Hello Guys,

 

I have been using unraid for few years already (for media purposes mainly) I finally pulled the trigger and bought few components to upgrade what i already have. I will be running 12 hard disks, an ATX gigabyte motherboard that supports 6 Sata drives (3x Sata II and 3x Sata III).

 

This is the case that i already bought http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811123153

Sata card: Supermicro PCI Express x4 Low Profile SAS RAID Controller (AOC-SASLP-MV8)

 

Now the question is, I am torn apart between 4 different types of 4x3.5 in 3x5.25 hot swap cages (I don't really need the 5 into 3 hot swaps which will save me some money and the drivers will run cooler with the 4 in 3. I will be getting two cages to install on each side of the case.

 

These are what I am looking at;

 

1- KingWin Multi-Bay Internal Rack, 4 Drives for 3 Bay Space for SATA Components Other KF-4002-BK http://www.amazon.com/KingWin-Multi-Bay-Internal-Components-KF-4002-BK/dp/B00856XFVC/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top (I like the 120mm fan that comes with this.)

2- iStarUSA BPN-DE340SS 3x5.25" to 4x3.5" SAS/SATA 6.0 Gb/s Trayless Hot-Swap Cage Black http://www.amazon.com/iStarUSA-BPN-DE340SS-3x5-25-Trayless-Hot-Swap/dp/B004IMKTX4/ref=sr_1_14?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1374173302&sr=1-14&keywords=4+hot+swap (it looks like it's well built, but I am not sure about its cooling vs noise.)

3- ICY DOCK MB154SP-B 4 in 3 SATA 6Gbps Hot-Swap HDD Backplane Module Cage Rack http://www.amazon.com/MB154SP-B-6Gbps-Hot-Swap-Backplane-Module/dp/B009HIOW1O/ref=pd_rhf_dp_p_tnr_8

4- Norco SS-400 4 Bay 3.5 SATA/SAS Hot Swap Rack Module http://www.amazon.com/Norco-SS-400-SATA-Swap-Module/dp/B008ANH368/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1374173943&sr=8-2&keywords=norco+ss-400 (cooling, noise !)

 

which would you guys recommend? I, just like all of you I guess, am concerned with Cooling, Noise, and durability.

 

Thanks in advanced.

I'd go with the iStarUSA model. It's trayless and is the best looking of all drive cages on the market IMO. I have the 1 drive version of it in a machine I have dedicated to preclearing disks and it's great.

Thanks for your help, I went ahead and placed the order for 2x iStarUSA BPN-DE340SS 3x5.25" to 4x3.5" SAS/SATA 6.0 Gb/s Trayless hot swap.

 

Regards

Hi, please check rosewind website, i found the best 4x3 than items was listed. It have space for each hdd to keep air flow through. Good luck.

Nam.