NetApp 4486 for ~$400 shipped

I was browsing ebay looking to pick up another cheap DS4243 disk shelf for an upcoming project when I stumbled upon this abomination Netapp DS4486 Shelf (diskless, trays included), 2x IOM6, Rails | eBay

Honestly I did not know it existed. Probably because it was usually priced out of my budget. The next cheapest one is listed at $1500 before shipping and the third cheapest is about $5000.

The funny part is how they fit 48 x 3.5" drives in 4U space. The answer is by using double trays like these:

 

There's a supermicro chassis that does that too. I'd be terrified to use those, especially if I was running RAID. IF you don't build the array right, pulling out one of these could brick your box.

 

Yea, the tandem drives are a PITA. You basically have to take our 2 HDD's to replace 1, nasty stuff.

 

I would not probably recommend anyone to use the hot-swap feature with this enclosure myself. But I am using these (not 4486 but 4243 ones) mostly for cold storage - they are only powered on during backup. So ensuring uptime is not a problem for me - I would just swap the drives during downtime.

 

How loud are these?

 

Holy crap that was in my back yard! Geez, I had no idea there were homelabbers around here like that. With our heat, I'm sure the ac bill for that lab is huge!

 

Its gone.

 

Wow. If anyone reading this forum bought this - please report back with your experiences. I am wondering if it would support all 48 drives if only connected via single IOM. That's how I use my 24 drive enclosures.