Those who are self hosting at home, what case are you using? (Looking for recommendations)

Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zone to Selfhosted@lemmy.world – 50 points –

TLDR: If you were building a NAS for 8 HDDs and 1 SSD today, what case would you use?

I'm going to be rebuilding my system soon (currently using an old PowerEdge T610) using one of my other older (R5 1600) systems and I've basically hit a road block on picking a case.

I've got 8 HDDs that need to fit in the system after it's rebuilt (plus at least one SSD) so I'm kinda limited in that regard.

The rest of the system is planned out (mostly because I'm reusing old parts) it's just the case I'm stuck on.

I'm wanting to avoid rack mounting currently mostly due to space (and wanting to keep it under $200)

I was thinking maybe the Fractal Design Define R5, the Fractal Design Node 804, or the Phanteks Enthoo Pro 2 but I'm open to suggestions.

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Fractal Design, definitely. The model I'm using is no longer made but they have very good ones today too. Look into the Define and Meshify lines. They have models that can utilize the full height of the case for HDD/SSD slots with openings on both sides for maximum ease of cable routing.

The Define 7 or Meshify 2 is most likely what you want. They only come with 6 HDD brackets included but you can buy more and they have slots for up to 11.

The R5 is another good choice, I like those brackets more, but it's not so flexible as the others I mentioned, and the 5.25" bays will most likely go unused and just take up space.

Don't get the Node 804, it's much larger than it seems (check out yt videos) and is cramped and hard to work in.

The R5 is amazing, though yeah the 5.25" bays are kinda a waste.

I found a thingy though that fits into the bay and houses 6 2.5" SSDs, it's pretty cool!

Yeah I expect acting as SSD bays could become popular in the future if SSD prices drop low enough. Although they might be M.2 bays by then.

I have a bunch of old 60 GB 2.5" SSDs around but they're so small it's not worth bothering to set up an array of them. Plus they're more useful individually for stuff like upgrading an old laptop, portable USB storage or installing Windows the one time in three years I need it.

In the meantime I've liberated the 2x HDD cage from a Define C Mini's shroud and mounted it on the floor in a fan slot.

I've currently got the Meshify C (not the 2) for my main gaming rig and I've dug it the whole time I've had it; looking at the drive mounting for the Meshify 2 makes me really want it for sure as that looks really convenient

The more I looked at the Node 804 since I made this post the less I liked it

NGL I wish their North line of cases had more slots for HDDs

Fractal seems far superior at least in the budget range. Personally just bought a R5 second-hand for roughly 40euros. Totally worth it imo 😁

Highly recommend cases by Fractal.

For self hosting I'd recommend either one of the Meshify 2 or Define 7, depending on local price and your specific needs. I personally went with the Meshify 2 XL and was blown away by the quality of the case. It's built well and allows for a variety of configurations. It also makes maintenance very easy as the filters and side panels can all be removed without any tool to handle dust build up.

I used a Fractal Design case for a home server in the past. Pretty happy with them.

I'm using a NetApp ds4246 to hold 24 drives, and it's glorious - embrace the rack mount life. Although my computers themselves are all HP Prodesk minis, which are tiny and amazing, 1 u high and can fit two across on a shelf.

I have been looking to do this as well, I'm just not 100% sure how it all connects together. Do you have the disk shelf connect to a server with lots of sas cards?

You just need one it mode hba sas controller with an external out, and probably a conversion cable from 8088 to netapp's 8436.

You can daisy chain shelves if needed, and I think you can use a second sas card for active failover but I haven't tried it.

Oh, i thought a single sas port could only do 8 sata drives. Interesting

I know you said you're against rack mounting, but JUST in case:

I love the look and tidiness of a nice rack mount system. So I got a Chenbro 4U case. It's perfect for reusing my old components, and it has a standard size area on the front to install a hot swap HDD cage.

I use a fractal design node 304. It's pretty cool, but has all the limitations and problems you would expect from a case that size.

I have both Fractal Design and SilverStone cases... love them... but the internal layout is not 100% of the consideration

Have a think about airflow and cabling... some of them have weird air flow designs and if you're putting the machine inside something, or next to something, then that can make more impact on day-to-day use.

For example, I have a Node 304 (not enough drive space for you) because it fits nicely inside Ikea shelving. But the front air flow under the front bezel did mean I keep that machine near the front of the shelf, not pushed back.

And also consider hotswap drive bay caddies that fit smaller drives into large drive bays. Sometimes these have weird power connections, but if you don't have them do you have enough PSU leads? So, are they absolutely essential? Possibly. Possibly not...

Maybe not the answer you were lookong for, but those are my main considerations now...

I really like the Node 804 even though the design is quite old - probably close to ten years old now. Fractal Design are still manufacturing it, which is rare for case designs that old.

I recently built a NAS using an 804. I had to fit mine into my server closet which isn't deep enough to fit a regular PC case, so the 804 fit my use case well.

I've only got three drives in it (2 x 20TB Seagate Exos X20 for data and 1 x 14TB WD Purple Pro for security cameras) but I wanted the ability to expand in the future, and I wanted to use a Micro ATX motherboard rather than a smaller one.

A Noctua NH-D15 fits fine, even though the spec sheet says it won't fit.

I can vouch for the node 804, although I haven't used the others so I can't say which is the best.

I'm currently using one of the Rosewill rackmount chassis (https://www.rosewill.com/rosewill-rsv-l4412u-black/p/9SIA072GJ92847), fits well in my half rack along with my Unifi gear and HP ProLiant. I probably would've gone with something else if I had to buy it though- this was sorta a hand-me-down from a former roommate who didn't want to take it with him when he left.

Fractal Design Define 7

Love fractals build quality

I am using a normal desktop case with an external usb-c 8-bay JBOD drive enclosure from Mediasonic. I'm using mdadm to combine the drives with RAID-6. I know I'm not getting the performance that I could with native SATA, but it can still saturate my 1Gbps network, so it's good enough for serving video, audio, and some other web-based apps.

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:

Fewer Letters More Letters
NAS Network-Attached Storage
NUC Next Unit of Computing brand of Intel small computers
PSU Power Supply Unit
RAID Redundant Array of Independent Disks for mass storage
SATA Serial AT Attachment interface for mass storage
SSD Solid State Drive mass storage
Unifi Ubiquiti WiFi hardware brand

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For 9 disks I would need to print a bigger case, but this one suits me well for now 😉

Used to have a node 304. Very happy I got a hot swap Roswell 4u case

Have a node 304. Extremely happy with it. Literally unbeatable hard drive and CPU cooler compatibility for its size.

That being said, it only fits 6 drives.