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?