Tower cases with 5.25" drive bays top to bottom...


mr-hexen

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So I went with the XCLIO Nighthawk, which overall seems to a pretty solid case.

 

Major issue though - The new version of the Norco SS-500 5x3 bays.. these are definitely too long to fit in the tower...  :-\

 

There's 0 chance of being able to close the door on the front with the Norcos in. So I thought at first, "Hey, I'll just have to remove the front of the case, it's not ideal, but it should work..."

Upon further inspection the fan portion of the enclosure protrudes too far, you cannot even get the furthest possible screw hole for the Norco bays with it literally touching the mobo...

 

Since this clearly wont work, I'm not debating new case or new 5x3 enclosures... End result will be a 15 drive system, what are you guys thoughts on this?  Suggested case that the Norco SS-500 will fit in? Or should I just opt out of the Norco SS-500 enclosures and go another route?

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Well, that was fun :o I migrated everything out of my main pc, everything from my unRAID server and swapped cases. Now my SS-500s fit just fine.  Quite a snug fight for my gaming machine in this Nighthawk, but it works. I'll more than likely get a modular psu to replace the one that's currently jammed into every possible crevice.  Had quite a good scare afterwards as well, blue screen of death initially.  I swapped sata ports for my hdds ssd and bluray burner and I don't believe it cared much for me doing so.  It's been fine after that initial blue screen memory dump though.

 

Anyway, dgaschk, I would love to know how you managed to fit a Norco SS-500 into the XCLIO Nighthawk and close the door. What mobo are you using? With the bay making contact with the mobo it still stuck out of the front of my Nighthawk way too far, preventing the door from closing. I should have looked at the dimensions of the case and the bays a little closer upfront but oh well, it worked out since I happened to have a massive old Cooler master CMStacker case. This is the case that now holds my Norco SS-500s just for reference.  http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/cooler-master,828.html  It's quite old and I doubt it would be easy to find. It's also a bit overkill on size and there are much better cases these days.

 

 

Despite my initial issues with fitting the SS-500 bays into the XCLIO I highly recommend these.  Here's an excellent review for them on greenleaf - http://www.greenleaf-technology.com/blogs/softwareandhardware/index.php?id=2230660860939828125

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Two massive cases, basically the same but from different companies,  but me likey,

 

ENERMAX FULMO GT,  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811124142

 

Rosewill BLACKHAWK-ULTRA,  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147157

 

neither of these cases have 5.25" drive slots from the top to the bottom though, as the post title states ;)

 

Yes your right, but they do hold lots of drives which is what it is all about. Technically the Xclio doesn't have 5.25" drive slots top to bottom either, just saying. 8)

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  • 3 weeks later...

So I went with the XCLIO Nighthawk, which overall seems to a pretty solid case.

 

Major issue though - The new version of the Norco SS-500 5x3 bays.. these are definitely too long to fit in the tower...  :-\

 

Hypknox - How big is your motherboard?  Sounds like it was a close fit, an inch or so?????

 

I was thinking of getting the nighthawk and matching it with istar BPN-350s (4in3s), these I think are a bit shorter then the norco 5in3...

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  • 4 weeks later...

Well, that's not good.  I wonder if the new Norco SS500 will fit the Azza Helios 900 now.  I was thinking of buying them.

 

My Helios 910 Case has 3 SS-500's in it.  One is the older style, and two are the new style.

 

http://i.imgur.com/LFTOZ.jpg

 

I have the exact same build. You need to fold down the tabs in the bays to make the SS-500's fit, but they do fit perfectly. I have 2 old and 1 new. The trays seems bit better in the old ones, but the back is a lot easier to work with in the new ones.

 

I also upgraded the stock fans to something quieter.. I can't remember exactly what, but they are low RPM fans that are pretty quite. HDD's are around 28-30 deg c under normal operation. Highest I have seen is 40 during a parity check, but not regularly.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 5 weeks later...

Has anyone seen a case with 6 x 5.25" drive bays top to bottom?

 

Not 6 x 5.25 bays at the bottom, but 6 x 3.25 at the bottom. The Sharkoon Rebel 12:

 

8casefinished.jpg

 

You can see the 6 bays directly under the power supply. they come with quick release mounts as well. I am used some special/cheap 5-into-3 bay adapters in the front. In total the case will hold 26 drives!

 

Here's a link to my completed build thread:

 

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=21993.0

 

:)

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  • 2 months later...

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