Looking for SFF hotswap case/options

Notice: Page may contain affiliate links for which we may earn a small commission through services like Amazon Affiliates or Skimlinks.

Mithril

Active Member
Sep 13, 2019
354
106
43
So, the ideal case or DIY solution for what I am trying to do:
1) All SFF (2.5in) bays
1.1) All Bays are at minimum SATA3
1.2) Some/All bays being SAS/SATA is a bonus
1.3) Having some bays that also do U.2 Would be super nice, depending on price delta
1.4) Unified backplane is not required, I have an unused SAS expander
2) Case size 2U-4U, rails should be available for a reasonable price or generic mounting options
3) Room for an mATX board, or if there is U.2 support a full ATX
4) Any replacement/spare parts should be either industry standard or readily available on ebay (PSUs, drive sleds, etc)
5) Total cost should make sense compared to getting a Dell 730xd, so around 24 SFF bays for around 500 or less? (I see decent ones going for 800 to 1000 so I'm figuring another 400-500 for an equivalent-ish board, cpu(s) and ram)

Most of what I've found looking here seems to either be LFF or just disk shelves, but if I've missed threads feel free to just point me at them.

Edit: I don't need *exactly* 24SFF bays, 16+ would do it, more is nice but if a (for example) 20 bay solution is half the cost of a 24 bay one, I'd be inclined to go with the 20 bay one.
 
Last edited:

Rand__

Well-Known Member
Mar 6, 2014
6,626
1,767
113
So why is a used Supermicro 216 not going to work? Get a cheap one and or combine with a NVME backplane for another 200 bucks and off you go
 

Mithril

Active Member
Sep 13, 2019
354
106
43
So why is a used Supermicro 216 not going to work? Get a cheap one and or combine with a NVME backplane for another 200 bucks and off you go
Didn't spot that one, looks like it could work. Unfortunately, since all the listings sub $500 that I see are SAS2 only, buying the SAS3 upgrade knocks the price up higher. Might need to keep an eye out for a good listing. Any other suggestions to watch ebay for?
 

Rand__

Well-Known Member
Mar 6, 2014
6,626
1,767
113
Get an -A backplane, should be available relatively cheap.
Or the NVME enabled one, that does SAS3 too
 

Mithril

Active Member
Sep 13, 2019
354
106
43
Hmm, thanks for the link. So I'd be looking for the case (+ trays and PSUs) for around 260 including shipping to hit the "about 500 or less", does that seem like a reasonable price for "It may show up, keep watching ebay"? Or should I consider other options at that point?

Or, Since I already have spare 4U cases with 9 5.25in bays (unfortunately they are 6x horizontal then 3x vertical so hotsaps would not line up all nicely, lol), would it be smarter to just look for good SFF hotswaps to drop in? I've got a fullsize rack so I really do not care if what I end up with is 4U (especially if it means using larger quieter fans :) )

I'm also somewhat tempted to get a backplane and fab/3d print parts...
 

Rand__

Well-Known Member
Mar 6, 2014
6,626
1,767
113
Well 216s dont show up as often as the other SM chassis but they do. And usually not that expensive in the US.
If you were in EU I could offer you one of mine but shipping would kill it for outside EU.

Regarding diy that's of course an option, you need to find sas3 drive trays that fit and will hold. Those will be 100 each i guess...
Not really cheaper,but of course if you find some cheap ones...
 

Alfa147x

Active Member
Feb 7, 2014
189
39
28
Hmm, thanks for the link. So I'd be looking for the case (+ trays and PSUs) for around 260 including shipping to hit the "about 500 or less", does that seem like a reasonable price for "It may show up, keep watching ebay"? Or should I consider other options at that point?

Or, Since I already have spare 4U cases with 9 5.25in bays (unfortunately they are 6x horizontal then 3x vertical so hotsaps would not line up all nicely, lol), would it be smarter to just look for good SFF hotswaps to drop in? I've got a fullsize rack so I really do not care if what I end up with is 4U (especially if it means using larger quieter fans :) )

I'm also somewhat tempted to get a backplane and fab/3d print parts...
That backplane is top notch for that price. I wonder if there's an older chassis that these would bolt up to? I'll do some digging.
 

acquacow

Well-Known Member
Feb 15, 2017
784
439
63
42
Get a silverstone Milo ML04B case, drop in matx board of your choosing and then put an icydock enclosure in the one 5.25 bay that case has.

Done.
 

Rand__

Well-Known Member
Mar 6, 2014
6,626
1,767
113
Get a silverstone Milo ML04B case, drop in matx board of your choosing and then put an icydock enclosure in the one 5.25 bay that case has.

Done.
And how is that going to create the 24sff chassis the op wanted ? :confused:
 

Mithril

Active Member
Sep 13, 2019
354
106
43
That backplane is top notch for that price. I wonder if there's an older chassis that these would bolt up to? I'll do some digging.
Yea, was thinking along the same lines, even if I had to break out a dremel or do a bit of 3d printing. A further crazy thought I had was using that board, or something like it with right angle cables and make it a top load with 3d printed guides and flat springs on the sides for enough of a friction fit. It would mean it was more of a "warm swap" (honestly, pulling the case forward and popping the lid would be fine with me.

If I was only putting spinners in it, this would be a lot easier, SATA2 speeds would be fine, but since there will be SSDs going in it, I'd be shooting myself in the foot if I went with SATA2 speeds.
 

acquacow

Well-Known Member
Feb 15, 2017
784
439
63
42
And how is that going to create the 24sff chassis the op wanted ? :confused:
Well, the OP didn't really specify storage target or required number of bays in the 9 bullet items in the first post.

They referenced a server with a lot of bays, but that wasn't listed as a requirement.

You could drop 8 4TB micron SSDs in a 5.25 bay and have quite a lot of storage...


What we need to know is what is the target capacity for the array, and what is the performance target? What is OP's workload that is driving these wants?

An R730 is a lot of heat/space for an idle workload...so hopefully he has something worthwhile.
 

Mithril

Active Member
Sep 13, 2019
354
106
43
Well, the OP didn't really specify storage target or required number of bays in the 9 bullet items in the first post.

They referenced a server with a lot of bays, but that wasn't listed as a requirement.

You could drop 8 4TB micron SSDs in a 5.25 bay and have quite a lot of storage...


What we need to know is what is the target capacity for the array, and what is the performance target? What is OP's workload that is driving these wants?

An R730 is a lot of heat/space for an idle workload...so hopefully he has something worthwhile.
16+ SFF bays, the capacity of the drives is immaterial to what I'm asking about. I'm looking for SATA3/SAS3 compatibility, if the bays are largely passive that's fine too, I have an expander that I can use and if needed upgrade later. But if there an expander backplane (or 2), they might be fairly expensive to upgrade later so thats a consideration, whereas an external separate expander is must easier to just find one with enough ports and put it somewhere in the case.

The R730xd is a point of reference, for ~1k you get a complete system with lots of SFF bays, some of them NVME ready, readily available spare parts, etc. In order to have going with a more DIY route make sense, I'm figuring roughly 500 or less for case with bays or an even more DIY option (installable bays, and/or some case modding) means you somewhat break even by the time you put in another board+cpu(s)+ram (regardless of what exactly you go with). If I can't hit that target, I might as well save longer and get an r730xd TBH.

As far as power, the 730s are fairly good, the non xd should drop under 80w at idle, the xd should be close, so unless the drives have terrible idle power use or I put power hungry PCIe cards that also don't have good power management, 100w or less at idle for config that would let me fold an existing whitebox server into it, and since nothing I'm running on it is critical I don't need a multi-hour runtime on UPS, 20+ minutes or so to ride out short blips and cleanly shutdown otherwise is fine.

Plus, the memory and PCIe lane capacity of the 730 is going to have hard to get close to outside of another "real" server board, :-/
 

kapone

Well-Known Member
May 23, 2015
1,095
642
113
Pity. I have several 1U Supermicro 116TQ chassis that have 10x 2.5 hot swap bays and another 4x non-hotswap bays inside (if you use an ATX or smaller board, if you use a larger motherboard, you have to remove those extra bays). These are complete chassis with everything, including dual 500w platinum PSUs, rails etc.