New case (6xHDD minimum)

Viberious · 27 Jul 2017 at 12:19

looking to upgrade my fractal design node 304 case to something little larger for better cooling and some additional storage.

Was looking at fractal R5 for starters but is there anything else people can recommend instead.

It needs to hold my 6 hdds and 1 ssd at the moment.

Digital X · 28 Jul 2017 at 18:35

XL R2 is very roomy but quite heavy. It's quiet on the plus side.

Is a full tower something you want or prefer Midi? Like the R5?

Viberious · 28 Jul 2017 at 18:37

I am steering my thoughts to the R5 yes, not much available for similiar money especially with 3x8tb and 2x6tb drives

Danny75 · 28 Jul 2017 at 19:41

There's a way to fit 6x3.5" in a mid-tower, in the PSU compartment, while leaving full direct airflow to CPU & GPUs above, but no company's gone and done it yet that I've seen. Just in full-towers.

CoolerMaster MasterCase Pro5 might be worth considering too, but you'd need to use the 6th HDD in an optical bay, or buy the additional 3x3.5" cage. The R5 is probably better value for money for your needs. Just a pity its HDD cages don't come in 4+2+2 instead of 5+3.

Ace Modder · 28 Jul 2017 at 20:30

6 x 3.5" or can they be 2.5" bays?

Viberious · 30 Jul 2017 at 13:42

I need 6x3.5 hdd as standard rather than purchasing other bits to make it work.

EsaT · 30 Jul 2017 at 17:55

Viberious said:
I need 6x3.5 hdd as standard rather than purchasing other bits to make it work.

Fitting that many drives needs basically all HDD cages/racks of mid towers so those would add some impedance to intake airflow.
Then again in bigger cases also empty weight of case itself rises lot.
Already Define R5 weights double of your current case.
Especially bigger steel cases (with mass damping) move fast toward "needs forklift" to move around level.

I guess you would want case to at least be silencing friendly if not mass damped straight away?
Along with decent outlook instead of screaming "designed by 100% ADHD nutcase"?

Methanoid · 31 Jul 2017 at 13:48

I own both Define R5 and XL R2... the R5 is currently back in its box. Holds 8 well cooled drives, plus you can always put 2 more in the 5.25 bays later if needed and you can easily add 3 more behind the main drive cage with "minor" modding. I've done so in my old Define R3

The XL R2 takes 8 behind intakes, plus you have all those 5.25 bays. I have a 5 in 3 adapter so I can fit 13 HDDs, an optical drive too. SSDs (2 SATA ones) sitting under the main drive cages. NVME on mainboard. This is my unRAID server.

Another poss is the NZXT H440 (2nd edition or new edition or 2015 edition, take your pick of names) which can take 6 or 11 depending on how you stack the HDDs in their caddies.

Viberious · 31 Jul 2017 at 13:54

I have narrowed it down to h440 and R5. Shame you dont fancy selling yours.

Methanoid · 31 Jul 2017 at 14:06

Viberious said:
I have narrowed it down to h440 and R5. Shame you dont fancy selling yours.

I might (but in the MM)

Viberious · 31 Jul 2017 at 14:07

Methanoid said:
I might (but in the MM)

But of course, i do have a wanted post open.

Viberious · 3 Aug 2017 at 07:17

Well I managed to purchase a NZXT H440 case on here. Can't wait to swap everything over and have it running a little cooler.

Ace Modder · 3 Aug 2017 at 10:00

Go for the Antec P100

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/antec-p100-mid-tower-silenced-computing-case-white-ca-24a-an.html

Avalon · 6 Aug 2017 at 12:17

Slightly late to the party on this one, but your requirements and short list was basically the same as my own (unraid in either a NZXT440 or XL R2). I'm leaning towards the R2 as I have two 3in2 backplanes which would give 14 plus a potential extra drive cage if I can find one with trays without getting creative.

How did you get on with the 440? A few posts on the unraid forums suggest air flow and temps can be a concern if you use the double drive tray set-up as intended and noise is directed out of the top vent.

Viberious · 6 Aug 2017 at 12:19

Well it isvery spacious with 5xHDD and 1xSSD. Only concern is the fan controller doesnt connect to the motherboard and there is some vibration from the hdds but i do like it very much.

Methanoid · 6 Aug 2017 at 16:08

Avalon said:
Slightly late to the party on this one, but your requirements and short list was basically the same as my own (unraid in either a NZXT440 or XL R2). I'm leaning towards the R2 as I have two 3in2 backplanes which would give 14 plus a potential extra drive cage if I can find one with trays without getting creative.

How did you get on with the 440? A few posts on the unraid forums suggest air flow and temps can be a concern if you use the double drive tray set-up as intended and noise is directed out of the top vent.

I beg to differ.. see the question I asked and answer - https://forums.lime-technology.com/topic/51736-nzxt-h440-build/

Avalon · 7 Aug 2017 at 05:44

Perfect - I read your thread(s) on here and on l-t as well as those from others on Reddit and elsewhere - they helped me put together my short list (thanks btw). If I explain what I'm doing, you are probably best placed to comment.

I'm consolidating a load of physical servers and unraid boxes/VM's & dockers into one box, save the preaching, I know it's a potentially bad idea, but it's just for legacy stuff and I will have backup's in place.

Spec is as follows:

Asus C6H/Ryzen 1700/32GB
280x (16x)
H310 (8x)
Quad Intel NIC (1x)
NV210 (4x)

210 is due to no onboard GPU with Ryzen, 280x will pass through to my personal VM. H310 is 8 SATA and onboard gives another 8 SATA, SSD's will be on C6H native ports and I have 2x8TB, 2x6TB and the SSD's I plan to keep long term. 6TB drives are my best my option at present, though I'll pull drives from consolidated systems as a i move data over.

NZ440
11x3.5" (70TB) + 3-5 SSD's for VM/passthrough/cache - I'll hide them... somewhere.

XL R2 + two 3-2 backplanes
14x3.5" (88TB) + 2 SSD's (requires PCIe SATA card or SAS expander for more)
XL R2 + two 3-2 backplanes and extra drive cage
17x3.5" (108TB) (requires SAS expander).

If I go with the 440, I've got almost everything and can get one same day locally, concerns are simply its noise suppression, filtration and air flow, that gap when using the dual mount per tray looks very small? Also I suspect I'll have to run the 3 intake fans at a higher RPM than I'd like, same with exhaust and I'd prefer low (ish) noise if possible.

If I go with the XL then realistically it'll requiriee an HP SAS expander in a 1x port, but it the potential to add 54% more storage and dust filtration/noise/cable management looks better as well as review suggesting it runs slightly cooler due to better air flow.

As someone who has done something similar, any input is welcome, how noisy is a fully loaded 440 and does the top vent really project the sound as some reviews have suggested?

jellybeard999 · 7 Aug 2017 at 07:10

I had similar requirements (but wanted MATX for compactness) and went for a Lian-Li A04

http://www.lian-li.com/en/dt_portfolio/pc-a04/

Methanoid · 7 Aug 2017 at 07:37

Avalon said:
Perfect - I read your thread(s) on here and on l-t as well as those from others on Reddit and elsewhere - they helped me put together my short list (thanks btw). If I explain what I'm doing, you are probably best placed to comment.

I'm consolidating a load of physical servers and unraid boxes/VM's & dockers into one box, save the preaching, I know it's a potentially bad idea, but it's just for legacy stuff and I will have backup's in place.

Spec is as follows:

SNIP LENGTH

As someone who has done something similar, any input is welcome, how noisy is a fully loaded 440 and does the top vent really project the sound as some reviews have suggested?

Some comments

Ryzen is a poor choice for unRAID - passthrough does not work well (there is a choice of good speed but poor graphics or good graphics but poor speed) - due to a Nested Page Table error in the s/w. Also on top of this and not even addressed in any way there are reports that Ryzen will randomly crash with Linux workloads (not Windows). Dont have links to hand but it might be Phoronix who found that. A major PITA as I wanted to buy a Threadripper for my next upgrade

I have the XL R2 and its solid. I yearn for the H440 as I think it looks better but the extra space in R2 is nice. It also has 10 PCI slots and I run 7 from mobo, a double width GPU in lowest slot AND a PCIE to 2 PCI slot expander so I can run some PCI cards. And some mobos have extra Molex power connectors on bottom (X99P-SLI does) which can foul on some cases with less room (did on my Define R5).

H440 looks good but I suspect you would be happier with the Define XL R2

Meth

Avalon · 7 Aug 2017 at 12:08

Methanoid said:
Some comments

Ryzen is a poor choice for unRAID - passthrough does not work well (there is a choice of good speed but poor graphics or good graphics but poor speed) - due to a Nested Page Table error in the s/w. Also on top of this and not even addressed in any way there are reports that Ryzen will randomly crash with Linux workloads (not Windows). Dont have links to hand but it might be Phoronix who found that. A major PITA as I wanted to buy a Threadripper for my next upgrade

I have the XL R2 and its solid. I yearn for the H440 as I think it looks better but the extra space in R2 is nice. It also has 10 PCI slots and I run 7 from mobo, a double width GPU in lowest slot AND a PCIE to 2 PCI slot expander so I can run some PCI cards. And some mobos have extra Molex power connectors on bottom (X99P-SLI does) which can foul on some cases with less room (did on my Define R5).

H440 looks good but I suspect you would be happier with the Define XL R2

Meth

Appreciate the warnings, i've been following the main threads on l3t, l-t and Reddit since the early days, while Ryzen does have issues and some are concerning, they are getting fewer with each update. I costed up an x99 build, Ryzen won long term, but with short to mid term pain. This is probably the first time in a decade I haven't had to follow 'best practice', allow me a little self indulgence, though feel free to laugh and say you told me so if it all goes horribly wrong

As it stands, if it all goes up in proverbial flames i've not lost anything significant (anything significant will have at least 3 other copies), if it literally goes up in flames, that's not quite so cool though.

I'll go and look at a 440 in the flesh and see what happens.