Case buying suggestions? - For full tower workstation PC/hackintosh

[TUNApower]

Howdy,

 

Long time watcher/reader first time poster.

 

Basically looking for a new full/super tower case with some picky requirements and hoping some kindly informed folk can help me out?

 

Mainly want lots of internal HDD/SSD.

 

Looking for a full/super tower as I do not care if it takes up a lot of space and I am crap with cable management. Price is also not too much of a concern and I would really like a case that feels solid rather than bendy and breakable. I want to be able to kick it by accident and for it to last a good 5 years+

 

Here is what it needs to hold:

 

1x ASUS x79 Sabertooth motherboard with 3930K and H100i cooler

1x GTX 980 (Space for a second at a later date would be nice)

1x 2720SGL 8-port PCIe RAID card

 

2 x Samsung 840 EVO 1TB SSDs in RAID 0 - Mac OS media drive

2 x Samsung 840 PRO 120GB SSDs in RAID 0 - Mac OS startup drive

4 x 3TB HDDs (2 in RAID 0, 2 as backup) - Mac OS secondary media drive

 

1 x 240GB OWC SSD - PC startup drive

2 x 3TB HDDs - PC media and backup

 

Possibly more internal HDDs...

 

So I'm essentially looking for something that can hold bucketloads of internal drives as I want a video editing workstation Mac partition combined with a gaming and possibly editing PC partition.

 

I've just bought the RAID card which was the only affordable one with decent hackintosh support, and I might have to ditch it and go for a pricy external RAID at some point if it winds up being flaky, but it should at least get me some more internal SATA ports as the Sabertooth only has 8, 4 of which are only 3GB/s...

 

I'm looking at the Enthoo Primo, Corsair 900D...?

 

Thanks!

 

[spwath]

Howdy,

Long time watcher/reader first time poster.

Basically looking for a new full/super tower case with some picky requirements and hoping some kindly informed folk can help me out?

Mainly want lots of internal HDD/SSD.

Looking for a full/super tower as I do not care if it takes up a lot of space and I am crap with cable management. Price is also not too much of a concern and I would really like a case that feels solid rather than bendy and breakable. I want to be able to kick it by accident and for it to last a good 5 years+

Here is what it needs to hold:

1x ASUS x79 Sabertooth motherboard with 3930K and H100i cooler

1x GTX 980 (Space for a second at a later date would be nice)

1x 2720SGL 8-port PCIe RAID card

2 x Samsung 840 EVO 1TB SSDs in RAID 0 - Mac OS media drive

2 x Samsung 840 PRO 120GB SSDs in RAID 0 - Mac OS startup drive

4 x 3TB HDDs (2 in RAID 0, 2 as backup) - Mac OS secondary media drive

1 x 240GB OWC SSD - PC startup drive

2 x 3TB HDDs - PC media and backup

Possibly more internal HDDs...

So I'm essentially looking for something that can hold bucketloads of internal drives as I want a video editing workstation Mac partition combined with a gaming and possibly editing PC partition.

I've just bought the RAID card which was the only affordable one with decent hackintosh support, and I might have to ditch it and go for a pricy external RAID at some point if it winds up being flaky, but it should at least get me some more internal SATA ports as the Sabertooth only has 8, 4 of which are only 3GB/s...

I'm looking at the Enthoo Primo, Corsair 900D...?

Thanks!

You do not want 900d.

Enthoo primo, tj07, tj11 are good

[TUNApower]

You do not want 900d.

Enthoo primo, tj07, tj11 are good

Thanks for those suggestions! Probably gonna go with the Enthoo though am liking the seperation of the lower section on the Silverstone cases. Having 4-8 SATA cables going to that PCI card is gonna be messy...

[TUNApower]

Looking a bit more at the tj11 and while I love the huge amount of space for drives, it looks like I would either have to buy a new cpu cooler / rad or somehow mod it to allow for my h100i cooler to be compatible.

 

Any suggestions for a case with equal build quality/expandability (particularly being able to accommodate so many drives) but also allowing for the h100i to be installed without modding?

 

I would love to get a proper water cooled system in that case but not right away as I'm already throwing a lot into the case price...

[spwath]

Looking a bit more at the tj11 and while I love the huge amount of space for drives, it looks like I would either have to buy a new cpu cooler / rad or somehow mod it to allow for my h100i cooler to be compatible.

Any suggestions for a case with equal build quality/expandability (particularly being able to accommodate so many drives) but also allowing for the h100i to be installed without modding?

I would love to get a proper water cooled system in that case but not right away as I'm already throwing a lot into the case price...

Tj07 I think

[STRMfrmXMN]

Looking a bit more at the tj11 and while I love the huge amount of space for drives, it looks like I would either have to buy a new cpu cooler / rad or somehow mod it to allow for my h100i cooler to be compatible.

 

Any suggestions for a case with equal build quality/expandability (particularly being able to accommodate so many drives) but also allowing for the h100i to be installed without modding?

 

I would love to get a proper water cooled system in that case but not right away as I'm already throwing a lot into the case price...

Fractal Design Arc Midi R2 or Arc Midi XL should do you good. Both can easily house an H100i.

[TUNApower]

Fractal Design Arc Midi R2 or Arc Midi XL should do you good. Both can easily house an H100i.

Thanks again for the suggestions! Think those Fractal cases might be a bit too squishy for my liking. Really looking for a case that will hold an absurd amount of drives for a large RAID or two, and perhaps some active cooling on the drives. So might wind up with tj11 at this rate though they are freaking expensive here!

 

I just discovered Case Labs and am wondering why this company and/or its overall philosophy hasn't taken over??? Beautiful boxes!

 

Unfortunately I live in the UK and the shipping/customs tax would probably make one of them far too expensive but are there any companies like this in the UK someone knows about?

[stuka06]

If you're in need of 11 Drive Bays, may I suggest the Lian Li PC-V2310.

 

http://www.lian-li.com/en/dt_portfolio/pc-v2130/

 

It has enough drive sleds to house your current array of storage drives and enough space for even more in the future.

Your other hardware can easily be housed in this 2001'esque obelisk of a case.

Plus, the build quality of Lian-Li cases is impeccable!

[STRMfrmXMN]

Thanks again for the suggestions! Think those Fractal cases might be a bit too squishy for my liking. Really looking for a case that will hold an absurd amount of drives for a large RAID or two, and perhaps some active cooling on the drives. So might wind up with tj11 at this rate though they are freaking expensive here!

 

I just discovered Case Labs and am wondering why this company and/or its overall philosophy hasn't taken over??? Beautiful boxes!

 

Unfortunately I live in the UK and the shipping/customs tax would probably make one of them far too expensive but are there any companies like this in the UK someone knows about?

Corsair 450D!

[TUNApower]

Thanks for all the suggestions!

 

Looking at the TJ07 again but wondering if anyone can tell me the maximum number of SSDs and HDDs it can hold?

 

Sounds like 6 from what I can tell but surely more room for SSDs on top of that? Can it take an extra hard drive cage below if not using the basement for cooling?

[STRMfrmXMN]

Thanks for all the suggestions!

 

Looking at the TJ07 again but wondering if anyone can tell me the maximum number of SSDs and HDDs it can hold?

 

Sounds like 6 from what I can tell but surely more room for SSDs on top of that? Can it take an extra hard drive cage below if not using the basement for cooling?

Again, Enthoo Pro/Primo/whatever else the high-end ones are called these days. I don't know anything about the TJ07 but the Enthoo stuff sounds perfect for what you need.

[asim1999]

900D or HAF Stacker for extreme watercooling. 

Enthoo Pro/Luxe/Primo should be good as well 

[spwath]

Thanks for all the suggestions!

Looking at the TJ07 again but wondering if anyone can tell me the maximum number of SSDs and HDDs it can hold?

Sounds like 6 from what I can tell but surely more room for SSDs on top of that? Can it take an extra hard drive cage below if not using the basement for cooling?

Not sure, but ssd's you could just stack on basement, so you could hold like 100

[TUNApower]

Went with the Enthoo Primo as found it at a great price!

[spwath]

Went with the Enthoo Primo as found it at a great price!

Well it's a good choice.

Seems like a pretty nice case

[TUNApower]

I hope so spwath! Might need to buy some 5.25 bay converters but should determinately have enough room. Wound up deciding to dive in completely and build a whole new X99 pc. Never built from absolute scratch ... !

 

I'm just wondering about the power supply of choice if you're interested?

 

http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/286265-vanguard-850-vs-rm-850-psu-buying-compatibility-modular-cabling-advice-please/