Baddox Posted October 7, 2008 Share Posted October 7, 2008 I have 7 hard drives in my main machine right now, and it's causing some problems with heat. The drives are packed close together right behind the intake fan, and you can really feel the heat coming off of them. I'm worried about the heat effecting the drives, not to mention heating up the rest of my computer. (I plan to purchase a new GPU soon which will further increase the heat of my machine, so I'm looking for an external SATA hard drive solution.) Obviously there exist external USB/eSATA enclosures, but they only accept one drive per. Ideally I would like some sort of rack/enclosure that can hold at least 2 drives. I know there are NAS's like the drobo, but they're expensive, and I really don't need RAID or any such thing. I think I've also seen some enclosures that hold ~3 drives and occupy a 5.25" bay or two--those would at least move some drives out from behind the intake fan. Thanks for your recommendations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparda Posted October 7, 2008 Share Posted October 7, 2008 The Drobo is probably the easiest (and likely most expensive) option. Holds 4 SATA drives. The cheap model has only a USB2 connection, the more expensive model has Firewire 800 and USB2, Firewire 800 is preferable over USB2. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vector Posted October 18, 2008 Share Posted October 18, 2008 i would probably just get a larger case. besides it will leave you more room for a larger gpu board and you wont have some tacky looking external enclosure cluttering up your workspace. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gcninja Posted October 18, 2008 Share Posted October 18, 2008 get another pc case, like mATX and then put all the drives on a usb to sata, then have them all lead to a usb hub still inside the case, then ONE cord leading out (the usb hub cord) to your main computer. that or have you thought of water cooling?` Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vector Posted October 18, 2008 Share Posted October 18, 2008 get another pc case, like mATX and then put all the drives on a usb to sata, then have them all lead to a usb hub still inside the case, then ONE cord leading out (the usb hub cord) to your main computer. that or have you thought of water cooling?` this would work but then you take up extra space with an extra case, you lose performance by switching them from SATA to usb, and you tap out your usb bandwidth for other devices. not to mention you now would need another psu to power all the drives in the other case. and watercooling 5 drives would probably cost a shitload more than buying a larger case and be a major pain in the ass to setup, assuming theres room in the case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swathe Posted October 18, 2008 Share Posted October 18, 2008 I would get another case and setup a file server. I haven't seen the drbo in action but he review on the linux action show made me very intereested in one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baddox Posted October 18, 2008 Author Share Posted October 18, 2008 Getting a bigger case won't help anything, since I'm using all my mobo's sata slots. Also, my case is this, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16811133011 pretty huge (and a great case by the way). I like the idea of getting a small case and doing the usb hub thing, but the cost and performance hit would be unfortunate. I might just try to get my hands on some old computer to use as a file server, that's probably the easiest and cheapest way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vector Posted October 18, 2008 Share Posted October 18, 2008 Getting a bigger case won't help anything, since I'm using all my mobo's sata slots. Also, my case is this, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16811133011 pretty huge (and a great case by the way). I like the idea of getting a small case and doing the usb hub thing, but the cost and performance hit would be unfortunate. I might just try to get my hands on some old computer to use as a file server, that's probably the easiest and cheapest way. so something like an antec 1200 still wouldnt be big enough? i mean for around 150 bucks you get a badass looking case with room to spare. it would probably save you alot of time and money and look a lot cleaner. but thats just my opinion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baddox Posted October 19, 2008 Author Share Posted October 19, 2008 so something like an antec 1200 still wouldnt be big enough? i mean for around 150 bucks you get a badass looking case with room to spare. it would probably save you alot of time and money and look a lot cleaner. but thats just my opinion. It looks like the Antec 1200 just has tons of 5.25 drive bays, which doesn't help for hard drives. My case is nearly that big anyway, plus, the point is, my motherboard only has 6 SATA slots, and I don't know if any other mobos have more than that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vector Posted October 19, 2008 Share Posted October 19, 2008 It looks like the Antec 1200 just has tons of 5.25 drive bays, which doesn't help for hard drives. My case is nearly that big anyway, plus, the point is, my motherboard only has 6 SATA slots, and I don't know if any other mobos have more than that. um wat? you could mount your harddrives in any of those 12 bays. and if you dont have enough sata ports just get a pci sata controller for like 7 bucks and throw it in one of your open pci slots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baddox Posted October 21, 2008 Author Share Posted October 21, 2008 um wat? you could mount your harddrives in any of those 12 bays. and if you dont have enough sata ports just get a pci sata controller for like 7 bucks and throw it in one of your open pci slots. They're 5.25 inch bays, which, unless that particular case comes with the hardware, would require something like this http://shopping.msn.com/prices/startech-co...age-bay-adapter . I'm looking at sata controllers, but not seem to have more than 2 ports. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vector Posted October 21, 2008 Share Posted October 21, 2008 They're 5.25 inch bays, which, unless that particular case comes with the hardware, would require something like this http://shopping.msn.com/prices/startech-co...age-bay-adapter . I'm looking at sata controllers, but not seem to have more than 2 ports. yeah youre right my bad, i guess buying a couple screws and mounting brackets for a couple bucks would be alot more work than building an entire external case to house some drives. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baddox Posted October 21, 2008 Author Share Posted October 21, 2008 yeah youre right my bad, i guess buying a couple screws and mounting brackets for a couple bucks would be alot more work than building an entire external case to house some drives. Easy bro, just saying, not only is my motherboard full, but my existing case already has some spare 5.25" bays, so a new case doesn't fix anything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vector Posted October 21, 2008 Share Posted October 21, 2008 Easy bro, just saying, not only is my motherboard full, but my existing case already has some spare 5.25" bays, so a new case doesn't fix anything. ok sorry if i was sorta being a smartass, but i just thought from your OP that you were trying to solve a heat/space issue. looks like it might be time to upgrade to some bigger harddrives and consolidate your data instead of having more smaller capacity drives. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baddox Posted October 21, 2008 Author Share Posted October 21, 2008 ok sorry if i was sorta being a smartass, but i just thought from your OP that you were trying to solve a heat/space issue. looks like it might be time to upgrade to some bigger harddrives and consolidate your data instead of having more smaller capacity drives. Yeah, that's really the only elegant solution. I'll probably just have to wait for some affordable 1.5 TB drives, since all but 3 of my drives are 750 gig already (2 500 gig and 1 74 gig Raptor). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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