External 5.25" Enclosure w/ 3+ Bays

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Unas810

New Member
Aug 19, 2018
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0
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Has anyone been able to source an external multi-bay 5.25" enclosure recently? I have only seen them advertised a few times but they've always been out of stock / discontinued when I inquire about ordering one.

I need 3+ bays for optical drives, specifically Blu-Ray drives. Internal BR drives tend to perform better than external BR drives when it comes to ripping content, in my experience. I encounter fewer encryption issues with internal drives compared to my external drive. I have 1,000+ discs to backup, hence the desire for at least 3 drive bays.

My setup has grown organically, in retrospect I definitely should have gone with a rack cabinet but I didn't expect my hobby to move along at this pace. Common story I'd imagine ;-) I do plan to switch to a rack cabinet in the next 2-5 years. I just upgraded a fair bit of kit (APC UPS non-mountable, 2x U-NAS 810A cases for Server + JBOD, consumer router & switch, new metal shelving to hold said hardware, etc. ), I just can't justify re-buying these things until I've put some miles on them.

That being said, I don't want to keep buying consumer hardware if there is a rack mountable option that would work, on a shelf, until I get a cabinet. I have no idea, is it a terrible idea to run a 2U server on a shelf? I've read they can be noisy, can that be tamed with PWM and Noctua, or similar, fans? I have a spare mATX board, i7, 16GB, 500GB M.2, etc. so I believe I could turn a 2U or 3U case into a standalone 4-6 bay ripping (no-encoding) machine that wouldn't likely ever see high temps...

I'd love to hear input from members that are a lot more experienced with server racks... Is this stupid idea? :)

Thanks everyone, lurking on this forum has been incredibly helpful.
 

gregsachs

Active Member
Aug 14, 2018
559
192
43
This might sound stupid, but...
What about a SAS tape drive box? Those can be gotten for $20 on the bay....
Might need to do some internal modifications to get multiple drives, like add an expander, but...
 

Unas810

New Member
Aug 19, 2018
2
0
1
"+getMessage("iPrintVerKit")+"

I've got this in a 5 bay version. I can't seem to find where I bought the 5-bay version though. PC-Pitstop has the 8 bay and servercase.com has the 2-bay.

Edit: "+getMessage("iPrintVerKit")+"
You are awesome, that's exactly what I need. I was able to find the 5-bay on Amazon for $70 with a power supply:

https://www.amazon.com/Copystars-Du...535062911&sr=8-3&keywords=dvd+duplicator+case

This way I can just use an SFF 8088->SFF 8087 adapter card -> SATA breakout cables. Cheap and simple! Thanks again