Mini-ITX (or not?) storage chassis for SSDs

[Paul Bommel]

That is the ghettoist Blade Chassis I have ever seen and I've seen allot. I wonder how much power that frankenstein monster would consume going full bore. The fans must be hurricanes to run. Good god I've seen everything.

I would say that depends on the PSUs/Boards you're throwing in, because the power is separated from the blade enclosure:

http://www.buildablade.com/images/build-a-blade_PS_tray.jpg

I need to cool my Xeon D-1540 which gets fairly hot from all the constant transcoding it does. I'd consider a 2u case but all the 2.5" hot swap 2U cases I've seen have like 20-24 bays which I'll never even fill half of.

Then don't go the storage server route.

e.g.:

2U Intelligent Green Saving LCD Display & Fan Control (1x5.25"+ 2x3.5"+4x2.5" HDD Bay) Rack / Wall mount Chassis (1U Flex ATX PSU) (1 Horizontal slot full high cards by Riser Card) (9.84" Deep) Mini- ITX Server / Desktop Case ITX-G2250 (PLinkUSA.com / RackBuy.com)

+

Aluminum 2x5.25" to 8x2.5" SAS/SATA Hot-Swap Cage Backplane RW-825 (PLinkUSA.com / RackBuy.com)

 

[JimPhreak]

I would say that depends on the PSUs/Boards you're throwing in, because the power is separated from the blade enclosure:

http://www.buildablade.com/images/build-a-blade_PS_tray.jpg



Then don't go the storage server route.

e.g.:

2U Intelligent Green Saving LCD Display & Fan Control (1x5.25"+ 2x3.5"+4x2.5" HDD Bay) Rack / Wall mount Chassis (1U Flex ATX PSU) (1 Horizontal slot full high cards by Riser Card) (9.84" Deep) Mini- ITX Server / Desktop Case ITX-G2250 (PLinkUSA.com / RackBuy.com)

+

Aluminum 2x5.25" to 8x2.5" SAS/SATA Hot-Swap Cage Backplane RW-825 (PLinkUSA.com / RackBuy.com)

That is a nice case. Really small but packs in everything needed for a small mini-itx build. I'm concerned about the cooling though as there is only room for that one intake fan and it looks it would be partly blocked by the PSU cables.

I'm currently giving serious consideration to selling my X10SDV-TLN4F and going with one of the wave-2 Xeon-D boards that have on board SFP+ ports. Now that I've found room for the chassis to be rack mountable I'm no longer stuck with only mini-ITX form factor boards so I have more options for motherboards with better on board storage/networking and further expandability.

 

[Paul Bommel]

That is a nice case. Really small but packs in everything needed for a small mini-itx build. I'm concerned about the cooling though as there is only room for that one intake fan and it looks it would be partly blocked by the PSU cables.

Could be. I just wanted to point you (back) to open-bay chassis.
I know the problem to balance heat, space and noise...

Maybe you can go 4u?
Rackmount Mart - 4U Rackmount Chassis - RM4037

Or find another 2u case:
Rackmount Mart - 2U Rackmount Chassis

[edit]
How about a JBOD 2u enclosure?
SAS/SATA JBOD -Raid Storage - SS2007

So you can put the Xeon-Board in 1u and separate the disk by rack unit

 

[JimPhreak]

2U is all I have room for as you can see and I'd like to keep the depth about the same as my iStarUSA case (roughly 20.5" deep). Thanks for the links I will look more into those options.

 

[JimPhreak]

These 3 could be solid options with an 8 x 2.5" ICY DOCK bay adapter and some good PWM fans. Wondering which would provide for the best CPU cooling.

Rackmount Mart - 2U Rackmount Case - RM2038

Rackmount Mart - 2U Rackmount Chassis - RM2006

Rackmount Mart - 2U Rackmount Case - RM2039

 

[Paul Bommel]

Some thoughts:

Rackmount Mart - 2U Rackmount Case - RM2038

If you get out the internal bays you might get a better board/cpu cooling, but the air flow from the ICY DOCK fan could be impaired due the psu, or does it have ventilation slots on the psu side?
It's an standard PS2 power supply, be carefull not to buy one with a 140er fan on the bottom or you get heat issues.

Rackmount Mart - 2U Rackmount Chassis - RM2006

Same psu-airflow-issue as by RM2038, but 2u power supplies should pass the air through.
As you see here:
http://www.rackmountmart.com/prodspics/rm2006-012.jpg
they normaly have a internal fan to draw heat through.

Rackmount Mart - 2U Rackmount Case - RM2039

It's almost like my first rack enclosure:
Inter-Tech GmbH - IPC 2U-2098
but it has not the crap 95mm height...

I run it with legacy consumer hardware and passive psu
From what I can say:
The standard fans are a bit louder than expected but cool a low profile graphic card with active cooling.
A top blower cpu might not be the best choice, but meh...

 

[JimPhreak]

Some thoughts:



If you get out the internal bays you might get a better board/cpu cooling, but the air flow from the ICY DOCK fan could be impaired due the psu, or does it have ventilation slots on the psu side?
It's an standard PS2 power supply, be carefull not to buy one with a 140er fan on the bottom or you get heat issues.



Same psu-airflow-issue as by RM2038, but 2u power supplies should pass the air through.
As you see here:
http://www.rackmountmart.com/prodspics/rm2006-012.jpg
they normaly have a internal fan to draw heat through.



It's almost like my first rack enclosure:
Inter-Tech GmbH - IPC 2U-2098
but it has not the crap 95mm height...

I run it with legacy consumer hardware and passive psu
From what I can say:
The standard fans are a bit louder than expected but cool a low profile graphic card with active cooling.
A top blower cpu might not be the best choice, but meh...

Thanks for the detailed feedback @Paul Bommel . I'm starting to realize that if I want a quiet 1u/2u case I'm going to have to buy high quality PWM fans to put inside.