QNap style case

[Nnyan]

Hello everyone,

I'm trying to find a case something like this:

http://nbtaifa.en.alibaba.com/produ..._Swappable_SATA_SAS_Drive_Bays_Mini_ITX_.html

Either for mini-itx or micro-atx but I can't find anyone that has something like this in the US.

 

[Patrick]

Nnyan, it was on my list to search exactly for that case on alibaba today. Going to see if I can get one, and if they are good I may purchase a few of them for those that need them in the US.

Thanks for saving me some time!!!

 

[Patrick]

Nnyan no response yet but I sent them a note.

 

[Patrick]

Got the quote back. 8 bay is very expensive in less than 50pc and expensive 50+. If we had a lot of people interested, I could purchase. You need a 1U PSU, mITX MB, cables and etc. Price was around $200 without shipping.

I can purchase the 8 bay and 4 bay samples if you want and take pictures.

 

[OBasel]

what about 6-bay?

 

[Nnyan]

Ok I heard back from them, here is the info. Prices do not include PSU, S&H. This is for one unit sample. Payment by Paypal USD only. They do not have a version with microATX.

$ 58 NSC-200
$ 74 NSC-400
$195 NSC-800

$127 DHL Air shipment (about one week to CA)

 

[Patrick]

Nnyan, same as I got! Where are you in CA? I'm in the bay area. If we wanted the 8-bay, maybe we could find a few more folks and get the 10 unit price ($182) and save on shipping.

At $300 each, not worth it. My guess is he can sell them much cheaper.

One other big thing is that you have to use the PCIe extension cable and remote mount the RAID controller. The RAID controller does not have access to the outside of the chassis so you cannot connect a second unit for example.

I actually think the 6-bay version is more interesting than the 4-bay but he won't give me a price for it (yet).

I do want to get one and see how good they are. Seems like they made a lot of strange design decisions.

 

[Jeggs101]

are you getting into the NAS business Patrick?

6 drive because of common motherboard configs?

 

[Nnyan]

I've been following this discussion here: http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=694435&page=4

One of the forum members bought a few of the different units and they seem to like it just fine. My big gotcha is that I need a mini-itx mobo and that really limits my options with ESXi 5 on only 16gb. IF this supported mATX and I can jam 32gb of RAM in there and have a few PCI-E slots I would would go for it at $300.

I was also looking at these two: Lian Li PC-343B and the Caselabs M8. Which give me a huge amount of future growth.

 

[Patrick]

Cost wise it is pretty high especially when you need things like certain heatsinks. My desire for mATX is also due to the expansion limitations with mITX. Also, I would want to be able to build expansion units from those. I saw that thread and was thinking twite about it.

One other thought I had was buying a HP or Supermicro backplane and adding drives to that. Would need to ensure vibration is in check like the backblaze guys did.

Other thoughts: SGI 3U with expander (16 drives) from ebay. Once you add power to either of those you start getting really close to some of the ebay Supermicro 846 chassis.

 

[Nnyan]

Thing is that I'm very noise sensitive and there is now way the wife is going to have a rackmount, these cases I can stick under my desk and not have the wife complain.

 

[Patrick]

Good point on the constraint. Both the Lian Li PC-343B and the Caselabs M8 are fairly big under desk cases!

 

[Nnyan]

Patrick,

By the way I'm in Sacramento but travel to the bay area for work. The size is definitely a consideration I may still get a 4U rackmount and just replace the fans. I know some of the Norco's have a replacement fan guide that changes them out from 80mm to 120mm's. My decision is to get something with a little bit of growth potential or something with a large amount of growth potential. Here is what I have so far:

SMALL (well smaller then then something like the M8 = ):

SilverStone Temjin Series SST-TJ04B-E
14 drives total (9 internal 3.5" drives with neat cables. Space for a 5 in 3 in the external bays).

Fractal Design Define R3
11 drives total (8 internal and space for a 3 in 3 in the external bays). One modder on bit-tech added another 3 drive bay inside it.

LIAN LI PC-A04B
10 drives total (7 internal and room for a 3 in 2 in the external bays). A bit smaller then the TJ04B-E with less capacity.

 

[Patrick]

I think you are on the right track with these. BTW Also makes me wonder why that 8-bay is $200. Should be <$100. Guessing it is a starting negotiation point.

 

[Nnyan]

I think I like the features/quality of the TJ04 best but being able to mod the case to hot swap is a very nice feature in the R3

 

[MiniKnight]

Been following this. What did you get? Is it setup?

 

[Nnyan]

Nothing yet got busy at work and a few options are out of stock. I just hit on a new option and that is an Apple Xserve Raid case. 14 drive bays very cool looking but it would take significant modding ( drive bays, cut out for motherboard, etc....). But you can get empty chassis for under $100 on eBay. If I can get some time I may give that a try.

 

[odditory]

Old thread but as an FYI to anyone interested in the NSC-800, which hasn't thus far been feasible @ $325 shipped from overseas and nobody stateside is importing them, Norco's been developing an 8-bay mini-ITX based case, possibly to debut by EOY and I may well end up with a prototype before release to share here.

 

[sotech]

Old thread but as an FYI to anyone interested in the NSC-800, which hasn't thus far been feasible @ $325 shipped from overseas and nobody stateside is importing them, Norco's been developing an 8-bay mini-ITX based case, possibly to debut by EOY and I may well end up with a prototype before release to share here.

I'd be extremely keen to see how that goes and what price it ends up being... We could use one of those and I can think of at least three customers who are in the same boat.

 

[RimBlock]

Old thread but as an FYI to anyone interested in the NSC-800, which hasn't thus far been feasible @ $325 shipped from overseas and nobody stateside is importing them, Norco's been developing an 8-bay mini-ITX based case, possibly to debut by EOY and I may well end up with a prototype before release to share here.

The NSC-800 is not likely to be produced any time soon it seems. I have been speaking to the manufacturers (Yu Technologies) concerning the NSC-400. No plans for a production run of the NSC-600 or 800 any time soon. The NSC-400 has just been through a little refresh and a few little things have been improved after reporting back to them on their latest sample (hence no review here yet). I am currently looking to get a 25 unit order of the NSC-400 in for resale over where I am. Have been looking at pairing then with a D2700 Atom board but the D2700s have no 64bit video card drivers, only 32bit. Not such a big deal with WHS-2011 but currently testing now. I have also got them to make up a set of 2.5" hdd brackets for mounting 2 hard drives inside the case as well as the 4 hotswap bays giving 6 drives but am not so happy with the result so will probably look to get an alternative manufactured.

Will try to get some pics up soon of the NSC-400 along with the other reviews I have been meaning to do of various builds I have been doing.

RB