I have a Norco 4020 (4U rack mount, SATA backplane) that's been pretty good to me over the past 10 years.  I'm about to overhaul my Unraid setup (keep data drives, replace everything else) and am thinking about whether to reuse or replace the chassis.  I'd prefer to replace so I can clean break and migrate drives over after the system is up an operational, but I'm having trouble finding a good alternative.

 

I'm currently using 14 drives if I count warm spares.  I don't expect to increase number of drives from here, and may even shrink slightly as older smaller drives are replaced by newer ones.  Still, I don't think 10 is in the cards and probably need to set 12x as a minimum.

 

I've looked for the commonly-recommended Supermicro cs846, but it looks like they sell for upwards of $1000 now and I can't find a place that sells one (also none on eBay, looks like).  The 847 is much cheaper, but I need some motherboard flexibility and the extra drives eat that all up.  The Rosewill RSV-L4413 and its many variants seem ok but not great.  I'd prefer not to lose hot-swap.  It seems like Norco went out of business, and I don't really see anything else recommended.  

 

Some desires:

• 12x or more drive support, ideally at least 14x so I can port over painlessly
• My Norco 4020 is the SATA variant, so I have a lot of cables.  A SAS backplane sounds nice (but not mandatory)
• Rackmount preferred, but not mandatory (a tower would have to sit on its side under a bed, which my 4U manages fine)
• I'm willing to replace fans to get it quiet, but it must be quiet (see bed comment)
• Hot-swappable preferred

 

Are there other options?  I'm kind of surprised there are so few good cases.

Edited September 3, 20241 yr by Gizmotoy

Rosewill makes a handful of 4u rack mount cases flavors - I use a RSV-L4500U (15 drive spots, no hot swap) and have swapped the stock fans out (including a handmade mount for 140mm fans behind the drive bays). Not swap costs more but one of the variants is 12 hot swap. The stock mid-chassis fan setup can be quieted by flipping the fan mount, and I can't speak to stock fans noise.

 

I previously had hot swap bays and found the rare use case where I used them didn't justify the cost. If I'm actually doing maintenance I'll have the system powered down, and they add airflow restriction. The 5 drive cages are pretty quick to remove (cables are the trick). I use server cable bundles (typically 4 or 6 in a bundle, no coating just emf wrap so much less bulk - same as you'd get if using an HBA with SATA). Extra 3 bays this way. Only 10 drives in mine, they stay low 30s temp doing parity check and fan speeds still slow.

Thanks! I will check this one out. I might be able to make a 12 bay work. 
 

Since posting I’ve also found a source for the CSE-846 with the SQ power supplies installed, so it seems like that option is back on the table as well. I do like the large community those have, including a variety of 3D printable parts.