What case should I buy?

I was originally looking at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811219021&Tpk=norco%2020%20bay but after reading the forum, have discovered that it has major noise issues and heating issues.  The heating issues can apparently be solved by taping the case to allow for correct airflow, but I don't want an overly loud server (and there's really no reason it should be that loud, especially when it's not doing a parity check).  It'lll probably be in the study or in a closet, but I don't want to hear it screaming at me across the house at night

What server case can I use which has space for at least 20 drives and is under $400?  The norco was the only option I could find...Is my only reasonable choice to get external SATA drives for the other slots?  A case with hot-swappable drive bays (i.e. something that I wouldn't have to open up the entire case for and get out a screwdriver to install new drives) would be nice, but I'll take what I can get.

The biggest Lian-li cases I can find have space for 16 drives (with expanders) maximum (something like http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112159).  On the plus side, it has low noise, plenty of airflow even with quiet fans, and i can use the full 16 bays since unRAID doesn't use cd-rom dirves, floppy dirves, card readers, or breakout sound...(I assume I'd put the three fins in front to blow out air and the one in back to suck in air?  Or is that flpped...)  Does anyone with one of these know if there's space for any more than 16 drives? (I don't see it, looking at a side view)

What about 5-in-3 expanders?  This would get me 20 drives...are these for standard-sized or laptop HDDs?  Are there any out there that DON'T have heat issues?  Is this the way to go?  (I found several forum links for good 4-in-3s, but not much on 5-in-3s - I assume they're just too hot or something similar?)

Any ideas?

(The extra 4-8 drive slots would be nice for a ghost backup image storage drive, a spare drive, and a couple drives for smaller files or a cache drive) - plus if unRAID ever supports 24 drives as planned (similar to other highend hardware raid cards), I won't have to get a new case to take advantage.

Thanks,

Zithras

The Nordco is not overly loud. Its about the same as a few year old PC and way less than say a Dell server.

Your not going to find a server case in your price bracket that meets your specs and isnt the Nordco.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112119

This is still one of my favorites, beautifully engineered (can't afford it though).  Unfortunately, you will have to search for it.

The Norco can be nice, It's very cost effective considering you have the trays already.

As for the Lian Li case, It's nice, very pricey.

I would probably go for the Antec Twelve Hundred before the Lian Li

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129043

Limtech now uses the Supermicro 5in3's

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817121405

The only downside is the fans are a lil loud, so a fan controller is used to calm them down.

The Supermicro is a quality product. I have one. Very sturdy.

I happen to like the tray less sata models.  No trays or screws to mess around with.

The Lian-Li Rob posted

(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112119) looks great, and is $100 cheaper than the one I found, with more bays too - if I can find it...12 of the internal bays are a bit hard to access, but they seem to have adequate airflow, and PLENTY of drive slots available

The Antec

(http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129043), looking at the drive case images from Newegg, looks like it has the same problems as the Lian-Li I referenced - namely, the 12 5" bays are all there are (i.e. the 3.5 bays mentioned in the specs are converted 5s), so you'd need 5-in-3s to convert them to 20+ drives. 

The

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817121405

also looks like a wonderful product - what fan controller is used?  All the popular ones I can find with at least 4 fan connectors use 5" bays (and, obviously, if you've got 4 5-in-3s in the 12 bays, you need a smaller fan controller frontend, or something that fits in an expansion slot bracket. 

These, combined with the 120 mm fans that fit in the Lian-Li and/or Antec, should work just fine (have you hooked controllers to the 120s too? - controllers have at max 6 connectors I think, at least the ones I've seen do, although if you get quiet 120 mm fans that a controller for them shouldn't be necessary).

Zithras

Well....I have to ask.  Tom's "Pro" version of unRAID can address up to 16 drives.  Why the push for 20+?

Well...

There are RAID cards that support 24, so more would be nice.

More drives are always good especially if a second parity drive is added.

Finally, even if unRAID only supports 16, more drives installed in the server could be used for other things, like ghost backup images, additional storage, cache drives, a spare drive to keep formatted and ready to swap for a failed unRAID drive, etc.

if you get quiet 120 mm fans that a controller for them shouldn't be necessary

This is a common fallacy.

So-called "quiet" fans achieve this principally by running at lower RPM, and moving less air.  Some improvement is made by blade design, but those improvements are very minor compared to the RPM change.  Plus, "quiet" blade designs are all measured in free air... and are notorious for poorer performance against head.

When you have a case with any kind of restricted airflow, such as when using hot-swap cages/trays, get big, fast fans that have high CFM and high angle of attack blades, and use a controller to vary their speed downward from their max for noise purposes, if necessary.  Or use PWM controls on the mobo.

Get rid of all fan griills with a Dremel as they are another source of noise.

Finally, even if unRAID only supports 16, more drives installed in the server could be used for other things, like ghost backup images, additional storage, cache drives, a spare drive to keep formatted and ready to swap for a failed unRAID drive, etc.

If you know how to use those extra drives....go for it.  I just didn't want you to be disappointed when unRAID wouldn't recognize them.

Well....I have to ask.  Tom's "Pro" version of unRAID can address up to 16 drives.  Why the push for 20+?

Here's a quote from Tom that might be reason enough...

Related to this, something we're constantly asked is, "can you increase the number of disks in the array to X?"  Many have asked for an X of 20, some 24.

 

What we are going to do is create a Pro-only feature that raises the array width max up to 32, but also includes the ability to configure a "Q-parity" drive (like RAID-6).  This drive will have similar size restriction as Parity drive, that is, just be larger or same size as any data disk.

 

In this system (as in a RAID-6 system), there will be two redundancy disks, "P" which is the ordinary XOR parity, and "Q" which is a Reed-Solomon code.  This will allow unRAID to recover from any 2 disk errors, with minimal performance impact.

 

Regards,  Peter

if you get quiet 120 mm fans that a controller for them shouldn't be necessary

 

This is a common fallacy.

 

So-called "quiet" fans achieve this principally by running at lower RPM, and moving less air.  Some improvement is made by blade design, but those improvements are very minor compared to the RPM change.  Plus, "quiet" blade designs are all measured in free air... and are notorious for poorer performance against head.

 

When you have a case with any kind of restricted airflow, such as when using hot-swap cages/trays, get big, fast fans that have high CFM and high angle of attack blades, and use a controller to vary their speed downward from their max for noise purposes, if necessary.  Or use PWM controls on the mobo.

 

Get rid of all fan griills with a Dremel as they are another source of noise.

Unfortunately, all fan controllers I can find which control multiple fans fit in large 5" bays.  Where can I find a fan controller that controls 5 fans (4 for cages, 1 for side fan), and fits into an expansion slot in the back of the motherboard (or has an external box), and can provide enough power for high-speed fans?  If such an item does not exist, no fan controllers for me.  Just looking at the specs for low-noise fans, they move less air, true, but the CFM:noise ratio seems about the same as for the high CFM fans.  Plus, the Antec case has 6 120mm fans (plus another optional one I wouldn't use) and a 200 mm - surely that's enough airflow to justify lower-cfm fans on the drive cages and the 1 optional 120mm if necessary (the lian li doesn't have quite as good airflow, but I'll probably get the antec since the lian-li is discontinued)

On a side note, what size fan does the supermicro cage have?  I've seen 90mm and 80mm in different locations - can someone who has bought one clarify this?  What have you replaced these with to make them less noisy?

Edit: I'll probably post a more complete parts list in a day or two for further comment/review in a different post

CFM:noise ratio seems about the same as for the high CFM fans. 

Exactly.  So would you rather buy a fan with a max speed of 800 RPM, that moves 32CFM quietly, but can never be ramped up to 3100 RPM and move 100 cfm when needed (albeit at 39dB)...  or would you rather have a 3100 RPM 100cfm fan, dialed back to a quiet 800 RPM, and know you can always ramp it back up to 3100 if needed?  Or more likely, ramp it up to whatever RPM is just barely below audiable, such as 1350 and have more airflow than the 800 RPM one?

Also, you don't need 5 separate controls.  You can use Y-adapters on the fans and control all the like models (like the 3 120mm fans on the drive cages) with one control.

I like the Sunbeam:

  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811998129

get several of them if needed.

if you want one on the PCI slot.  But nothing is stopping you from getting a 6-channel Zalman, and just velcrow it inside the case rather than putting it in a drive bay.

good point - I never thought of the obvious solution - using a splitter - oops. (I assume you mean something like http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812119148)

By the time I accumulate 20 drives + 11 fans, I'll probably need plenty of power splitters too.

In any case, 2 sets of splitters should just about do it if I can get enough slots free - 1 for the 120s (if needed - I think all but the optional side one have their own switches), and 1 for the cages.

Anyone know what size fans the cages have?

On another completely different note, is the stock cooler on the Q6600 adequate, or will I need to replace it?  (I have one lying around from a previous project)  I assume it's just fine since I'll hardly need to overclock it on unRAID but I know some intel CPU heatsinks don't hold well to their chips, so I thought I'd better ask in case this was one (stupid pushpins...)

That splitter is for fans that use a fan header.... you will find that many 120mm fans have regular molex connectors.

Also, the case may have a fan alarm and power buss, for all the fans to plug into.  Most of those are simple power distribution and do not give you speed control however.

BTW, that splitter has 1 male, and 2 female connectors.... I think you intended to get the opposite configuration (1 female, 2 male) to run 2 fans from one header.