosure. Might still be cheaper to look for a case transplant as suggested by @Frank1940

At the end i decide to upgrade my case to a bigger 1 🤣

and grab a pcie sata expansion card.

 

Thank you all for your solution.