So I’ve been looking at getting a file server together however an issue I didn’t think I’d be running into is the case. Many many years ago I say Linus unbox a Norco 4224 and thought at the time “Ya 10 years maybe I’ll make a build with something like that, it’d be fun”. Thing is I can’t really seem to find a case that could ultimately contain ~16-20 drive. The plan isn’t to fill it from the get go but to add to it as needed over the year.
However I can’t seem to find a case available for what I’d call a reasonable price. Now I do have a way for around 200$ I’ve found, the Corsair 750D has stackable drive cage that I believe could go up to 3 cages tall, 3HHDs per cage for a total of 18. I purchased a 750D for a gaming rig that doesn’t have HDD in it so I already have 2 extra I could repurpose but I know that individually wiring those drive will be a pain every time I want to change something.
So I’m asking here for basicly the power of the human hive mind, am I just missing somewhere/something that has high 3.5’’ availability? I’ve seen some on Ebay but the price varied from 300 to 1500 for what seemed the same item. Also shipping to Canada often ended up higher than the actual case. Looking at manufacturer website doesn’t really help since price don’t seem to be listed for chassis since I figure you buy from them multiple already filled systems.
The server isn’t meant to be used by really anyone else than me but I’d want it to be good enough that 2 people could use it at the same time, with the idea it would do movie/TV show streaming, backup storage. Thinking maybe to get into game streaming so being able to save the footage to storage and encode/stream it is the top task I figure it would have to do.
Not sure if you are struggling to find a rackmount case or a desktop. Your post seems to describe a desktop situation. In a desktop /tower case… that would be an exercise in cabling hell. For that many drives look at a rack mount disk shelf. Check out Steve’s video…
It’s an obvious question but why do you want 20 hard drives? If you are buying new you will get more bang-for-buck buying fewer larger drives. Your use case doesn’t need high uptime or performance.
Also depends on the form factor you want and the time you are willing to invest to fiddle with it.
For example I ran my NAS in a Node 804 (currently dead cause Mainboard died, thanks Intel), which has “only” 10 3.5’’ drive mounts (+2 2.5’’) by default. Looking at it you’d be able to fit another 3 drive cages into the mainboard chamber and make it your 20 tho.
It’s not comfortable most likely, but it would fit.
So ultimately it comes down to what you want. Do you want something that has 20 drive mounts by default or are you willing to make it to fit 20 drives.
I guess I’m struggling to find a rack case/disk shelf. The disk shelves would be what I want because if I can find one it solves the problem of not having enough space in a desktop.
20 HDD isn’t so much the goal but as much as I can see myself needing for the next few to several years. For the form factor I’d want ATX or about for raid/network/video card if needed in the future. So that’s why finding a disk shelf would be nice, would allows more selection of desktop case to start with.
I miss CaseLabs because those would not have been cheap but pretty much perfect for what I want.
There’s plenty of those going around in the enterprise surplus/used market. Mostly ebay, shouldn’t be all that difficult really
The shelves shown in the video above or in in L1’s 172 TB build should be around still…
Just look for NetApp Diskshelf and you’ll find plenty.
Just be aware that any type of disk shelf can be picky about the drives they take.
Not sure about that. I looked at US-ebay earlier and there are a few for like 250$+, on german ebay I can find some for <100€ soooo… not sure. Maybe also look at local stuff, craigslist and such. Maybe there’s also an enterprise surplus market near you.
So I’ve continue to think about this server in the background, using Unraid to run a Windows VM I could easily pass the video to my main rig and game like that right?
How do you mean “pass the video”? If you mean the GPU, then yes. GPU Passthrough is supposedly pretty easy on Unraid (never done it). Though if you run an Nvidia GPU you will most likely run into Error 43, and I don’t know if/how that’s easily fixable in Unraid.
Mh so if I understand this right you mean a Steam Inhome Streaming kind of situation? Render on the server, but play on the PC? Should be possible, don’t see why not.
Well Error 43 lol, but Steam Inhome Streaming is a good way to explain it, will use that in the future.
I knew about 37 but forgot that one so thanks on that.
