is it just me, or do cases suck nowdays?

[Red Squirrel]

I was looking for a plain looking case with lot of places for fans, and lot of room for HDDs. Sadly, I can't find a single one. It seems most cases now are premodded, have no or little front cooling, and not much options as far as servers go, like if I wanted to have 10 HDDs, I can't, no case seems to support more then maybe 5 and thats pushing it by putting them all on top of each other.

Am I maybe just not looking at the right places? Anyone know of a Canadian internet site that specializes in cases?

 

[Rubycon]

Flip the fans around and they will stop sucking.
Of course then you'll have a case that blows.

 

[legoman666]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16811112057 ?

Hard drives don't need to be kept cool. So stack em high!

failure rates did not correspond to drive usage except in very young and old drives (i.e. heavy data "grinding" is not a significant factor in failure); and there is less correlation between drive temperature and failure rates than might have been expected, and drives that are cooled excessively actually fail more often than those running a little hot.

http://www.engadget.com/2007/0...ery-interesting-thing/
http://hardware.slashdot.org/a...02/18/0420247&from=rss

 

[Rubycon]

Originally posted by: legoman666

Hard drives don't need to be kept cool. So stack em high!

Yes the most certainly do need cooling. Drives are like cpu's in they have two distinct temperature points - idle and heavy loading (constant seeking). If a drive runs at temperatures over 55°C constantly it's not going to be happy. Drives in mobile racks, backplanes, etc. absolutely need active cooling or they will go way over 55°C even when idle! Enterprise 15K drives are very susceptible to overheating in these conditions.

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

Originally posted by: Rubycon
Flip the fans around and they will stop sucking.
Of course then you'll have a case that blows.

:laugh: That was great!

 

[Rike]

Originally posted by: Rubycon
Flip the fans around and they will stop sucking.
Of course then you'll have a case that blows.

LOL'ed that one. 10/10

 

[DerwenArtos12]

Originally posted by: Rubycon
Flip the fans around and they will stop sucking.
Of course then you'll have a case that blows.

9/10, you set the bar pretty high with your digital troll.

@OP Sounds to me like you need a stacker 810.

 

[LOUISSSSS]

http://www.mountainmods.com/u2...riginal-top-p-431.html (holds up to 18 hdds) + (9x120mm fans)
http://www.performance-pcs.com...=204&products_id=22332 (holds up to 10 hdds) + (6 x 120mm fans)

which "old" cases are better than these, if these cases suck "nowadays"

 

[DerwenArtos12]

Originally posted by: LOUISSSSS
http://www.mountainmods.com/u2...riginal-top-p-431.html (holds up to 18 hdds) + (9x120mm fans)
http://www.performance-pcs.com...=204&products_id=22332 (holds up to 10 hdds) + (6 x 120mm fans)

which "old" cases are better than these, if these cases suck "nowadays"

ooh, A70, good case!

I'm kinda partial to the A17 just for greater versatility but, really tough to beat the PC7 at $70 IMHO.

 

[legoman666]

Originally posted by: Rubycon

Originally posted by: legoman666

Hard drives don't need to be kept cool. So stack em high!

Yes the most certainly do need cooling. Drives are like cpu's in they have two distinct temperature points - idle and heavy loading (constant seeking). If a drive runs at temperatures over 55°C constantly it's not going to be happy. Drives in mobile racks, backplanes, etc. absolutely need active cooling or they will go way over 55°C even when idle! Enterprise 15K drives are very susceptible to overheating in these conditions.

did you even click the links I posted?

 

[Baked]

I have two Antec cases, SLK3000B and Solo. Both are affordable cases w/ excellent construction and cooling. If you're gonna use the case just for HDs, you can buy CD bay cages that will let you put in 5 HDs per 3 CD bay.

 

[trOver]

Any decent sized LL ftw

 

[Zepper]

The Rosewill R5600 and R6A are both high value cases that aren't too blingy and don't need more than two or three fans to cool properly. Plus you'll have plenty of money left to rig an external hard drive array out of a cheap case like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16811164079 or its black twin . That will give you 12 drives or more (using some of the many HDD cages out there starting at $20.00) in the array plus another 4 or 5 in the main case. Should be enough for anyone, and keeps some bucks in your wallet to help pay for all those danged drives, etc.

.bh.

 

[Rubycon]

Originally posted by: legoman666

did you even click the links I posted?

Sorry but I trust engineers that have been designing the disk systems over that article.

 

[DerwenArtos12]

A 100,000 drive server farm is honestly a bad way to test off the shelf personal use hard drives. And please note that they said "excessive cooling over running a little hot" I did not read the entire article but, thats neither a very scientific claim nor one that says much. Most drives are designed to run in the 30-40C range. So one being pushed to 20C is more likely to fail than one runing 42C. It's all about how far out of specs it's being run, not which direction. Their conclusion that failure rates weren't directly correlated to usage is IMHO poppycock. The drives were in googles server farm, what drive in googles server farm has access rates any where near as low as my mothers 80gb drive that runs 24/7 and gets used weekly for 30 minutes at best? These are consumer drives and while thats an extreme end of the usage spectrum, compare that to an enthusiast who's on their computer daily, for a few hours, and runs some kind of number crunching when they're not on the computer, hd access is going to be constant, though actual data is going to be low while the user isn't present. I do have to agree with their conclusions about smart not detecting anywhere near enough hard drive issues. It's whole purpose is to detect hard drive errors, I've had drives clicking that won't boot into the OS that smart says are fine, useless IMHO.

 

[smthmlk]

lian li pc-a17. lots of fans, lots of hd space. $165-180.

 

[heymrdj]

As for being co-manager of RTG Lynx's datacenter installments for about 6 months, i can say that without a doubt rubycon is 100% spot on, cooling is dire.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Lian Li is known for making decent cases, anyone know of a Canadian online store that sells a lot of them? I'm just curious for next time I need a case. Even debating replacing my swish cheese case if I upgrade my server. I just have a whole bunch of totally randomly placed custom fan holes, its the loudest and ugliest thing.

Those drive cages sound interesting too. 5 drives in a 3 bay area.

 

[Quiksilver]

ncix.com has Lian Li cases.

 

[heymrdj]

Oh and I meant to say, I really really like the A17

 

[Zepper]

Don't you love the types that don't read things re. cooling w/o a critical eye, just buy them hook, line and sinker even if it flies against conventional wisdom (perhaps even more so if it does). So please don't stop cooling your drives, but not too much as you want the lubricants to be something above room temperature for proper working.

.bh.

 

[gpgofast]

In my new Rocketfish(Lian Li) case, I am running 4 drives. The three drives, all SATA, closest to the drive cooling fan never exceed 40 degree C, while the single drive( an older PATA) behind the 3 will hit 45 degree C occasionally. Under non loaded uses, the single drive generally runs the same temperature or cooler than most of the drives in front of the fan by a few degrees. I don't know if it because the drive is older or what. One of the SATA drives is a WD 1TB GreenPower and it runs 3-4 degrees cooler than the drives in the same rack. That said, I think the Rocketfish case is MORE than adequate for proper drive cooling with its stock fan placement. I'm running these in a Windows HomeServer. Even theough they have a reduced performance, I will be buying additional WD GP drives for this application. GP

 

[Red Squirrel]

Also here's an interesting one, do HDDs have a higher failure rate if they are vertical vs horizontal? Since the arm motor has to force more to bring the arm up. Or is it balanced in a way where this does not matter?

 

[Red Squirrel]

Originally posted by: Quiksilver
ncix.com has Lian Li cases.

Actually yeah saw that, guess I was not looking well enough, I was looking specifically for those. There's a couple that seem very decent specially if I could find some of those cages that can hold 5 drives in the 3 drive bays, I could put like over 10 drives in a case. Always nice to have room for expansion.

 

[Zepper]

The rear drives in the RF case get very little air to begin with (with no drives installed, I put my hand inside the first cage and felt lots of air - put hand in second cage and felt very little. Plus the air the 2nd cage receives is pre-heated by the drives in the first cage. I figure that's a good use for the fan in the side fan housing (as it does precious little good the way it comes). Mount the rear HDD cage a bit farther back and rig a fan mount in between. Rig the extra fan in there somehow running at 5 to 7V. Rear HDDs be much happier...

.bh.