mATX cases with six external 5.25" bays?

yirk · Post by **yirk** » Thu Jan 01, 2009 6:22 am

I'm pondering building my own little NAS and was looking into using a mini ITX case as base but the maximum number of drive bays in a case I could find was 4 (3.5" SATA, Chenbro ES34069). So I set my eyes on mATX and while there are nice boards in that size I was so far unable to find a good case. What I want is something small with six externally accessible 5.25" bays (for fitting two 5-in-3 SATA backplanes).

I found a 9 bay case (Lian Li PC-A17) which looks perfect, except for the size. All the smaller ones I could locate have only 3 or 4 external drive bays and then plastic further down, none had the full front available for drives (for example Lian Li PC-A59) Does anyone know of a case that would fit my requirements? Thanks!

kevral · Post by **kevral** » Thu Jan 01, 2009 7:31 am

I've looked for the exact same thing for a home server case, without any luck. If such a case actually exists, it's certainly a well-kept secret (or my searching skills are not what I thought they were).

Lawrence Lee · Post by **Lawrence Lee** » Thu Jan 01, 2009 11:44 am

I've been looking for months for one, but no dice. Manufacturers seem to think mATX systems are only good for basic systems, not file servers. Bite the bullet and get an ATX case.

m^2 · Post by **m^2** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 3:30 am

Yeah, I've been looking for such thing some time ago too. Good that there are more people who find it useful, maybe one day...

yirk · Post by **yirk** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 1:17 pm

After lots of thinking I've finally ordered the Lian Li A17. As mentioned here it's rather small for the large number of external 5.25" bays and a 6 bay one seems not to be that easy even with mATX. And miniITX boards do not have the number of ports necessary...

Just in case someone else is interested, here's what I ordered with the board:
- 2*2GB RAM (Kingston PC800, CL5)
- Asus P5Q-EM
- Corsair 400CX Power supply (has 6 SATA power connectors)
- Intel E5200

I've not yet decided on the backplane to use, currently I'm looking at Rackmax RM-325, Supermicro CSE-M35T-1B or Icy Dock MB455SPF. All are 5-in-3's.

Thanks for all the posts!

m^2 · Post by **m^2** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 5:20 am

yirk wrote:After lots of thinking I've finally ordered the Lian Li A17. As mentioned here it's rather small for the large number of external 5.25" bays and a 6 bay one seems not to be that easy even with mATX. And miniITX boards do not have the number of ports necessary...

Just in case someone else is interested, here's what I ordered with the board:
- 2*2GB RAM (Kingston PC800, CL5)
- Asus P5Q-EM
- Corsair 400CX Power supply (has 6 SATA power connectors)
- Intel E5200

I've not yet decided on the backplane to use, currently I'm looking at Rackmax RM-325, Supermicro CSE-M35T-1B or Icy Dock MB455SPF. All are 5-in-3's.

Thanks for all the posts!

miniITX 2.0 boards have 1 PCIe x16 = 24 drives with a controller.

yirk · Post by **yirk** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 10:24 am

m^2 wrote: miniITX 2.0 boards have 1 PCIe x16 = 24 drives with a controller.

True, but what's the point when a miniITX case has at most room for 4 drives? Then it's cheaper to go with bigger board.

protellect · Post by **protellect** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 11:48 am

have you thought about 2.5" disks? 500GB ones are available for ~ 100$

It's a little more expensive, but you can stick 4 2.5" disks in a 5.25" bay with something like this;

http://addonics.com/products/raid_syste ... s25nsa.asp

yirk · Post by **yirk** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 12:31 pm

protellect wrote:have you thought about 2.5" disks? 500GB ones are available for ~ 100$

It's a little more expensive, but you can stick 4 2.5" disks in a 5.25" bay with something like this;

http://addonics.com/products/raid_syste ... s25nsa.asp

I've seen that there also are 2.5" backplanes but for me the price/GB is still too high compared to 3.5" drives. Perhaps for the next machine

Lawrence Lee · Post by **Lawrence Lee** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 2:18 pm

Lol, I'd go bankrupt if I used 2.5" drives. I've got 6TB atm.

mattbr · Post by **mattbr** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 1:11 am

i'm thinking of doing a build VERY similar to yours, for use as a file server. have you looked into lime technology's offer (built, configured with unraid, etc) ?

have you found any info on the noise levels of the supermicro vs the icydock ? a friend of mine who has an icydock build is saying it's okay, but still needs fan regulators. i'm just uncertain as to how bad it is. also, my feeling from the lime tech page was that the supermicro holders have dummy, plastic drives, which could help airflow significantly if you have a lot of empty slots.

also, if that can help and save you us => .ch shipping and stupid duty "inspection" charges, i've had good luck getting fans from silencio_777 on ebay. (for our U.S friends, our friendly customs officers have a bad habit of putting their noses into boxes, and overcharge the inspection itself when they don't find contraband chocolate or watches. you'll get a $40 bill for the inspection, and $5 in actual duty. very annoying.)

m^2 · Post by **m^2** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 1:27 am

yirk wrote:
m^2 wrote: miniITX 2.0 boards have 1 PCIe x16 = 24 drives with a controller.
True, but what's the point when a miniITX case has at most room for 4 drives? Then it's cheaper to go with bigger board.

5

I remember seeing a much smaller case that fit 5 too, but can't find it now, I liked it a lot.
But I agree, micro ATX is a much better option for more drives.

jammi · Post by **jammi** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 6:18 pm

I'v got a mini-itx file server

C7 1.2Ghz
1gig
100gb boot drive (20gb boot, 80gb temp download)
6x seagate 1TB
adaptec 2610sa raid
200w psu

All fits

in there

I'm building a new unit now as need more space but i was in the same boat couldnt find anything that worked short listed these cases

Coolermaster CM-590
Thermaltake M9
Sharkoon Rebel 9
Silverstone Precision PS01

All have 9 bays, iv got all the other bits just need a case now was going to go to yoyotech and get the Silverstone Precision PS01 looks ugly but its gonna be out of sight.

The bits going in the new build are

3x 5 in 3 sas backplanes (ST500 SAS)
Adaptec 21610sa 16 port 64mb Raid
2x 40gb 2.5" sata raid-0 boot
6x 1TB raid-0 (Movies SD, Music)
4x 1.5TB raid-5 (Movies HD)
4x 500gb raid-1 (backup of work data from other PC's)
400w psu (think that should be enough)

May put in a old xeon board I have to get the raid going on a PCI-X but thats if it fits any of the above cases. Atm speed isnt an issue as the dual gigabit even duplexed only gives me 60-70mb/s and the PCI 32bit can still muster 120mb/s, even if everyone is accessing the fileserver the output doesnt go over 30mb/s. The 4x SSD's in raid-0 in my main PC are fast enough so may not bother with the xeon board as it will drain more power.

bgiddins · Post by **bgiddins** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 11:53 pm

jammi wrote:I'v got a mini-itx file server

Your free image hosting website has sex popup ads.

I've looked at the 5 in 3 backplanes before - I have an Antec 300, if I were to use one, I wouldn't be able to plug the ATX power cable into my mATX motherboard - the backplane would extend over the motherboard. Check the case depth (front to back) before dropping cash on a new case.

mattbr · Post by **mattbr** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 1:30 am

Fwiw, got the UnRaid with supermicro enclosures.

In case someone is thinking of getting these, here's what you need to know :

the stock fans make a racket. A scary, insane, racket that even a potentiometer will not lessen. So you need to swap the fans out. Once you reach this conclusion, you will face one of the most idiotic decisions of modern computer engineering :

THE REMOVABLE FAN ENCLOSURES ARE GLUED. as in "held-together-by-sticky-stuff-which-stops-you-from-removing-the-fan-glued". Of course, Supermicro doesn't say it anywhere. Thankfully, the offending substance is heat-removable, so it unglues easily with a blow dryer.