Best option for good damping for 5+ HDDs (PC-A04 any good)?

[sixleaf]

Looking for a case for a NAS setup, which at the mo will run on a micro atx board for budget reasons. I was all set to buy a Define Mini but reading around these forums people don't seem too impressed with the HDD trays from Fractal. Likewise I looked at a P180 mini, but I cant find any specific reviews of its HDD mounts. (Neither of those cases are particularly mini.) Lian li PC-A04 looks perfect but again people seem to dislike their mounting.

My final thought was to grab a Sharkoon T9 and add in 2 x Silverstone SST-CFP53B.

Size isn't the biggest deal in the world but obviously smaller is better, as is cheaper.

Not really interested in suspension as I had my fill when I owned a Solo. Which brings me to a point - if there's a case with 6x Solo-type trays then that's damped enough for me...I don't know how picky I am compared to other people.

Has anybody got any advice, or similar experience?

[Jim G]

The Fractal Design trays appear to be almost identical to the Antec ones... at least all of the Antec trays that we have on-hand, anyhow. They seem to be quite fine for 5400rpm drives (e.g. WD green drives) but don't seem to do much for 7200rpm drives... at least in our experience. I'm happy with the trays for our small file servers as they're largely green drives that reside within them.

[sixleaf]

Are all Antec / Fractal trays the same then? so would a P180 mini be a better bet as it should have the same trays as the solo? Also do you know if the fractal core 3000 has the same trays as the define series - anything to save money!!

Cheers for the heads up

[mkk]

Yes the Core 3000 trays are the same as the define, and are quite correctly good for dampening todays 5400 RPM "green" drives. 7200 RPM drives generally need something better than any kind of grommet, even if the larger Antec type silicone grommets seem to be the best there are. Mind you the Core series of cases are quite open and not anywhere near the Define series when it comes to containing other types of noise. If "green" drives are what you will be using then I'd reconsider the Define Mini.