Looking for budget friendly 3U or 4U server chassis for storage

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Alfa147x

Alfa147x

Active Member
Feb 7, 2014
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I was looking at picking up the SE3016 and using a Intel RAID SAS Expander RES2SV240 but I really hate how it looks and not looking forward to dealing with retrofitting in a new expander.

Now I'm considering building an expansion chassis here are 2 plans:

Plan 1:
Not too excited about spending $170 on the Norco case that only holds 8 drives.
The iStarUSA D-3100 holds 10 drives but $380 is way out of my budget. Trying to stay closer to $200

Plan 2:
This would give me 8 bays for 3.5" hot swap and 4 spaces for SSDs. It's not rackmountable but I think I'll have to give something up if I stick to my lowish budget.

Ideal case characteristics:
  • mATX means it has room for the SAS expander and other stuff I put in there
  • Ability to mount large but quiet fans
  • Cable management
  • short depth
  • 16+ h0t-swap bays
I don't have a rack but I do plan on picking up a short depth rack in the future. Hot swap drives are a must since this is suppose to cut down on time required to maintain my homelab.


Any suggestions?

Thanks!
 
Last edited:
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canta

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Nov 26, 2014
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my suggestion.
if you have SE3016 in your hand, you can hack it to make nice, move connector on the back and replace with regular atx (naked) psu, and take the guts out and replace with intel SAS2 expander :D

I have SE3016 and still holding due on easy to hack to make works. if you cramp all in one, mini-itx can be fitted too:D.

if you compare, Norco and SE3016, Se3016 is build as a tank, Norco is just lower compared with SE3016

if you can get very cheap SE3016 with backplane . this is a good project , very short-depth and build likes a tank haha.
 
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Alfa147x

Alfa147x

Active Member
Feb 7, 2014
192
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28
canta said:
my suggestion.
if you have SE3016 in your hand, you can hack it to make nice, move connector on the back and replace with regular atx (naked) psu, and take the guts out and replace with intel SAS2 expander :D

I have SE3016 and still holding due on easy to hack to make works. if you cramp all in one, mini-itx can be fitted too:D.

if you compare, Norco and SE3016, Se3016 is build as a tank, Norco is just lower compared with SE3016

if you can get very cheap SE3016 with backplane . this is a good project , very short-depth and build likes a tank haha.
Click to expand...
Nope I haven't picked up the SE3016 yet I'm not 100% sold just yet since I'll have to modify the PSU to get the noise level down to something reasonable for my office / 5 feet from where I work.

SAS2 is my largest reason for wanting to upgrade the expander. Any thoughts on skipping the expander all together? Like plan 2?
 
britinpdx

britinpdx

Active Member
Feb 8, 2013
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Portland OR
Alfa147x said:
I'll have to modify the PSU to get the noise level down to something reasonable for my office / 5 feet from where I work.
Click to expand...
The fans on the rear of the chassis are easy to swap and I didn't find it too challenging to replace the PSU fan, which as you have pointed out is the real culprit.
 
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canta

Well-Known Member
Nov 26, 2014
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Alfa147x said:
Nope I haven't picked up the SE3016 yet I'm not 100% sold just yet since I'll have to modify the PSU to get the noise level down to something reasonable for my office / 5 feet from where I work.

SAS2 is my largest reason for wanting to upgrade the expander. Any thoughts on skipping the expander all together? Like plan 2?
Click to expand...
SE3016 original PSU is power hunger :D.
if your electricity rate in your are not cheap, replacing a new PSU atx (naked due on space constrain, with some DIY shield) is the best solution.

if I were you, I would picked plan 2 :D
 
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canta

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Nov 26, 2014
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britinpdx said:
The fans on the rear of the chassis are easy to swap and I didn't find it too challenging to replace the PSU fan, which as you have pointed out is the real culprit.
Click to expand...
replacing is easy, my first mod was replace 80mm to 120mm, and PSU 40mm,
just to be a warm warn, if you pull much juice, your PSU would shutdown ...
 
P

pricklypunter

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Nov 10, 2015
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I don't know if you'll find this useful or not, but I must have stared at the SE3016 for possibly 6 weeks or more, every other day, daydreaming of what I could do with it and reading every article and forum post I could find on the net relating to it. My conclusion was that if I wanted density over speed, it was a bargain, especially at knock down bay prices. Even if I did feel that I would probably have to gut it later and fill it with my own trinkets. There is no doubt it is well put together and very solidly built. The half length chassis is also a bonus if you plan on fitting it into a wall mounted rack, as it was designed to sit back to back with a partner in a tower rack. The killer overall for me was that it was designed for 3Gbps. Oh I'm sure the backplane can just about muster up the oomph for 6Gbps, but keeping in mind that it was designed for 3Gbps, it's pushing it to expect it not to be error prone on some level when pushing twice that through it. If speed is not a real concern, but density is, then it is a reasonable choice for the money imho. My initial thoughts were to hang it off a small Dell R210 II pizza box I have laying about with an LSI SAS2008 based HBA, something like the M1015, M1115 in IT mode perhaps. However, that plan evaporated as my requiremnts have now changed a bit since I started down this road.

I wanted a little of both, speed and density, so I have opted for a chassis from Chenbro, the Micom RM23212, that was designed for 6Gbps. I may live to regret it later though as it is only a 12 bay 2U chassis, also full length at 26" and might be noiser than I would like, but time will tell. I think for now, I'll be happy enough with the trade off. On a $ for $ basis, I picked up the Chenbro chassis from the 'bay reasonably cheap and the seller accepted a sensible offer too which basically paid most of my shipping cost. It wasn't much more expensive than I would have paid for the SE3016 with HBA and cables to begin with. The killer for me though, as with all of these things, is shipping to Canada. It makes what might be a reasonable hardware choice, a tough financial choice, well most of the time :)
 
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