Go Big or Small with Cases these days?

[ptmuldoon]

When I first started with Unraid a few years back and setting up my server, I decided on the 'Go big or Go Home' approach.  Thus, I have currently have a Norco 4020 case running esxi with the 20 drive bays.  And I'm currently only using 8 of those bays with 1 or 2TB drives in each.

 

Now, so much has changed in the last few years with 5 and 6 TB drives, SSD's etc hitting the market.  Do you think we really need these big cases anymore?  I also did buy locally a 19U rack to hold the case, but it all takes up a fair amount of space in the corner of my basement.

 

The one benefit I can think of in having 20 1TB drives vs 10 2TB drives is the data is spread out better and if you had multiple drive failures you would only a smaller piece of your overall data.

 

Any thoughts on reducing case size to something smaller?

 

 

[trurl]

...

The one benefit I can think of in having 20 1TB drives vs 10 2TB drives is the data is spread out better and if you had multiple drive failures you would only a smaller piece of your overall data.

...

But with more drives you are more likely to have multiple drive failure.

[boof]

Had the same thoughts as you. I bought the same case and rammed it full of 1-3TB drives years back.

 

As those drives show signs of failure or I need to upgrade capacity I've been replacing them with 8TB drives and consolidating. I'm now down to only using 2 of the 3 SAS HBA's I was using before for physical drive connectivity - whilst having way more storage thanks to density!

 

So yes - for me I don't need that size a case anymore by a long shot.

 

If I ever do another full refresh I'll be looking at smaller cases - there are some neat mini / micro atx cases around with some interesting builds already in the forums here.

 

Hard to decide to do though as the larger case isn't causing any issues and migrating will only cost money - so in that regard the large case was a good purchase in terms of longevity.

 

Failure rates / data density isn't a factor in my thinking at all really. Drives will fail either way and how you handle that should be the same regardless.

[trurl]

I started with 2TB drives in a small case. I'm still in a small case but only 6TB and 4TB drives in it now. I have found other uses for those smaller drives.

[ptmuldoon]

Thanks for some of the feedback guys.

 

I'm leaning towards downgrading my case size going forward when I do decide to upgrade.  I'm starting to think there is really no major pro's in having such a large case anymore.  Also, with the Norco 4020 and although not currently using all 20 bays you likely have a larger power supply in it that is not being fully used and sucking up your electric bill.  Downgrading to a smaller box with only 5 or 7 drive bays you could cut back on that power consumption.

 

Was just browsing the enclosure thread and the PC-Q25 looks like a nice little box.  I could then possibly relocate the server somewhere else in the home as well.

[trurl]

Thanks for some of the feedback guys.

 

I'm leaning towards downgrading my case size going forward when I do decide to upgrade.  I'm starting to think there is really no major pro's in having such a large case anymore.  Also, with the Norco 4020 and although not currently using all 20 bays you likely have a larger power supply in it that is not being fully used and sucking up your electric bill.  Downgrading to a smaller box with only 5 or 7 drive bays you could cut back on that power consumption.

 

Was just browsing the enclosure thread and the PC-Q25 looks like a nice little box.  I could then possibly relocate the server somewhere else in the home as well.

I have that case and like it a lot. Not sure how available it still is these days. I actually have 9 drives in that case. My ITX mobo has 6 SATA and I have RC-218 controller with 4 SATA with one of those jumpered to eSATA. So 9 internal SATA ports in my case. I use all of those, 5 data drives in the backplane cage, 2 parity (one waiting for dual parity) on the bottom rack, and 2 SSDs cache stuck onto the bottom of the cage. I use the eSATA port with an external enclosure for the occasional preclear or mounting external drives for backup or other data transfer.

[madpoet]

I replaced my 40TB Norco 4224 with the Silverstone 8 bay case and 8TB drives.  I got 56TB of space compared to 40 with a vastly smaller footprint   Sadly I didn't finish in time as my Norco died last week (bad controller card I think).

[garycase]

Both the Q25B and the Silverstone DS380 are superb cases and, with 8TB drives, can provide a remarkable amount of storage in a very small form factor.

 

Depends on just how much storage you want -- and whether or not you're going to add a lot of non-NAS functionality to your system => if the latter is true, you likely want a larger case with room for a graphics card or two (for pass-through to VM's) and perhaps just a few more drives.

 

Note that with the forthcoming dual parity you'll also need to plan on 2 parity drives, so that reduces the total available space by one drive.

 

I'm a BIG fan of mini-ITX cases ... but also don't do non-NAS "stuff" on my servers -- I have other systems for that.  If I was going to do more, I'd probably use something like a Fractal R5, which is very nice looking; has superb cooling; can easily hold a dozen drives; and is VERY quiet.

 

 

[Helmonder]

Don;t know about you guys but:

 

- Yes drive size has increased, but also:

 

- Data storage requirements have risen..

 

I used to have 1-2 TB drives with 12 drives.. I consolidated into 3-6 TB drives over the course of a year, I ended up wity 8 drives.. But due to storage growth I am back to 10 now.. I am happy with my big case.. It tends to fill up :-)

[AcidRaZor]

I opted for a Bitfenix Ghost as it's big enough to expand storage (and whatever else I want) without being too bulky. The hotswappable drive-bay is kind of nice and I can get watercooling in it if I want as well as expand more on fans and I should be able to fit in a Rosewill 3 x 5.25-Inch to 4 x 3.5-Inch Hot-swap bay if I wanted to expand the drive slots even more (although I'd need a SATA expansion as my mobo only supports 6)

[garycase]

It is certainly true the out "needs" seem to grow as fast (or faster) as the storage density does.

 

I remember when I bought my first hard drive -- a 26MB Seagate 14" "Winchester technology" drive.  [Cost a cool $4500]    Seemed like a MASSIVE amount of storage  8)

 

Granted, even a 24-drive system with dual parity and 8TB drives would "only" have 176TB of storage space.  It's actually not all that hard to imagine that filling up !!

 

[TUMS]

I bought a little 5 bay synology and filled it up in less than 6 months.  I vowed to not ever do that again so I bought a 24 bay server case when I built my unraid server.  I plan on buying a backup server in 2016 and will probably go with another 24 bay case.  The physical space it takes up doesn't really bother me since I live in a house with plenty of room and don't plan on moving around, I bought a server rack, stick it in the basement and forget about it.  If I was moving around a lot apartment to apartment I would definitely do things differently.

[danioj]

I use both the DS380 (Backup with 8TB Drives) and the Fractal Define R5 (Mix between 3TB-8TB) in my setup. Both are excellent cases.

 

Have a glance at the link in my sig for my setup.

[Helmonder]

It is certainly true the out "needs" seem to grow as fast (or faster) as the storage density does.

 

I remember when I bought my first hard drive -- a 26MB Seagate 14" "Winchester technology" drive.  [Cost a cool $4500]    Seemed like a MASSIVE amount of storage  8)

 

Granted, even a 24-drive system with dual parity and 8TB drives would "only" have 176TB of storage space.  It's actually not all that hard to imagine that filling up !!

 

I can top that... My first Pc had a build in half hight 5.5" winchester of 20MB, I latereon expanded with a 2nd hand FULL HEIGHT 10MB IBM winchester.. That thing was as big as two cdrom drives on top of each other.. You could allmost see the bits on the platters :-)

[Spuds]

Don;t know about you guys but:

 

- Yes drive size has increased, but also:

 

- Data storage requirements have risen..

 

I used to have 1-2 TB drives with 12 drives.. I consolidated into 3-6 TB drives over the course of a year, I ended up wity 8 drives.. But due to storage growth I am back to 10 now.. I am happy with my big case.. It tends to fill up :-)

 

4k and 2k video are good examples.

 

On the case, before I knew about unRaid and similar software, I picked up 2 Fractal R5's, one for my gaming PC and one for my HTPC/Server. Best case I've ever owned for cable management and air flow and lots of room for internal 3.5 drives. BUT if I had to do it over again I would have gone for a case with 3 X 5.25 bays instead of the 2 that come with the R5. Still, great case.

 

Now, if the Canadian dollar ever makes a come back I might just upgrade to a full ATX case with at least 7-10 5.25 bays for expansion. Unfortunately most of these type cases are more geared towards gamers and look way too flashy. Combining the R5 look with 10 5.25 bays would be ideal and in my opinion, the perfect case for my needs.

 

EDIT: I should probably clarify why I want so many 5.25's 

 

http://www.amazon.ca/StarTech-Aluminum-Trayless-Backplane-3-5-Inch/dp/B00OUSU8MI/ref=sr_1_2?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1453813286&sr=1-2&keywords=startech+trayless

 

Future expansion.

[jevans04]

I am very happy with my MS800 case, which has 10 5.25 bays.

I installed three Norco SS-500 5-in-3 cages.

Provides room for 16 total drives, I am currently using 13 (1 Parity, 11 Data, 1 Cache).

 

http://www.amazon.com/Zalman-ATX-Mid-Tower-Case/dp/B00BG5CBJG/