Case recommendation

[samuelellis]

Hi.

I have started to acquire the hardware for my FreeNAS build.

The hardware I have so far is

PSU OCZ 500Watt 80+ PSU - had it for years
HP Proliant ML10 Gen9 - I got this as it was a cheap way to get a ECC compatible board and CPU while offering a fair amount of upgradability

Now as I am planning on having 8 drives they obviously wont fit in the Proliant case so need to look at a new case - I am thinking of the Fractal Design R5 as it can hold 8 3.5 inch drives and strikes a balance between quiet and good cooling performance

Does anyone else have any good case recommendations.

 

[JohnDigital]

Fractals are great. Im using the XL, which holds 14 3.5" and 4 SSDs via cage addon. I just found one for 85 bucks locally. Well built, good hardware too.

The R5 is very similar to the XL.

 

[samuelellis]

Thanks for the recommendation, I was thinking of the fractals as they seem really well built and all the sound-dampening stuff in the case makes it easier to live with

i did look at the XL as it would give me chance to upgrade in future but i think the R5 will have enough as it has the 8 3.5inch drives, space for 2 5.25inch drives i could mount hard drives in and SSD mounts so if i wanted i could put a couple of SSD drives in as well (Cache and log)

 

[CraigD]

If you have an 8 drive vdev and want another the same, I think you have two option without going to a rack mountable case

I use a ZALMAN MS800 case. It has 10 5.25" bays. Add 3 3x5.25" to 5 3.5" cages/hot swap bay and your good for 16 Drives

The Antec Twelve Hundred has 12 5.25" bays in theory could hold 20 drives in 4 cages or hot swap bays

You will have to bend some steel tabs out of the way

Have Fun

 

[Patrick Callahan]

I just used a Fractal Node 804 and it seems really good so far.