8 Bay Enclosure

azzidodabass · 23 Jul 2012 at 18:54

Hi,

I am trying to find an 8-bay enclosure. I have 4 enclosures with 2 drives in each ah the moment and all the cables are doing my nut in.

There is an 8 bay one on other websites for about 250 quid, but I am concerned about the quality. I don't want to spend shed loads, and I don't need to be NAS as the drives are primarily used for backing up.

But I read on one site about this 8-bay I found, and apparently the controller is **** and copying large volumes of data takes ages (not ideal for a backup).

Does anyone know the cheapest way to squeeze 8 hard drives into a small contained unit - and connect over e-SATA, or Gigabit ethernet - for about 300 quid?

Any help appreciated.

HighlandeR · 24 Jul 2012 at 08:11

I was looking into this, there is no easy answer or soloution I found, I think sometimes one could get a fractual R3 case for about £80-100, and cheap mobo+cpu+ram kit and build a £300 pc at least you would have 10 slots for a hdd and throw a sata/raid card in the mix and your sorted.

At least then u can use the giga or esata at least.

ZXSpectrum · 24 Jul 2012 at 09:09

I agree with that. Unfortunately a dedicated solution would not be cost effective. Ones i know of are these http://www.wiebetech.com/products/RTX800.php and will be in the reigon of £2K :eek:

There are cheaper but that one comes with the raid card and cables etc..

welshdragon · 24 Jul 2012 at 11:10

You could get something like a 4 bay synology and add the 5 expansion module. WOuld be a lot more than your budget though.

Maybe a custom build with a copy of windows home server would do the trick?

Edit: maybe a HP Proliant server with the cashback, they do many models there might be something there? Or consolidate your hard drives into larger ones and offset cost bey selling old ones? Depending on what size tehy are now of course.

LFletcher · 24 Jul 2012 at 11:21

These might be of use, http://www.addonics.com/category/storage_tower.php

Then add one or more of these (eSATA and USB3), http://www.addonics.com/products/ad5hpmreu.php

Depending on the case and then whether you use any 5 in 3 modules etc you should be able to get 8 or more drives in one for close to your budget.

HighlandeR · 24 Jul 2012 at 22:02

this is the issue I found all these storage towers, theres some esata storage towers about but then there like 150-200 quid.

It sorta just begs the question why not just convert a cheap dual core or older pc into a better case like the fractual r2/r3 with 8 bays or the xl with 10 bays.

I think at least throwing in a raid/sata card into the mix gives u that expansion and the case already has plenty upgrade space.

Buying these nas/qnaps and other boxes I have no experience but I see there prices and there performances and the diy storage box or download/storage/media box ends up cheaper + faster.

There is a also this if its any interest :

http://www.avforums.com/forums/networking-nas/1347547-smurfs-monster-40tb-unraid-nas-build.html

guy called smurf who built a 40tb+ storage box, quite impressive

craarc · 26 Jul 2012 at 11:44

would these type of things do the trick

Startech SAT3540U2E Ext SATA USB Multi-Bay Enc

not sure if thats what you need