Help looking for a case! Would a server case work better?

S

Southy

New Member
Hi all,
I am looking to find a case for a new computer that I'm gonna build. I want to build a powerful pc which I am going to use a lot for everyday use, but I also want the case to hold as many other 3.5" Drive Bay IDE hard drives as I possibly can. I have heard that a server case would work well for this type of project or would it be better to build a pc in one case and get another case to hold all the external hard drives. Any ideas on what some good cases would be for this scenario and what about power to drive it all? I'm fairly new to working with computer hardware so any help is appreciated. Thanks.
 
why would you need all that hard drive space?

storage capacity does not make a powerfull pc-you could have a normal size case and have over 1 Terabyte of storage (1,024GB)

i have never even considered going over 300gig
 
I know storage capacity does not make a powerful pc, I just have about 10 extra IDE hard drives lying around, all of random sizes, and I would like to hook up and have access to as many as I possibly can, without hooking them up externally is possible. How would you setup 1 terabyte in a normal case without hooking up externally and using more than 2 500gb drives?
 
Server cases dont usually have as good airflow deisgnes as enthusiast cases.

As I don't know what you're putting in the case, I shall assume it's top of the line stuff, requiring decent airflow. I would say get a decent case from Akasa/Lian Li/Whatever, and just transfer the data over.
 
Southy said:
I know storage capacity does not make a powerful pc, I just have about 10 extra IDE hard drives lying around, all of random sizes, and I would like to hook up and have access to as many as I possibly can, without hooking them up externally is possible. How would you setup 1 terabyte in a normal case without hooking up externally and using more than 2 500gb drives?
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sata drives.
 
thealmightyone said:
Server cases dont usually have as good airflow deisgnes as enthusiast cases.

As I don't know what you're putting in the case, I shall assume it's top of the line stuff, requiring decent airflow. I would say get a decent case from Akasa/Lian Li/Whatever, and just transfer the data over.
Click to expand...

I probably would go that way and its a good idea, its just that I have all of these IDE drives that I would like to make use of and in that case I wouldnt be able too.

pdc76 said:
sata drives.
Click to expand...
How does that work? Even still, I would have to buy all new drives and transfer my data over? Is that the best way to go or is there another way I can set it up with the hardware that I have?
 
It's better to have one or two good hard drives than a bunch of old random ones.
 
An ATX Full Tower would be a happy medium. You can get quality designs with good airflow and plenty of drive bays.

My preference whem i'm in this situation is to use drive racks rather than external drives. You can have several in the PC, and quickly and easily switch between drives as required.

If you do go with the internal drives in a large case, you'll also need a PCI IDE controller card to accommodate them all.
 
ceewi1 said:
An ATX Full Tower would be a happy medium. You can get quality designs with good airflow and plenty of drive bays.

My preference whem i'm in this situation is to use drive racks rather than external drives. You can have several in the PC, and quickly and easily switch between drives as required.

If you do go with the internal drives in a large case, you'll also need a PCI IDE controller card to accommodate them all.
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Interesting, thanks for the information. That makes good sense. What about something like this?
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2289281&CatId=1510
 
I'd be against using a second case to hold the drives. One immediate problem is that the cabling required would be a nightmare. Another is that the weight and bulk would be offputting.

A single full tower case can hold 13+ drives (yes, you can use the 5.25" bays as well). The CoolerMaster Stacker RC-810 hold 15, for example, while most cheaper full towers hold 13. The drive racks I suggested earlier would still be my preference, as with this number of hard drives I'd imagine you're using many of them for data archiving rather than day to day use, and thus don't need them in the system at all times. Most likely the cost of purchasing hardware to support 13+ drives in the one system will be greater than the cost of discarding the smaller drives and replacing with larger ones.

Make sure you keep in mind the power requirements of doing so. 13+ drives will require a lot of power (not to mention drive connectors).
 
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Well what i have is a sever tower, 9 hard drive bays, 4 120mm fans 2 behind hard drive bays and two at the back of the tower and am moding the side of the case to have an other 120mm, the quick swap option for the 5.25 bays are great to hard just disconnect the two cables and pull em out, i personally suggest a server tower
 
haha one thing about it though, if you get a high quality case, it will weight about 75-80Lbs before anything is in it, awkward yes but if it is a work station no problem.
 
ceewi1 said:
Make sure you keep in mind the power requirements of doing so. 13+ drives will require a lot of power (not to mention drive connectors).
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Will one power supply even be able to support 13 drives plus fans/motherboard etc?
Basically I have 11 IDE drives and I would like to hook as many of those up as possible,
then in addition I would have another drive to run the OS and then a DVD+-RW drive.

damientbayless said:
Well what i have is a sever tower, 9 hard drive bays, 4 120mm fans 2 behind hard drive bays and two at the back of the tower and am moding the side of the case to have an other 120mm, the quick swap option for the 5.25 bays are great to hard just disconnect the two cables and pull em out, i personally suggest a server tower
Click to expand...
do you have any recommendations on any specific models of server towers like yours that I could have a look at?


what about something like this?
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=12947&vpn=ATXA8NW-BK/500&manufacture=TURBO GAMER

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1215772&sku=ULT31826
 
Well the one i use is made my Chen Bro here is the link for their site http://usa.chenbro.com/corporatesite/index.php google their price ranges (suggests ebay) , the ones you have from ncix and tigerdirect are nice, but when you run alot of components you like to have alot of breathing room as well fans, psu wise, i think the most you'd be able to find on a psu is 8 peripherals (4pin connectors) so i'd suggest a 600-700W and perhaps get peripheral spliters to support as many components that you have
 
What are your intended system specs? I notice you want it for 'everyday use', will this include a high end video card, CPU, etc...?

OR you could buy the sexy but rather expensive Nvidia 1000W psu hahaha
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nVidia don't make PSUs.
 
4 of my drives are 250gb.... its just what good is having a tower that hows 10+ drives when you can only hook up something like 8 peripherals with your power supply?
 
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