BUILD DVD Duplicator to HDD enclosure conversion

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

Hello

Has anyone tried to convert an old DVD duplicator to a HDD enclosure?

I have a 12 bay dvd duplicator that I am going to try and convert into a hdd enclosure for freenas.
I'm going to stick 4 of theese in it:

5.25" to 5x 3.5" SATA SAS HDD Cage Rack Hard Drive Tray Caddy Converter with Fan Space

Only US$28.99, buy best 5.25

www.banggood.com

or something similar
This will give me room for 20 HDDs.

Then stick a SAS expander in there like this:

Lenovo 03X3834 LSI 6 Gbps 16 Port PCI-e SAS Expander Card | eBay

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This should allow me to use 16 disks initially, I would need an additional one for the four remaining ones

Use a riser like this or similar to power it:

PCIE Riser 1x to 16x Adapter Card for Bitcoin Ethereum Mining 6 Pin SATA AC769 | eBay

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Make a hole for this one:

Mini SAS SFF-8087 36P to 2 Port External HD sas26P SFF-8088 Front Panel Adapter | eBay

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Then stick a LSI SAS 9201-16e in the current freenas server to communicate with it.

I realize that I can achieve the same thing by finding an old empty ATX case, but they are not that easy to come by in that size, and the added cost by adding a sas expander etc. would be the same.

Also, I considered if it was better to stick 2 x

Mini SAS SFF-8087 36P to 2 Port External HD sas26P SFF-8088 Front Panel Adapter | eBay

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and ditch the sas expander, this would allow the hdds to communicate directly with the LSI SAS 9201-16e

On an additional note I considered ditching the internal PSU, put a 2x3-pin XLR connector in the dvd duplicator and my freenas enclosure and then power it directly from the PSU in the freenas server.
Each pin on the XLR plug is rated for 16A, and two of theese should enable 20 drives to spin up at once without overloading the connector.
The idea behind this is that my Freenas PSU is probably more efficient than the duplicator one.

Any thoughts or caveats I need to worry about?

 

[Z300M]

Did you ever do this? And, in particular, did you try that 03X3834 expander, and did it work?

 

[Mr. Bigglesworth]

Hello

I was offered a larger case for next to nothing and will move my system to that one to begin with.
At a later time I will probably convert the duplicator case.


Instead of going with an additional controller I decided to buy a SAS expander, an Intel RES2SV240, as it seemed numerous people have used it successfully.
I've just received it yesterday,and haven't had the time to migrate to a new case, and it will probably be at least two weeks before I find the time.
If it works as intended I will probably use it for my duplicator conversion.