February 27, 201412 yr Who knows if the GX700 would be a good server case? http://store.antec.com/P/GX700/0-761345-15700-1.aspx
February 27, 201412 yr To me it's more of a gamer case. It has holes for water cooling, extended GPU cards. The tool-less trays are interesting, but since there's no backplane they're not as useful. You only get four external bays so that's really one 5-in-3 bay adapter. And since it's tool-less there might be problems mounting one of those bay adapters in there. There's lots of fans, but a many unRAID users are going for low power 24x7 builds. It looks pretty bad-a$$, but in my opinion it not the unRAID server case for me.
February 27, 201412 yr It's designed to be a cheap gaming case ... and probably works okay for that purpose. But as noted, it's not very well suited to installing a lot of drives in for a typical UnRAID use. Bottom line: Not a good choice.
February 27, 201412 yr Have a look at the Antec Nine Hundred case. It is roomy and has 9 5.25" bays accessible from the front which would allow mounting up to 15 HDs. The cost is around $100US... I am using this case with 5.25" hot swap caddies for 3.5" drives. This arrangement allows me to have 9 HD with full access to any drive without opening the case.
February 27, 201412 yr Author Not sure exactly what I want.........!!!! I’ve an ANTEC 300 for now. It’s OK….but doesn’t have the “server look” I would like to use 2U rack cases They are limited to 4 disks I think, but I wouldn’t mind to stack 2 of them And to keep only 1 license, I guess I could attach the drives from the second rack to the 1st one thru external SATA cables Does that sound stupid or not?
February 28, 201412 yr It's fine, if that's what you want to do. A lot of folks use a 2nd drive-only case to hold additional drives, which are connected via eSATA or simply by SATA cables run between the boxes.
February 28, 201412 yr The problem with "U-based" equipment is it's usually designed and priced for the server room. What I mean is higher priced with no concern for sound reduction. I think there's some Rosewill (newegg) cases that are cost effective but you'll have to go through a lot of work to get them "right." And, you will wind up spending way more than your original budget. Look back through the "unRAID Compulsive Design" thread and you'll see some very interesting designs! One even built out of wood, "Two Towers" http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=27485.0 Hey, don't let us stop you from realizing your dream-machine!
February 28, 201412 yr Author Newegg is doing discount on Istar 2U racks ($30 + $5 shipping) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811165213&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL022814&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL022814-_-EMC-022814-Index-_-ServerChassis-_-11165213-L09A I have to find out how many drives max I can fit into it...... And if it take regular extension boards (additional SATA ports) or needs low profile
February 28, 201412 yr iStarUSA makes some nice stuff! Two 3.5" internal and one 5.25" bays don't give you much to work with in one chassis. Low-profile I/O brackets needed. I think you'll have a time of it swapping out drives down the road.
February 28, 201412 yr Author Hummm..................meaning I can only install 3 x 3,5" drives !!! Yeah, maybe not a good idea after all Well, I guess I should go the 4U route (but short depth) or the Fractal Define R4 that is on sale as well for $80 shipped http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811352020&nm_mc=EMC-IGNEFL022814&cm_mmc=EMC-IGNEFL022814-_-EMC-022814-Index-_-ComputerCases-_-11352020-L08A
February 28, 201412 yr Fractals are great cases. Very quiet. I recently built a couple of Windows PCs in the Define Mini. I expect the R4 would be just as nice but allow more drives.
February 28, 201412 yr Both the Define R4 and the Define Mini are very well made. The R4 holds 8 drives in it's internal bays plus 2 SSDs behind the motherboard try plus you still have the 5.25" bays you can put a few more drives in. A VERY nice case. The mini is just as nice, but with a smaller drive capacity. Both are VERY well insulated and exceptionally QUIET.
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