Mid-Tower case with maximum number of internal drives?

[cdrice]

I've been reading specs and reviews until I'm cross-eyed. I'm looking for advice on a reasonably-sized mid-tower case (i.e. 18-20" tall and deep) which can hold the most internal drives as possible (preferably stock, or by adding additional drive cages).

The only options I've found on my own which hold 10 or more cross the line into "super-mid-tower" class, which seems like a silly term to me, since they are essentially the same size as a full tower...

My bare minimums are: 2x 2.5" (SSD), 8x 3.5" (non-SSD HDs), 1 5.25" (external optical), and would prefer a second external 5.25 for a multi-card reader. So, 11-12 bays total; 2 can be 2.5/SSD. I do not like "rear-panel-mounting-SSD" options like the Fractal R4, since you must remove the mobo to swap out the drives.

I might be looking for a unicorn here, and I just need to suck it up and get a full-tower, but I thought I would at least ask before I give up my search...

 

[ksham]

I got none. I don't even many full-fledged ATX towers that have that. There's the Corsair 900D. I think you can mod some of the Silverstone TJ11's 5.25" bays for HDD/SSD. So I know two.

 

[cdrice]

I got none. I don't even many full-fledged ATX towers that have that. There's the Corsair 900D. I think you can mod some of the Silverstone TJ11's 5.25" bays for HDD/SSD. So I know two.

Thanks. The 900D is larger than a standard full tower (over 25" tall and 27" deep, yow!), so that's well beyond what I was hoping to be dealing with.

I've found a glimmer of hope with some of the other Corsair cases, as I've found I can purchase an additional drive cage for them, and should be able to mount it in the "alternate" location for the top drive cage (in other words, instead of moving the top drive cage to sit the on the bottom of the case, install a third drive cage there instead). Has anyone done this with a Corsair case (650D for example) to confirm it will work?

I wish I could do the same with the Fractal cases, but I cannot find anywhere to buy Fractal drive cages separately.

Are there any kind of "universal" drive cages which would fit Fractal, Corsair, Antec or other cases? I've read passing comments of people "making their own," but I've never found any details or examples of actual builds.

 

[ksham]

You can try custom mods from mountain mods.