Where's good for server hardware?

Serephucus

I've been thinking about a server upgrade for quite a while. Initially it was moving to unRAID away from Win Server, but I figured while I'm at it I might invest it some more CPU horsepower, and more drives as well.

While my current case (Silverstone DS380) is a fantastic little thing, it gets kind of limiting when full. I was hoping to move to some kind of rackmount case, but I'm finding it really hard to find places that server gear. Rackmount stuff, server boards, that kind of thing.

I think the C2750D4I was stocked in so many place simply because it was relatively mainstream. I'm thinking of something like Norco's RPC-4220 now. Scan has some cases, but most of them are ludicrously expensive.

I've checked the usual suspects, as well as eBay, and while there is some stuff there, it's pretty expensive when shipping and import charges are taken into account. Anyone any experience with this?

ED E

http://www.serversdirect.co.uk/ Laptops direct's bigger brother?

Serephucus

Seems like they only do pre-built stuff. They sell some hardware, but no cases or motherboards.

Maybe I'll have to get the stuff from the US? That doesn't seem right.

justsomebloke

something like this https://www.servercase.co.uk/shop/server-cases/rackmount/4u-chassis/4u-server-case-w-24x-35-hot-swappable-satasas-drive-bays-6gbs-minisas-550m-deep-sc-4324s/

stimpson

Is 12 bays too restrictive?

I'll be following this thread as I have a HP Microserver running unraid with 4x3TB + parity. To expand any further it will mean buying 2x6TB to gain 3TB and I'll be left with 2 3TB drives and nowhere to put them. I had looked at buying used rackmount kit on eBay but it's a lot more expensive they I expected. Pity as I wanted to build a LackRack

Serephucus

Nice one justsomebloke. That's what I'm looking for. Ideally 3x120mm fans in the middle, but that seems to be hard to find.

12 bays would probably be fine, but I figure if I'm jumping from a toaster to something as massive as a rackmount case, I might as well get a ****tonne of drive cages with it.

justsomebloke

obviously 12 drive bays will fit in a 2u design where as the one you and I linked to are both 4u in size, so that may be a consideration

Serephucus

Yeah. I can't really see myself replacing something like this (unless something irreplaceable breaks, etc.) so I'm thinking I'll probably shoot straight for the endgame and just get a 4U off the bat.

Oh also, apparently those lack tables aren't great. The older models used to have solid legs, but now they're using the same ****e that the desk tops use - basically heavy duty cardboard - so they can't hold much weight at all. Not really usable for home servers any more.

justsomebloke

more expensive but has the 3 fans https://www.xcase.co.uk/4u-rackmount-server-cases/x-case-extra-value-424-24-hotswap-bays-coming-soon-239-00-x-case.html

ED E

Serephucus wrote: »

Oh also, apparently those lack tables aren't great. The older models used to have solid legs, but now they're using the same ****e that the desk tops use - basically heavy duty cardboard - so they can't hold much weight at all. Not really usable for home servers any more.

I'm heartbroken. Lack racks were awesome.

Serephucus

justsomebloke wrote: »

more expensive but has the 3 fans https://www.xcase.co.uk/4u-rackmount-server-cases/x-case-extra-value-424-24-hotswap-bays-coming-soon-239-00-x-case.html

Nice one. That's the first case I've found that fits what I want. Never heard of X-Case before. I assume that's a generic case that they've rebranded as their own.

Cuddlesworth

I'm pretty sure that thing is going to sound like a plane taking off. Noise/cooling and redundancy are usually the two major separators for the commercial and home market.

Serephucus

I know, but I haven't seen many other options.

The only things that support more than around 8 drives in the consumer space are uber-expensive full towers, and they're usually €2-300. Even then, that's only around 10 drives or so.

The other option is to find a case with only 5.25 bays on the front (very rare now-a-days) and install a load of hot-swap caddies in them. That would give you a decent amount of drives (3x 5-bay enclosures), but almost all those enclosures use 80mm fans - same noise as a rack - and are around €70-100 each, so the whole cost is even more than the above.

Lu Tze

Serephucus wrote: »

I know, but I haven't seen many other options.

The only things that support more than around 8 drives in the consumer space are uber-expensive full towers, and they're usually €2-300. Even then, that's only around 10 drives or so.

The other option is to find a case with only 5.25 bays on the front (very rare now-a-days) and install a load of hot-swap caddies in them. That would give you a decent amount of drives (3x 5-bay enclosures), but almost all those enclosures use 80mm fans - same noise as a rack - and are around €70-100 each, so the whole cost is even more than the above.

Antec nineteen hundred has 12 hard drive bays. You can search on skinflint.co.UK with a filter for minimum number of bays, might be useful
http://skinflint.co.uk/?cat=gehatx&xf=536_12#xf_top

the_syco

Serephucus wrote: »

but almost all those enclosures use 80mm fans - same noise as a rack

Question; would rubber screws (example) be of any use? Found them handy to quieten a large (80-120mm I think) fan on an old PC.

Or would the anti-vibration washers (never used them) be any good?

Serephucus

Those rubber things are more for quieting fans that cause a lot of case vibration, which generally doesn't happen too often these days, if you're buying decent fans to begin with. It will help a little though, yeah.

I more just meant that in general 80mm fans are quite a bit louder than 120mm ones, and it's hard to find cages with 120mm fans on them. I've only actually found one, made by Rosewill, and AFAICT isn't available here.

I think for space reasons I'm going to have to forgo the rack case for the moment and go with a standard tower. Front-runner so far is the Sharkoon T9. 9 5.25 bays, decent-looking otherwise, and about €60. Next up is finding decent cages.