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


mr-hexen

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  • 2 months later...
2 hours ago, datahaus said:

anyone have any experience with this one ?

anidees AI Raider Xl 

 

https://www.newegg.com/p/2AM-0035-00064

 

Found  a review 

 

note you may need to remove or bent tabs if you need to mount 5in3 cages.

 

 

 

Looks similar to my Xigmatek Elysium case which I love.  I'm considering buying one of these AI Raider Xl cases just to have around.  It's soooo hard to find a tower that can hold 20 spinners.

Edited by craigr
Xigmatek Elysium
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  • 9 months later...
1 hour ago, wirenut said:

Hmmm

Looks like just what I am looking for also. If you pull the trigger, please make sure to leave your thoughts once you have it in hand.

 

I've decided I'm not getting it.  My existing Xigmatek Elysium case is truly functionally a bit better, so I'm sticking with it.  But if I were buying a case now it would certainly be the AI Raider.  I mean, "Art of Server" likes it and I trust his judgement.  It seems like as close to a perfect case as one could hope.  I'd like to buy it because it looks cooler and more modern than mine, and it's no doubt quieter, but it's kind of a lateral move in most respects for me.

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The other thing is that I have 20x spinners now.  I'm hoping that maybe on my next hard drive upgrade I can have enough storage space with just 15x spinners.  Right now, I have 204TB of storage with 18 data drives.  If I drop to 13 data drives and they are 20TB than I would already have 260TB.  If I hold out long enough, I bet I can get 300TB with 13 data drives, one parity, and a cache drive.

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1 hour ago, wirenut said:

Hmmm

Looks like just what I am looking for also. If you pull the trigger, please make sure to leave your thoughts once you have it in hand.

 

Sorry, but than again, switching to 3x4 enclosures instead of 3x5 would also have benefits.  When I switched to 3x5 the temperature of all my discs went up 10C degrees.  So the full tower would be really good in that regard as well... maybe I should buy one!

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11 hours ago, craigr said:

 

Sorry, but than again, switching to 3x4 enclosures instead of 3x5 would also have benefits.  When I switched to 3x5 the temperature of all my discs went up 10C degrees.  So the full tower would be really good in that regard as well... maybe I should buy one!

 

Did your 3x5 module have a built-in fan? I looked at SilverStone's and it looks like it'd do a good job cooling the drives. They cost US$180 a pop, though.

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Yeah, there is a fan in each POD.  I forget if it's 80mm or 92mm (think it's 80mm, but I ordered four Noctua of both sizes for two different projects at the same time).  I ran the fan power cord outside the Norco PODs when I upgraded the fans.  Right now all four fans are connected to one fan header on my MB.  So, the fans in all for PODS run at higher speed even if just one drive is hot.

 

A lot better than full speed 24/7 like the original wiring, but far from optimal.  And as I said, IPMI tools (and possibly MB) only allows for two fan speed controls; CPU and other.  Therefore, my chassis fan speeds are all based on the tempo of the hottest hard drive as well.  I'd really like to at least get the chassis and POD fans separated, but it would be so nice if each POD had its own control and all the chassis fans were on another.

Edited by craigr
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  • 2 months later...
  • 4 weeks later...

My rig is located on a high shelf in our bedroom closet which is limited on depth.  Swapping out Internal disk’s requires getting it down with a ladder with little maneuver space and this is too brutal on my permanently injured back and knee.  

….

I am swapping out my 40# Fractal Design’s R4 Silent (18.27" x 9.13" x 20.59") for a unit with front hot-swap bays.   I’m also going from 8 4TB drives to 2 20TB drives.  This rig has 2 GPU’s in it for 2 separate VMs, 1 Full Size ODD, and an ATX Mobo (X10SRA-F).

….

While not 5.25 bays top to bottom, this may help someone out:

18# InWin IW-PE689 (18.1" x 7.9" x 16.9"). 

… Has 4 External 5.25 bays and 1 External 3.5 bay.

Icy Dock MB155SP-B 5x3.5 (3x5.25” bay) with a Noctua NF-B9

Icy Dock MB741SP-B 1x2.5 (1x3.5” bay)

SilverStone Technology EPDM Sound Dampening Foam

Edited by landS
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