NAS Enclosure for 16 + drives

[theEmbark]

Hey guys,

I out grew my current NAS enclosure. I've got a combo of SAS and SATA drives.

6 SAS
16 SATA

I'm looking for a case that will hold at least 16 of these. If I could get 24+ that'd be a bonus but I'm looking around $200 for the enclosure. I'd also like to house my NAS board in there. although I need to find something that will support the amount of drives I have.

Can anyone shed some light on what might work for me? I'm not opposed to a rack system that's what I have now but if I could get a tower that's almost preferred however might be harder to find.

Thanks,
Kevin

 

[Spectre694]

I've got one of these paired with this Rosewill case It gives me 26 total SAS/SATA slots and works pretty well.

 

[theEmbark]

Thank you spectre,

I like that the deal their includes everything you need. I've seen some that are literally just the cases and don't include the raid cards etc.

I guess I can still use my 8 rack NAS instead of selling it.

That'd give me 24 plus I have two complete SAS systems that hold 8 SAS and 8 SATA but they are heavy heavy towers.

Trying to get rid of my full server rack and get a smaller 6U rack that I can stick under the desk or somewhere out of sight.

Thanks,
Kevin

 

[Spectre694]

Thank you spectre,

I like that the deal their includes everything you need. I've seen some that are literally just the cases and don't include the raid cards etc.

I guess I can still use my 8 rack NAS instead of selling it.

That'd give me 24 plus I have two complete SAS systems that hold 8 SAS and 8 SATA but they are heavy heavy towers.

Trying to get rid of my full server rack and get a smaller 6U rack that I can stick under the desk or somewhere out of sight.

Thanks,
Kevin

Ya it is actually a pretty good deal. Now they do have a couple of small problems though but for $200 they're hard to beat.
The expander in the mr rackable is only a 4 lane @ 3Gbs per lane. so for HDD's they are fine but SSD's not so much. They are also very loud with the stock fans so you will probably want to replace them if you have to be near it.

They are half depth though so if you did want to shrink space two of them will actually fit in one 4U slot for 32 drives and then you could pair it with a smaller 1 or 2 U server to control them. That would be 32+ drives in 5/6U space

 

[theEmbark]

Thanks again for the reply,

I did see that about the 3gbps but I'm not using solid states for this server. It's all audio project backups and active projects.

Replacing fans is easy enough .

What kind of power do you think I need to run one of those (assuming just to double it for 2).

I'm trying to decide if I have enough stuff laying around or if I need to get something. Ive got 4 x4510s from my SAS machines. Thinking about getting a rack case and a new mobo and running 2 of them. Then for RAM ive got 48gbs of ddr3 laying here and also 80gb ddr2 so depending on the board I could go one way or another. Upgrading the CPUs would be easy if I need more power but assuming it's RAM more then anything that I need.

I realize this is the storage section but do you have a mobo you reccomend? Happy to buy used 🙂. I could also reuse the mobos from my hp proliant ml350s.

Thanks for any input,
Kevin

 

[Spectre694]

Thanks again for the reply,

I did see that about the 3gbps but I'm not using solid states for this server. It's all audio project backups and active projects.

Replacing fans is easy enough .

What kind of power do you think I need to run one of those (assuming just to double it for 2).

I'm trying to decide if I have enough stuff laying around or if I need to get something. Ive got 4 x4510s from my SAS machines. Thinking about getting a rack case and a new mobo and running 2 of them. Then for RAM ive got 48gbs of ddr3 laying here and also 80gb ddr2 so depending on the board I could go one way or another. Upgrading the CPUs would be easy if I need more power but assuming it's RAM more then anything that I need.

I realize this is the storage section but do you have a mobo you reccomend? Happy to buy used 🙂. I could also reuse the mobos from my hp proliant ml350s.

Thanks for any input,
Kevin

Not a problem and if that is your use case then they ought to work just fine.

Power: IDK I can take my kill-a-watt to it later though. Pretty sure it cane with a 500W PSU and I don't think I ever saw power usage near that been a while though.

Just remember that 2U is only 3.5inches tall so pick heatsinks etc. very carefully. What is your NAS running though ZFS? with/without compression? That'll change my mobo/CPU recommendation. You've probably got most all you need though.

 

[theEmbark]

I'm running ZFS without compression

 

[Spectre694]

I'm running ZFS without compression

In that case you really don't need much of anything. The boards you have will work just fine. Without compression ZFS will run on atom CPU's no problem.

If you do want a new board the ASRock Rack C2550/2750 and the new D1520 are very interesting if a bit expensive. I've been eyeing them.

Realistically though you could throw any decent name board (no ECS/Foxconn) and be good. ZFS will use all the RAM you can give it so if you've got a bunch laying around like you said throw it in.