I would love the MB924IP-B. I want to build a home server where I can host game servers as well as making a low power high IOPS Editing server for my videos that I am recording.
True, weird when it has wheels, going on the floor. Well, not using it on server and case is holding a lot, being a beautiful classic Lian Li. Just not 2.5 and I now only have 2.5 SSDs and a 24-port adapter. This would be a perfect match.
I would love the 24 bay monster to make my SSD NAS a reality. I currently have 2 SSD’s while the rest is spinning rust, but that monster would fit perfectly:
The 2x2.5 with the ODD backplane would be the perfect excuse to replace my old DVD drive with something that can finally read blue-rays:
interested in both I plan to build a massive web server where anyone can log on and have access to an endless amount of information on different IT certifications from basics to the top of the line certifications I also want to add in applications they can download and use and boxes they can download and hack into to practice I want this server to be huge right now I have over 10tb worth of information and guides. I currently mentor young cyber students in the Cyber Academy and help mentor them starting into there career I am starting to run out of resources to be able to farther guide more students
The 24 x 2.5 please
At the moment I have my budget ESX (R5 3400G + 32GB RAM) in Fractal Design 804 - so no easy way to swap a drive - 8x 2TB WD RED spinning rust (in mounts behind MOBO) and 2x 512GB Samsung SSD + 120GB OCZ SSD (SSDs under front panel in place of slim 5.25). Some of my systems are in VMs (one of them have spinning rust attached for data hording) - based on HP P822 and RAID6 for HDD + RAID1 for SSD + old SSD for custom ESX image. And some older items still in hardware form (ESX limitation of RAM and storage).
But as I moved recently and now I have space for RACK and have to make new wiring for home. I decide to run a process of prepping rebuild of ESX in to newer/bit stronger ESX (with P822 for now) + 2nd machine with TrueNAS + proper cabling (CAT6, patch panels, RACK passive switch) + RACK APC UPS + VLANs (have kids so I need PiHole and some VLAN separation all the time) + more game servers for kids and friends (now only Minecraft, Rust, Space Engineer can be up at the same time).
According to plan TrueNAS will get MOBO + CPU + RAM from “old” ESX + ZFS (with use of 2x PERC H200 + onboard SATA and M.2 ports for start) + PiKVM + RACK case, and “new” ESX will get X470D4U + R7 2700x + 64GB RAM (+64GB in next year) + “old” Fractal 804 + “old” HP P822.
Some services like PiHole/PLEX/TS3/etc. will be served form TrueNAS containers, rest still from ESX with use of iSCSI and some storage of FreeNAS machine. Some older HW would be converted to VMs as well. And in next year there will be some IP cameras with POE added to that mix with help of old HP A5800 saved from utilization (have to mod it to lower noise level).
RACK arrived yesterday (not mounted yet as didn’t finished cabling). And I’m still missing some parts, like 16x 2.5 IcyDock cage that I was thinking about for TrueNAS drives.
But that 24x 2.5 from L1 would be a different(superior) level in my winter project 
Also, when you pick the winner, you should live stream it and then look at the image sent and announce a re-roll just to make heads explode.
Hi everyone!
Let’s get some more disks for this Late 2012 mac Mini doing work as an UNRAID server. 
Would pick the ToughArmor MB924IP-B and then research on my part into how to connect it to the mini.
really like the case, wish there more all metal/mesh options
I’d use it for a photo hosting server I’m making for my parents so they can stop sorting through external hard drives to find anything.
The IcyDock 2x2.5 would probably be the most useful.
For now I’d pop in into my rack mounted workstation and go ahead and get a sata add-in card, as well as pop a blu-ray reader into the ODD part so I can start helping with the ripping of my family’s movies. I’ve been relying on having trained my parents how to properly file the movies and pick the correct audio and subtitle tracks, but the sheer volume means being able to take some back to my place to help would be nice.
I’ve also already got some sata backplane bays partially populated since I’m trying to get around to a personal SaaS project that involves manipulating and enhancing OpenStreemap data, which eats storage for breakfast… 
So having a couple more drives wouldn’t hurt.
I could also use the 24 bay at some point in the future, I have another case I plan to put a threadripper or Epic processor in to run the servers that me and my family use, but getting a CPU like that isn’t currently in my budget, though maybe if I got the 24 bay I’d repurpose some cheaper hardware so I can stand something up.
(Realized I should explain that the additional piece of filter foam is actually to prevent the faster-spinning fans in front from overspinning the fans behind them, turns out that’s an issue the way I have it configured)
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I would use them to store more pictures of animu girls :^)
My little box of leftovers needs more storage space not dangling at the end of sata cables! I’d be really happy with ether item!
I also did the DVD ripper thing a few years back…
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I am already using a 4 SSD icydock drive. Right now I am only using 2 1TB drives in Raid 0. This thing is Awesome.
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Interested in:
The ICY DOCK ToughArmor MB924IP-B
Rather interesting since I was just looking at this or a very similar Icy dock 3 x 5.25" → 24x SATAs as a possible future upgrade for my NAS around 2 weeks ago during a NAS maint and upgrade!
Used to have a pile of retired or faulting spinning rust taken out of a NAS (FreeNAS/TrueNAS) I built for my brother. Late 2021 my brother’s old PC was retired so I turned it into another (True)NAS to make use of the last of my working spinning rust(s) as well as run educational experiments on TrueNAS (prior to deploying updates & changes in brother’s NAS).
That and spinning rust is just too noisy to run anywhere near me.
Planning to replace the 3x 5.25" to 4x 3.5" bay with 2.5" mounts for SSDs.
NAS specs:
OS: TrueNAS Core 13.0.1 U1 (13.0.2 soon)
CPU: Intel i7-4790
M/B: Gigabyte G1.Sniper Z6
RAM: 32G
Expansion #1: PCI-E 4x → NVMe M.2 board
Expansion #2: 4-port generic ASM106X(?) PCI-E 1x SATA expander
Expansion #3: PCI-E 1x → PCI-E 16x extension/adapter board ↔ USB 3 ↔ board
Current Storage devices
- 3x WD Green 4TB
- 1x WD Red 4TB
- 2x WD Red 8TB (Helium)
- 1x WD Red 10TB (Helium)
- 1x HGST 10TB (Helium)
- 2x Crucial MX500 500G
- 2x Intel 670p 512G (NVMe)
The purpose of this NAS:
- Non-critical data archive and redundant backups
- Educational/Experimental/Explorational TrueNAS machine
- Networked cache / redundant backup for my game being developed (solo dev, UE5 based).
- Game server (VM) for my friends (L4D2, 7D2D etc.)
First photo below:
Front of the case showcasing an ancient 3x 5.25" → 4x 3.5" “adapter” cage. The cage itself was taken out of my first quasi-NAS from back in ~2010-2012 (Windows + Raid5, 5x 1TBs).
UPS on the side.
Fun note: The cage was probably Coolermaster’s first-gen version of this type of cage/adapter with the original front removed; somehow managed to find a Coolermaster branded fan-grill lying around from a past PC & attached it.
Second photo above:
Side view showing the current setup
- Top right: An “adapter” cage that fits a 3x 5.25" bay and converts the bay for 4x 3.5" drives, complete with rubber grommets separating the drive cage from the 3x 5.25" housing.
- Middle right: 2x half de-shelled Corsair MX500s with the chipsets covered in thermal-pads and strapped onto the case to utilize the drive cage as a thermal-sink. Mirrored and partitioned for TrueNAS boot + VMs + Jails.
- Top PCI-E slot houses a PCI-E 4x to NVMe M.2 adapter
- Middle PCI-E houses a 1x PCI-E to USB 3 adapter (uses the plug/cable as wires, not electrically nor functionally USB 3!), linked to a USB 3 to PCI-E 16x breakout board (taped to the PSU) housing a 4x PCI-E to NVMe M.2 adapter.
- 3rd PCI-E slot: PCI-E 1x SATA controller. Generic ASM106X(?)
- Slightly blurred to hide serials/identifiers.
Third photo below:
Close-up of the populated PCI-E slots
Fourth photo above:
Back view of the 3x 5.25" → 4x 3.5" drive bay.
The 3TB WD Green in the photo died around 3 weeks ago, which led to the maintenance and upgrade.
Top drive was a 3TB Seagate shucked from a old external USB enclosure (2011?). Removed during maint due to near-death SMART indicators.
The future focus for this NAS (and any future ones I build) will be to transition to solid-state drives.
Spinning Rust just isn’t as well-priced as it used to be $/TiB, while providing slow random read/write coupled with high fail rates. Made worse by WD’s many attempts at masquerading SMR drives as NAS drives* (lost faith in WD!).
.* = (Opinion) SMRs have a place as something between tape backup and CMR/PMR drives. Or even better as active “WORM” storage. Unfortunately WD kept trying to sneak them into the WD Red (NAS) line as “quality” NAS drives…
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I’d love the 24 bay Icy Dock.
Running a 1950x Threadripper system to analyze data from water samples collected by school students. The students use ancient Panasonic Toughbooks in the field and I’ve already worn out 2 5.25 dual bay 8x2.5" enclosures over the years swapping their laptop hard drives in and out (USB don’t cut it in wet conditions!) I use Areca SATA2/SAS RAID controllers with fanout cables on this aging system. Hopefully those will work with a SATA3 dock!
Space is no problem… All this runs in a Rosewill Thor case, which is a great case, even for being over 10 years old now.
If I win, I would not turn down any spare 2990WX Threadrippers you have lying around!
I’m interested in both of them for data hoarding purposes.
am planning on expanding my data hoarder lifestyle by adding more hdds. At present I have nearly 90tb filled with jellyfin media. Now I am in the process of buying a few more drives.
I Would like the 24 monster. My TrueNAS is build in a CoolerMaster Centurion 590. It presently house 8 500GB 3.5 HDD. I would try to fill those with 2.5 drive. It would free space on the inside and expand the available space.
I only have 1 3to4 3.5 drive bay cage and the 2X 4850X2 have since be removed. This is an old i7 920 with 6gig of ram. boot drive is an 16GB SataDOM that were throw away from an old server.
And yes, I only use what I can, not what I want.
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I need either. I am working on a lot of reverse engineering stuff and my desktop needs more storage. Like, significantly.
I tess u what I want ur case lol