I am still rockin the old Lian Li PC-A77 in silver.  Using Lian Li EX-H33 kits I can get 12 3.5" drives in very cleanly and cool.  Could ramp up the density to 20 drives with the right 5.25" bay adapters.

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.

 

 

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 February 24, 20233 yr by craigr
Xigmatek Elysium

It looks nicer than the Xigmatek too, but lacks the 3.5" dock at the top that I use all the time with unassigned devices.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 24, 20233 yr by craigr

On 2/24/2023 at 11:27 AM, 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.

 

 

 

I had been unable to find these for months, but they are back in stock at Amazon.  I really want to pull the trigger.

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.

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.

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.

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!

New build on my radar for this year.

I've saved it in my wishlist and hope it's still available when I am ready 

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.

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 December 2, 20232 yr by craigr

Just for info. I'm searching for a new home for my hardware and found this one:

 

https://www.inter-tech.de/productdetails-147/Y-5508_1.html

 

 

It's around €160 in europe and i almost bought it but i think it's not the best case for cablemanagement. (no cut-out for psu cables on top f.e.)

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 March 16, 20242 yr by landS

On 2/25/2023 at 6:03 AM, craigr said:

It looks nicer than the Xigmatek too, but lacks the 3.5" dock at the top that I use all the time with unassigned devices.

 

 

 

 

 

Hey there, what model SuperMicro case is this?

On 11/22/2024 at 5:05 PM, bennymundz said:

Hey there, what model SuperMicro case is this?

It’s not a supermicro case, I just use a supermicro MB and other parts.  The case is Xigmatek ELYSIUM.

Towers and drive cages just not to be reasonably found anymore. Time to start looking at a rack solution I guess. Found this on Newegg:

$499.99

KCMconmey

4U 25.6 24 Bay 2.5 / 3.5 SATA / SAS Hot Swap Server Rackmount Chassis. SFF-8643 Backplane. MB EEB / CEB / EATX / ATX / MATX / ITX. PSU ATX / 2U Redundant / 2U Single. Full Height PCIe Case.

 

Anyone have any knowledge or reliability experience with brand?

On 2/24/2023 at 7:27 PM, 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.

 

 

For those interested in this case, please watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uvtl15-5V1E
According to the video, the 5.25" slots have metal tabs that prevent you from installing cages with smooth sides. To install such cages, you would need to either bend or file off the tabs — not something you'd want to do with a brand-new, expensive case.
From what I understood, these tabs are located between two 5.25" slots. So if you want to avoid modifying them, your options are limited to hot-swap cages that either occupy exactly two 5.25" slots, or have cutouts/slits where the tabs can fit."

On 12/1/2024 at 6:02 PM, wirenut said:

Towers and drive cages just not to be reasonably found anymore. Time to start looking at a rack solution I guess. Found this on Newegg:

$499.99

KCMconmey

4U 25.6 24 Bay 2.5 / 3.5 SATA / SAS Hot Swap Server Rackmount Chassis. SFF-8643 Backplane. MB EEB / CEB / EATX / ATX / MATX / ITX. PSU ATX / 2U Redundant / 2U Single. Full Height PCIe Case.

 

Anyone have any knowledge or reliability experience with brand?

If you order from AliX drive cages or pods are cheaper than ever. These are clones of my Norco’s.

Edited June 16, 20251 yr by craigr

On 6/11/2025 at 9:07 AM, homebeach said:

For those interested in this case, please watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uvtl15-5V1E
According to the video, the 5.25" slots have metal tabs that prevent you from installing cages with smooth sides. To install such cages, you would need to either bend or file off the tabs — not something you'd want to do with a brand-new, expensive case.
From what I understood, these tabs are located between two 5.25" slots. So if you want to avoid modifying them, your options are limited to hot-swap cages that either occupy exactly two 5.25" slots, or have cutouts/slits where the tabs can fit."

If I buy a big new expensive case I have no qualms making it the way I want it. Pretty much any tower I ever put pods in required me to bend the tabs out of the way in the 5.25” slots. Not a big deal to me.

I keep considering replacing my very old Xigmatek ELYSIUM with this case.

Just search AliX for the keywords in this listing:

5 Bays SATA SAS D Drive Bay Hard Drive Disk Case Enclosure 2.5"/3.5" Hard Drive Enclosure

https://a.aliexpress.com/_mOwxo4x

Or eBay:

eBay

5 bays SATA SAS D Drive Bay Hard Drive Disk Case Enclosur...

Application This Hot-swap Cage Is Suitable for Different Types of Storage Applications, Such As Data Storage for Home and Consumer Electronics, Security Surveillance, Surveillance Image Storage, Br...

?

Edited June 16, 20251 yr by craigr

On 2/20/2024 at 12:09 PM, Aran said:

Just for info. I'm searching for a new home for my hardware and found this one:

 

https://www.inter-tech.de/productdetails-147/Y-5508_1.html

 

 

It's around €160 in europe and i almost bought it but i think it's not the best case for cablemanagement. (no cut-out for psu cables on top f.e.)

This would really be a great starter case. I'm thinking of tracking one down for a friend.

On 6/16/2025 at 3:30 PM, craigr said:

If I buy a big new expensive case I have no qualms making it the way I want it. Pretty much any tower I ever put pods in required me to bend the tabs out of the way in the 5.25” slots. Not a big deal to me.

I keep considering replacing my very old Xigmatek ELYSIUM with this case.

Is this same issue with tabs present in all the cases listed in this thread, such as the Xigmatek Elysium?

18 hours ago, homebeach said:

Is this same issue with tabs present in all the cases listed in this thread, such as the Xigmatek Elysium?

Yes