Two bolted together tower case idea.

Has anyone tried to bolt two cases together?

I'm at the point that either I buy a 5-in-3 cage or a proper server case. Few days ago, I came across this custom built water cooled system, shaped like a table with two ends (legs) being two tower cases, joined together with a custom center metal piece.

Currently my unRAID server lives in an old Antec Office Tower case, the ones that were popular about 10years ago. I have another exactly same case which is sitting idle and my idea was to bolt the two cases together. This way I can get another 6 bays for no additional costs and 4 more with 5.25 to 3.25 hard disk mount adapters. So 20 drives in total at full capacity.

I would need to take the left panel off my unRAID server case and the right panel off the empty one. Then, figure a way to remove the motherboard tray from the second case. This, might be the difficult part as the tray is riveted on. Might try to punch the rivets outs or in the worst case scenario dremel cut it out.

To join the two together I would use some long thin bolts and nuts. As the screw holes are so small and thus the bolts be thin, it would be more to keep the thing together and probably won't be able to handle the strain of being moved. So when I need to move it, I would probably would have to detach the cables from the drives, unbolt it and move it separately.

Or, should not even bother with this, but just get some long cables and thread the cables through the back of the second case? Only worry here being finding long enough sata power cables.

I'm not really bothered about the aesthetics as the server lives in the basement.

Any draw backs to this idea?

Or, should not even bother with this, but just get some long cables and thread the cables through the back of the second case? Only worry here being finding long enough sata power cables.

I'm not really bothered about the aesthetics as the server lives in the basement.

 

Any draw backs to this idea?

A heavy mod like this would be cool, but may also be difficult to service.

Then you have to think about how the heat is going to be handled.

You may be able to get away with a couple eSATA units, and some eSATA Cables.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812196141

Also if you put in a small PSU in the second unit and rig it correctly, power issues may be minimized.

You may be able to get away with the addonic port multipliers on a PCI adapter.

http://www.addonics.com/products/host_controller/ad5sapm-e.asp

Now weight these options against a serious new case like an Antec 1200 you may find on sale here.

Watch the Good Deals board.

For me, I'm kinda a serious guy when it comes to expanding to such a point where I have 20 drives of data.

I see no reason not to follow your idea. It sounds reasonable, cheap and possibly fun to build.

The Major drawback is mobility. Especially if you have to move the server(s).

The minor drawback is cooling, power, and access to the drives that are deeper in the case.

Another more expensive option that is along your same theory is to turn the second case into an external drive bay.

you can use adapters like these http://www.pc-pitstop.com/sas_cables_adapters/ . a sas expander would work also if you had a lot of drives in case #2.

slightly cheaper http://www.addonics.com/products/multilane/connector.asp

you would then have 1 or 2 wires that just run from one box to another...

I was looking at this idea to convert a norco 4224 into a drive bay for another norco.

you might even be able to use some cheap sata to esata adapters if you only have a few drives. then run a few esata wires from one case to the second..

something like this maybe? http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=104&cp_id=10407&cs_id=1040707&p_id=7638&seq=1&format=2

use a set of those OR an esata card in your unraid box and run them to the esata brackets on  box #2? this is personally untested but should work... I had done this with a 4 port board once. http://www.addonics.com/products/io/ad4esasb.asp

just make sure all your connections are solid.

you would have to have a power supply in the second box.

Here is a trick to fire it up http://www.gideontech.com/content/articles/196/1 there are other ways if you use the google-fu

The best way to remove rivets is to drill them out. If done correctly, it is quick and you still have the original sized hole so you can rivet it all back together with a rivet gun.

I've had a poke around this weekend and I'm going with the K.I.S.S. solution. As I have stated before, I'm at the point that I need to add another drive, but don't have a slot in my current case and really don't want to spend any money on drive adapters of any sort and use what I currently have. Also, I'll be moving in a couple of months and plan to get something more permanent done then. Either, do some mods on this two case idea to make it permanent or get a Noroco.

So the SATA cables will reach around the back of the primary case to the drives in the secondary case. The secondary case already has fans in it and all I need to do is plug up the PSU slot with 120mm fan that I have which should take care of the cooling in the secondary case.

The current hang up is extending the power from the primary case to the secondary. Does anyone know what the maximum length the 12v power cables can be? It looks as if I will have to connect together at least two extenders to make it reach. Don't really want to put another PSU in the secondary case as the PSU in the primary has enough capacity left.

Thanks for the tip about drilling out the rivets. That will come in handy, if I decided to take the motherboard tray out and bolt the two cases together.

Actually found some examples of joining two cases together in some of the case mod forums. Basically, people were doing this to make cube cases and provide space for water cooling equipment. However, most of these examples involved a lot of metal work and more artistic.

I like JohnM's ideas.  Either SAS to SATA, multilane or the eSATA route (which I suggested in various forms too).

I've had good luck with eSATA, but I've not used it long term.

As a quick fix to satisfy growth it may be OK to run cables in an extended manner. But from what I read recently, A bad power connector can wreak havoc on the array's health with corrupted data.

I assume the drive cages look like this:

http://store.antec.com/Product/accessory-spare_parts/sxhdcage-drive-cage/0-761345-30022-3.aspx

Your problem will be in replacing the internal drives on the second case if you bolt the two cases together. Do you have enough fan brackets for the drive cages? My Antec case came with just one fan bracket for two drive cages. How about cooling for the drives with the 3.5 x 5.25 adapters?  I am definitely in for minimizing costs, but frankly that case is a serious compromise in what you want for a file server.

They are the drive cages. Accessing the ones in the primary case will indeed be an inconvenience, as you would have to remove the cages from the secondary case too. The real problem if I do decide to bolt them together is removing the riveted motherboard tray. This, mod might be so much easier to if the cases had removable motherboard trays.

Cooling wise there are four 80mm fans (2 in, 2 out) and it keeps the system cool even in a bit muggy half basement. Actually the drives in the 3.5x5.25 are cooler as they not bunched up like those in the cages.

The external enclosure idea seems to be more promising and cleaner permanent solution. Using a SAS expander so there is only one data cable going across would be nice, but then if I start spending ~$100, as suggested before, I might as well go for a newer larger case.

Keeping with the miserly K.I.S.S. philosophy. What if I turn the secondary case back to front and feed the cables through the front usb port hole of the secondary case from the back of the primary case. I think I can get away with only one extension to the 12v power cable as the routing will be much shorter. Also, both cases will now open easily, each from its right side.

Then, rather than mess around with nuts and bolts, get some dual epoxy metal glue and glue the left sides together. 

How about this?

http://geekreport.com/7/lian-li-modular-cube-case-review

Keeping with the miserly K.I.S.S. philosophy. What if I turn the secondary case back to front and feed the cables through the front usb port hole of the secondary case from the back of the primary case. I think I can get away with only one extension to the 12v power cable as the routing will be much shorter. Also, both cases will now open easily, each from its right side.

I like that idea. You better post photos!

I know this is some what an old thread but just in case

you can also put the extending  case (the one with only HD) in the back of the main one

and use a hinge along the bottom edge.

this would solve 2 issues, 

1. no need to remove the MB plate from the second case

2. make servicing easier  as you can simply prop the cases on small block and flip the main one on it's side to install/replace HD in the extension.

also makes the case more rigid I think ....

what say you ?  :-)

My Chenbro case (ST-103 / 10303) is essentially an industrialised version of your idea. It is a double wide midi server height case with wheels. I absolutely love it.  

The way I have it is the Mobo in the left half and the HDD's and the PSU in the right half. Cables reach fine in this configuration. PSU is in the bottom, and SATA and power cables cross mainly mid bottom of the middle wall (where the MoBo sits.

I will take some pictures soon, when i get to pull out the old MoBo out in favor of my Pleiades ESXi build. Keep an eye on this thread: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=15871.0

I'm still about 3 drives and a new PSU to go, before actually trying this double case idea. The back-to-front double case should be doable with any two cases.

To do this without extensive mods, one condition would be that the server is placed somewhere you have good side to side access and won't be needed to be moved.

I'm planning to place the cases on top of a old dresser in the basement. Also, I picked up two used 4-3 cages cheap off craigslist. So theoretically, I should be able to have 11 drives in each case for a total of 22.

Again, the philosophy behind this is KISS and use what you have. There are way better options out there, but I think its a fun build if it works out.

To many points of failure in my opinion.  get a Norco 4220 or 4224 and be done with it.