https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0091IZ1ZG/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

These just went on sale today.  I bought one 2 days ago for $104.

AAAAAAAnd its gone.

 

Thats an odd duck, 15 tooless hd slots.  Its like a back plane without the plane.

The post on the cheap Xeons was what got me thinking about starting my endeavor to build a rack.  I started this project knowing nothing about physical requirements for a server, I have been non stop researching, but still completely wet behind the ears .  I plan on using one of these chassis for unraid box with Xeon's and one for my "derver" I use now.  (Desktop that I treat like a server.)

 

I hope I these work for me!!  I don't want any expensive learning experiences

 

Ideally you probably want hot swap bays, not because you can hot swap, but because you can change drives without disturbing the wiring. It can be challenging to extract and replace a single drive in the middle of a mass of cables without accidentally unplugging or loosening something critical.

The advice is GREATLY appreciated!  I figure worst case, I get some of the experience I need building this then sell it to a family member, with 24/7 support of course.  Then apply what I learned to my "master" build. 

 

I have this case, and as previously mentioned, swapping drives in a pain. There isn't much room between the back of the drives and the 120mm fan mount. When I mess with the drives, I remove the fan mount (which can also be a pain because the cables on my mobo are right by the mount), remove the cables, pull out the drive mount, adjust and reverse.

 

While I also went cheap, as this was my first rack mount, I wish I would have spent more for hot swap bays. Considering it would cost $200+ to add hot swap to this case.