The Enclosure Thread

[FirbyKirby]

4 hours ago, Smitty2k1 said:

but I wanted room to add more HDDs

 

Yea, that case seems like it'll be great for that need. And while I can't tell from photos, it looks like the way the cage is designed, you have some room under them for cable management/hiding, which I bet will be nice.

 

Thanks in advance for the recon work!

[FirbyKirby]

4 hours ago, AgentXXL said:

use the Chenbro RM42300 with my main unRAID server. I have an iStar 5 bay hot-swap enclosure and slimline Blu-ray drive installed, and a front panel USB module with USB-A and USB C ports. It's connected to my Supermicro CSE-847 DAS conversion by a LSI 2308 series HBA.

 

Thanks for chiming in with your picture an description. This certainly helps my decision making. Also, let me take the opportunity to thank you for your previ1ous posts in this thread on adding external storage to an unRAID server via HBA and external "disk shelf," JBOD, and/or DAS (as I gather all those things get somewhat interchangeably used.) I read them all and it helped my understanding immensely.

 

With my limited space, your feedback made me feel better about being able to expand in the future using a separate enclosure. Though I'll admit that after some cursory searches, there is an odd vacuum of purpose built JBOD enclosures at a depth less then 20 inches. You'd think that my use case would not be so uncommon (people with short depth requirements who want to grow up and take more "U's" rather then grow deep.) But the market would beg to differ.

 

But, I don't want to delay my project because I haven't solved a problem in the future that I don't have right now. And frankly, if I do choose the RM42300, it's flexible enough that, if I'm careful and clever with accessory selection, and give up on supporting large GPUs, I think I can fit up to 16 3.5" drives safely into it.

[AgentXXL]

43 minutes ago, FirbyKirby said:

But, I don't want to delay my project because I haven't solved a problem in the future that I don't have right now. And frankly, if I do choose the RM42300, it's flexible enough that, if I'm careful and clever with accessory selection, and give up on supporting large GPUs, I think I can fit up to 16 3.5" drives safely into it.

 

 Thanks for the feedback on my previous posts. Glad to know they're helping others.

 

And yes, the RM42300 can hold 16 drives - 2 x 5 bay hotswap modules for 10 drives, 4 in the middle cage behind the front panel USB ports/LEDs/switches and 2 more in the 3.5" bays below the left and right drive bays. You will have to remove the fan module from the left side of the case, and purchase the extra 3x5.25" cage for the Chenbro.

 

The part number for the 2nd cage is 84H342310-003. It's the same cage that Chenbro provides for the right side and cost me $25 CAD from a local shop that carries the Chenbro line.

 

 

Note that if you do put another cage in and remove the fan module, you'll definitely want to get a decent 80mm fan for the rear of the case that pulls air from the front over the drive bays and motherboard compartment, and exhausts it out the rear. I haven't been able to install the 2nd cage on the left as my video card is too long, preventing the cage from being installed correctly.

 

As shown in the picture in my previous post, I used one of the bottom 3.5" bays for a front panel USB module. The RM42300-F1 has USB 2.0 ports in the center front section, but the RM42300-F2 has two USB 3.0 ports. I added the 3.5" USB module as I got the F1 version of the RM42300.

 

When I get the RM41300 with it's increased length (full size 4U, like the Supermicro CSE-847), I'll be able to install the left side cage that I've got waiting, also with 1 of the iStarUSA 5 bay hot-swap units. So my RM41300 will have 10 hot-swap bays at the front plus the 36 hot-swap bays in my Supermicro CSE-847.

Edited March 2, 2022 by AgentXXL

[FirbyKirby]

1 hour ago, AgentXXL said:

You will have to remove the fan module from the left side of the case, and purchase the extra 3x5.25" cage for the Chenbro.

 

Thanks! Yes, I discovered this and the additional cage accessory a day or so ago. And just like you, I expect I'll run into the same issue of GPU compatibility with an additional 5x3.5" cage accessory (though I've been leaning to a non-hot swap option with a 120mm fan at the front of the case since I don't strongly value the tray-less hot swap feature.) That's what led me to your initial posts of an external storage solution for expansion.

 

Admittedly, it's too much to ask of any vendor to create a case that can have a drive capacity as large as 16x3.5" drives AND fit a full size video card AND maintain a maximum depth under 20 inches. But at least the Chenbro lets you choose between those two options. And frankly, with just the single 3x5.25" cage that the case is sold with today, the case can still fit 10x3.5" drives appropriately outfitted, just as you've done. I can't speak for everyone, but to me at least, that's still an impressive amount of drive space. I'm migrating to unRAID from a 2-bay synology with 3 TB total storage. So when I imagine what I can reasonably create with 10 bays, I'm not sure I'll ever need the additional 6 bays.

 

1 hour ago, AgentXXL said:

Note that if you do put another cage in and remove the fan module, you'll definitely want to get a decent 80mm fan for the rear of the case that pulls air from the front over the drive bays and motherboard compartment, and exhausts it out the rear.

 

Very good point. I had planned to add that fan because I intend to fill out the internal 4x3.5" cage first and then add to the 5x3.5" cage in the 3x5.25" bay, and I was worried about airflow across those 4 stacked drives. It's a pity that you can't add an 80mm fan in front of the 4x3.5" drive cage AND populate it with drives (but as is the story it seems with this Chenbro, compromises are necessary.) Interestingly, this is one feature the Silverstone clone seems to have added, and I applaud them for it (though I don't quite think it's worth 2x the Chenbro price.)

 

7 hours ago, AgentXXL said:

slimline Blu-ray drive installed

 

If I go with this case, I intend to add this drive as well (for blu-ray and DVD rips) but I've seen two different sizes marketed for slim optical drives. Would you be so kind as to share the drive you selected? Or at least comment on the thickness of the drive? I've seen 9.5mm and 12.7mm drives (like this one.)

[AgentXXL]

The non-hotswap option is perfectly fine, but since I already have the iStarUSA rack, I might as well use it. If I remember correctly you can install an 80mm slim fan at the front panel in front of the 4 bay fixed drive cage. I'll check again when I next have the unit opened up.

 

24 minutes ago, FirbyKirby said:

If I go with this case, I intend to add this drive as well (for blu-ray and DVD rips) but I've seen two different sizes marketed for slim optical drives. Would you be so kind as to share the drive you selected? Or at least comment on the thickness of the drive? I've seen 9.5mm and 12.7mm drives (like this one.)

 

The drive I'm using is a Matshita BD-MLT UJ240AS which is 12.7mm. It's this one: https://www.amazon.com/Notebook-Internal-Panasonic-Tray-Loading-Replacement/dp/B0822XG6G1

 

I've thought about getting one that also handles BDXL and is UHD friendly, but I have an external USB drive that is UHD friendly so I'm content to use it when necessary.

 

[FirbyKirby]

58 minutes ago, AgentXXL said:

I've thought about getting one that also handles BDXL and is UHD friendly, but I have an external USB drive that is UHD friendly so I'm content to use it when necessary.

 

I had not even considered this. Thank you! It turns out, the one I was looking at in 12.7mm is not compatible with UHD. In fact, as far as I can find (at least on Amazon so far) there are no 12.7mm slim optical drives that support UHD disks.

 

This will require more research.

[Smitty2k1]

 
Yea, that case seems like it'll be great for that need. And while I can't tell from photos, it looks like the way the cage is designed, you have some room under them for cable management/hiding, which I bet will be nice.
 
Thanks in advance for the recon work!

Ok took it apart to replace a broken fan (came that way) and added all the fans to a controller. The 120mm front fans have terrible vents and really should be 140mm or have a 3rd 120mm fan. The drive cage is as basic as it gets and you have to unplug everything to take the whole thing out to add or replace a drive. It's a budget case though and fine for what it is. Pics attached.


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[JonathanM]

13 hours ago, Smitty2k1 said:

Ok took it apart to replace a broken fan (came that way) and added all the fans to a controller.

I could be wrong but it looks to me that some of your fans are blowing the wrong way.

[TheFreemancer]

Quick question, can you buy just the enclousure of the Storinator?

 

My system is ready with all the drives, mobo, sas card etc.. 

 

I would like to have a more elegant solution that is easy to add or remove drives.

[kolepard]

40 minutes ago, TheFreemancer said:

Quick question, can you buy just the enclousure of the Storinator?

Years ago they (45drives.com) used to sell just the case, and I bought one in 2015.  It was very expensive, about $1200 with shipping, as well as the special internal cabeling.

 

Last time I asked, they no longer sold just the case, though I'm sure they'd respond if you ask them about it again. 

 

Their support and customer service is excellent.  The mounting solution--which works great and is super convenient--uses a combined SATA+power connector that is attached to a bracket inside.  I needed to get cables that I could use that would route back to a SFF-8463 connector instead of the original SFF-8087 ones and I had no problem ordering them from the company.

 

That said, nothing else I've used, most recently a Rosewill case, is even close to as good to work in.  I just had to repalce a drive in the Rosewill case, and it's a pain with the way the cabeling and drive cages work.  Everything from working with the motherboard, PSU, drives, fans, cards, it's all just easy in the Storinator case I have.

 

Kevin

 

P.S. If you do contact them and they will sell you just a case, please post here or PM me because despite the cost, if I could order a second one, I'd do it again today.

[AgentXXL]

On 3/2/2022 at 6:10 PM, FirbyKirby said:

Very good point. I had planned to add that fan because I intend to fill out the internal 4x3.5" cage first and then add to the 5x3.5" cage in the 3x5.25" bay, and I was worried about airflow across those 4 stacked drives. It's a pity that you can't add an 80mm fan in front of the 4x3.5" drive cage AND populate it with drives (but as is the story it seems with this Chenbro, compromises are necessary.) Interestingly, this is one feature the Silverstone clone seems to have added, and I applaud them for it (though I don't quite think it's worth 2x the Chenbro price.)

 

FYI, I've migrated my main unRAID system to a Chenbro  RM41300, essentially a full-size rackmount but uses the same drive cages as the RM42300. I finally added a 90mm fan to the middle 4 drive cage (not shown in attached pics) and one more 90mm at the rear of the case. There's room for one more but I didn't have another 90mm fan on hand and so far the temps inside the case are quite nice - 30 - 40C max. I'm holding onto my RM42300 as I have plans to migrate my 2nd unRAID system out of the Fractal Design Define 7XL.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Smitty2k1]

I could be wrong but it looks to me that some of your fans are blowing the wrong way.

Guess I'd better double check but I'm 99% sure the two fronts are intakes and two rears are exhaust.

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[ChatNoir]

5 hours ago, Smitty2k1 said:

Guess I'd better double check but I'm 99% sure the two fronts are intakes and two rears are exhaust.

I guess that JonathanM's comment was :

[JonathanM]

4 hours ago, ChatNoir said:

I guess that JonathanM's comment was :

Exactly. Normally PC fans exhaust on the side with the motor mounting spokes, the fan in the top right of this picture appears to be blowing out.

[FirbyKirby]

@Smitty2k1, thank you for the excellent photos. They give me the information I need. There is less room under that cage then I imagined for cable management. But to your point, it's does it's job of giving a large quantity of drives in a cheap "no frills" case.

[FirbyKirby]

On 3/13/2022 at 3:52 PM, AgentXXL said:

FYI, I've migrated my main unRAID system to a Chenbro  RM41300, essentially a full-size rackmount but uses the same drive cages as the RM42300.

Thanks for the update and the photos. I'm quite jealous of that deeper depth. I'd give quite a bit for a few extra inches beyond the 20" maximum I have today. The RM41300 is quite well laid out for versatility, and those dual hot-swap cages are very nice.

[kolepard]

On 3/13/2022 at 10:14 AM, TheFreemancer said:

Quick question, can you buy just the enclousure of the Storinator?

On a lark, I contacted them to see if they were selling enclosures only again, and they are.  

 

Cases are fully assembled, with steel chassis, modular drive cage, drive cabling, case fans, direct wired backplanes, sliding rails and a power supply.  They take ATX motheboards (not eATX).

 

They said they aren't designed to power or fit a GPU, but looking inside the Q30 I have now, it looks like there'd be plenty of space, but I guess you'd want to measure to be sure.

 

They are not cheap (prices I was emailed today, 3/13/2022):

 

AV15 (650W non-redundant PSU)       - $1,683.80 (USD)

Q30 (850W non-redundant PSU)         - $2,151.13 (USD)

S45 (1200W redundant PSU)              - $2,922.29 (USD)

XL60 (1200W redundant PSU)            - $3,353.88 (USD)

 

Hope this helps someone.

 

Kevin

[falconexe]

3 hours ago, kolepard said:

On a lark, I contacted them to see if they were selling enclosures only again, and they are.  

 

Cases are fully assembled, with steel chassis, modular drive cage, drive cabling, case fans, direct wired backplanes, sliding rails and a power supply.  They take ATX motheboards (not eATX).

 

They said they aren't designed to power or fit a GPU, but looking inside the Q30 I have now, it looks like there'd be plenty of space, but I guess you'd want to measure to be sure.

 

They are not cheap (prices I was emailed today, 3/13/2022):

 

AV15 (650W non-redundant PSU)       - $1,683.80 (USD)

Q30 (850W non-redundant PSU)         - $2,151.13 (USD)

S45 (1200W redundant PSU)              - $2,922.29 (USD)

XL60 (1200W redundant PSU)            - $3,353.88 (USD)

 

Hope this helps someone.

 

Kevin

 

 

Thanks. I appreciate the info. I have a Storinator Q30 Turbo as my primary server, and want to move an old NORCO 4224 (my backup server) to their much nicer chassis for heat flow, but use the same guts. I was also looking to drop a RTX 3080 into one, once I upgrade my main gaming rig to the RTX 4000 series later this year (or next).

 

Let me know if you figure out how to drop in a full size Nvidia video card. I'd love to see pics and the complete component breakdown.

 

 

Edited March 21, 2022 by falconexe

[kolepard]

59 minutes ago, falconexe said:

I have a Storinator Q30 Turbo as my primary server, and want to move an old NORCO 4224 (my backup server) to their much nicer chassis for heat flow, but use the same guts.

 

Similar situation here.  I have a Q30 as my main server and a Rosewill RSV-4500 configured for 15 HDDs as my backup. The Rosewill case is ok, but is a bit of a pain to work in, and makes me really appreciate the Q30.  The airflow in the Rosewill is better than what I used to have with my 5-in-3 drive cages, but still not as good as in the Q30.

 

The backup server still runs fine, but was my first build about 10 years ago, and fairly recently transplanted into the Rosewill case.  It uses an older Supermicro board (C2SEA) with a quad-core Core processor but I'd like to have my backup server use  ECC RAM like the main one does.

 

I probably won't be able to answer your question about the GPU. I haven't moved into using VMs or GPU-based transcoding at this point.

 

Good luck.

 

Kevin

[falconexe]

On 3/21/2022 at 12:07 PM, kolepard said:

 

Similar situation here.  I have a Q30 as my main server and a Rosewill RSV-4500 configured for 15 HDDs as my backup. The Rosewill case is ok, but is a bit of a pain to work in, and makes me really appreciate the Q30.  The airflow in the Rosewill is better than what I used to have with my 5-in-3 drive cages, but still not as good as in the Q30.

 

The backup server still runs fine, but was my first build about 10 years ago, and fairly recently transplanted into the Rosewill case.  It uses an older Supermicro board (C2SEA) with a quad-core Core processor but I'd like to have my backup server use  ECC RAM like the main one does.

 

I probably won't be able to answer your question about the GPU. I haven't moved into using VMs or GPU-based transcoding at this point.

 

Good luck.

 

Kevin

 

 

Fair enough...I wonder if they will sell it without a Power Supply so I can stick a 1000W Corsair in there. I'm pretty sure it will fit. I just want their metal ha ha. I'm gonna get mine custom painted Midnight Blue if I pull the trigger.

 

Edited March 22, 2022 by falconexe

[KTFirst]

Hi. I have had synnology solutions. It is a small box really (the desktop ones like 3622). Why are there not any cases like that to buy? I mean it is a box…. 

[SiRMarlon]

Just wanted to share the new setup I just finished upgrading too this past weekend. I previously had built a 2 in 1 system using a Phanteks Enthoo Case. But I finally pulled the trigger on a Rosewill RSV-L4412U 12 Bay Hot Swap server case.

 

Specs for the system are:

 

Hardware:

Asus Prime B550-Plus

AMD Ryzen 9 3900x Twelve-Core (stock speeds)

32 GB DDR4 3600 G.Skill RipJaws V Series

NVIDIA Quadro P2000

LSI SAS2008 PCI-E Fusion-MPT SAS-2

IO CREST 4 PORT SATA III PCI-E Expansion Card

Upgraded all fans to Be Quiet Silent Wings 3 3x120mm 2x80mm

 

Array:

1x WD 12TB (Parity) (Shucked)

1x WD 12TB (Shucked)

1x WD 10TB (Shucked)

4x WD 8TB (Shucked)

4x WD 4TB (Reds)

 

Cache:

2x 500GB Samsung 860 EVO SSD in Raid 0

 

Unassigned Device:

1x 1TB Intel Blue M.2 NVME (Plex_AppData)

 

 

 

 

 

 

[BlinkerFluid]

I have been super happy with a HGST 4U60 since 2016. 60 sas/sata drive slots in a 4u footprint and has an 80 watt idle with no drives if only using 1 of the psus. 12GB sas as well. There are some newer versions that are pretty much the same. I see them pop up on ebay occasionally. You probably would also want some kind of rack for it. It gets very heavy with drives

I did have to plan my server rack around having 240v power hookup as it is 240v only for power. There is one small benefit, 240v power is 3% more efficient than 120v so a little drop in the power savings bucket. That was most of a day running new electrical diy for that. But it has run flawlessly for years and years.

 

 

Edited May 4, 2022 by BlinkerFluid

[Vr2Io]

8 hours ago, BlinkerFluid said:

I have been super happy with a HGST 4U60 since 2016. 60 sas/sata drive slots in a 4u footprint and has an 80 watt idle with no drives if only using 1 of the psus. 12GB sas as well. There are some newer versions that are pretty much the same. I see them pop up on ebay occasionally. You probably would also want some kind of rack for it. It gets very heavy with drives

I did have to plan my server rack around having 240v power hookup as it is 240v only for power. There is one small benefit, 240v power is 3% more efficient than 120v so a little drop in the power savings bucket. That was most of a day running new electrical diy for that. But it has run flawlessly for years and years.

 

 

So cool.

[opentoe]

On 3/21/2022 at 2:07 PM, kolepard said:

 

Similar situation here.  I have a Q30 as my main server and a Rosewill RSV-4500 configured for 15 HDDs as my backup. The Rosewill case is ok, but is a bit of a pain to work in, and makes me really appreciate the Q30.  The airflow in the Rosewill is better than what I used to have with my 5-in-3 drive cages, but still not as good as in the Q30.

 

The backup server still runs fine, but was my first build about 10 years ago, and fairly recently transplanted into the Rosewill case.  It uses an older Supermicro board (C2SEA) with a quad-core Core processor but I'd like to have my backup server use  ECC RAM like the main one does.

 

I probably won't be able to answer your question about the GPU. I haven't moved into using VMs or GPU-based transcoding at this point.

 

Good luck.

 

Kevin

Isn't the Q30 like $8000 and the Rosewill is $250? I don't think air flow should be compared on two cases so different and priced apart, no? The Rosewill has 3 large fans in the front blowing cool air right over all the drives, and another 3 large fans after the drives exausting that air. I have an old Nortec 24 bay, with only 3 fans after the drives since they are all hot docks. I'm able to keep 18 drives very cool with using the proper fans.