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Trying to find a rack mountable enclosure that will accept 1.6" SCSI hard drives
I have ten 1.6" SCSI hard drives with SCA connectors. I'm trying to find some sort of storage enclosure that will fit in a 19" rack. It does not have to be hot-swap, but it does need internal power to power the drives and sufficient cooling to keep them from overheating. I am going to connect this to a separate server, so the case only needs to hold drives. This is a personal project, so the ideal case will be something I can find relatively inexpensive on eBay.
My needs are not set in stone, so if you know of a case that meets several of my requirements, but not all then please let me know anyway.
My needs are not set in stone, so if you know of a case that meets several of my requirements, but not all then please let me know anyway.
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10 drives at 1.6" per drive cannot easily fit into a rack mount case. You can get 8 drives in an Dell PowerVault 200S off Ebay -
http://cgi.ebay.com/Dell-PowerVault-200S-Hard-Drive-Array_W0QQitemZ8792137481QQcategoryZ167QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
http://cgi.ebay.com/Dell-PowerVault-200S-Hard-Drive-Array_W0QQitemZ8792137481QQcategoryZ167QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Experience has taught me not to go too cheap in this department. If you can manage the price ... I rely on the SuperMicro cases - http://www.supermicro.com/. I recently purchased the SuperMicro 933T-R760 (http://www.supermicro.com/products/chassis/3U/?chs=933) which is a 15 drive 3U SATA unit. They make a comparable SCSI unit. You will find that among other issues, you will encounter needs like high quality, large power supplies. For example, if you wish to have 10-15 drives in a server with a dual Xeon board say ... you will need what's called a "dual rail" power supply to support some of the higher end boards one often uses. Ideally, buy the motherboard with the enclosure to ensure compatibilty. Their stuff is high quality, and you will save grief in the long run.
Now, before you say I'm just chanting break the bank ... I learned the hard way having to switch chassis before I bit the bullet and did it right with the SuperMicro stuff. Lower cost attempts had cooling problems that resulted in damaged hardware and could not support dual CPUs due to power supply inadequacy. The SuperMicro chassis ran me about $700-800, and I'd be money ahead if I had done it differently the first time. It's worth it.
Now, before you say I'm just chanting break the bank ... I learned the hard way having to switch chassis before I bit the bullet and did it right with the SuperMicro stuff. Lower cost attempts had cooling problems that resulted in damaged hardware and could not support dual CPUs due to power supply inadequacy. The SuperMicro chassis ran me about $700-800, and I'd be money ahead if I had done it differently the first time. It's worth it.
My apologies ... the SuperMicro stuff is good, but at least the chassis I mentioned doesn't support 1.6".
10 drives, only "canned" choice is CD tower array, can buy for about $150, it is too much. Why not just pair up by two on your own bracket in standard 5.25 slot, that way normal full tower hold 10 drives. Why you want 10 drives anyway? get a new high capacity drive to take place of 10. They take too much power for even a 500W power supply, you will be always burning them out, access 10+CD at once, PSU will fail.
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