Which large case?

[eldren]

I've been thinking of getting myself a new case for a few weeks now, and, seeing as the rest of the Samsung harddrives I ordered have arrived (At last), I've found that my current case puts me in rather interesting predicament: either, I can put in all the drives, or, all the IDE cables, but not both. So, new case time it is.

In all, it needs to be able to take seven 3.5" drives, and at least three 5.75" drives. In addition, it needs about 5cm space between the back of the drives and the beginning of the motherboard (Which is about 31x25cm in size).

Currently, I have my eye on a CMStacker, but before I spend my hard-earned monies, I was wondering if anyone might have any better suggestions. Do note that my location may hinder the availibility of some brands/models, so no Ebuyer, etc., cases.

[Stewart]

No, I think the Stacker is the one for someone in your situation. Can't think of anything I'd recomend over it...

[BenW]

The big version of the Lian-Li V1000?

[eldren]

Any links for that case, Ben? The results Google returned weren't too promising, what with the model I saw sporting only six 3.5" drive bays (Unless I shift one drive to the 5.75" section. ). Also, how does the Lian-Li's pricing compare to that of the CMStacker? The one result mentioned that they're overpriced, in general, though what exactly that means, in this class of case, I'm not quite sure.

[skattrd]

I think the lian only takes 6 drives, v2000 iirc, and they're kinda pricey as well, wouldn't say no myself though ... there was one on fs. forums a week or so back

[bmh.01]

The V2000 has 12x 3.5" bays, and 6x 5 1/2" bays (seven if you sacrifice the floppy drive). I've got one, expensive but very nice and worth every penny.

http://www.lian-li.com/product.php?a...f47e8f388b3582

[bouncin]

i was just looking into a mountain mods ufo2 they are quite big and if i can get postage for less than £25 i think ill get 1

[Vimeous]

If you're housing that many drives being picky over case price take second place to most other concerns. Will the CM Stacker, despite its size suitability, have enough cooling?

Other possibilities:
Supermicro SC742/743 tower/4u rackmount.
Supermicro SC 832/833 3u rackmount.
Coolermaster ATC-400 6u rackmount.
Coolermaster ATC-310 wheeled cube.
Prices are probably incomparible tbh though.

I had a hunt for Supermicro suppliers and one of their main official resellers seems to be http://www.boston.co.uk/ in the uk. They also had the Coolermaster cases listed above.

Other than that my own Coolermaster case is brilliant so I'm sure if you choose the Stacker it will do a great job

Have fun deciding!

[Proplus]

You can try a Coolermaster Wavemaster. I got 5 x HDDs in mine with 3 of the 4 5.25" bays used and the floppy bay spare. Your 6th and 7th HDDs can go in the floppy bay and the spare 5.25" bay using brackets.

The case is quite wide, so you don't have to loop you IDE cables via the right-hand side of the GFX card, and can go over it.

[skattrd]

A slightly cheaper alternative than the v2000 would be a pc-70 the rack in the bottom of the case has space for 6x 3.5" drives then theres 3x 3.5" on the front (for floppy etc.) so room for upto 9 drives (8 with a floppy installed). Theres also space for 6x 5.25" drives as well ........ the only thing I'd consider changing mine for is a v2000, but pc-70's can be found reasonably priced secondhand

[eldren]

So, I've asked and looked around, and it seems I'd have to import a Lian-Li myself, or wait until next year, when another guy is importing a couple - neither of which is really an option unfortunately. That V2000 did look rather good, save that it may have proven a bit of a stretch, getting to the 1 set of PATA connectors at the bottom of my board (It would have wound up at the top of the case - farther from the drives, one cannot get).

Vimeous - any links for those Supermicro cases? Google won't even find me nicely-sized pictures of them. Purely out of interest - I highly doubt I'd be able to find one here.