March 31, 200818 yr I have been looking for a case with lots of 3,5" drive slots for a very long time. I don't need 5,25" slots, especially not since I have began using unRAID. Sure, I know that there are plenty of 4 to 3, 5 to 3 drive bays, but wouldn't it be much easier to have a case with just 3,5" slots for all my 3,5" HDD:s? Like 16 slots? Anyone who has seen anything like this?
March 31, 200818 yr This has the most I've seen, other then a rack mount one. However the price is up there! LIAN LI PC-A71B Black Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case - Retail http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16811112144
March 31, 200818 yr Author That was a very expensive case. How abut the rack-mounted one you are talking about? Do you have a link?
March 31, 200818 yr I like this one, though still somewhat expensive, well made (Lian Li), aluminum! with wheels, great airflow, and 12 internal 3.5" slots. http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16811112061 I do not own one, but how can you not admire the beauty of the engineering layout of the 3rd picture, side view. This should become a classic design for others. It has a 100% rating currently, 12 reviewers.
April 1, 200818 yr Author That was a very cheap case for that number of slots... I am also thinking about biuilding my own HDD-case for my HDD:s. Lian-cases are the nicest alternative so far, but they are expensive!!!
April 1, 200818 yr I like this one, though still somewhat expensive, well made (Lian Li), aluminum! with wheels, great airflow, and 12 internal 3.5" slots. http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16811112061 I do not own one, but how can you not admire the beauty of the engineering layout of the 3rd picture, side view. This should become a classic design for others. It has a 100% rating currently, 12 reviewers. It's nice but I would be concerned about airflow over the drives. I think the front part needs one more fan. The top drives would tend to get heated up. Especially if they are higher RPM drives. If money were no object, I would probably have a chenbro SR109 I know it's a behemoth and not what you are looking for, but it's sweet and handles all 15 drives as removable with 1 internally. http://usa.chenbro.com/corporatesite/products_detail.php?serno=71 I elected for a Mini server to test out the feasibility of unRaid in my network. http://usa.chenbro.com/corporatesite/products_detail.php?serno=100 (It's either unRaid or openfiler) It's a cute lil case, takes up very little room and keeps everything very cool (only 40 watts on idle with a core 2 duo mobile).
April 1, 200818 yr It's nice but I would be concerned about airflow over the drives. I think the front part needs one more fan. The top drives would tend to get heated up. Especially if they are higher RPM drives. That was my first thought too, but doesn't worry me too much. It's my in-expert opinion based on my own experiences that the problem with hot drives is not the amount of airflow over them, but that there is typically NO airflow over them. If you can get even a small flow that breaks up the dead air hot pockets, then you will dramatically drop the temps on the drives. Better airflow will only have a small improvement over that. This case has a 120mm in front pushing and a pair of 80mm's plus the PSU pulling air out, which looks to me as if it *should* create a fairly well distributed airflow. But the first thing I would want to do is fill the front section with 6 drives and test that, with tiny feathers or strips of light paper, for good flow below the bottom drive and above the top drive. If I had to, then I would add some sort of air inhibitor across the middle, to encourage more flow through the bottom and top, perhaps with small strips of cardboard between 20% up and 60% up from the bottom. But yes, a second fan up front would be even better.
April 1, 200818 yr It's my in-expert opinion based on my own experiences that the problem with hot drives is not the amount of airflow over them, but that there is typically NO airflow over them. Not totally the case with 10,000 RPM drives. The system drives on my workstations are usually a pair and they require a certain amount of airflow above and below and a certain CFM for the drive to survive long term. I've been using/loosing high RPM drives for many years and until I found a very specific mount that did this. Typically they would almost always fail within a year. (Thankfully I have the 5 yr warranty on the drives) Since I found a mounting that did above and below, the drives spin 24x7 for around 2-3 years before failing. For unraid, I think this case would suffice. I think the usage and lower RPM drives will handle the airflow without much incident. For hotter/faster drives, they would have to be center mounted or they will not last long. Other then that, it should be fine for an unRaid installation.
April 1, 200818 yr Good points, and good idea about center loading the airflow, perhaps leave the top front and bottom front slots empty.
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