45Drives server chassis barebones?

[Marvin_The_Robot]

Hi guys,

 

Trying to find a rackmount case to build a new server into.

 

I've seen the 45Drives cases where the HDD's drop in from the top instead of the hotswap bays on the front.

 

Any chance someone knows the name of that kind of server chassis? Or is it just a custom one that 45Drives supply?

 

I'd like to find a barebones one to build up. Preferably something with sas backplanes. 

 

Thanks in advance to anyone that can help.

[Jarsky]

It's a top loading design which is derived from the Backblaze Storage Pod design in particular.  

The CAD designs for the old Storage Pod for DIY is available for download which you can give to a fabrication place to cut the parts for you. But the old design does not accomodate for a backplane. 

The newer design is not publicly available as it has proprietary things like backplane and disk holders; same with 45Drives. 

Supermicro also have the top loading chassis as well but theyre a hotswap caddy design and far more expensive.

 

They're expensive whichever way you go so it really depends what your budget is on if they're worth it. 

If you're looking for something more cost effective; consider getting a 24 Bay front loading server and use larger capacity drives. 

Innovision make some fantastic 4U chassis which are a Supermicro clone effectively; great pricing too: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32825182421.html

They basically took over where Norco exited the market. 

[ToboRobot]

https://www.45drives.com/products/storage/

Storinator?

 

 

https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/just-the-storinator-chassis-are-for-sale-at-45drives-com.35968/

 

 

[Marvin_The_Robot]

8 minutes ago, Jarsky said:

It's a top loading design which is derived from the Backblaze Storage Pod design in particular.  

The CAD designs for the old Storage Pod for DIY is available for download which you can give to a fabrication place to cut the parts for you. But the old design does not accomodate for a backplane. 

The newer design is not publicly available as it has proprietary things like backplane and disk holders; same with 45Drives. 

Supermicro also have the top loading chassis as well but theyre a hotswap caddy design and far more expensive.

 

They're expensive whichever way you go so it really depends what your budget is on if they're worth it. 

If you're looking for something more cost effective; consider getting a 24 Bay front loading server and use larger capacity drives. 

Innovision make some fantastic 4U chassis which are a Supermicro clone effectively; great pricing too: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32825182421.html

They basically took over where Norco exited the market. 

Thanks, I will look into these options.

 

I've also seen a 30+ bay chassis on Aliexpress where is had hotswap bays on the front and back. But not much room for the power supplies and mainboard.

[Blue4130]

27 minutes ago, Jarsky said:

The newer design is not publicly available as it has proprietary things like backplane and disk holders; same with 45Drives. 

 

Is it backplane? I thought it was all custom cables running along the base to a HBA. Is that not the situation?

[Jarsky]

10 minutes ago, Marvin_The_Robot said:

Thanks, I will look into these options.

 

I've also seen a 30+ bay chassis on Aliexpress where is had hotswap bays on the front and back. But not much room for the power supplies and mainboard.

 

I think you're talking about Innovisions 36 bay chassis: https://www.iovstech.com/4u-server-case/s45636-eg12dehigh-density-4u-36-hdd-bays-storage-server.html

Its a clone of this Supermicro one: https://store.supermicro.com/us_en/4u-superstorage-ssg-641e-e1cr36h.html

 

My thought process is; if you're needing more than 24 disks; then you should probably be looking at Disk Shelves; or a top loading design. 

[Jarsky]

6 minutes ago, Blue4130 said:

Is it backplane? I thought it was all custom cables running along the base to a HBA. Is that not the situation?

 

The Backblaze Storage Pods has multiple iterations; the last Storage Pod which was released to public use backplane cards..in particular the Sunrich Tech S-331's. The earlier iterations used SATA power & data connectors screwed into metal brackets with wire channels. 

 

 

45Drives was basically the same; janky early iterations, then backplane boards in later iterations. 

[Needfuldoer]

45drives sells a 15 slot Storinator "HL15". It comes with their backplane and top-load bay design, but personally I think it's very expensive for what you get. ($800 USD for just a bare chassis with a backplane. I paid about that for an entire 12-bay PowerEdge R540 with two processors and 128 GB of DDR4-2666.)