TLDR: If you were building a NAS for 8 HDDs and 1 SSD today, what case would you use?
I’m going to be rebuilding my system soon (currently using an old PowerEdge T610) using one of my other older (R5 1600) systems and I’ve basically hit a road block on picking a case.
I’ve got 8 HDDs that need to fit in the system after it’s rebuilt (plus at least one SSD) so I’m kinda limited in that regard.
The rest of the system is planned out (mostly because I’m reusing old parts) it’s just the case I’m stuck on.
I’m wanting to avoid rack mounting currently mostly due to space (and wanting to keep it under $200)
I was thinking maybe the Fractal Design Define R5, the Fractal Design Node 804, or the Phanteks Enthoo Pro 2 but I’m open to suggestions.
Fractal Design, definitely. The model I’m using is no longer made but they have very good ones today too. Look into the Define and Meshify lines. They have models that can utilize the full height of the case for HDD/SSD slots with openings on both sides for maximum ease of cable routing.
The Define 7 or Meshify 2 is most likely what you want. They only come with 6 HDD brackets included but you can buy more and they have slots for up to 11.
The R5 is another good choice, I like those brackets more, but it’s not so flexible as the others I mentioned, and the 5.25" bays will most likely go unused and just take up space.
Don’t get the Node 804, it’s much larger than it seems (check out yt videos) and is cramped and hard to work in.
I second the R5 case. I have one for my NAS and it’s been a dream to work in.
The R5 is amazing, though yeah the 5.25" bays are kinda a waste.
I found a thingy though that fits into the bay and houses 6 2.5" SSDs, it’s pretty cool!
Yeah I expect acting as SSD bays could become popular in the future if SSD prices drop low enough. Although they might be M.2 bays by then.
I have a bunch of old 60 GB 2.5" SSDs around but they’re so small it’s not worth bothering to set up an array of them. Plus they’re more useful individually for stuff like upgrading an old laptop, portable USB storage or installing Windows the one time in three years I need it.
In the meantime I’ve liberated the 2x HDD cage from a Define C Mini’s shroud and mounted it on the floor in a fan slot.
I know you said you’re against rack mounting, but JUST in case:
I love the look and tidiness of a nice rack mount system. So I got a Chenbro 4U case. It’s perfect for reusing my old components, and it has a standard size area on the front to install a hot swap HDD cage.
I went with this https://www.silverstonetek.com/en/product/info/computer-chassis/cs382/. It’s pretty decent but you are putting a hard cap on expansion. Also the fans it comes with are pretty loud so I’d replace them.
I’m using a NetApp ds4246 to hold 24 drives, and it’s glorious - embrace the rack mount life. Although my computers themselves are all HP Prodesk minis, which are tiny and amazing, 1 u high and can fit two across on a shelf.
I have been looking to do this as well, I’m just not 100% sure how it all connects together. Do you have the disk shelf connect to a server with lots of sas cards?
You just need one it mode hba sas controller with an external out, and probably a conversion cable from 8088 to netapp’s 8436.
You can daisy chain shelves if needed, and I think you can use a second sas card for active failover but I haven’t tried it.
Oh, i thought a single sas port could only do 8 sata drives. Interesting
I used a Fractal Design case for a home server in the past. Pretty happy with them.
Highly recommend cases by Fractal.
For self hosting I’d recommend either one of the Meshify 2 or Define 7, depending on local price and your specific needs. I personally went with the Meshify 2 XL and was blown away by the quality of the case. It’s built well and allows for a variety of configurations. It also makes maintenance very easy as the filters and side panels can all be removed without any tool to handle dust build up.
+1 for Fractal Define R5 - Absolute Beast
I’m currently using one of the Rosewill rackmount chassis (https://www.rosewill.com/rosewill-rsv-l4412u-black/p/9SIA072GJ92847), fits well in my half rack along with my Unifi gear and HP ProLiant. I probably would’ve gone with something else if I had to buy it though- this was sorta a hand-me-down from a former roommate who didn’t want to take it with him when he left.
Used to have a node 304. Very happy I got a hot swap Roswell 4u case
Have a node 304. Extremely happy with it. Literally unbeatable hard drive and CPU cooler compatibility for its size.
That being said, it only fits 6 drives.
Jonsbo N3 sounds like a good fit
I am using a normal desktop case with an external usb-c 8-bay JBOD drive enclosure from Mediasonic. I’m using mdadm to combine the drives with RAID-6. I know I’m not getting the performance that I could with native SATA, but it can still saturate my 1Gbps network, so it’s good enough for serving video, audio, and some other web-based apps.
For 9 disks I would need to print a bigger case, but this one suits me well for now 😉
I got out of the “surplus hardware” a while ago; way too expensive and noisy to run, so super recommend ditching the poweredge. for home use, I ended up just going with a USB3 JBOD for storage, and a Intel NUC (which I think they don’t make anymore). it runs a ton of virtualized servers under kvm, a virtualized NAS, all without issue because it honestly spends most of its time nearly idle. point is: it’s definitely nice to have it all in one case and with high speed storage but maybe having to find something that can house a ton of drives isn’t a strict need if you aren’t actually going to put a ton of load on it.
So I recently went through all of this headache. I started really wanting hotswap that didn’t look like it was from the 90’s. I also needed like 8 drives capacity which rules a lot of the popular cases out.
I thought about it for a while and I don’t really touch the drives at all on any of my previous Nas builds so that meant I didn’t need hotswap.
Eventually I decided that rather than try to hide the case away I would make it a feature of my living room and I went with the tower 500 and I really love it and everyone that has gone over has mentioned how cool it looks
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:
Fewer Letters More Letters NAS Network-Attached Storage NUC Next Unit of Computing brand of Intel small computers PSU Power Supply Unit RAID Redundant Array of Independent Disks for mass storage SATA Serial AT Attachment interface for mass storage SSD Solid State Drive mass storage Unifi Ubiquiti WiFi hardware brand
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