BUILD Case Selection for 16x 3.5" HDD's

[TXAG26]

I'm looking for a cost effective case that can hold 16x 3.5" HDDs. I'm looking to cobble together a backup/cold archive server from a handful of misc drives that will only be turned on maybe once every couple of weeks to backup snapshots, so nothing fancy. I only currently need space for 6-8 drives, but would like the ability to double it to 16 drives in the future. Backplane or no backplane, I can make it work either way. Same goes for rackmount or free-standing case, no preference.

Any ideas?

 

[joeschmuck]

What about Quiet or Jet Engine?

 

[TXAG26]

What about Quiet or Jet Engine?

No preference, its not archiving a ton of new data, so it probably won't be on for more than an hour or so, twice a month. A loud 3U would be fine if that helps!

 

[joeschmuck]

I was just curious. Some people want a nice ans quiet setup.

 

[Stux]

When I checked, i found a rackmount storage chassis the most cost effective way to get a lot of bays.

 

[TXAG26]

I almost went with one of those $400 knock-off cases, but then I found a Supermicro 3U CSE-836TQ-R800 at The Server Store (eBay) for $228 shipped. It includes a direct sata-sata backplane and dual 800w PSUs. I may eventually upgrade the PSUs to the quieter 920w Platinum version that SM sells, if I want to run it more and quiet things down a bit.

I also found a new NH-D9L Noctua CPU heatsink/fan that fits in all 3U cases. This was new to me as their previous 9-series coolers required at least a 4U case. They trimmed 15mm off the height for the NH-D9L.

We shall see! This should be workable for what is basically a JBOD archive setup.

https://www.supermicro.com/products/chassis/3U/836/SC836TQ-R800.cfm