A case with 5 internal 3.5" bays

[GeekMoses]

Hello All,
I'm looking for some advice on a case. The case needs to have the following features:

- A minimum of 5 internal hdd bays
- A minimum of 2 extenal 3.5" bays (one of those will be used as an internal bay)
- 1 5.25" bay (yes, I only need one.)
- 120mm fans
- I'd prefer steel.
- needs to be less than 570mm tall.

Now I'm sure some of you may be thinking, what's the deal with all those 3.5" bays, well you guessed it, hard drives. This machine will have at least 6 hdds in it. I'm not too concerned about the noise created as this will be in the comms closet, but would like to keep it within a reasonable level. So basically I begging for suggestions on what cases would fit these needs. I have fould a couple I think would work (such as the SLK3700AMB), just looking for input.

-GM

[ChucuSCAD]

I would flip through this thread

http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=3606

lots and lots of 120MM cases listed.



chucuSCAD

[Ralf Hutter]

Antec SLK3700AMB or Compucase 6A19 would be my choices. They meet all your criteria and have great ventilation as well.

[GeekMoses]

Thanks for the advice. I'll probably get the Antec case, I have other Antec cases and really like the quality.

-GM

[nick705]

I've just taken delivery of an Antec SLK3700AMB based on what I've read in these forums, and I'm delighted with it. It's a very nice case indeed, and an absolute bargain for the money I paid for it.

I'm not sure how well the bundled PSU would cope with the reactive load presented by six or more HDD's powering up simultaneously in addition to the demand from the rest of your system...you might want something a bit beefier to be on the safe side. The Compucase CA19 is identical internally but is available without a PSU so should be a fair bit cheaper. It doesn't have a door, or the Antec's lovely metallic finish, but if it's going to stay "in the closet" so to speak, I guess that wouldn't be a problem for you...

I'd be interested to hear back from you (or anyone else for that matter) what sort of issues you come across with all the HDD bays of this case fully occupied, particularly as regards HDD cooling and of course noise.

Best of luck with your project...

[GeekMoses]

Strangly enough, the spin-up on the hard drives would not be as demanding as you'd think. I at one point in time had 5 hard drives running off a Seasonic ST300 with no problems.

-GM

[Seal]

Antec 3700 BQE!

its the quiet edition and looks cooler!

[nick705]

its the quiet edition and looks cooler!

That, my dear sir, is very much a matter of opinion...

Besides, I don't think the BQE has enough 3.5in drive bays, and I fancy cooling the HDD's could be a bit of a problem also.

@GM: I'm interested that a 300W PSU was enough for your previous 5 HDD's...I once had a less happy experience with 5 HDD's and a 400W PSU (a cheap 'n' nasty effort, admittedly). I suppose you just need to suck it and see...the Antec PSU is pretty decent quality. I don't know how much the AMB costs in the States, but for the price you can get it here I reckon it would be good value even without the PSU, so you can't really go wrong...

[NeilBlanchard]

Hello:

Thanks for the advice. I'll probably get the Antec case, I have other Antec cases and really like the quality.

Other than things like a door over the CD drives, these are the *same* case -- they are made by Compucase, and Antec has a few things changed. Either one *requires* that you cut out the grills, so you might want to look at the D8000 from Coolcases.com, which is the Compucase with the grills nicely and neatly punched out!

[GeekMoses]

ohh, ahh. That CoolCases one is nice. That's less work for me....

-GM