Storage Chassis

[I_D]

I am looking for some good alternative chassis for lots of 3.5" drives.
Supermicro SC846-SAS2 and Norco cases are impossible to find here in Europe.
Ebay refurbised cases are fine, as long as I can ship them from somewhere in EU.
Shipping overseas is simply too expensive and adds extra tax to the final bill as well.

For this chassis, I am looking at a max budget of 500 euro (600 USD).

edit: As this seems to be a question I get from a lot of fellow Europeans, I am going to compile some the suggestions in the OP.

MUST HAVE features:

• rack mountable
• 16 or more bays, 12 at the very least
• SGPIO support

WOULD BE NICE TO HAVE features:

• SAS2 backplane to reduce the cable clutter
  
• ATX power supply support

Thanks in advance for your help.

Suggestions so far:

2U
Lenovo SA120 / 12 bays + 4x 2.5 (alex1002) ~ not available

4U
HGST 4U60 / 60 bays (Rahvin9999) ~ not available
Inter-Tech IPC 4U-4424 / 24 bays (i386) ~500 €
Logic Case SC-4324 (norco RPC4224 clone) / 24 bays (pricklypunter) ~350 €

 

[alex1002]

I have one of these. Not bad. They are only sas 3gb. Performance matters on your raid card. Dual power supply with dual controller support.

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[alex1002]

Try to find the newer.gen ones. If you buying now. Md1220 I believe.

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[alex1002]

I can pick up the MD1000 for about 200 euro, new model you listed is at least 4x more expensive.

Are you able find a Lenovo SA120?


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[I_D]

Are you able find a Lenovo SA120?

Thanks for the suggestion, there are none to be found in Europe on ebay at the moment.
Does looks like an interesting chassis, will add it to my watchlist and have included it into the OP.
Any other suggestions for a good chassis that can be found in EU?
I don't mind shipping it in from Germany, UK, or wherever, as long as it is not too expensive (ideally sub 500 eur)

 

[i386]

SC846-SAS2 and Norco cases are impossible to find here in Europe.

Norco is the name for these chassis in the Americas, in Europe they are sold as Intertech (and some as Xcase in the UK).

 

[alex1002]

Can you find supermicro ones?

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[I_D]

Can you find supermicro ones?

only the usual 8 bay ones and they are expensive.
There are some SC846 for sale in Germany, but they are always the SAS1 versions
I thought about getting one and upgrading them with a SAS2 backplane, but those cost too much (500 euro+) and can only be ordered from outside EU, turning this into an almost 1000 euro chassis when all is said and done, twice the budget.

 

[Rahvin9999]

HGST 4U60 works great.
They are available every now and then.

Have 2 running here. Also have 2 of the newer G2 version. But im going to get rid of them because they make more noise then the G1 version. According to feedback from HGST support the enclosure and PSU's are the same. The controllers are new and have been made with new firmware which has a different fan profile for disks that run hotter.

 

[I_D]

HGST 4U60 works great.
They are available every now and then.

Have 2 running here. Also have 2 of the newer G2 version. But im going to get rid of them because they make more noise then the G1 version. According to feedback from HGST support the enclosure and PSU's are the same. The controllers are new and have been made with new firmware which has a different fan profile for disks that run hotter.

Yeah I just saw the thread in Great Deals, subscribed to it and added that enclosure to my watch list on ebay.
Thanks for the tip, I have included it in the OP.
Are you selling/shipping any of yours in the EU? if so, send me a pm please.

 

[I_D]

Norco is the name for these chassis in the Americas, in Europe they are sold as Intertech (and some as Xcase in the UK).

Good tip, I knew about Xcase (actually the case is almost always sold out there, I have it on backorder now).
Intertech I did not know about, and will look into now.

edit: found the site, added your suggestion to OP

Thanks!

 

[pricklypunter]

You can get the Logic Case SC-4324S (4U x 24 bays) from Server Case UK for £249 plus vat. Which as I remember is a Norco/IPC variant. I haven't used one personally, so don't know if it's decent or not, but it's most likely more than good enough to get you going

These are mini-SAS backplanes though, not expander, but that's actually a good thing in my book, well for a single chassis anyway

 

[I_D]

You can get the Logic Case SC-4324S (4U x 24 bays) from Server Case UK for £249 plus vat. Which as I remember is a Norco/IPC variant. I haven't used one personally, so don't know if it's decent or not, but it's most likely more than good enough to get you going

These are mini-SAS backplanes though, not expander, but that's actually a good thing in my book, well for a single chassis anyway

Yeah I double checked and I actually had an email in with them not x-case, waiting for them to get back in stock, they are always out of the good models. (the long versions)
Thanks for the suggestion, I will add it to the OP.

 

[Mishka]

HGST 4U60 works great.
They are available every now and then.

Have 2 running here. Also have 2 of the newer G2 version. But im going to get rid of them because they make more noise then the G1 version. According to feedback from HGST support the enclosure and PSU's are the same. The controllers are new and have been made with new firmware which has a different fan profile for disks that run hotter.

Whats the noise level like on those things? i've been trying to keep my eye out for them for a while but not spotted any cropping up

 

[Rahvin9999]

Whats the noise level like on those things? i've been trying to keep my eye out for them for a while but not spotted any cropping up

G1 units are relatively quiet. I have them in a rack in my storage room. When I close the door you cant hear them anymore.
G2 units are much louder. The fans do not spin down as much as on the G1 units so they are quite audible. Its subjective but you would need at least 2 doors between you and them, probably more.

 

[EffrafaxOfWug]

It's pricier than the Logic Case SC-4324 pricklypunter suggested, but there's also the SC-4824 which uses 6Gb/s SAS and standard ATX PSUs.

Rundown of the rest of the cheap'n'cheerful Norco stuff under the Logic Case marque at their sub-site here although it's light on technical info (e.g. SGPIO support) and I don't see the 4824 on the Norco site either;
Products List | Quality Rackmount Industrial Server Chassis and Components | Hot-Swap Servers | Logic Case Not a customer yet but been eyeing up the old 3U model as a backup server.

(Only know UK vendors I'm afraid so not sure how much shipping to the continent might be)

I previously bought some of the Inwin rackmounts (specifically the very compact RS212-02SN) for a client from these guys which I was pleasantly surprised with in terms of build quality vs. price, although Server Case UK no longer seem to stock them.

 

[Lennong]

I can recommend the Logic Case SC-4324. I bought one a few months ago and couldn't be happier. First thing I did was to cut out bigger holes in the fan wall and drop in 3 Noctua NF-A14 industrialPPC 3000rpm fans instead. Did some work on seal the wall as well so the fans would pull all the air through the front. They are simply amazing fans with a range from 700rpm (dead silent) to 3000rpm and boy can they move air.. After some testing I got the fan profiles pretty well adapted for a living-room rack. Intel S2600CP2J, dual Xeon e5-2670v1 + a bunch of WD Red 8TB disks. CPU's almost never goes over 60C and the disks hovers on 32-37C. Great setup!

 

[wouitmil]

Hi

I also have a SC-4824 but I'm not able to find a working PSU. I tried with ATX psu, but the power is too weak for 24 disks running full power.

Any advice about this?

Kind regards

Hadrien

 

[Rand__]

I tried with ATX psu, but the power is too weak for 24 disks running full power.

Thats unlikely unless you put them all on the same power rail and didnt use staggered spin up...
Which ATX psu did you use?

 

[psc]

I started with a 4220 from X-Case, and I'm now on a pair of 846. The 4220 is sitting unused; I just had too many reliability problems with a couple of the bays. The design & build quality is incomparable. Bargains on 846 do come up, even in the UK, and if you can at all afford to wait for one I'd advise it over the x-case (unless they've improved markedly). From memory I got the last chassis new, with a dual 6G expander backplane, for well under £300. The biggest problem is that the big supermicro stockists really aren't great at dealing with individuals on a one-off basis.

FYI, I've alse had problems running lots of disks on an ATX PSU (with staggered spin-up). Working through the specs, the most likely culprit was actually the 5V rail, not the 12V: the total 5V inrush current from drive specs was way over what the PSU supported, and I'm guessing that's to the electronics not the motors.