home server cases

[Byblyk]

Hey,

I'm going to build myself a home server to house all my media files, manage my backups, push out all my updates and host a few sites. I wondered if anybody has heard of a small case that would have at least 4 hot swap drive bays.

The only one i could find is the Chenbro ES34069Does anybody else know of any other cases that would give me these features? I like this case alot but i would just like to have some more options.

Thanks.

 

[Zepper]

The Silverstone Kublai series come with one 4-drive hot plug/hot swap cage for SATA. You do need to get three extra HP/HS connector brackets (CP05 at about $5. each) as the cases only come with one. Or you can mod the cage (CFP-52 at ~$30. each at Newegg et al.) only slightly to fit most cases. AFAIK, that's the cheapest Hot Swap solution. Other HS cages are available with up to 5 drives at twice or more the price, but they are also more heavy duty and you may have to mod you case to make them fit as some require the 3 contiguous bays to have flat sides or rail mounts. The Silverstone solution totals out at around $50 with a full set of HS connector brackets.

.bh.

 

[mpilchfamily]

You don't have to have a server case. You can use any full or mid tower that is able to acomidate the number of drives you want to use. You can even fill the 5.25" bays with hot swapable drive cages. I think a good case would be the Antec 1200.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16811129043

The case has 12 5.25" bays. 3 of which are for internal HDD but that gives you allot of room to stack the case with hot swapable drive cages.

 

[Byblyk]

Thanks for the responces guys. I did check out the Silverstone and Antec options and i do like them(i have an Antec P180 for my PC right now). I'm going to be using an atom processor so i need a case that would support a mini-ITX mobo that is what makes this a bit tricky.

 

[Zepper]

Mini ITX mounting holes are just a subset of ATX and microATX most case mfr's don't even think of mentioning ITX in a normal size case as so few would use it that way (don't you have a toaster or something to mod it into? ;-) ) (few are even aware of miniITX at all except on techie sites like this) though most any case will hold ITX just fine.

This new Rosewill: http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16811147105 (looks like the all black ver. is already OOS - it's the same as the recent Silverstone PS-01) would work fine as would the RZS series if you don't need any 5" devices in it. The Antec Nine Hundred and pretty much any case with all 5" bays in the front if you do need some 5" devices. You just toss out the stock HDD rack and put in a "Kublai Kage" (c) BH 2007 instead.

.bh.

 

[mooseracing]

If you want a fullsize case with Mini itx support and hot swap drive cages you are going to have to mount the mini itx board yourself. Make the mounts I mean, which is just drilling some different holes and moving the pegs where you need.

I have a hand customized 1U case that has 3 mini Itx baords in it with hot swap cages, I couldn't find a stand case for them.

As far as hot swapping I would buy a tower with at least 3x5.25" bays, then add a Supermicro Drive cage. It uses 3 x5.25" bays to mount 5 hot swaphard drives (iirc).

I would definately go for a larger case for cooling, multple HD's close together in that Chenbro case are going to get warm to say the least.



edit: forgot to mention, mini-itx is only 4 mounts. So it is very easy to modify a case to fit it. The only whing that is annoying in the I/O panel.