First full DIY in nearly a decade-need modern case recommendation

[Camofelix]

Hi Ladies and Gents,

 

Been using workstations for a while now and haven't been in the full DIY space since ~2011. 

I'm looking for a case recommendation that fits the following:
full size ATX
Fits 6*3.5" Drives (or accepts additional internal 3.5" HDD cages and/or  a 5.25" hot swap drive bay to make up the difference between the built drive bays and the needed amount)

can fit/use a 240mm AIO
Ideally sub 150 CAD, ~120 USD

Silent if at all possible

Dont need:

RGB
tempered glass ETC.

 

The corsair  4/5000D looks like an option, but drive support seems to be questionable at best.

Corsair seems to sell drive cage internal drive cages, so these may be a possibility: link to corsair website add in HDD cage accessories

Would *love* any and all recommendations.

Thanks,

FCLC


P.S.
Details about machine, but not super needed for above

Reason for the Drives is that this machine, my dev/CFD workstation has 2 ZFS RAIDz1 arrays for bulk model storage that I need local access to.

Other components are an Alder lake 12700k (in AVX 512 mode), MSI Pro z690 DDR4 and current VGA card is 5600xt. PSU is a full modular Seasonic 750w gold from a few years back ~2011-2013

outside of the above are a SAS card, a USB add in card, optane drives and nand based NVME drives.

 

[Bombastinator]

TLDNR:

very general.  No specific recommendation

 

There has been one major change in technology that has produced a change in case design: SSDs are now a majority of storage installs for consumer computers.  SSDs are both small and light and don’t make noise. 
 

this means that the only thing making noise are fans, so systems have gotten away from noise isolation designs to airflow designs which reduce the number and rotation speed of necessary fans. Also, bays have been removed as SSDs can be more or less stuck anywhere. The result is because you are using a bunch of HDDs you may actually want an older design case. 

 

2011-2012 was still 10 years ago.  It is possible the PSU is EOL.

[Camofelix]

12 minutes ago, Bombastinator said:

TLDNR:

very general.  No specific recommendation

 

There has been one major change in technology that has produced a change in case design: SSDs are now a majority of storage installs for consumer computers.  SSDs are both small and light and don’t make noise. 
 

this means that the only thing making noise are fans, so systems have gotten away from noise isolation designs to airflow designs which reduce the number and rotation speed of necessary fans. Also, bays have been removed as SSDs can be more or less stuck anywhere. The result is because you are using a bunch of HDDs you may actually want an older design case. 

 

2011-2012 was still 10 years ago.  It is possible the PSU is EOL.

Interesting

The abundance of 3.5" drive cages have been the one thing that most OEM's have kept, interesting that in the consumer space they've died off.

Also explains why I see almost no 5.25" bays on most recommended case lists.

Thankfully the PSU has always been oversized and run behind a line interactive UPS, so that gives some piece of mind.

[Bombastinator]

22 hours ago, Camofelix said:

Interesting

The abundance of 3.5" drive cages have been the one thing that most OEM's have kept, interesting that in the consumer space they've died off.

Also explains why I see almost no 5.25" bays on most recommended case lists.

Thankfully the PSU has always been oversized and run behind a line interactive UPS, so that gives some piece of mind.

CDs are basically gone as well.  Things have gone to online downloads.  There isn’t a whole lot of use for 5.25” bays anymore and a lot less use for 3.5” especially externally accessible.

 

i think enterprise might still have drive cages because SSDs have issues with wear in heavy use situations.  Sometimes HDDs are better. 

[IkeaGnome]

p400a is a great case, but would require $40 usd in brackets. https://www.amazon.com/Phanteks-Modular-Bracket-Specifice-PH-HDD-KT02/dp/B015AD1L0O

If you could find the Silverstone TJ08B-E on sale, it fits your needs.

Antec P101 looks like it fits your needs and then some.

 

As @Bombastinatorpointed out, HDDs en masse are going by the wayside. However, if you found a case you liked, you could make it have the HDD bays if it has the room. 

I moved my Folding/Mining/Nas/Plex server over to a mining rig from the Evolv X. I just slapped it all in a mining frame. These Phanteks brackets are modular. They'll stack to each other. It's not the correct way to do this, but I have 8 bays. 2 4 bay stacks. They're just held to the frame with Velcro. In theory you could do that with any case that has room between the GPU and radiator/front fans. If you do it in a case, you can stack higher. I stopped at 4 just to keep it from being too top heavy on the Velcro. 

https://www.amazon.com/Phanteks-Stackable-Bracket-Cases-PH-HDDKT_03/dp/B07GY2B3WP

Spoiler

Here's how it looked in it's old case sans 2 1080s. That case is meant to have sets of two hanging, but out side of that case they clip together just like the 2 in the pack from Amazon do. 

[Camofelix]

1 hour ago, IkeaGnome said:

p400a is a great case, but would require $40 usd in brackets. https://www.amazon.com/Phanteks-Modular-Bracket-Specifice-PH-HDD-KT02/dp/B015AD1L0O

If you could find the Silverstone TJ08B-E on sale, it fits your needs.

Antec P101 looks like it fits your needs and then some.

 

As @Bombastinatorpointed out, HDDs en masse are going by the wayside. However, if you found a case you liked, you could make it have the HDD bays if it has the room. 

I moved my Folding/Mining/Nas/Plex server over to a mining rig from the Evolv X. I just slapped it all in a mining frame. These Phanteks brackets are modular. They'll stack to each other. It's not the correct way to do this, but I have 8 bays. 2 4 bay stacks. They're just held to the frame with Velcro. In theory you could do that with any case that has room between the GPU and radiator/front fans. If you do it in a case, you can stack higher. I stopped at 4 just to keep it from being too top heavy on the Velcro. 

https://www.amazon.com/Phanteks-Stackable-Bracket-Cases-PH-HDDKT_03/dp/B07GY2B3WP

  Reveal hidden contents

Here's how it looked in it's old case sans 2 1080s. That case is meant to have sets of two hanging, but out side of that case they clip together just like the 2 in the pack from Amazon do. 

Gotcha! What my current thinking is, is the 5kD silent due to the point mentioned above for dampening spindle noise, mount the AIO to the roof of the case, grab a pair of the brackets that you linked above and mount those in the open space on the floor of the case near the PSU cover, then route cables from there

[thrasher_565]

imo if you need lots of hdd mounts just buy a hdd cage and mount that. a longer case is ideal.

 

the cases that can do 10+ hdd cost like $600... its a nesh thing now.

[Camofelix]

On 12/20/2021 at 10:32 AM, thrasher_565 said:

imo if you need lots of hdd mounts just buy a hdd cage and mount that. a longer case is ideal.

 

the cases that can do 10+ hdd cost like $600... its a nesh thing now.

 

On 12/19/2021 at 12:18 PM, IkeaGnome said:

p400a is a great case, but would require $40 usd in brackets. https://www.amazon.com/Phanteks-Modular-Bracket-Specifice-PH-HDD-KT02/dp/B015AD1L0O

If you could find the Silverstone TJ08B-E on sale, it fits your needs.

Antec P101 looks like it fits your needs and then some.

 

As @Bombastinatorpointed out, HDDs en masse are going by the wayside. However, if you found a case you liked, you could make it have the HDD bays if it has the room. 

I moved my Folding/Mining/Nas/Plex server over to a mining rig from the Evolv X. I just slapped it all in a mining frame. These Phanteks brackets are modular. They'll stack to each other. It's not the correct way to do this, but I have 8 bays. 2 4 bay stacks. They're just held to the frame with Velcro. In theory you could do that with any case that has room between the GPU and radiator/front fans. If you do it in a case, you can stack higher. I stopped at 4 just to keep it from being too top heavy on the Velcro. 

https://www.amazon.com/Phanteks-Stackable-Bracket-Cases-PH-HDDKT_03/dp/B07GY2B3WP

  Reveal hidden contents

Here's how it looked in it's old case sans 2 1080s. That case is meant to have sets of two hanging, but out side of that case they clip together just like the 2 in the pack from Amazon do. 

 

On 12/19/2021 at 11:57 AM, Bombastinator said:

CDs are basically gone as well.  Things have gone to online downloads.  There isn’t a whole lot of use for 5.25” bays anymore and a lot less use for 3.5” especially externally accessible.

 

i think enterprise might still have drive cages because SSDs have issues with wear in heavy use situations.  Sometimes HDDs are better. 

After further review, and going down the rabbit whole, I ended up going with the Fractal Meshify 2, and it's been quite good so far.

Thanks again for having taken the time gentleman