Is there interest in a case that can house 4x hot-swap cages, SFX/ATX PSU & mini-ITX motherboard?

[Spotswood]

Is there any interest in a case that can house 4x hot-swap cages (12x 5.25-inch drives), SFX/ATX PSU & mini-ITX motherboard similar in design to the Synology 12 bay NAS?

What other features would be desired/required of such a case?

 

[Patrick]

I think the U-NAS series cases are pretty close, they just have less than great cooling.

 

[WANg]

Is there any interest in a case that can house 4x hot-swap cages, SFX/ATX PSU & mini-ITX motherboard similar in design to the Synology 12 bay NAS?

What other features would be desired/required of such a case?

Like a SuperMicro SuperChassis 721TQ-250B? Maybe hot swappable redundant PSUs, or barring that, a massive slow turning fan that can get the thermals down without it sounding like an international airport?

 

[croakz]

Are you looking for 4 drive bays or 4 cages like a 5in3 or 4in3 for 12-16 drive bays?

 

[Spotswood]

Hmmm...The first post got lots of views, but no likes. Maybe a quick/rough model will help stir some interest in this idea?

The case is designed to hold 12x 5.25-inch drives. Here's an example of the case with 4x of the iStarUSA hot-swap cages (the purchaser is free to mount whatever devices he/she chooses):

2x 140mm fans on the back:

 

[Spartacus]

Personally I'd rather pay the extra $ to get the Supermicro CSE-M35T-B1's same form factor with a more enterprise grade build and mostly metal design.
Depending on how much you trust some of the shadiers sites they can be had for about the same price or getting them used they can even be had for under $60.

 

[BeTeP]

lots of views, but no likes

Would you care to explain what I am supposed to like here?

I have been building storage systems for over 30 years and I went through multiple stages. I still cringe when I get reminded of the few years when I tried building systems using similar hot-swap cages (from multiple vendors including iStarUSA) about a decade ago. Do not do it if you value your data.

 

[Spartacus]

Would you care to explain what I am supposed to like here?

I have been building storage systems for over 30 years and I went through multiple stages. I still cringe when I get reminded of the few years when I tried building systems using similar hot-swap cages (from multiple vendors including iStarUSA) about a decade ago. Do not do it if you value your data.

Care to expand on what you dislike other than the istar cages and/or hotswap cages in general whichever you are referring?

 

[Spotswood]

Personally I'd rather pay the extra $ to get the Supermicro CSE-M35T-B1's same form factor with a more enterprise grade build and mostly metal design.
Depending on how much you trust some of the shadiers sites they can be had for about the same price or getting them used they can even be had for under $60.

The case can hold 12x 5.25-inch devices, which you can fill with whatever you want.

 

[Spartacus]

The case can hold 12x 5.25-inch devices, which you can fill with whatever you want.

That wasn't the impression I got from the build based off the title , but understood.

 

[BeTeP]

what you dislike other than the istar cages and/or hotswap cages in general

What I dislike is losing data to low quality hotswap cages. And I did not buy the cheapest ones - some of them were pretty expensive. So their low quality or rather lack of proper quality control was not apparent at the time of the purchase.

I have built about a dozen of systems over the course of a year before the first systems started failing. And every time I was able to narrow the failures down to the backplanes in the cages. It was not a single specific model. As I explained before - I used different vendors and models. After the 6th failure I got the message, replaced the rest of the systems I built with proper servers and sworn never to use the (not so) cheap stuff again. So every time anyone suggests using the cages - I cringe.

Luckily I did not actually lose any data (thanks to regular backups) just my pride, time and money.

 

[Spartacus]

What I dislike is losing data to low quality hotswap cages. And I did not buy the cheapest ones - some of them were pretty expensive. So their low quality or rather lack of proper quality control was not apparent at the time of the purchase.

I have built about a dozen of systems over the course of a year before the first systems started failing. And every time I was able to narrow the failures down to the backplanes in the cages. It was not a single specific model. As I explained before - I used different vendors and models. After the 6th failure I got the message, replaced the rest of the systems I built with proper servers and sworn never to use the (not so) cheap stuff again. So every time anyone suggests using the cages - I cringe.

Luckily I did not actually lose any data (thanks to regular backups) just my pride, time and money.

Good info (though an acceptable risk for some folks use cases like yours with good backups), any recommendation on models/types that dont suck?

 

[Jannis Jacobsen]

I'd rather have a micro-atx motherboard, for added pcie slots for hba's, nic's etc

-jannis

 

[csp-guy]

Hmmm...The first post got lots of views, but no likes. Maybe a quick/rough model will help stir some interest in this idea?

The case is designed to hold 12x 5.25-inch drives. Here's an example of the case with 4x of the iStarUSA hot-swap cages (the purchaser is free to mount whatever devices he/she chooses):

2x 140mm fans on the back:

Hi!

Sounds good, your cube is really nice.

Big like to the post/idea.

I was thinking about planning of custom case but the lack of expert sheet metal planning experience has been blocked my intentions.

If I would plan a case,I would do it using the following parameters:
- The base size of the case would be ATX.
- Bottom: ATX motherboard, cooled from front of the case blowing to the rear side using 12-14 cm quiet coolers.
- Top size is separated from bottom using horizontal plate, and using of holes helps to put cables on their place.
- I would use this cage: 5-in-3 Device Module Hard Disk Cage SAS/SATA Expander Enclosure, I already bought 3 of them.
Hotplug is not important, and you can place sata sas nvme drives in same cage.
- Inside top part of case would be the psu, and some extra 2.5 slot for ssd drives.
- Top cooling is fine by intake of hdd cages above.
- Rear exhaust coolers in side top part of case to remove hot air.

The result would be a well cooled case with a lot of (15) 3.5 hdd place.

The other idea, to create a case for hp microserver motherboard to expand the capabilities to use more hdd.

PS: What is the name of the software used for your planning?

 

[croakz]

I'd rather have a micro-atx motherboard, for added pcie slots for hba's, nic's etc

-jannis

I'd also want MATX to add a GPU, HBA, and 10GBE.

 

[Spotswood]

...

PS: What is the name of the software used for your planning?

Sketchup

 

[csp-guy]

Thanks!

 

[Spotswood]

I'd also want MATX to add a GPU, HBA, and 10GBE.

 

[Leondre]

Actually yeah I have been wanting something like this, though preferably at least matx. If I could find an istar s-919 anywhere I would buy it instantly. Currently have the s-917 completely filled w/ 2 of the 5n3 supermicro cages and 1 4-bay ssd cage.

 

[BeTeP]

any recommendation on models/types that dont suck?

At the time when I was still considering the 5.25" standard sized cages - I could not find a single decent quality product. It might have changed since then but I really doubt it. If you want a quality drive cage - just get an older (cheap and readily available) brand name part like HP ML110 G7 ML330 G6 4-Bay Hard Drive Backplane & Cage 519736-001 466509-001 | eBay
It's a hot-swappable HP Gen5/6/7 cage which sells under $50 (I've seen these as low as $20) shipped. The compatible trays sell for about $4 ea.