Anyone disappointed by the lack of large external HD enclosures (4 drives+)

Vanilla

Vanilla

Vanilla

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I've been scouring the web for decent External HD Caddies. I'll soon have three SATA drives and i'd like to put them into a large caddy - such as a 4 bay, or even 8 bay one. I'd like an eight bay because I might consolidate some of my internal drives also to save a bit of power.

Doesn't have to be NAS, just USB, eSATA, etc.

We have such a poor selection it's shocking. There are many in the US but very few in the UK. I've found sopme in the UK but quite often they're very expensive!

Anyone else have this problem?
 
4-8 bay isn't an average home user type thing. All the focus for end users is normally put into 1-2 internal drives and maybe an external drive on top.

4-8 bay is more of an enterprise thing which also brings an additional cost.
 
Slackworth said:
4-8 bay isn't an average home user type thing. All the focus for end users is normally put into 1-2 internal drives and maybe an external drive on top.

4-8 bay is more of an enterprise thing which also brings an additional cost.
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Not really - I would put enterprise down to external SCSI enclosures, high availability, hot swap, etc. However you're right that if you try and find an 8 drive enclosure it will have most of the above. Still no excuse for lack of 4 bays!

There are plenty of enclosures for the home user 4-8 bay.....but in the US. Finding these same ones in the UK is hard! I've found one big UK site that specialises in it to some degree but doesn't have the same selection.

I can find quite a few NAS boxes that take 4 drives but there are £300-500 just for the shell. I'm looking at spending £100-130.
 
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Vanilla said:
No, i'd rather not have another PC going.....

Space, power, noise, etc.
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i was trying to figure out this problem but it seems it doesnt really exist, i was even thinking of building one, but unless i build a mini-pc. which i dont really want to due to higher cost than a NAS.
 
flying grouse said:
Try doing a google for multi drive enclosure....plenty options

this is one, an icybox which is esata 4 drive>http://www.icydock.com/product/mb561s-4s.html
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i dont know how i didnt find that, well if only now i paint it black :D... 150 now i just need to save up money to buy enough HDD's

edit, that thing works with this http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-023-BT&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=72

not bad, you can pull it out of the 4 bay, put it in the single external and off you go :D...
 
platinum87 said:
i dont know how i didnt find that, well if only now i paint it black :D... 150 now i just need to save up money to buy enough HDD's

edit, that thing works with this http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-023-BT&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=72

not bad, you can pull it out of the 4 bay, put it in the single external and off you go :D...
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err

i think this is just an external enclosure. i.e you need a raid card in your PC to use as ESATA ports. hence the "Highpoint RocketRAID" recommendation.

this isn't a stand alone device. and its a rip off for 150 its just the same as this:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-018-BT&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=72

but external.
 
crazyDAJT said:
err

i think this is just an external enclosure. i.e you need a raid card in your PC to use as ESATA ports. hence the "Highpoint RocketRAID" recommendation.

this isn't a stand alone device. and its a rip off for 150 its just the same as this:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-018-BT&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=72

but external.
Click to expand...

i havent got space in my case for that.. + you saying it will need 4x esata cables? couldnt find it on specs or merge all 4 hdds into 1 cable?
 
Wouldn't touch a 4-8 unit HD USB with a barge pole..instead a NAS or a esata (would need 8 sata cables of course. Then a PCI-E card with 8 esata connetors on the back plate, or a dedicated connector.

I guess SCSI still holds a trump card here, one cable could be used for 7 (SCSI) and 14? (Ultra SCSI)
 
Highpoint do some RocketRaid cards with dense miniSAS connectors which break out to 4 eSATA connectors for precisely this purpose.

platinum87: There is still something nagging in the back of my head. Why do you want an external solution connected to only one PC? Surely the sensible option here, given the cost of an external drive bay and the appropriate cards and cables, is just to buy a new case which will hold the appropriate number of drives?
 
you can build you own 7TB full hardware raid 5 server for about 1.4K ish.

you can pick up a Dell Perc 5/i new second hand for about £100, you need to be careful about motherboard selection.

the majority of that cost is the hard disc drives. so a starting solution would be much cheaper. i think £350 comes to mined on the basic backbone off all the hardware.

EDIT: I am Hitman :p
 
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SideWinder said:
Looks like i've found my new enclosure. \o/
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now just get two and stick it in one of these. you can pick them you for about £75

400x400_s411open.jpg


.....

....

think i need to lie down....
 
Not external though, so you'll need power cables x 4 and sata cables x 4. I had a 5.25" x 2 SCSI box, came with a PSU I guess something like that but in esata form is suitable
 
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