Question I'm searching for laptop with 4 HDD bays and RAID capabilities ?

[baboo85]

Hi everyone, I would like to know if there are any particular notebooks with at least 4 2.5 "disk slots that support the raid function. I've seen some with 2 slots + mSATA (see Dell Inspiron 7720), but that's not enough for me. It also has no raid function.

Online I only found stuff that cost like a car, like Eurocom portable servers or Getac rugged military ones. Those would be fine, but they cost a lot and I just need the 4 slots with raid so that I can make a complete portable NAS, without having external solutions or portable Nas to manage with a link to the management page, in addition to the fact that I couldn't have the ability to do anything like zipping files, opening content, etc.

 

[taeioum]

I think you're going to be out of luck on this one. 4 hard drive slots take up a lot of space, hence the thickness of the rugged ones. This is such an out of the ordinary product that it's proprietary and thus will cost you multiple thousands of dollars, if it even exists since I don't think even the Getac X500 Server supports 4 bays. It only supports RAID 0 and 1, which leads me to believe it doesn't support more than 2 (or maybe 3) bays.

Long story story, I don't think what you're looking for exists and if it does, it's going to cost you more than you're willing to spend.

 

[DSzymborski]

Hi everyone, I would like to know if there are any particular notebooks with at least 4 2.5 "disk slots that support the raid function. I've seen some with 2 slots + mSATA (see Dell Inspiron 7720), but that's not enough for me. It also has no raid function.

Online I only found stuff that cost like a car, like Eurocom portable servers or Getac rugged military ones. Those would be fine, but they cost a lot and I just need the 4 slots with raid so that I can make a complete portable NAS, without having external solutions or portable Nas to manage with a link to the management page, in addition to the fact that I couldn't have the ability to do anything like zipping files, opening content, etc.

You're asking for a niche laptop with a very specific use case that's basically worthless for 99.999% of the consumer market. Naturally, any solution that gets you to this is going to be ludicrously expensive.

 

[baboo85]

I think you're going to be out of luck on this one. 4 hard drive slots take up a lot of space, hence the thickness of the rugged ones. This is such an out of the ordinary product that it's proprietary and thus will cost you multiple thousands of dollars, if it even exists since I don't think even the Getac X500 Server supports 4 bays. It only supports RAID 0 and 1, which leads me to believe it doesn't support more than 2 (or maybe 3) bays.

Long story story, I don't think what you're looking for exists and if it does, it's going to cost you more than you're willing to spend.

Well, the Getac X500 Server have 5 bays for 2,5" 7mm HDD/SSD (https://mms.businesswire.com/media/20130430005068/en/366994/5/Getac_X500_Server.jpg)
3 slot in the front, 2 in the back (and I think it could be 6 if you replace what to appears to be the optical unit with a 2,5" rack adapter).
But man, cost like a car (fairly), I wonder how less much it will cost without all those rugged protection and military certification that I don't need.

You're asking for a niche laptop with a very specific use case that's basically worthless for 99.999% of the consumer market. Naturally, any solution that gets you to this is going to be ludicrously expensive.

Sadly, I know that. But I didn't think that there's no alternatives but those 2.
You know, an old Dell Inspiron 7720 has:
1x mSATA
2x 2,5" HDD bays
1x optical unit
it's almost what I need because I can replace the optical unit with a rack adapter for a third HDD, but that mSATA kills the vibe.
It could have space for another HDD bay (and removing the useless mSATA), but it didn't have RAID support at all.
Also, it completely died about 4 months ago (motherboarda said "farewell") so now I'm searching for something similar.

Don't care if it's 10cm thick, I need a laptop with 4 hdd slots.

 

[DSzymborski]

Most things made for this purpose are going to be designed like that. If it's going to be a portable server, it's going to be designed to stand up to some abuse.

The only way you're going to get cheaper is to go for a multi NVME type option. There are some laptops in the 4K-7K range for that. You'll have to give money back on the drives of course.

Things like the Getac you linked are likely the only real option. The Dell wasn't that close. Having a drive in the mSATA and in an optical drive caddy is going to be janky as hell. You're probably better off in that situation just having a normal small NAS to drag around.

 

[baboo85]

Most things made for this purpose are going to be designed like that. If it's going to be a portable server, it's going to be designed to stand up to some abuse.

The only way you're going to get cheaper is to go for a multi NVME type option. There are some laptops in the 4K-7K range for that. You'll have to give money back on the drives of course.

Things like the Getac you linked are likely the only real option. The Dell wasn't that close. Having a drive in the mSATA and in an optical drive caddy is going to be janky as hell. You're probably better off in that situation just having a normal small NAS to drag around.

The Dell has two 2,5" HDD bay + optic unit (substituted with an adapter for another 2,5" HDD) and a sad mSATA. It was close.

Having SSD it's not my goal, they're expensive and if I'm unlucky I'll get another one like one I have that overheat like nothing and leads to corrupted data and system freezing. Also, I don't need speed.

It's a shame.

 

[retrofitit]

It might be better to build or have built for you something in a LAN party PC case instead, it would be portable and have enough drive bays but it would not be a laptop.
Otherwise it will be a custom build or nearly so and cost will accordingly.

 

[TurboDiesel Beast]

Try a Clevo P775tm1-G. Two NVME slots @ PCI-E x 4 3.0 and two 2.5 SATA slots. There's also the Dell Precision 7730, 7740, 7750, 7760, and 7770 with up to four PCI-E/SATA slots. There are some other gaming laptops out there that may have four slots, but you'll have to look for them and do research. Good luck with your search.

 

[USAFRet]

Try a Clevo P775tm1-G. Two NVME slots @ PCI-E x 4 3.0 and two 2.5 SATA slots. There's also the Dell Precision 7730, 7740, 7750, 7760, and 7770 with up to four PCI-E/SATA slots. There are some other gaming laptops out there that may have four slots, but you'll have to look for them and do research. Good luck with your search.

2 years later....

I hope the OP is still not looking for a laptop.

Please don't dredge up ancient threads.