mATX - small 3x 5.25 bays - suggestions?

[MiniKnight]

I am looking for the smallest case I can get that will fit a mATX motherboard and has 3x 5.25 bays.

I want to make a 2.5" SSD based NAS and finally saw this one. Aluminum 3 x5 25" to 12x2 5" SAS SATA 6 0g HDDs Hot Swap Cage Backplane New | eBay

I know in the ATX world there are a lot of options. I know mITX with 1x 5.25 is easy to find. Seems like I'm trying to do something crazy. I want mATX instead of ITX and ATX is too much wasted space.

 

[cesmith9999]

you might want to try 2 of these ICY DOCK MB996SP-6SB Full Metal 6 x 2.5” SATA Hard Drive & SSD RAID Backplane Cage in 5.25” bay - Retail - Newegg.com

then there are plenty of smaller cases to pick from.

Chris

 

[MiniKnight]

I saw those but the larger 2.5" SAS drives will not fit the higher density cases.

 

[Hank C]

does sas actually works in that?

 

[Hank C]

MB998SP-B_ToughArmor Series_2.5" HDD/SSD CAGES_ICY DOCK manufacturer Removable enclosure, Screwless hard drive enclosure, SAS SATA Mobile Rack, DVR Surveillance Recording, Video Audio Editing, SATA portable hard drive enclosure
one 5.25 fit 8 ssd...

 

[cesmith9999]

not as SAS... but I see his predicament.

and Hank, now you are making me want one of those 8 bay monsters...

Chris

 

[Patriot]

ICY DOCK MB998SP-B ToughArmor 8 x 2.5” SATA 6Gbps 7mm HDD / SSD Mobile Rack / Cage in 1 x 5.25” bay - Newegg.com
8 in a single 5.25.
Most gripes about any of these adapters are the fans...
When they die... replace them.

 

[MiniKnight]

Single port mode these are fine. That 8 one is slick. Nice

 

[Patriot]

Single port mode these are fine. That 8 one is slick. Nice

Hank beat me by 5min lol. They do only fit 7mm drives though iirc. There is also a 6 drive, a 4 drive and a 2 drive+ slim optical. Fun options.

 

[MiniKnight]

Price on that isn't bad. $140 Amazon.com: ICY DOCK ToughArmor MB998SP-B 8 x 2.5" SATA 6Gbps 7mm HDD / SSD Mobile Rack / Cage in 1 x 5.25" bay: Computers & Accessories

 

[Entz]

The single 5.25 versions will have better case compatibility too. You may have 3x5.25 in your case but depending on if it has grooves (to help with mounting), how deep they are or tool-less clips etc it may not fit overly well.

Those 8 in ones are pretty darn nice. Could get 16 hotswap SSDs in a TJ08-E and still have room for add-in cards and good cooling.

 

[Hanss]

IN WIN Dragon Slayer Black 0.6mm SECC MicroATX Mini Tower Computer Case - Newegg.com

 

[seang86s]

DO NOT buy the one MiniKnight/OP posted in the eBay auction. Vantec sells the same chassis (not sure who originally makes them) and they are plagued with issues. I purchased one from Amazon and you will get read/write errors and your disks will disappear and reappear. There are a few negative reviews on Amazon that reflect this issue but it was the only two 3.5 x eight 2.5 enclosure that would work on my HTPC chassis. So I took a chance with it (cuz of Amazon's return policy) and I got the same results others had. Returned it and got a Supermicro hot swap bay. I had to dremel off the dividers between the 3.5 inch bays that the Vantec did have slots to accomodate them.

It worked out for the better. The Supermicro does have SFF-8087 connectors and SGPIO support. I put an old ServeRAID card in the machine which supports it.

 

[T_Minus]

Of course as soon as my 6in 1 iCyDock arrives you have to show me the 8 in one!!! DOH.

I wonder if I can get an 8in1 next to the motherboard and PSUs in a SM 4U... that would be a nice lil drop in module... will have to measure