Question Cases with 360mm top rad mount?

[shabby]

Looking for cases with space to mount a 360mm ran on the top panel, so far i found the meshify 2,
silent base 802, corsair 5000d and phanteks eclipse p500a. Any other out there i should be looking at? Any preferences?

 

[Tech Junky]

meshify 2

That's what I have currently. No rad but the case. It's a nice case and you could put it in the front as well.

Have you checked PCPartPicker.com ? If you pick the cooler it will limit the cases for you to what fits.

 

[shabby]

Have you checked PCPartPicker.com ? If you pick the cooler it will limit the cases for you to what fits.

Interesting feature, didn't think of that.

 

[Tech Junky]

Works well for taking most of the guess work out of this sort of thing. Always verify though that things will fit through the manual /measurements.

 

[shabby]

Yup its very handy.

Ok the meshify 2 is out, the additional hd storage pullout cage completely blocks gpu's larger than 11.5" and my 3080 is 12", unless i go with the meshify 2 xl. The 5000d is also out since it just supports two 3.5" hdd's.
The 802 and p500a seem to have these cages that you can vary the height to go above or below the gpu.

 

[Tech Junky]

See I like the HDD tower and don't use a GPU as it's a headless server for multiple purposes. I'm guessing you're running yours as a file share as well?

 

[shabby]

Yup have a few hd's that need a place to stay.

 

[ccryder]

I had to buy this monstrosity because of hard drive space. Huge and Heavy.

https://www.corsair.com/us/en/Categories/Products/Cases/Super-Tower-and-Full-Tower-Cases/7000D-AIRFLOW-Full-Tower-ATX-PC-Case/p/CC-9011218-WW

 

[Tech Junky]

Yup have a few hd's that need a place to stay.

You know you could take the GPU/cooler + HDD's and build it on PCP and narrow things even more. Build your current system w/o the case and see what's left for contenders. The other option might be splitting the HDD's off into an enclosure or cage to relocate them somewhere more constrained. There are some cages that hold 5x3.5" that fit into the space you would use for 3x5.25" drives in the front. If you flipped it on its side it might fit under the shroud of the Meshify 2 or another case.

Another option is getting creative by using alternative means of securing things. I had to do this in a Node 804 when I decided to dive into mining w/ dual GPU's that heated up the whole case. I added a couple of extra fans tot he bottom shroud using zip ties to draw more air in from the bottom. The space on the bottom shroud though can squeeze 2-3 HDD's across it depending on the orientation. Sometimes there's a big enough gap behind the MOBO and side panel though in most cases it's restricted to 2.5" drives.

If you go outside of the box you can make any case work for what you want it to do as long as it fits your 360 somewhere.

 

[shabby]

I do have a spare computer in the basement where I could dump all the hard drives but I notice when I stream through jellyfin it transcodes every movie, the computer in the basement is just a 2500k that probably can't pull that off. So ya maybe when i figure that out I can hide all the hdds in the basement and get any case.

 

[Tech Junky]

I would put the drives in the old case and just run gig ethernet to the PC with jellyfin to process the transcoding w/ the more powerful CPU / GPU and then focus on the case you want in the daylight as you said.

Setup the old PC w/ Linux and share the drives w/ SMB. Cheaper than buying a NAS that does the same functionality w/ a crappy CPU in it.

It's still a PITA to deal with the 360 rad though due to size you'll still have a full / mid size ATX just to put the cooler in. Now, if you dropped down to a 240 you'd have a ton more options. If you went 240 you could keep everything in a Meshify 2. Just a thought.

 

[shabby]

I think i figured out the transcoding issue, so i'll be able to dump all the hdds in the basement, nas can go fcuk itself lol
I already bought the 360 rad so thats why i needed the case, deal was too good to pass up.

 

[Tech Junky]

Makes sense then if you already have the part. I totally agree on the NAS as I built my own into the PC/server that does multiple things like Plex/media/Nas/router/firewall/AP and some other things. NAS are for less technical folks or those just starting out. They have some obvious flaws though.

 

[shabby]

Diy nas done, can't believe 10 bay boxes cost $1200
Talk about getting off topic, i settled on the 802 case, really like the built in fan controller.

 

[Tech Junky]

Yeah, and for that $1200 you get barebones performance parts to move data and nothing else. It's just a pretty enclosure. Maybe you save a couple of bucks annually on a lower power draw but it's limited to a single function at best.

 

[shabby]

Nevermind picked up the meshify xl with its 16 hdd capacity, the transcoding issue comes back after 10 minutes of watching movies and basically saturates the cpu and freezes the movie 🤦🏼‍♂️

 

[Tech Junky]

saturates the cpu and freezes the movie

It might be the player that's the issue. I switched to one of these - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08YYTVKGZ from Google / Roku and it works a bit better at handling 4K / Atmos files. Google was fine to an extent but triggered transcoding more than Roku. Roku ultimate / roku TV worked fine though for most items.

The other side of it though might be in the details of your build. I don't use a GPU in my setup and if it needs transcoding it just uses the iGPU built into the CPU. The prior build using a 8700K handled it but, the 12700K handles it quite well.

 

[shabby]

The player is my Sony 900h tv, when I stream from my 5600x system it's fine but the old 2500k just struggles. Anyway I already got the case, space for 16 drives 😁