NAS ITX Case With 6-8 Hot Swappable 3.5" Drives?


Supa

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- Looking for a Mini-ITX case with 6-8 hot-swappable 3.5" drives
- Currently using a Node 304 (supports 6 HDD's) but want to upgrade cases to something better and more accessible

Some options:

- [U-NAS NSC-810A ~ $210](http://www.u-nas.com/xcart/product.php?productid=17640)
   - Limited to a 1U Flex PSU
- [DS380 ~ $189](https://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=452)
   - Has cooling problems
- [Silverstone CS381 ~ $350](https://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=861&area=en)
   - Expensive  
- [Norco ITX-S8 ~ $230](http://www.norcotek.com/product/itx-s8/)
   - Bit expensive
- Lian Li Q25b (only 5 bay hot-swap though and out of stock everywhere)

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18 hours ago, Supa said:

- Looking for a Mini-ITX case with 6-8 hot-swappable 3.5" drives
- Currently using a Node 304 (supports 6 HDD's) but want to upgrade cases to something better and more accessible

Some options:

- [U-NAS NSC-810A ~ $210](http://www.u-nas.com/xcart/product.php?productid=17640)
   - Limited to a 1U Flex PSU
- [DS380 ~ $189](https://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=452)
   - Has cooling problems
- [Silverstone CS381 ~ $350](https://www.silverstonetek.com/product.php?pid=861&area=en)
   - Expensive  
- [Norco ITX-S8 ~ $230](http://www.norcotek.com/product/itx-s8/)
   - Bit expensive
- Lian Li Q25b (only 5 bay hot-swap though and out of stock everywhere)

As the owner of a Node 304, Lian-Li PC-Q25B and Silverstone CS380 all of which have housed unRAID servers, I can tell you that each have their plusses and minuses as is always the case.

 

Node 304:

- a great case if you do not swap disk drives often and do not need easy access to the internals of the system.  It's a bit of a pain to work with when you need to make changes

- very compact case (but you already know all about it)

- currently houses my backup unRAID server which just sits in a cool corner of the basement and gets powered on/off by IPMI when needed

 

Lian-Li PC-Q25B

- housed my original unRAID server for many years (it is currently empty awaiting the need for another small server build)

- drives are very accessible and, although it has "only" five hot-swap bays, it can house eight or more drives if you double stack on the bottom tray.  I read an article once in which the author demonstrated how he had put 11 drives in the case (9 3.5" and 2 2.5" SSDs

- cooling is adequate but is limited to one 140 mm fan and one 120mm fan

- case internals are easily accessible as both sides pop off

- power supply covers CPU and limits cooler height to 80mm (I used a 65mm Noctua "downdraft" cooler in that case)

 

Silverstone CS380 (note this is NOT the DS380 nor the CS381)

- has housed my main server for about a year

- fairly compact for a case that can handle Mini-ITX, mATx and ATX motherboards

- cooling issues are easily overcome with case mods documented by dmacias in these forums

- can take up to 8 3.5 HDDs in front-facing hot-swap bays. I love the easy accessibility to the drives

- has two 5.25" bays above the 3.5" hot swaps.  I have a 4x2.5" SSD hot swap in one and an optical drive in the other for MakeMKV.  These could be modified for additional 3.5 HDDs, if desired

- easy accessibility to MB and other internals

- the CPU/hard drives (after the mods) are cooler and the case is quieter than my build was in the Lian-Li (my saga in getting there is documented in the above linked thread)

- price has gone up somewhat recently (I got mine for $139 last year)

 

I can't tell you about the other options you listed, but, I really like the CS380 after the mods and the Lian-Li PC-Q25B is a great Mini-ITX case if you can find one.  Unfortunately, I sold my PC-Q25B spare last year.

 

Many users are looking for towers with all 5.25" bays so they can put 3 or more 5-bay hot-swap cages in them, but, those are incredibly hard to find as well.

 

Good luck.  Hope you find something that works for you.

Edited by Hoopster
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i have a built a u-nas 800 and the new 810A. I love the unas 810A i even put a zotac mini 1050 ti GFX card in it which is a feast for such a small case.

 

Just note all small cases are going to have issues with space and heat.  and the 1U flex PSU i have is silent! 

 

see here:

 

Edited by pyrater
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3 hours ago, pyrater said:

i have a built a u-nas 800 and the new 810A. I love the unas 810A i even put a zotac mini 1050 ti GFX card in it which is a feast for such a small case.

 

Just note all small cases are going to have issues with space and heat.  and the 1U flex PSU i have is silent! 

 

see here:

 

Looks good! I'm leaning towards U-NAS. I wonder if they're working on an 820

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I'm in the middle of switching from an old generic case with an icy-dock 5-in-3 (awful cooling - can't recommend)) to a DS380 from Silverstone with an

ASRock Z390M-ITX/ac MB (6 SATA onboard + PCIe x4 M.2, one PCIe x16, 2x Intel 1000bt + wifi).  One advantage I just found out about is that the HD trays are powered by a 4 pin Molex and I just confirmed that there is no 3.3v on the power bus for the rack. That means no messing with the pin-bypass hack on shucked drives - it's not powered in this system. 

 

I'm not sure about the cooling as I've not run it full of disks (SoonTM), but the placement of fans is good. The only issue I can see is that, while one side of the 8x bay is covered with two large fans, the opposite side is the sliding case is flush, so the drive fans pressurize the case and the rear fan draws that air from the drives, over the CPU cooler, then out. I'm running an i5-9400 with the stock cooler and it's about 4x the CPU I need, so I don't expect it to be an issue. 

 

The unit is reasonably quiet with the three fans running. The PS (300W Silverstone Bronze/80) hasn't fired up the fan yet (it's fanless at idle), but I'm just working through a memory test with no drives. 

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  • 5 months later...

Nobody here mentioned the Node 804 - I'm personally using an old beige tower from the late 90s early 2000's so I'll be looking to upgrade as well. OP why not look at the Node 804?

 

The one downside of it (from what I've read) is that the fans are 3-pin fans. From my understanding this means they'll run at full speed. Also, it looks like the PSU has to come out to pull out any downed drives (except if it was the first one). Am I wrong here?

Edited by sannitig
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30 minutes ago, sannitig said:

The one downside of it (from what I've read) is that the fans are 3-pin fans. From my understanding this means they'll run at full speed.

If it is like the Node 304, there is a manual fan speed switch on the back of the case that lets you switch fans speed between low, medium and high settings.  Yes, it's manual and PWM fans would be better, but, it is something.  I have mine on "medium" in the Node 304.

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