Case Question

[wreck]

Long story short, I've been doing lots of reading around and I'm about ready to pull the trigger on the part for an unraid box (recommended basic set up from the wiki). My question is that I happen to have a case ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112040 old version minus the window) laying around and was curious if that was suitable. The initial plan is to throw 2x2tb in there (one for parity) along with a 750gb I have to run the trial version of unraid. If all goes well I'll buy a version and add 2-3 more drives I have in my main box now. I'm thinking 5 drives in the lower cage would be great and some http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817988002 for the top 5.25 bays if needed down the road. Anybody have experience with this case? Sound like any issues with the 5 drives and 2x80 fans? Thanks.

 

 

buxton

[jdmlight]

I don't see why that case wouldn't work for unRAID.  A potential downside is that since it uses 2x80mm fans in front to cool the 5 hard drive bays, it may be louder than a case using 120mm fans.  But you've still got direct airflow over the drives, so it should work fine.

 

My suggestion is one of these http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817993002 if you need more expansion down the line.  The 5.25->3.5 inch adapter you posted earlier would work, but your hard drive may get hot inside that adapter.  Also, as far as future expandability goes, if you get that Cooler Master drive cage, you could have up to 9 drives, which is probably plenty (assuming 2tb drives, if you have both a cache drive and a parity drive, you would have an expansion potential of up to 14TB )

[wreck]

Yeah, I saw those coolmaster things posted in the recommended hw in the wiki, I just liked the others because of the higher density, but 9 drives should be plenty, you are right. Would there be any issue putting a drive or two in the external 3.5 bays? There is no fan there, but I would probably add one if needed I'm guessing. Thanks.

 

buxton

[jdmlight]

If you figure out a method for cooling (some way to mount a fan), you can use those 3.5" external bays.  I'd worry about using those bays after you reach 9 drives. Figuring out how to mount a fan could prove more difficult than you'd originally think.  (this also depends on how handy you are with tools, if you're good at making stuff you can probably fabricate a fan bracket pretty easily)

[Rajahal]

Haha, the case you have 'just laying around' is nicer than the cases many of us use for our servers.  Also, I don't see any problem with the Lian-Li drive cage you linked, since it does have a fan dedicated to cooling the drives (80 mm by the looks of it, and mounted in the front of the cage, which is unusual).  The Cooler Master is definitely cheaper, but if you care about aesthetics then the Lian-Li is fine.

 

As jdmlight mentioned, this may not be the quietest server due to the number of 80 mm fans involved.  If you want to make it quieter, you can replace them all with better quality 120 mm fans.  Then again, Lian-Li cases generally have excellent sound-dampening as well, so maybe it won't be an issue.

 

As long as you use a cool 'Green' or LP drive, I don't see a problem with mounting one in the 3.5" floppy area.  Lian-Li cases generally have excellent cooling, so I don't expect you would need any additional for just that one drive.  Two drives in that area may be pushing it, though, since they will be very close together.  I would just install one drive there (for a total of 10) and call it good.

[wreck]

Thanks for all the feedback raj and jdm. I'm hopefully going to pull the trigger on the hw this weekend. I'll keep everybody updated. Thanks.

 

buxton