Hi all,

 

Given the success of my transition to UnRAID, I'm actually looking to transfer all of my non-gaming needs to a single device. This will help keep power consumption, space utilisation down, while improving the tidiness of my current setup (see picture) and probably the performance of it too. All it's currently being used for is Plex and Downloads, but I'd like to transfer the backup drive implementation.

 

In this image you can see:

• Old ESXi Host (Lenovo TS-140). All of the VMs are now running in UnRAID as Dockers and this is turned off. 
• Old QNAP TS-419P+ which is currently acting as a backup drive (can transfer this function to UnRAID) and has 3 x 6TB WD Red drives (one of the bays is broke).
• Sky Router
• Philips Hue Bridge
• A Cisco and a Netgear switch.
• Random Chinese fanless PC that is running Sophos XG Next-Gen Firewall (Core Firewall, IDPS, WAF, Proxy, DNS, etc.)

 

One thing I will need to make this successful, however, is some more HDD cages to sit inside my case. What I'm after are these, but they're like rocking horse poo as I can't find any to buy anywhere. I've found this, which looks like it'll do a similar job, but I just wanted to buy the official ones if I could as they look better quality and come with the rubber dampers etc. Do you guys think they'll work? 

 

Any other recommendations?

 

Thanks in advance.

I am curious since I have the same case. Where do you want to place additional HDD cages in the chassis ?

Fractal is generally happy to sell you optional parts, but in this case, I only remember 2 locations and the case comes already equipped.

 

Unless you want to use the 5.25" bays ?

If that's the case, I plan on using a 5x 3.5 in 3x 5.25 system like this : https://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=242 in addition to my 8x 2.5 in 1x 5.25 : https://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=293 (they have it in 4 in 1 and 6 in 1 if I remember correctly).

20 minutes ago, ChatNoir said:

I am curious since I have the same case. Where do you want to place additional HDD cages in the chassis ?

Fractal is generally happy to sell you optional parts, but in this case, I only remember 2 locations and the case comes already equipped.

 

Unless you want to use the 5.25" bays ?

If that's the case, I plan on using a 5x 3.5 in 3x 5.25 system like this : https://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=242 in addition to my 8x 2.5 in 1x 5.25 : https://www.icydock.com/goods.php?id=293 (they have it in 4 in 1 and 6 in 1 if I remember correctly).

I plan to do what this chap has done: Not entirely sure how they remain in-situ, but I've sent him a DM and I'll keep you informed on the update.

Ok, I am using a full ATX board, probably not compatible in my situation.  

hi,

i have the same case and mounted 4 hdd cages inside with an atx board. To mount the additional hdd cage you have to remove the 5,25" bay cage, therefore you have to drill out the rivets holding it. Note this will compromise the structural integrity of the case a little bit, but it works. After removing the 5,25" cage you can mount the additional drive cage on top of the two existing ones, just use some screws and/or hot glue.

 

I bought my additional drive cages from the fractal spare part shop here in germany, but i just looked it up and they don't have any drive cages for the case at the moment, so sending them a mail or scouting ebay may be your best option.

 

p.s. please ignore the dust in the image, the server is clean now ;)

 

Hi man,

 

Thank you very much for the info! I'll probably have a look at that.

 

I like how you've got extra fans inside too.

 

Also, how did you get the one on it's own fixed? Was that hot-glue?

Edited November 24, 20205 yr by Skatman

there are two types of hdd cages for the case. One to be mounted on the bottom of the case and one to mount on top of the bottom cage. I mounted two of the bottom cages on top of each other (bottom-1 and bottom-2 in the image), I used 2 short screws to connect the two cages and secured the top of bottom-2 with cable ties to the front of the case (red circle in the image), the cage at the top (top-1) is mounted with the normal mounting mechanism.

 

I also would recommend using additional fans to keep the temperatures down especially while parity checks run.

Edited November 25, 20205 yr by Luftgucker

Thanks for these, I have also been thinking about adding more drive bays to this case. I think I might put something in the 51/4 bays to take a bunch of 3.5in drives.

 

I have actually two of these cases the R1 and R2. I always found it odd that the R2 had less HDD bays but I guess that is the direction of travel with most systems.