Looking for tower case that has on/off switches for some Hdds

[Dari]

Looking for a tower case that has bays for 10-13 3.5" HDDs. I would like at least 6 of those bays to have an on/off switch for the HDDs. I used to have an ABS Tigas case that had hot-swappable bays so something like that would be great but not necessary. The majority of the bays will be used for backup/archiving purposes so they don't need to be on all the time. Any recommendations?

[kleinkinstein]

That's a shitload of hdd bays. Exactly what SuperMicro specializes in. Not the prettiest cases, but they can swallow hdd's like no other. Another option if you like big, custom and have a fat wallet is CaseLabs.

[Carson Dyle]

How much power does a spun-down hard drive draw? Your operating system's ability to power down drives isn't good enough?

[Dari]

Originally Posted by Carson Dyle

How much power does a spun-down hard drive draw? Your operating system's ability to power down drives isn't good enough?

It's not the power that's concerning but the fact that they are operational. I would prefer that they not be at the ready but in a sort of cold storage.

[Dari]

Also, I like the fact that, if I had other people with accounts on the computer, I could turn off the HDDs and lock that part of the computer and not have someone accessing its content.

[Carson Dyle]

Originally Posted by Dari

Also, I like the fact that, if I had other people with accounts on the computer, I could turn off the HDDs and lock that part of the computer and not have someone accessing its content.

That's what ACLs are for.

How would you expect to guard against unauthorized access when those drives are powered up????

[Dari]

Originally Posted by Carson Dyle

That's what ACLs are for.

How would you expect to guard against unauthorized access when those drives are powered up????

I just want it to be a passive, dumb protection. The person I don't want accessing it is the wife. I don't want the HDD icon(s) there everyday for her to look at and pique her curiosity. That will lead her to start asking questions, which could lead to arguments. I just want the HDDs to become available only when I'm archiving things. Once I'm done I shut them down and lock the computer. My wife will never notice the front of the computer being locked and, if she does, she will just assume that it is how the case was built. Also, if she was to get the key and unlock it, I doubt she would be interested in hitting switches, lest something horrible was to go wrong...

[infoiltrator]

Simple answer is set up something like toggle switches.
The interesting part would be to cut the power leads of the SATA connectors ans rewire them through the toggle switches. Each plug would have to be a separate circuit rather than a series though. IE, no power to plug one cannot affect plug two, etc.

Whether this will require some formal "HDD shutdown" before power off I do not know.
Personally, if she wants to know she willl, believe it.

I would suppose you could diguise the toggles as fan speed controlers.

[Carson Dyle]

Maybe you could even use a fan speed controller if it's capable of going to zero. The question is whether your system can deal with what is essentially hot swapping of the drives. Or maybe rebooting to bring up the drives is acceptable.

I think I'd just set up a separate file server and hide it somewhere. If you hide it well, she'll never even know you've collected 20 TB of German bukkake and animal porn. (Hiding backups from your wife... yeah, right.)

[Auric]

There are 4-5 in 3 backplanes in tray and trayless varieties with power switches. Some are reviewed at lime-technology forum, along with a list of tower cases with "top to bottom" 5.25" bays.

Whether going that route or just custom switches, the utility HotSwap! allows for "safe removal" with spindown (even if physically disconnecting in abscence of switches).

[Mfusick]

Originally Posted by Carson Dyle

How much power does a spun-down hard drive draw? Your operating system's ability to power down drives isn't good enough?

This

[Carson Dyle]

Read the rest of it. He wants to hide the drives from his wife. If she finds them, he'll be sleeping on the couch.

[PCTC2]

You could always get a 4 or 8 bay external eSATA/USB 3.0/SAS attached enclosure and just power the external enclosure down when you don't want to use the drives.

[Dari]

Originally Posted by PCTC2

You could always get a 4 or 8 bay external eSATA/USB 3.0/SAS attached enclosure and just power the external enclosure down when you don't want to use the drives.

what's the point if she can physically see it?



Posted from Anandtech.com App for Android

[Dari]

Originally Posted by Carson Dyle

Maybe you could even use a fan speed controller if it's capable of going to zero. The question is whether your system can deal with what is essentially hot swapping of the drives. Or maybe rebooting to bring up the drives is acceptable.

I think I'd just set up a separate file server and hide it somewhere. If you hide it well, she'll never even know you've collected 20 TB of German bukkake and animal porn. (Hiding backups from your wife... yeah, right.)

The computer case I'm using has hot-swap capability. Not sure why a new case wouldn't or why this is so hard to find. I would keep this case (ABS TIGAS) if it allowed for a server motherboard...

[infoiltrator]

Some people like complicated.

Power switches should work IF you only use them when computer is OFF.

[irse]

Not a tower case but I have used this before and it worked well

http://www.lian-li.com/v2/en/product...6&ss_index=125

[Dari]

Originally Posted by irse

Not a tower case but I have used this before and it worked well

http://www.lian-li.com/v2/en/product...6&ss_index=125

Thanks for that. It should work.