oh, I agree, just make sure what you think is cheaper really is cheaper...
I have both an older CM stacker (for my desktop, has like a billion slots/or whatever in the front) its a really great case, very well made... kind of big (for a desktop) but its very well thought out and easy to work with... (was my old server case before I went rack mount... and I just really like the case, so when desktop needed refreshing...)
Norco - pretty well thought out case, has all the drive bays ready to go..., drive carriers seem kind of cheap/flimsy, but they are adequate for the job... may not cool the drives quite as good as the CM, but cools good enough... probably much cheaper over all than the CM...
HOT Swap bays: as far as unraid goes, I doubt you can actually hot swap anything... but the real joy about these is when it comes time to add/remove/change a drive, you don't need to take anything apart... just yank/install... super simple, super quick...
BUt if i am not going with hot swap, the 590 case and COOLER MASTER STB-3T4-E3-GP, is a whole lot cheaper than the norco case. If i were to go with hot swap, then yah norco all the way.
These the jumpers i need for the EARS?