Compact 12 Bay Hot Swap Chasis?

[zfrogz]

I don't think this exists but I'm going to ask the community anyway. I'm looking for a compact chasis (not rack or tower) that has 12 hot swap bays and can accommodate a mini-ITX board. Something a bit like this synology:

Anyone know of a similar form factor case?

 

[cyberjock]

Not really. And that form factor can really cook hard drives. :(

 

[Ericloewe]

There are some things in that format, but the largest I've seen (forgot the model) was an 8-bay with dubious cooling. It's a rather small niche, unfortunately.

 

[zfrogz]

No reason a case like that can't have decent airflow. I don't think heat would be an issue unless you use high performance drives. Assuming they're working correctly, the green and red drives generally don't produce much heat. Guess I'll just have to wait for now. :)

 

[Ericloewe]

No reason a case like that can't have decent airflow. I don't think heat would be an issue unless you use high performance drives. Assuming they're working correctly, the green and red drives generally don't produce much heat. Guess I'll just have to wait for now. :)

You're right, but unfortunately, they typically have lousy airflow.

 

[mjws00]

Node 308 is close in form factor, but 9 drives and a shade bigger/ no hotswap. Here is one done by zoom555. The silverstone ds380 is 8 drives, and needs cooling help. The lian-li posted by eric gets the drive count up... but you'll have to add to the back-plane for hotswap... and it's side load.

Never seen what you're looking for. Everything is a compromise. I've thought about siamese twinning a couple ds380's, as I think their backplane/cage is nice. 24 drives in a small chassis. But you hit $300+ quickly and still have issues. Might as well just grab some 5 into 3 5.25 cages, and built something custom.

 

[Ericloewe]

Node 308 is close in form factor, but 9 drives and a shade bigger/ no hotswap. Here is one done by zoom555. The silverstone ds380 is 8 drives, and needs cooling help. The lian-li posted by eric gets the drive count up... but you'll have to add to the back-plane for hotswap... and it's side load.

Never seen what you're looking for. Everything is a compromise. I've thought about siamese twinning a couple ds380's, as I think their backplane/cage is nice. 24 drives in a small chassis. But you hit $300+ quickly and still have issues. Might as well just grab some 5 into 3 5.25 cages, and built something custom.

I've explored cheap ATX cases filled with 5.25" hot swap bays. The conclusion is that at that point I might as well buy a rackmount, price-wise, and spare the hacking.

 

[zfrogz]

Bummer. I thought that was going to be the case. With the rising popularity of home DIY NAS, maybe some manufacturer will roll something out in the near future.