New Server Case with Old Hardware - 8-bay ATX


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Hi everyone

My current unRAID server has been as loyal as can be. I originally put it together some 10 years ago, based on a Supermicro C2SEA mobo with an Intel Core CPU (forgot which one) inside a Lian-Li tower case with 9 external 5.25 slots, 4GB of RAM, and initially 4 or 5 drives. Over the past decade, I have had to upgrade a few components, such as SATA controller and cables, then three 5-in-1 cages to be able to add more drives at will, and over the past 2 years I upgraded the CPU to an Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q9550 @ 2.83GHz and 8GB of RAM, to be able to run basic VM's and use Dockers more comfortably. Beginning of this year the system was at 48GB capacity (21TB used) distributed over 13 drives plus an SSD Cache of 512GB, using dual-parity, and has recently shown disk-temps as high as 55 celsius, which - given that all 5-in-1 cages are basically full and stacked, and ambient temps in Berlin reaching 38 celsius - isn't a huge surprise, I guess, but disconcerting to say the least. So much about this system's past. 

 

I spent the past 2 months with first consolidating all of my 21TB of data onto 4 data drives plus one 8TB parity (still using the 512GB SSD cache), and felt pretty good about removing seven 3TB drives from the server, yesterday, spacing the remaining drives apart in such a way that left one empty slot in-between each. Unfortunately, I see that disk temps are still at an average of 40 celsius at idle, reaching 45+ when array is actively copying/moving data.

 

Being that the system has been so stable and loyal, and that I currently do not have the funds to do a full hardware upgrade (mobo, CPU, RAM, and all), I am hoping to find a new case that - ideally - could fit my old hardware, and at some point can be upgraded to new hardware. Is that possible?

 

I spent many hours scouring the forums, and I really like the look & feel of the Silverstone DS380 and its front-accessible drive bays, but understand that its air-flow is sub-par and needs some tweaks to be acceptable. It probably couldn't be worse than my current cooling performance, and I don't know whether it could hold my old hardware properly, but that's the kind of case I am looking for. I do realise that the DS380 wouldn't be the case to upgrade to a modern hardware solution with full direct-access GPU VM's, but I seriously doubt that I will go there anytime soon. The way my current system is running, it could easily server me another 5 years. It's used almost exclusively as a data-backup and management system.

 

Does anyone have any suggestions for me about how to get from where I am now, to where I'd like to be, using up to 8 drives, front-accessible, in that small a form-factor? 

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