cheap storage array enclosure

Messiah Khan

Messiah Khan

Messiah Khan

Soldato
Joined
1 Sep 2005
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Scottish Highlands
Anyone got any suggestions for a cheap storage array enclosure? I basically just need a case that can hold a large amount of hardrives to act a NAS. The Lian-Li PC-A17B looks pretty good, but are there any cheaper options out there? Doesn't need to pretty, just hold lots of drives (Probably in 5 1/4" to 3.5" caddies) and a cheap computer. Ideally id like some sort of rackmount type case but without the normal rackmount price. Any suggestions?
 
how many drives?

Could get an antec 300 that should hold 6 then another 3 if you get another hdd cage.
 
Tefal said:
how many drives?

Could get an antec 300 that should hold 6 then another 3 if you get another hdd cage.
Click to expand...

At the moment only 5, but id like to build a system that has a lot of expandability. With the Lian Li I could have 3 Icy Dock MB-455SPF 5-Bay Internal SATA Drive Enclosure fitted giving me space for 15 drives. Probably overkill, but that's roughly what id like to aim for. Doing it this way would also mean I could buy more smaller hardrives for less money.
 
well the antec 300 has the same number of drive bays as the lain li better cooling (140mm top fan) and is like £35.
 
Tefal said:
well the antec 300 has the same number of drive bays as the lain li better cooling (140mm top fan) and is like £35.
Click to expand...

Added to list then. :) Looking around now and it seems you can get cheapish rackmount cases. Anyone know where I can get a cheapish rackmount with lots of 3.5" or 5.25" front panels, ie most of the front of the case with a single type of panel?
 
Right, ive seen a few that look good, but none that are quite right.


The;
X-Case RM-208. 8 (£119.00)
10509992nz5.jpg

Is the clostst match so far. I would ideally like a 3U, 8-16 caddy one, but its not a bad option.

Chenbro RM 215 (£419.00)
67822_0.jpg

Love the look of this one. Don't love the price though. Anyone know of similar enclosures to these two but for a budget price? Willing to accept second hand. Ideally 2 or 3 U with 8-16 hotswappable SATA caddies and space for a DVD drive. Id also prefer if i took an ATX PSU.
 
2668307213_e08862bb17_o.jpg

http://www.compucase-hec.co.uk/ipc_4u_s411.htm

can pick it up for £80 in vat easy

can take 2 Icy Dock 5 discs hot swap bays, 2 hard drives in the middle (maybe for a raid 1 OS setup) a floppy drive/card reader under the RHS hot swap bay and a slim line CD drive under the LHS hot saw bay

its what im planing to use when i have the time and spare cash to build my storage sever

EIDT: its a 4u Rack mount case which takes E-ATX boards so lots of space
 
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Thanks for that, looks very good. Only problem with it is that you have to add the price of the 2 Icy Dock enclosures which ups the price by £150. :(
 
Messiah Khan said:
Thanks for that, looks very good. Only problem with it is that you have to add the price of the 2 Icy Dock enclosures which ups the price by £150. :(
Click to expand...

yes that is a problem.

but as you only have 5 drives (??) you are spreading your investment. so its not so bad.its cheaper than the Lian-Li PC-A17B and you still needed to add icy dock enclosures anyway.
 
Have you tried looking on popular auction sites for old tower servers? The type that were really popular for modding a year or two ago in here. They usually have loads of space.

PK!
 
What will be your max useable capacity?
You mentioned earlier about buying smaller/cheaper drives. But per gb the bigger drives are cheaper.....and faster.
So rather than having nas storage you actually want a storage server then?
I use nas at home and in our smaller office (serving 9 users) and a HP Storageserver with 1.3Tb of useable space (raid 5) for our main office serving 50 users.
It certainly wasn't cheap though i'm afraid.
 
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