need mass storage case for ten drives

[Steve]

I need a case that will house ten 15k UltraStars. I'm planning to put five on each channel, with 2x four in RAID 10 arrays and each fifth as a hot spare. I only want a box to put the drives in, not the motherboard - instead I want to put this thing in a closet or another room and connect it to the host computer via cables, since it's going to be pretty noisy I'm sure. I think I'd have a little peace of mind if the drives are spaced out a bit, considering how hot they run. Any suggestions as to specific models? I've looked at a couple of makers (Supermicro, Enlight) but I'm not quite finding exactly what I want.

 

[IntegraGSR]

this is what i would do in your situation.

get a couple pieces of flat metal (anything will do) cut 4 pieces that are 30-35cm high by about 10cm wide.. drill holes to hold the hdds, leave enough space between them for an extra hdd (about 3") so they dont kill each other with heat.. set the 2 stacks of hdds in the closet and put some kind of housefan next to them..

for your situation i think getting a case would be a waste, especially when this would cost a lot less and take 10-20 minutes. not to mention how much easier it'll be to cool them the 1st way. :thumbsup:

 

[Maluno]

holy sh*****! TEN 15k ultrastars?!? What do you need all of them for?

 

[Steve]

Teaching myself a few things I got a lot of them cheap or free so I figured why not?

 

[imported_Kensai]

Lian Li V2000B. Very nice case. Can hold up to 12 drives. It also comes with a 12cm fan to cool them. You'll need to upgrade the fan though.

 

[Steve]

Does it have an Ultra160 backplane?

 

[jaedaliu]

you can put in the backplane yourself in the PCI slots. Any case with enough HD mounts would work. I remember when I worked for a computer company we sold machines with ?15? hard drives in them to internet archive. I can't remember how many it was, but we put them in a 4U case. Man, those were big orders, we had the salespeople and software people coming out to the warehouse to help assemble the machines.

If you put it in your closet, you might need to change the doors so there's some ventilation. My parents had their satelite dish box, cable modem, and router in their closet, and the wooden shelf in the closet warped from the heat. They ended up cutting out 2 of the top squares from the closet door, and replacing the shelf.

 

[Chode Messiah]

Lian-li offers both the V-2000 and the V-2100 both hold 12 drives

 

[Zepper]

You can get a couple of 5-drive hot-swap cages and put them in any case.

Here are some good SCSI vendors:

http://www.hypermicro.com (may offer free ground shipping if you mention www.storagereview.com - check the SR site for the latest offer)
http://www.centrix-intl.com
http://www.pc-pitstop.com (offers PayPal as a payment option)
http://www.scsi4me.com (ditto)
http://www.etech4sale.com
and I can usually find stuff (like drives, cables and adapters) for low bucks on eBay.

------------------------------------------------
.bh.

 

[Zepper]

I also found a 5U server case in the clearance area at mwave.com. It's supposed to have an SCA backplane in it but I don't know for how many drives (or whether LVD or SE support) and it's hard to find other details or specs. IAC, it's only $100. and it has wheels... Maybe you could find out more if you called mwave directly or foxconn/casedge.

. Let us know when you've found what you're looking for.

.bh.

 

[Corporate Thug]

CM stacker?

 

[Jen]

if your good at modding cases i have a couple AT server cases that have 10 full size bays. these things are heavy so shipping would be expensive


i also have one AT server i converted to ATX ,


hugs

Jen