Put your words about cheap SATA racks

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Patrick

Administrator
Staff member
Dec 21, 2010
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Those should be fine. Just lower density than the 4-in-3 or 5-in-3 solutions. You end up having a large chassis just due to using so many 5.25" bays.
 

samsp99

New Member
Jan 20, 2013
5
0
1
Hey,

I'm looking for a decent and cheap solution for a bunch of HDDs.

ITX and (M-)ATX cases with SATA backplane are quite expensive and with small number of expansion possibilities.

HDD cages for 5.25" bays aren't cheap too.

What's your opinion about cheap individual racks?



CD-ROM Space 5.25" to 3.5'' SATA HDD Storage Mobile Rack Bracket Enclosure Caddy | eBay

Opinions are welcome!

Thanks
How many disks are you wanting to handle? And at what kind of performance requirements?

Without some kind of backplane, once you hit 6 or so devices, you start running out of sata ports, power connectors become more knockout prone and so reliability goes down. Are you planning on a raid card, or trying to use motherboard sata ports.

One option to consider is a external sas enclosure like the sgi/rackable se3016. Which has 16 hot swap bays, an expander and backplane. Together with a 888elp they are commonly on eBay for about $300. The problems with older gen enterprise hardware are noise, heat and power consumption.

If you are not so concerned about perf, and just need volume, one of the NAS or external USB units will be quieter, but you get less control over disks etc.
 
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LeoS

New Member
Jun 19, 2013
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Just want to add that they vary in build and construction quality, some of the really cheap ones (unbranded) can have loose sata connection. Coupled with bad (imprecise) railing and locking mechanism (and vibration), it may disconnect your drive at an unfortunate time.

Also, some of them may have hdd activity LED, but afaik most do not.

What do you guys think of the empty space around these brackets? (the reason they're lower density than 4-in-3 or 5-in-3) Do they help with heat dissipation or rather that negatively affect the heat flow inside the case since the heat paths are unmanaged?
 

Hanss

Member
Apr 3, 2013
72
5
8
Cornfield
Hey,

I'm looking for a decent and cheap solution for a bunch of HDDs.

ITX and (M-)ATX cases with SATA backplane are quite expensive and with small number of expansion possibilities.

HDD cages for 5.25" bays aren't cheap too.

What's your opinion about cheap individual racks?

Opinions are welcome!

Thanks
a very interesting device. Welland Industrial Co., Ltd. Ã¥â€Â¯Ã¨Â¯å·¥æ¥­æœ‰é™Âå…¬å¸ - External HDD Enclosure Supplier
simple as a corner of the house, but has its own know-how.
installed for customers.
customers are satisfied ...
 

mmmmmdonuts

Member
Mar 22, 2012
36
0
6
How is vibration with those things?
I have had no issue with any vibrations. I put a fan in them and have had zero problems and is very sturdy and heavy piece of steel. Could put rubber washers in to help with any vibration that could occur when mounting the unit. It just does not have a SATA backplane on it, but I didn't necessarily need it. It is also definitely not a hot swap piece of equipment.
 

Aluminum

Active Member
Sep 7, 2012
431
46
28
don't go too cheap, small price increase = big quality increase

What's your opinion about cheap individual racks?
I'd rather spend a little bit more and get a good rack. According to ebay currency conversion that is ~$14 per drive and takes a full 5.25" bay.

I really like the trayless 3in2/4in3/5in3 aluminum racks, I have quite a few now. They are well built and about as full metal as possible, I think istar is the "real" OEM.
If you have tabbed 5.25" bays use the first two, if not then you can use the 5in3 for maximum density. You will also save power connectors and have a dedicated fan with 2 speed selections.

These guys have been the best place to get them in the states for me, a little under $20 per drive. No idea about where to buy in EU.
 
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