April 22, 201016 yr I have 15 1TB drives plus the 2TB parity drive and getting low on space. I have the MD1500 case which has room for 15 drives using the cages which hold 5 each. I have put the parity drive (number 16) in the slot normally used for the floppy drive and using the eSATA connection on the back. Inside I have a MB with 7 sata ports plus the esata and 2 promise cards in each of the PCI slots. Each promise has 4 ports. That uses up all the sata ports and space in the tower. Now comes it issue of how to add another drive or 2. I will start adding 2tb drives but no need to waste the existing 1tb. There are 2 open PCIExpress slots (1 x4 and 1 x16) to get more sata ports but what about the physical drives. Any suggestions and input would be greatly appreciated.
April 22, 201016 yr I would say that you'll have to buy a new server case, perhaps a Antec 1200 case which if you use another 5-3 disk enclosure, you'll be able to have a 20disk rig no worries (you might have to bend the metal dividers/tabs which sit in between each 5.25" bay to get certain disk enclosures in). A good expansion SATA RAID controller would be needed, something from Super Micro or Promise using a x16 slot would do a great job. Refer to the hardware compatibility listing for a compatible card. Hope this helps.
April 22, 201016 yr If the MD1500 is the coolermaster stacker case, there are other options. 1. Take out the 5.25 power adapter and wire something else for the power switch. 2. Fit another 5in3 module. The coolermaster stacker cases are capable of holding 4 5in3 cages. It's more a power situation you will have to consider.
May 15, 201016 yr Author If the MD1500 is the coolermaster stacker case, there are other options. 1. Take out the 5.25 power adapter and wire something else for the power switch. 2. Fit another 5in3 module. The coolermaster stacker cases are capable of holding 4 5in3 cages. It's more a power situation you will have to consider. I'm not sure what you mean by the 5.25 power adapter. The power supply? The front of the case can only hold 3 cages.
May 15, 201016 yr If you remove the top-most slot that has the power button, reset button, USB ports, power led, and hdd legs you have 1 more 5.25" slot available. You can now fit a 4th 5-in-3 drive cage in the tower.
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.