Looking for a case with lots of 3.5" bays

[AngelicLiar]

Hey all,

As the title might explain - I'm looking for a case with lots of room for 3.5" HDs - preferably a tower case (and unfortunately it can't be a rackmount - otherwise I'd get the Norco 4220 <drool>).

One interesting case that I've found is the NZXT Whisper - it has a whopping 9 3.5" bays and some 5.25" bays to boot, but those 3.5" bays in there look a bit cramped to me and I don't think they're really meant to host 9 hard drives (and with only 1 120mm fan cooling them...).

Any opinions? Thanks in advance.

[simonw]

Antec 1200 has 3 drive bays, each capable of holding 3 HDDs, and each bay having their own 120mm fan.

[Pob255]

I'm guessing you mean 3.5" internal hard drive bays not 3.5" external

Sharkoon rebel 12 is often overlooked
http://www.sharkoon.com/html/produkt.../index_en.html
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Rebel...wless-mounting
you have two cages at the bottom that can hold 3 hard drives and I seem to remember have a slot for a 2.5" drive on top of each cage

you also have 11x 5.25" bays which you could convert with drive cages
eg http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Coole...for-Most-cases
or http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Silve...wap-black-RoHS
both of these are designed to fit in standard 5.25" bays

[Funkstar]

I could have been done with a Rebel 12 to be honest.

I have an Akasa Infinity with 3x 5-in-3 hot swap cages and a 3-in-2 hot swap cage.

The Rebel 12 would have meant i could either have had 4x 5-in-3 cages or as I currently have it but with an optical drive in there as well. It's a tempting upgrade for the future actually.

[b0redom]

Hi Funkstar,
How noisy are the fans on the back of those 5 in 3 hotswap cases? That's looks like it might fit what I'm after, but it needs to be quiet as it'll all be on all the time.....

[AngelicLiar]

Thanks for the quick replies - that rebel 12 does look great, but there's one tiny problem - I live in Israel and that case isn't available here (importing it would probably cost more than the case itself...).

I have looked at some similar cases and the Thermaltake Kandalf (can't post URLs...) comes to mind - while it has 3 less internal bays than the rebel 12, it's available here. It does look awful (in my opinion at least), but I don't care since it's meant to be a server and sit in a closet. Anyone has any experience with it?

About those 5X3 modules - wow! I knew there were 3X3 and 4X3, but I've never heard of a 5X3 module. Does it really cool the hard drives sufficiently? Considering my drives will run 24/7, I really wouldn't want them to keep destroying each other...

[Funkstar]

Originally Posted by b0redom

Hi Funkstar,
How noisy are the fans on the back of those 5 in 3 hotswap cases? That's looks like it might fit what I'm after, but it needs to be quiet as it'll all be on all the time.....

You need it to be quiet? they aren't for you then. There is a noticeable difference when one or more is unplugged. However, nothing like that is going to be quiet, having 5 drives running is going to be a noise issue.

At the moment I have the server in my study, long term however, I'll be building a cupboard in the hall with soundproofing and ventilation for it, so noise and heat in the study/spare room will be a lot better, only my fairly quiet desktop to produce noise.

As for cooling, yeas I think the drives are cooled pretty well. These are meant for servers and perhaps racks, so they are well made and are designed to cool drives properly.

[Brewster0101]

My Lian Li PC-A70 holds 9. 6 in the front cage and 3 in the rear back. All with a 120mm fan per three slots.

If you want lots of space then the Lian Li 343 with the drive bay adaptors is your best shot. I believe this will hold 18 3.5" drives in the front alone.

[llololloy]

coolermaster stacker 810?
It's a bit old but should be available via ebay etc....
Massive internally, can hold e-atx mobo with ease, fits 2 psu and has 11 * 5 1/4" bays which when filled with 4in3 cages (available in uk for under a tenner each) gives 12 3 1/2" drives with space for 2 optical drives. Also comes on wheels to make it easy to move about (when full of hard drives it gets quite heavy).
I use 1 for my home server and it's done well for nearly 4 years now.

[Hawklan]

Hi

Another vote for the Coolermaster Stacker 810

I have one with 8 drives in and should be able to squeeze in another 3

It runs really cool. However with that amount of drives it's not silent (no noisy but noticeable at night time)

All the best

RON

[b0redom]

Just a quick note to anyone thinking of doing this. Beware that all 5 in 3 cages will NOT fit in a case which has mini L-brackets ( to support CD / DVD drives ). I ordered a bunch of stuff from scan, and have been unable to find a case (except for a £250 LianLi) case. The Rebel 12 won't work.

Some 4 in 3 cages have grooves so the mini-Ls don't present a problem.

[Funkstar]

By "mini-L" brackets do you mean the plastic rails that screw onto the drives, which then clip into the case?

Is so, there is no problem with these and the Akasa Infinity I liked to earlier. It has small plastic runners that screw to the cages, two on each side and hold them in just fine.

[b0redom]

No I mean the little metal lips that the drives sit on:

http://www.tweaktown.com/popImg.php?...ebelinside.jpg

I can't find a great picture, but you can see under each bay there are two small metal lips on each side. One way round would be to break/bend them off with pliers.

[circuitmonkey]

I've run into this problem before, there is a very simple solution however... bend them out of the way!

[Funkstar]

Originally Posted by b0redom

No I mean the little metal lips that the drives sit on:

http://www.tweaktown.com/popImg.php?...ebelinside.jpg

Got you now.

Obviously the Akasa doesn't have them or the 5-in-3s wouldn't fit. Some of the other Icy-Dock racks have groves in the sides to get round this.

[Pob255]

Umm it depends on the cage, thoes "L brackets" are standard on the vast majority of cases and most drive cages are designed around this standard layout.
Both of the 4 in 3 cages I linked two before are designed for standard 5.25" bays, look at the pic's and you'll see each cage has shaped sides that are designed to slot into the top and bottom of the three 5.25" bays, like any optical drive would.

The big issue comes with cages that are designed for specific cases, as these can be non-standard.
Although looking at the IcyDock you can see it's flat and cannot be placed directly in if there are "L brackets"
Should of spotted that earlier.

The Akasa infinity gets away with it because it uses drive rails, that means the bays are actually wider than 5.25" to make room for the extra width of the rails.

I'd agree with circuitmonkey, just bend the brackets out of the way, or cut them offt