Looking for Server/NAS Case

[Jonza]

Hi Everyone,

 

I am looking for server case that will support at minimum of a mATX case, and as many drives as possible for around £150 (UK Based)

I am currently using a Silverstone DS380 which supports 8 Drives but I'm going growing that currently so I am hoping to get something that supports for then 8 drives in my new build.

 

Many Thanks
-Jonathan

[agent2]

3 minutes ago, Jonza said:

Hi Everyone,

 

I am looking for server case that will support at minimum of a mATX case, and as many drives as possible for around £150 (UK Based)

I am currently using a Silverstone DS380 which supports 8 Drives but I'm going growing that currently so I am hoping to get something that supports for then 8 drives in my new build.

 

Many Thanks
-Jonathan

Hey there try the Silverstone CS381 that has capacity of up to 8 3,5" drives and two 2,5" ones. That supports up to ?ATX and has space for even a 240mm AIO if you need it. As for a motherboard that has 8 SATA ports the only option is the AMD side with the ASRock X570M Pro4. On the Intel side there are none unless you take a motherboard that has six SATA ports and steal the M.2 ones as well with an adapter which I don't recommend doing. It also has support for GPUs as long as e. g. the Radeon reference models. 

Here's my two cents and have fun building! 

[Jonza]

Hi,

 

Thanks for the suggestion but I need more then 8 Drives my current setup already has 8 Drives so looking for more... SATA lots are not an issue since I already have a HBA card

[agent2]

https://skinflint.co.uk/fractal-design-node-804-fd-ca-node-804-bl-w-a1087232.html?hloc=uk 

 

What do you think about this? Only ?ATX though 

[Dutch_Master]

For a true server case (rack mount) consider the Chenbro RM23812E3RP8, which has 12 hot-swap 3,4" drive bays up front in a 2U enclosure.

[Windows7ge]

You're going to be hard pressed to find consumer chassis that hold very much more than 8 drives. It's not their intended application. If you need considerably more bays you'll need to step up to a legitimate server enclosure such as the NORCO RPC-4224.

[GDRRiley]

your likely going to need a 4u rackmount case, supermicro has some and it may be cheapest to grab a older server and just use the case from it.

[Jarsky]

If you use an ITX board you can modify a Fractal XL to fit 20 hard drives with additional cages: https://imgur.com/a/L2qfK

 

Corsair 750D with additional cages you could stack a hell of a lot as well: https://www.overclock.net/forum/26440396-post1.html

[Jarsky]

P.S, my server is in a Fractal Design R6 which can hold 11 x 3.5" hard disks (10 with a triple rad) and 2 SSDs

 

 

[PianoPlayer88Key]

I too have been wanting to know what cases (preferably not exorbitantly priced) can hold lots of HDDs, at least way more than 8 or 10.   (I've noticed the $50 Apex Vortex 3620 can supposedly hold 10 drives, if it's possible to mount 3.5" HDDs in the 2 ext 3.5" FDD bays, or 12 if you can use a 5-in-3 converter cage in the 3 ext 5.25" bays.)

 

For example, what non-rack cases can (natively) support 40 3.5" HDDs per PCIe case expansion slot?  For example, if you put a High Point Rocket 750 in each slot and maxed out its drives.

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

That Rocket 750 for ~$76 shipped looks very tempting, but they normally go for $700+ (or at least 400+ used) so that low price concerns me even though the seller says like new guaranteed tested working.

 

 

 

 

I would also be fine with 16 drives per case expansion slot, like if I was going to use 9200-16e HBAs, which start at $24.

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Define R5 doesn't have enough 3.5" bays. (Not to mention I also lack enough SATA & PATA power & data connections.)

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

I wonder how many more HDDs could fit if I switched the CPU cooler to a 120mm AIO or a 1U heatsink (or underclocked low enough to just use the heat spreader bare), and used a riser cable for any PCIe HBAs I might install...  When full, the case should have no more free (empty air) space inside than an all-in-one PC, laptop, or even tablet or smartphone has.

Edited February 23, 2020 by PianoPlayer88Key
Put pics in spoilers so post didn't look as big, bolded & underlined a few things for TL;DR

[Jonza]

22 hours ago, Jarsky said:

If you use an ITX board you can modify a Fractal XL to fit 20 hard drives with additional cages: https://imgur.com/a/L2qfK

 

Corsair 750D with additional cages you could stack a hell of a lot as well: https://www.overclock.net/forum/26440396-post1.html

Thanks man, the 750D with the extra drive cages looks awesome... do you know of any other case mods with extra drive bays? otherwise the 750D looks like the best option unless I can find a old rackmount cases with more bays

[Jarsky]

9 hours ago, Jonza said:

Thanks man, the 750D with the extra drive cages looks awesome... do you know of any other case mods with extra drive bays? otherwise the 750D looks like the best option unless I can find a old rackmount cases with more bays

 

Not that are as readily available as the 750D. Its fairly easy to still find, and to get the extra drive cages. Many of the older cases like the Lian Li's, CM Stacker, HAF932, etc being out of production for so long are difficult to find. 

 

If you're ok with a rackmount, consider the Rosewill RSV-L4500 - it can hold 15 drives standard. You can also get a RSV-L4000 and get the individual drive cages to make it hold 12 drives. 

[Net Runner]

Get a Fractal Design case. I have two of those running at home.

Node304 with ASRock 6xSATA motherboard running bare-metal XPenology as a multimedia NAS.

Node804 with Intel motherboard and LSI RAID/HBA controller for 8 drives running ESXi-powered home lab. 

All of my friends are just going mad about how beautiful, compact and quiet those are

 

Edit: Typo.