Can anyone recommend a case that will hold 15-20 hard drives?

[arkitech]

I'm looking to find a case new or used that can hold up to about 15-20 drives. I would like to put together a media server and I've considered going with a rack mounted option but those run a lot of money, so now I'm thinking maybe a PC case would be the cheapest option. So can you guys recommend a good case?

 

[kenratboy]

What about used stuff? Probably pick up some 3 year old stuff for pennies on the dollar that is still as good as new.

What about the PSU and cooling?

 

[iluvgillgill]

you will need some serious money to buy all those PCI sata card to plug in that much.because the max mobo SATA i have seen is 8 the MAX!!!

whats your plan??

 

[chookman]

y do you need that many drives?

I have an Adaptec 3805 that has 8 ports on it. 8 ports of 1TB hard drives and maybe put then in RAID-5 will still give you 7tb of space why would you need more than that? A70 Lian Li will hold 10 hidden 3.5" and has room for a 5.25 to 3.5" converter bay that could get you to ~13-15

 

[kyee7k]

Internal 3.5" Drive Bays: 12
External 5.25" Drive Bays: 7
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112064

 

[dagger]

Internal 3.5" Drive Bays: 12
External 5.25" Drive Bays: 7
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112064

Roomy case. 😛

Instead of spending more on a case, why not just buy fewer 1TB drives instead of many smaller drives? 1TB drives aren't the cheapest per gb right now, but the cost difference on that case should more than cover it.

 

[runswindows95]

A media server for what? The local frat house? Why in world would you need 20 HDD's?

 

[kyee7k]

Probably for his ecchi, hentai, porn, and anime pictures and videos.

 

[chookman]

Put it this way i have a fair sized Movie/TV/Porn/Game/MP3 collection and im using ~1.5Tb you would have to have a ludicrous amount of stuff for anything over 3-4tb i recon... which these days can still be covered by ~4 drives.

 

[arkitech]

you will need some serious money to buy all those PCI sata card to plug in that much.because the max mobo SATA i have seen is 8 the MAX!!!

whats your plan??

y do you need that many drives?

I have an Adaptec 3805 that has 8 ports on it. 8 ports of 1TB hard drives and maybe put then in RAID-5 will still give you 7tb of space why would you need more than that? A70 Lian Li will hold 10 hidden 3.5" and has room for a 5.25 to 3.5" converter bay that could get you to ~13-15

I have about 10 drives filled with movies, TV shows, music, etc.. and instead of throwing them out and buying bigger drives I would rather build a server to house them. I also recently ordered another 4 500gb drives, so I'm definitely in need of a case to hold everything. I wonder if it would be cheaper to try and build my own rackmount system with metal shelving or something like that.

 

[arkitech]

A media server for what? The local frat house? Why in world would you need 20 HDD's?

Put it this way i have a fair sized Movie/TV/Porn/Game/MP3 collection and im using ~1.5Tb you would have to have a ludicrous amount of stuff for anything over 3-4tb i recon... which these days can still be covered by ~4 drives.

I'm a HiDef fanatic, I've been basically amassing HD movies and TV series for a few years now. I think I have upwards of about 250 HiDef movies on hard drive, I won't get into how many TV eps I have (its just ridiculous).

 

[dobby]

read chookmans review he just posted,

also check out the coolermaster 831 stacker, its made for system like yours.

 

[gow87]

dont thermaltake do a monster sized case? the mozart tx??

i seem to remember it being an absolute monster, if that cant house what you want, nothing will!

 

[chookman]

I dont know if you can still get them or not... but Lian-Li has one called the Cube Case or Lian Li PC-343 which has 12 5.25" external bays each side... its like two cases put together... was some hdd cages that would hold ALOT of drives

 

[arkitech]

I dont know if you can still get them or not... but Lian-Li has one called the Cube Case or Lian Li PC-343 which has 12 5.25" external bays each side... its like two cases put together... was some hdd cages that would hold ALOT of drives

Dude!! That is exactly the kind of case I'm looking for, according to the site it can hold up to 30 hard drives and 2 power supplies. Thanks man, I'm all over this.


Just out of curiosity, if I had 30 drives running in one case what kind of power would I need to run those? Hmm now that I think about it, I have no clue as to what would be the best way to even run more than 10 drives in a case. What would you recommend for a mobo, cpu and OS? I'm guessing XP might be sufficient, but I have no idea of what kind of controller I would need to operate that many hard drives.

 

[chookman]

Something like this would do for the controller, i ended up getting a high end Adaptec one... but i dont think you need that, at this price if you really need 2 you could get em. But any after the 8 on this i would put on the motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816115026

This for connecting 2 PSUs together
http://www.ultraproducts.com/product_details.php?cPath=12&pPath=584&productID=584

XP will be fine and any CPU/mobo that will handle the load and installation of controller card will be fine.


As for power draw depending on the hard drive your prolly looking at 20-30w draw at startup each drive and ~8-15w at idle.