Case for 24+2 disk build

[dikkiedirk]

Are there any cases for 24 data + cache and parity disk? Are there alternatives to the Norcos and alike.

 

The 4224 is simply too deep for my taste. Are there any less deep alternatives?

 

[garycase]

Depends on the form factor you need.    For a very high capacity (in terms of physical drives) case, I like the Lian-Li D8000 ... it holds 20 drives in its internal drive bays, plus has 5 5.25" bays => you could put a 5-in-3 in one of those and a 3-in-2 in the other and then easily support 28 drives.    There's also enough internal room to add another 5-drive cage if you need even more 

 

http://www.amazon.com/Lian-Li-PC-D8000-Aluminum-Computer/dp/B009FOXOOG

[Brucey7]

It's a real shame there isn't a taller Antec 1200 available that would take 5 rows of 5 in 3's

[JHoward77]

Not sure on your budget but CaseLabs has some nice stuff.

[Brucey7]

Very nice indeed

[dikkiedirk]

It's a real shame there isn't a taller Antec 1200 available that would take 5 rows of 5 in 3's

 

Yeah, or a Lian Li PC-A77F.

 

But that is the form factor I like most.

 

[dikkiedirk]

Not sure on your budget but CaseLabs has some nice stuff.

 

 

The one thing I don't like about Caselabs is the price. Great stuff however.

 

[dikkiedirk]

Depends on the form factor you need.    For a very high capacity (in terms of physical drives) case, I like the Lian-Li D8000 ... it holds 20 drives in its internal drive bays, plus has 5 5.25" bays => you could put a 5-in-3 in one of those and a 3-in-2 in the other and then easily support 28 drives.    There's also enough internal room to add another 5-drive cage if you need even more 

 

http://www.amazon.com/Lian-Li-PC-D8000-Aluminum-Computer/dp/B009FOXOOG

 

Nice, but I don't like internal drive cages. The drive trays must be accessible from the outside.

[SSD]

You might consider mounting a 4in3 (or 5in3) outside the case, and running cables out of the back of the server to connect it. I like the 4in3 for this as you can use a single SAS channel to run the 4 drives.

 

20 drives in one tower case is already very heavy, and adding another 5 drives would make it virtually impossible to move without unloading drives. And it would be even more front heavy making it awkward and potentially tippable. The separately mounted option is more portable and easy to manage. I could even see a small server with only a couple drives mounted inside, and the rest connected in external cages. Aesthetics not bad either, although I admit mine are located in an unfinished basement and not in my media watching rooms.

 

My backup server has three of the inexpensive Rosewill 4in3s supplementing an Antec 900 case with 3 SuperMicro 5in3s giving me 27 drive capacity.  The 4in3s are minimalisticly connected together to resemble a tall thin tower secured right next to the Antec case.

[WeeboTech]

Not sure on your budget but CaseLabs has some nice stuff.

 

The one thing I don't like about Caselabs is the price. Great stuff however.

 

yeah but.....

The MAGNUM TX10 is the worlds largest PC case!

http://www.caselabs-store.com/magnum-tx10/

 

If I were still into big a$$'ed servers, I would be all over this.

[c3]

For just trying to get 26 drives, you're better off just adding a second enclosure as jbod. You can go with a small simple, 4 drive as bjp999 suggested. Or two of your favorite 13+ capacity enclosure, the second just holding drive and cabled to the first.

 

There are lots of cases for more than 24 drives, but most will be deep.

http://www.supermicro.com/products/chassis/4U/?chs=847

 

And then there all the Thumper inspired drawers, like backblaze's ripoff;

https://www.backblaze.com/blog/storage-pod-4-5-tweaking-a-proven-design/

 

For real high density storage, 70, or 84 bays.

http://www.dataonstorage.com/cluster-in-a-box/cib-9470-v12-4u-70-bay-12g-sas-cluster-in-a-box.html

http://origin-www.seagate.com/products/enterprise-servers-storage/enterprise-storage-systems/modular-enclosures/

 

 

 

[garycase]

... The MAGNUM TX10 is the worlds largest PC case!

 

I particularly like the "... Total possible HDD locations with extra HDD cages" => 104  !! 

 

[live4soccer7]

I just got the Lian Li PC-D8000 and love it. It is nice and spacious, has a lot of room natively. You don't need bay addons or anything. The whole front comes off so you can easily and quickly identify which hdd is which. It has a decent look to it if you aren't stuffing it in a closet or basement.

[garycase]

Agree -- the D8000 is a superb case for a high-capacity build.  I don't personally have one, but have built two systems for others using this case ... and may very well use it the next time I upgrade my backup server.

 

[live4soccer7]

One more thing to add to the PC-D8000! It cools very well. I believe it can naturally hold 14-16 120mm/140mm fans. Right now my drives run around 25C in a room that is about 20-21C. They are green drives for the most part, but in my previous setup they ran about 35C during use/parity or whatever. It was pretty consistent, within a few degrees anyways.

[garycase]

Agree -- it'd be hard to find a case that cools as well as the D-8000.  Airflow is everything when it comes to cooling your drives, and one BIG advantage to drive bays vs. hot-swap slots is the much better airflow you can get across the drives.    Your experience clearly shows how well this works 

[SSD]

No disrespect to the owners of this case intended, but I'm still skeptical of any case that does not have removable drive cages. The risk of knocking a cable loose while swapping a bad disk is too great. Wrecks havoc with disk rebuilds! Certainly roomier is better than scrunched against a MB, but there is still a risk, and also the temptation to tweak!

 

Agree -- it'd be hard to find a case that cools as well as the D-8000.  Airflow is everything when it comes to cooling your drives, and one BIG advantage to drive bays vs. hot-swap slots is the much better airflow you can get across the drives.    Your experience clearly shows how well this works 

 

As you say, the key is airflow. But not just airflow - airflow over the hottest surface of the drive. I find that hot-swap slots provide better airflow than drive bays - but it depends on the cage, the fans, the case, and a lot of other factors. The bottom of the drives are the hottest part - any drive housing that covers a significant portion of the bottom is going to cool poorly. I recommend the horseshoe shaped SuperMicro cages to prospective buyers - they leave the top and bottom completely exposed, and are made of aluminum for good heat transference off the sides of the drives. They also come with a strong 92cm fan, and cool quite well. The fans are easily swapped for quieter ones if that is your need, but the stock fans are not loud unless you are in a critical listening room. Mine don't make any high pitched noises even after 5+ years of near continuous use.

[garycase]

I've got both the SuperMicro 5-in-3's and the Icy Docks => both are considered good cages ... but neither comes close to the cooling you get with a CoolerMaster 4-in-3 non-hot-swap cage with nothing behind the drives to impede airflow (which all 5-in-3 hot-swap cages have) => and a 120mm fan in front of the drives providing excellent airflow over all 4 drives.  http://www.coolermaster.com/case/case-accessories/4-in-3-device-module/

 

Certainly not as convenient as a hot-swap cage for removing/replacing a drive ... but also certainly not difficult either.

Unfortunately, it doesn't appear to be available anymore.    Fortunately, there's an even better alternative that I'm going to use the next time I need a cage ... the Icy Dock Black Vortex.    This is easier to remove drives from than the CoolerMaster (they slide out from the front), and also has a 120mm fan, but it rotates out of the way for drive replacement, so no need to remove the cage.    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA24G3435036&cm_re=5-in-3_drive_cage-_-17-198-059-_-Product

 

... and there's a hot-swap version of the Black Vortex, which has the same 120mm front-mounted fan for superb ventilation (although it does, as all hot-swaps do, have a circuit board at the rear which will slightly degrade the cooling relative to the open-frame version.  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA24G3435094&cm_re=5-in-3_drive_cage-_-17-994-171-_-Product      This is definitely what I'd use if I wanted all hot-swap drives ... the better cooling is easily worth the 20% reduction in drive capacity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TUMS]

I prefer having a case that I can rack mount.  It's just easier for me.  That lian-li 8000 is cool though and if I was set up differently it would be tempting.  I've had lot's of other lian-li cases in the past and they've been great.

[garycase]

By the way, the 20 drives in the D-8000 can also be slid out from the front by simply popping off the front cover (which is very easy).    You'd need to use long-enough cables that they can pull out with the drive ... or, if you want, you can convert all of these slots to hot-swap slots using the BP3SATA and BP2SATA backplanes.  These average about $8-10/slot, so it'd cost a bit less than $200 to convert the 20 drive bays to hot-swaps.    Actually less than buying 4 5-in-3's and with FAR better ventilation for the drives 

 

 

 

[dikkiedirk]

I just got the Lian Li PC-D8000 and love it. It is nice and spacious, has a lot of room natively. You don't need bay addons or anything. The whole front comes off so you can easily and quickly identify which hdd is which. It has a decent look to it if you aren't stuffing it in a closet or basement.

 

Pretty awesome!

[hernandito]

For just trying to get 26 drives, you're better off just adding a second enclosure as jbod. You can go with a small simple, 4 drive as bjp999 suggested. Or two of your favorite 13+ capacity enclosure, the second just holding drive and cabled to the first.

 

Hi c3... How exactly does one achieve what you describe above? What type of external HD case? How does the case connect to the unRAID machine? What type of port or card is required? These can be easily added to the current array?

 

Many thanks

 

H.

[live4soccer7]

I previously had a cooler master 4 in 3 running in the open (not in a case) and the drives were always around 34C. With the D8000 they are always around 25C. Even comparing to one of the best cages for cooling, the D8000 blows it away. You can simply pop the front cover off, view the hard drive you need to remove, open the side and very easily remove the two cables needed. If you can't unplug two simple cables without messing everything up then I think one should find something else to tinker with. IMO, this small trade off is very much worth the extra cooling and not relying on backplanes for reliability and ease of hdd installation. Why add more complexity than needed?  Yes, the drives will very easily slide right out of the front of the cage. It is about the most simple and effective designs I have seen.

[garycase]

... You can simply pop the front cover off, view the hard drive you need to remove, open the side and very easily remove the two cables needed. If you can't unplug two simple cables without messing everything up then I think one should find something else to tinker with. IMO, this small trade off is very much worth the extra cooling and not relying on backplanes for reliability and ease of hdd installation. Why add more complexity than needed?  Yes, the drives will very easily slide right out of the front of the cage. It is about the most simple and effective designs I have seen.

 

Absolutely agree -- it's extremely simple to change a drive, and the cables are VERY easily accessible from the sides.    But as I noted above, if somebody really doesn't want to "touch" a cable, you can convert all 20 of the drive slots into hot-swap bays with the Lian-Li BP3SATA, BP2SATA, and BP1SATA backplanes.    I do NOT think these are needed with this case ... but they are available 

 

To convert all 20 drive bays you'd need 6 of the BP3SATA units ($22.95 each) and 2 of the BP1SATA units ($12.95 ea) ... for a total of $163.60  [Pricing is from CoolerGuys:  http://www.coolerguys.com/840556103509.html ]

 

 

[SSD]

If you can't unplug two simple cables without messing everything up then I think one should find something else to tinker with. IMO, this small trade off is very much worth the extra cooling and not relying on backplanes for reliability and ease of hdd installation. Why add more complexity than needed?  Yes, the drives will very easily slide right out of the front of the cage. It is about the most simple and effective designs I have seen.

 

It's funny - i used to be very much like you arguing that the drive cages were an unnecessary extravagance and dealing with connections to the physical drives wasn't a big deal. But I did have occasional issues adding or swapping disks, and spent several Saturdays swearing trying to figure out why drives were dropping. But no big deal - I knew what I was doing. But I started to dread adding another drive. The last straw occurred with a problem drive. I was trying to figure out if a problem was the drive, or something about the controller/port/connection. I just wanted to swap two disks on two different ports and see if the problem followed the disk or stayed with the port. It was a nightmare as I had disrupted something and putting Humpty Dumpty back together was a PITA. My simple test was impossible to do, because I couldn't control other factors. I broke down and bought some cages. At first just a couple (see HERE) and later enough for all my drives. I have never had another problem - and swapping disks for diagnostics is done in 2 minutes with near zero risk of disturbing any aspect of my hardware setup. I can't say I do it often - but I have done it several times and it has been very helpful in isolating drive issues.

 

YMMV. And truthfully I am not trying to talk a happy user into anything. But many of the readers of this thread are lurking and considering a build. It is really them I am trying to reach to help them avoid common issues that we have seen in the forums. This ranks #1 in my book.

 

Enjoy your array!