Case with good hard drive cooling?

[Fraoch]

Hello:

I'm building a new FreeNAS server. Build details:

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1220 v3
Motherboard: SuperMicro X10SLM-F
Memory: Crucial CT2KIT102472BD160B (2 x 8 GB 1.35V DDR3-1600 ECC)
Power Supply: SeaSonic SS-660XP2 (660W)
Hard drives: 4 X 2 TB Western Digital Red WD20EFRX in RAID-Z2
FreeNAS will be installed on a surplus 64 GB Crucial M4 SSD

Usage will be backups and file storage although I wanted to have enough power for light transcoding in the future.

I'm still waiting for the motherboard.

I was planning on reusing an old Antec Sonata III case, but I'm concerned about its ability to cool 4 hard drives. It uses a single 120 mm fan mounted behind the drives which pulls air through oval slots in the drive cage. Even with a powerful Noctua fan, I'm not sure how well it will cool 4 hard drives.

I use a Fractal Design Define R4 in my main PC. Hard drive cooling in this case would be much better, particularly if I rotate the main drive cage 90 degrees. This would allow a 140 mm fan in front of the drives to blow directly on them. The drive cage will also act as a duct, containing all air flow over the hard drives. The only downsides are with the drive cage rotated 90 degrees, cable management will be an issue and removal of the hard drives will be difficult - I may have to take the entire drive cage out to remove one drive.

Are there any other cases with good drive cooling that you would suggest? I'm looking for a tower case, not a rackmount case. Size isn't a big issue and although it should be fairly quiet, I'm willing to give up some silence in order to get better cooling. It will be in a location where it won't bother anyone most of the time.

I really like the R4 and it looks like it will work but I'm open to suggestions if there's anything better.

Thank you.

 

[anodos]

Here are a few options (note that I have not tested them myself):
Chenbro SR 10769-CO http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA24G15X0185
or
Supermicro CSE-743T (with 4* 5k RPM 80mm fans) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA4CP1GF9173

The supermicro 80mm fans displace lots of air... and your eardrums :)

 

[cyberjock]

To be honest, if you are doing <7200RPM drives you should have adequate cooling by having fans that are directly blowing air on the disks.

 

[Fraoch]

Here are a few options (note that I have not tested them myself):
Chenbro SR 10769-CO http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA24G15X0185

Never thought of this. Looks interesting...a 92 mm fan in front of each drive cage and a 120 mm fan behind it!

I can't determine whether it will accept the micro-ATX Supermicro X10SLM-F though. It specifically lists ATX, CEB and EEB only. I looked at the Chenbro site and the manual as well. I know ATX consumer cases usually accept micro-ATX, but with a server case like this I'm not sure I can assume anything...

or
Supermicro CSE-743T (with 4* 5k RPM 80mm fans) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA4CP1GF9173

The supermicro 80mm fans displace lots of air... and your eardrums :)

Eeeyow...I don't doubt that they'd keep the hard drives cool (heck it sounds like it might sandblast them) and I said I wouldn't mind a little noise but that's pushing it a bit too far. :D

Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[Fraoch]

To be honest, if you are doing <7200RPM drives you should have adequate cooling by having fans that are directly blowing air on the disks.

I've been toying with the idea of just trying them out in my old case and monitoring their temperatures as I burn the system in. I'm not doing anything with this case anyway, and if the temperatures aren't too bad I could keep using it or go with just about anything else - if they run cool in that case, most other cases shouldn't have a problem with them.

I'm assuming hard drive cooling will be a problem before I even try it.

Thanks for your response.

 

[anodos]

Never thought of this. Looks interesting...a 92 mm fan in front of each drive cage and a 120 mm fan behind it!

I can't determine whether it will accept the micro-ATX Supermicro X10SLM-F though. It specifically lists ATX, CEB and EEB only. I looked at the Chenbro site and the manual as well. I know ATX consumer cases usually accept micro-ATX, but with a server case like this I'm not sure I can assume anything...

Their website's HCL lists a couple of uATX mobos, but if you want real answers you can always contact newegg or Chenbro. My experience with hardware vendors is that they respond quickly if you're not complaining about something being broken.

 

[Fraoch]

Their website's HCL lists a couple of uATX mobos, but if you want real answers you can always contact newegg or Chenbro. My experience with hardware vendors is that they respond quickly if you're not complaining about something being broken.

Aha - for some reason their compatibility list wasn't loading for me but I got it working now. If it lists at least one micro-ATX board then I feel a lot safer in assuming it will accept other micro-ATX boards. They are a standard, the boards they list are 9.6" X 9.6" and so is the Supermicro X10SLM-F.

Thanks.