Question NAS / unRAID case

[TODDTH]

I'm planning a backup rig for my existing media server. Originally I was just going to use a hardware raid case with 4 drives and an eSATA connection. That direction was driven by size and portability. One of the criteria for a backup is the ability to pick it up and walk out of the house easily enough. However after some consideration I decided to just make a separate unRAID rig due to stability, flexibility, expandability.. all the reasons you look at an unRAID rig to begin with.

However, that does leave me with more of a challenge to balance, size, portability and of course airflow. I've always been able to keep drives < 40dC and would like to maintain that standard. The backup is to protect data and cooler drives are part of that stability. I'm more concerned with the balance of size/cooling than it being a little more of a challenging build. I know there is no perfect case out there (though I don't know why

most of us know where they fall short)

These are the options highest on the list for consideration:

https://www.amazon.com/N2-Aluminum-Support-Integrated-Removable/dp/B0BQJ6BCB7/?th=1

https://www.ebay.com/itm/134692492542 (this one is sold out on Amazon at the moment)

https://www.amazon.com/AUDHEID-Compatible-Mini-ITX-Attached-Enclosure/dp/B096FD8WVS/

I like the Fractile Design, Node 304, but I think its nearly 18" deep making the portability more of a thing.

Thanks in advance, other suggestions I may have missed are very welcome.

 

[thestryker]

Honestly for what you're trying to do I think the only good manufacturer is going to be Jonsbo given the size constraints. If you haven't seen their whole line here's their NAS case page (they have an N5 coming, but it's a larger enclosure meant for up to 12 drives): https://www.jonsbo.com/en/product/ComputerCase/NASMotherboardSeries.html

There are going to be tons of random options from no-name brands/random Chinese names and a lot of that sort of thing can be found on AliExpress if not Amazon/Newegg.

 

[TODDTH]

Honestly for what you're trying to do I think the only good manufacturer is going to be Jonsbo given the size constraints. If you haven't seen their whole line here's their NAS case page (they have an N5 coming, but it's a larger enclosure meant for up to 12 drives): https://www.jonsbo.com/en/product/ComputerCase/NASMotherboardSeries.html

There are going to be tons of random options from no-name brands/random Chinese names and a lot of that sort of thing can be found on AliExpress if not Amazon/Newegg.

The N2 is one of the options I've found, and doubt I would ever find anything smaller than a 9" cube.

My only question is the drives are stacked tightly together., and then you have a backplane. They were at least thoughtful enough to put holes in the board to allow some airflow. However how much air actually gets pulled through those drives for cooling? Once a month or so those drives will run for a solid 24 hours, plus any extended write time, I can not even guess what the initial data copy over will take.
I'm wondering about the cooling ability before I pull the trigger.

Good to know about the N5. At some point I'm going to re-build the main server and I like the N4. It's literally 1 - 2.5" bay short of my needs

 

[thestryker]

My only question is the drives are stacked tightly together., and then you have a backplane. They were at least thoughtful enough to put holes in the board to allow some airflow. However how much air actually gets pulled through those drives for cooling? Once a month or so those drives will run for a solid 24 hours, plus any extended write time, I can not even guess what the initial data copy over will take.
I'm wondering about the cooling ability before I pull the trigger.

There shouldn't really be any issues as HDDs don't really use a lot of power so the heat itself just needs some airflow to get it away from the drives. What little I've seen in that regard for the N2 certainly doesn't seem like there are any issues with the heat. I would expect under sustained load it would probably get hotter than in a case with direct airflow, but they shouldn't idle high which would be the most important part generally.

One thing you could always experiment with when doing the initial copy is using an external USB powered fan. This would allow you to test it without any extra air movement and then with the extra to see if it would be worthwhile even if just for those heavy load situations. I used one with a passive box I had when I needed to do some heavy load work and it did a much better job than I expected.

I checked my order history and here's the one I bought: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00G05A2MU/

 

[TODDTH]

There shouldn't really be any issues as HDDs don't really use a lot of power so the heat itself just needs some airflow to get it away from the drives. What little I've seen in that regard for the N2 certainly doesn't seem like there are any issues with the heat. I would expect under sustained load it would probably get hotter than in a case with direct airflow, but they shouldn't idle high which would be the most important part generally.

One thing you could always experiment with when doing the initial copy is using an external USB powered fan. This would allow you to test it without any extra air movement and then with the extra to see if it would be worthwhile even if just for those heavy load situations. I used one with a passive box I had when I needed to do some heavy load work and it did a much better job than I expected.

I checked my order history and here's the one I bought: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00G05A2MU/

7200 rpm drives reach low to mid 40's C by themselves in long writes. stack them up without air and it goes to 50. mine with direct airflow stay 37/38 in long writes and they last a lot longer if they dont overheat.

Where did you put the add on fan?

 

[thestryker]

Where did you put the add on fan?

Different circumstance since it was a completely passive box, but for the N2 I'd put it in front of the drives. I certainly wouldn't leave it there running all of the time though only for those periods of heavy load.

7200 rpm drives reach low to mid 40's C by themselves in long writes. stack them up without air and it goes to 50. mine with direct airflow stay 37/38 in long writes and they last a lot longer if they dont overheat.

Yeah the point is mostly that you don't need much airflow to keep the temps decent. It won't be great, but the case by itself should keep the drives at decent temps through normal usage. I'd expect upper 30s/lower 40s for the idle temperatures depending on the drives you're using.