Help I cannot stand my case and broke an HDD data connector,
I have been running my truenas server out of an HTPC case that is slightly modified. GD09
Frankly the thing is crammed full and janky with 4 x 12tb HDDs 2 SSDs and a GPU. Unfortunately, the Jank has caught up with me and I snapped the plastic part of a data connector on one of the 12tb drives (its currently glued together and taped etc. I am waiting on an M.2 to arrive before I can see whether that fix worked or whether it needs to go to a repair service because I cannot find the connector anywhere.
Anyway, I am tired of trying to make this case work. I was thinking a used server chassis in the 4U size range would be a good option. The idea would be to support standard ATX hardware (e.g., PSU ATX Motherboard) so that I can hand me down hardware to NAS duty, but I want a backplane that supports SATA drives (SAS support wouldn’t hurt either) to avoid more broken drives. Any server hardware would be a bonus but if it is power hungry would probably not be used (except maybe an HBA as I will need to pickup one of those.
Has anyone tried this? Looking for advice, recommendations on chassis, and how to acquire one, etc. I am in the silicon valley area if anyone knows a good source.
Support for 8 drives is the minimum. support for 12 or 16 would be nice. Anything beyond that is unnecessary.
I have seen that one. Its fairly limited on PCI card length (220mm) mATX (i want full ATX support) and still seems somewhat jank with the bolt slot slider setup.
Thanks that looks like a pretty good option. Not clear what the GPU length support limit is (Eatx is listed by them as 13" so that would suggest at least 330mm support which would be pretty good). Do you have any issues with cooling that case?
This one looks pretty good if you do not need greater then 12x9.6 motherboards and only short PCI cards. I did see somewhere that they are working on an EATX version which could be a good option. This arragement does appear like it would be easier to keep cool then a rack type system with the front fully populated with hotswap bays (appear to support SAS and SATA)
There is also the jonsbo N5. It appears to support larger cards but sure looks like a pain to build in. Backplain appears to only support SATA. 乔思伯JONSBO
I use a Fractal Design Define 7 XL. It’s overkill for me since I really only have 6 drives (4 HDD + 2 SSD), but I have plenty of room to expand to even full length GPU (or maybe even 2?) and airflow is so nice that I can run all my fans (6x 140mm) at the lowest setting making for a whisper-quiet system I can run in my bedroom. It is massive and heavy, but it never moves from one spot, so it is of no consequence to me.
