Hi.
I'm working on a freenas build, and have all of it figured out except the system chassis. This is going in a rack in our guestroom closet; it doesn't need to be silent, but it does need to be quiet enough not to be readily audible through the closet door. Most server cases sound like jet engines, so that limits my options considerably.
I was originally planning to use a Norco RPC-4220; my understanding is that it's possible to replace the stock fan midplane with a much quieter 120mm version. On the other hand, the hardware recommendation thread here notes that Supermicro chasses are considerably higher quality -- something borne out by other sources when I looked into it more.
So I looked for a comparable Supermicro chassis. There only seem to be a few billed as exceptionally quiet; at first the CSE-743TQ-865B-SQ seemed to suit my needs, but it's missing some not-required-but-desired features of the Norco case:
I'm working on a freenas build, and have all of it figured out except the system chassis. This is going in a rack in our guestroom closet; it doesn't need to be silent, but it does need to be quiet enough not to be readily audible through the closet door. Most server cases sound like jet engines, so that limits my options considerably.
I was originally planning to use a Norco RPC-4220; my understanding is that it's possible to replace the stock fan midplane with a much quieter 120mm version. On the other hand, the hardware recommendation thread here notes that Supermicro chasses are considerably higher quality -- something borne out by other sources when I looked into it more.
So I looked for a comparable Supermicro chassis. There only seem to be a few billed as exceptionally quiet; at first the CSE-743TQ-865B-SQ seemed to suit my needs, but it's missing some not-required-but-desired features of the Norco case:
- no native 8087 connections to the backplane (I hate cable management and would prefer to avoid breakouts)
- only 8 drive slots instead of 20 (Enough for now, but limits my expansion options)
- 3gbps drive connections vs. the Norco's 6gbps (I'm not sure how much this matters -- in particular I'm not sure if the limit is per-drive (which is fine for spinning platters) or for all drives put together (which might be an issue).