Suitable tower / case for lots of HDD's for Plex Server

h0neybadger

Hi,

I currently have a Windows Storage Space spread across several 2 TB drives.

4 of them are in an external DAS attached by USB 3 to my gaming rig.
3 are inside my PC
2 others are in another USB enclosure.

I'd like to get rid of the DAS and other enclosure, and house them all together.

They're all 2TB drives.

I'm considering a separate tower, and building a really bare bones PC.
It's for Plex and some shared drives.

Any suggestions for a 100% silent build? Has to be as passive as possible, and as small as possible. Don't want a giant tower.
I'd also like to leave a bit of room for 3 more drives if possible, but not essential...

I can also re-build the storage space, once moved to a new PC/home.

Any help would be great

Price.. As low as humanly possible!

Venom

Getting a small case that supports a lot of HD's may prove to be a tall order, so maybe look into some M-ATX cases. There may be other brands out there that offer something similar but the two brands below have a good reputation for making quite cases.





Fractal Design Define XL R2
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fractal-Design-FD-CA-DEF-XL-R2-BL-Define-Computer/dp/B00AZQTZFU/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1544187766&sr=8-2&keywords=Fractal+Design+Define+XL+R2


Be-Quite Silent Base 600
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Be-Quiet-SILENT-BASE-Computer/dp/B014VZDIHQ/ref=pd_sbs_147_5?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B014VZDIHQ&pd_rd_r=d0c59fc0-fa20-11e8-a264-19c21d2ec568&pd_rd_w=SYQ7x&pd_rd_wg=0Gzoi&pf_rd_p=18edf98b-139a-41ee-bb40-d725dd59d1d3&pf_rd_r=6SD99YTJDF2HJPK4TRJ6&psc=1&refRID=6SD99YTJDF2HJPK4TRJ6

K.O.Kiki

Smallest for 10x HDDs would be Fractal Design Node 804 (41L) but it'll be a super-tight fit.

Slightly larger would be NZXT H440 V2 (54L). Both are available for £100.
Also Cooler Master Silencio 652S (9x 3.5"; 57L).

Silverstone Raven RV03 (70L) would be an EATX option (£112-120).

K.O.Kiki

Also I'd focus more on exchanging the 2Tb drives for 4Tb models (look at Backblaze's data for most reliable models).

Serephucus

I'd follow Kiki's advice here. 2TB is very small these days. You want to be looking at at least 4TB, probably more like 6.
Seagate are sampling 16TB drives, and they along with WD have announced 14TB ones.

Best thing to do is probably pick up a case that you can move the 3.5 cages around in. A few of them let you move the 3.5 cages back a space, to make room for a front radiator, but this also means you can stack them side-by-side, if you buy extra cages. I'm using a Nanoxia Deep Silence 1 doing exactly this at the moment.



It's very tight. I actually snapped a SATA connector off a drive (8TB down the drain, ugh) because I was tired and angry doing this, but it can be done if you take your time.