PC Case That Supports Many Hard Drives?

[Lucas]

Originally Posted by mayamaniac

A bit pricy for your price range, but this Thermaltake Armor case has serviced me well over the last 4 years I've own it. I have the one without the side panel fan, but it works well as long as you use these harddrive cages for all your drives. The case can hold up to 12 drives and well ventilated.

The OP did say that it shouldn't cost an arm and a leg.....

+1 on Thermaltake.

My current server is built on one of these Armor+ cases.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811133056

Was lucky to get it for ~$150 in my side of the world.
Currently 10 Drives in it with space for 6 more depending on the density of the drive cages I use.

[scanner95]

I user Cooler Master Stacker STC-T01. Here is the review:
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=890&page=1

[tmiranda]

Originally Posted by cord

Why d'you say that? I just built a system in one, and I have 6 1TB drives, 2 1.5TB, and a DVD-RW. It has 6 internal 3.5" bays and 3 5.25" external ones. I put hot swappable bays in two of the 5.25" bays and went all the way to 8 hard drives, as you can see.

You are right. I did not count the 5.25" bays.

[jpappas]

This is not the cheapest solution (Still cheaper than a 3U server case though), and it is only mid-tower, but I use an Antec Nine Hundred (~$100) with two 3x5 SAS/SATA cages (3 5.25" bays = 5 3.5" drive bays; ~$70 each). That leaves 3 5.25" bays for DVD/BD/another 3x5/a 2x3 & DVD/whatever, and still holds 10 hotswap drives (without using any of the 3 remaining 5.25's for disks or cages).

I am running Linux SW RAID+LVM so managing the space is pretty easy, and much cheaper than an 8 port HW RAID card.

[davephan]

I have a Lian Li PC-G70B full tower case, which is plain in appearance and black. The case holds six drives in an internal cage, and could hold another six drives in front drive bays. If two 4 in 3 bay adapters were used, the six front drive bays could hold 8 drives. There is also a lot of space inside the case that could hold several additional drive cages for at least 6 drives, maybe more. So, it wouldn't be hard to fit 20 drives in the Lian Li PC-G70B full tower case.

The case is no longer available, but there may be similar cases.

Here is a link to the Lian Li PC-G70B full tower case:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811112105

It's easy to get a case that holds many drives. I'm not sure what type of SATA RAID / controller card(s) you might need to use many drives, beyond the drive limit of the system board. The controller cards vary widely in price.

Dave

[PeteCress]

Originally Posted by stanger89

...go for the norco...

Pending somebody's approval of my migration strategy in the WHS forum, I think I will lay out the big bucks for the Norco case - albeit without RAID.

(Coincidentally, some sort of drive issue has surfaced and I have started a thread on it there: http://tinyurl.com/l9n3hw)

I don't really *need* 20 bays and $300+ is big bucks in my context.... but based on past experience I expect some overkill tb a good thing eventually.

Besides, I don't want my survivors to have *too* much fun....-)

[scat]

Originally Posted by stanger89

You want drive bays, go for the norco 4220, 20 hot-swap SATA trays
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1149005

Throw a 3ware 9690SA-4I and Chenbro SAS expander in and you're good to go

That's what I was planing to do but no one would comment on my hardware that I was interested in at this link: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...t#post16667222
from my link above

Anyone use either of the two following Raid cards in a current shipping motherboard?
Areca ARC-1680IX-8 - requires PCIe x8 slot
3ware 9690SA-4I-KIT - requires PCI Express slot

I plan on using the Chenbro AC CK13601 Expander Board
Compatible with PCI-E 4X,8X,16X & PCI, PCI-X slots on motherboard.

I wanted to build a Sage server with at least 3 tuners in it and raid system for all media storage and pc backups and all in one computer case, I was looking for a desktop motherboard and not a highend expensive server motherboard.

Scat

[heffe2001]

Originally Posted by tmiranda

+1 on the Thermaltake Armor. I have two and they are very good.

Also +1 on the Antec 300. I have one of those but it only holds 6 drives.

AND also +1 on the false economy of reusing many small, old, drives. I just "retired" one of my servers by replacing 11 old drives with 2 1.5GB SATA drives. As a result I have one unused Thermaltake Armor!

Tom

I'll also +1 on the 300, I have one, and stuck one of those Supermicro 5-in-3's in the top, for a total of 11 drives in my current Unraid setup. I'm starting to fill up the current array I have running (have about 500g-ish free now), but since I'm maxed on drives, I will most likely move over to an Antec 1200, or at the very least move the 300 to my desktop PC, and the 900 over to my unraid box with 2 more Supermicro arrays, for a total of 15 drives (20 on the 1200 if you go that route). The Antec cases are pretty darn good, I've had no problems out of them at all. The 300 also has a 200mm top fan, and I believe the 900 & 1200 have 250mm top fans.

[PeteCress]

Originally Posted by scat

I wanted to build a Sage server with at least 3 tuners in it....

I wanted four tuners and opted for two SiliconDust HDHomerun boxes (two tuners each).

Reasoning:

1. They live outside of the PC and connect via Ethernet, so it's easy to move them around.
2. Troubleshooting becomes easier bc a problem tuner can be accessed from another PC - eliminating the PC - or identifying it - as a problem source.

Not wanting to kick the brains out of my LAN with a possible 4 tuners spewing 20 mbps of OTA hi-def concurrently, I took an old router, layed out a few bucks for a NIC, and put the tuners on their own little LAN.

Theoretically, it could be done without the old router - using another NIC so that each HomeRun box was on it's own NIC, but I already had the router and also was not able to make it work with the multi-NIC approach.

Troubleshooting/moving is not compromised bc it's just a matter of unplugging a problem tuner from the mico-LAN and plugging it into the main router.

[Skirge01]

It sounds like you're heading down a similar path to the one I chose. Check out my sig for my build, but I went with a huge Lian-Li PC-343 case and added 2 Addonics 3in5 drive cages attached to an Addonics 5x1 SATA Port Multiplier. This allows a single SATA port to morph into 5. I'm currently at 13 internal drives, 10 of which are hot-swap. Theoretically, the case supports 6 3in5's, for a total of 30 hot-swap bays, plus 3 internal drives.

Truth is, though, I'll probably stop at 1 more 3in5 cage (if I ever get to that point) and then--eventually--start adding larger hard drives. At that point, I'll most likely use the smaller, older drives for duplication.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by scat

That's what I was planing to do but no one would comment on my hardware that I was interested in at this link: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...t#post16667222
from my link above


I wanted to build a Sage server with at least 3 tuners in it and raid system for all media storage and pc backups and all in one computer case, I was looking for a desktop motherboard and not a highend expensive server motherboard.

Scat

You should be able to stick a PCIe x8 card in a normal PCIe x16 slot. The 3ware ones might/probably will work in a PCIe x1 or x4 slot. I see they list x1 and x4 support for the 9650SE.

[heffe2001]

Hmm, never knew that card existed... Might have to pick up one of the 28 port versions, and an adaptec 3xx5 card to run it, and a Norco case to fit 'em all... It'd definitely make for a huge storage server...

I'll have to look into support for Unraid on those parts...

Originally Posted by scat

That's what I was planing to do but no one would comment on my hardware that I was interested in at this link: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...t#post16667222
from my link above


I wanted to build a Sage server with at least 3 tuners in it and raid system for all media storage and pc backups and all in one computer case, I was looking for a desktop motherboard and not a highend expensive server motherboard.

Scat

[Lucas]

Originally Posted by stanger89

You should be able to stick a PCIe x8 card in a normal PCIe x16 slot. The 3ware ones might/probably will work in a PCIe x1 or x4 slot. I see they list x1 and x4 support for the 9650SE.

Stanger, are you sure that let's say a 9650SE-8, which is PCIe-4x can be sloted in a PCIe-1x. The way I read their documentation is that the 2 port model is for PCIe-1x, the 4 and 8 port models are 4x and above that are PCIe-8x.

Can you please clarify what you meant? It could make my day.

This is one of the most difficult issues since most mobos only have 1 PCIex16 slot which is usually for the video card. The ones with both x16 and x4 or x8 slots usually don't have old styly PCI slots which we need for our legacy PCI tuners.

I haven't gone to hardware raid on my SageTV server for this reason.

I 've seen that some video card makers have started releasing PCIe-X1 cards so that the PCIeX16 slot can be released for more meaining full duties, like a raid controller.

[Skirge01]

Originally Posted by Lucas

Stanger, are you sure that let's say a 9650SE-8, which is PCIe-4x can be sloted in a PCIe-1x. The way I read their documentation is that the 2 port model is for PCIe-1x, the 4 and 8 port models are 4x and above that are PCIe-8x.

Only the 9650SE-2LP is usable in an x1 slot. The 4 and 8 port versions are x4 and the 12, 16, and 24 ports versions are all x8. See here. I'm guessing Stanger was talking about the 2 port version. You can go the other way, meaning that an x4 card will work in an x8 or x16 slot, but the x4 won't work in an x1 slot. It's all about having enough lanes for the traffic.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by Skirge01

Only the 9650SE-2LP is usable in an x1 slot. The 4 and 8 port versions are x4 and the 12, 16, and 24 ports versions are all x8. See here. I'm guessing Stanger was talking about the 2 port version. You can go the other way, meaning that an x4 card will work in an x8 or x16 slot, but the x4 won't work in an x1 slot. It's all about having enough lanes for the traffic.

But what if it's an x16 physical slot electrically x1? PCIe specs recommend all slots be physical x16 just like the Mac Pro.

[Skirge01]

Physical attributes mean nothing. They need to be electrically matched to the card, so you'll need to check your mobo specs. In fact, each slot probably even has it silk screened on the mobo. For example, even though you could fill a tank with regular gasoline, you couldn't match up a diesel engine with that fuel and expect things to work.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by Skirge01

Physical attributes mean nothing. They need to be electrically matched to the card, so you'll need to check your mobo specs. In fact, each slot probably even has it silk screened on the mobo. For example, even though you could fill a tank with regular gasoline, you couldn't match up a diesel engine with that fuel and expect things to work.

Not necessarily. I believe a card is supposed to be backwards compatible in that an x16 card should be able to go into a physical x16 slot that is only electrically x4. You see this all the time with multi-GPU systems where the slot is not actually x16 when SLI is enabled. A PCIe card should be able to negotiate with however many lanes it has available to it. This is also why we have open ended slots. Example: I have a motherboard with an open-ended x4 slot. Because of this it will accept an x8 or x16 card but will only provide an electrical x4 connection because of its size.

[Skirge01]

Yes, that's fine for GPUs built to work within the specs of a slower PCI-e slot, but we're dealing with a RAID card. If the manufacturer states that an x4 or x8 slot is required, they mean it.

[Lucas]

Originally Posted by Skirge01

Yes, that's fine for GPUs built to work within the specs of a slower PCI-e slot, but we're dealing with a RAID card. If the manufacturer states that an x4 or x8 slot is required, they mean it.

Well, I recall that some RAID cards of yesteryear were PCI-X 64bit cards but also worked in plain vanilla PCI slots. In that case manufacters' statements had to do with what to use to get maximum performance.

It's just a matter of implementation.

I think the most sensible solution for headless servers is to get a PCIe 1X video card and leave the PCIe 16X slot for a good RAID card.

[loomdog32]

My last rebuild (to combine my unRaid box and Sage box), I changed mobo, and case..

DFI LanParty LT X48 and Tagan Case..

I already had all the other componets and wanted a mobo that would take a quad when i upgraded the cpu..

Im running 11 SATA HDD (5 internal and 6 in 2 2x3 backplanes) and 1 SATA Optical Drive. I needed to install a fan in front and behind the internal HDD cages. Other than that, Its been a great upgrade.. And under $200 shipped when I purchased it from NewEgg