SilverStone's Old-School Workstation Case Packs 15 Drive Bays for Unlimited Storage Expansion

[TechLurker]

This is why I miss the large cases of the 2000-2010 period, when E-ATX and XL-ATX were normal (for Dual and Quad SLI/X-Fire) and one could have 12 PCI slots and convert the front into a server with 3x 5.25 to 4x or 5x 3.25 HDD cages, or cases had extra provision for additional HDDs in internal cages. The Azza Genesis 6000, the Nanoxia Deep Cool 6, Rosewill Thor V2, and the Xigmatek Elysium cases are some that come to mind, to say nothing of the former excellence of CaseLabs' cases and the Thermaltake copies.

Heck, the only reason I can't retire my custom CaseLabs Magnum Case and a Thermaltake W200 is because they have massive expandability. But my CaseLabs needs new parts, and the new CaseLabs owner hasn't updated their site in awhile with new parts for old cases.

 

[Octavean]

I keep two Antec 900 cases because they have nine front 5.25” slots. Currently they both have their front bays populated with three 5.25” to 3.5” hot-swap backplanes. These aren’t necessarily but they make things easier

 

[HOkay]

Not sure why our marketing makes mention of plastic as part of the material of this case when it is used only for very small parts and the case feet. The entire chassis body and the front panel is all steel.

Whilst you're telling them off for mentioning plastic, can you please explain to them that 15 is very much not "unlimited". That word has a very clear meaning & it doesn't mean "a few more than most competitors".

 

[ypsylon]

Title is quite funny. "Unlimited" is quite limited because it only has 15 drive slots/cages.

 

[KLMR]

If only felt as sturdy as old HP workstations. But it doesn't.

 

[Dr. Dro]

I like

A version of it with 5.25 bays and room for 10 instead of 15 HDDs would be good, no need to change anything else

 

[Octavean]

Her is what the old Antec 900 case looks like

 

[Dr. Dro]

Her is what the old Antec 900 case looks like

I've been looking for a case to make a JBOD setup here and by god, there are no cases left with any meaningful amount of drive bays. Like, none. If lucky, you get budget cases that can fit two... take care of this one, mate.

 

[A Computer Guy]

I've been looking for a case to make a JBOD setup here and by god, there are no cases left with any meaningful amount of drive bays. Like, none. If lucky, you get budget cases that can fit two... take care of this one, mate.

Do you need hot swap bays or is internal good enough?

 

[Dr. Dro]

Do you need hot swap bays or is internal good enough?

Internal's enough, for hot swap I've got a good dock... regional market conditions make it much harder too. I used to have an NZXT case that easily fit 8 of them, shame I trashed the dang thing.

 

[Rover4444]

UNLIMITED STORAGE EXPANSION
*reads article*
It's just a big case

I'll go with the Jonsbo N5 if I do a NAS build. It actually has hotswap.

Internal's enough, for hot swap I've got a good dock... regional market conditions make it much harder too. I used to have an NZXT case that easily fit 8 of them, shame I trashed the dang thing.

You're crazy. The Rosewill Helium NAS was just released this year, and there's several systems that can take lots of drives at different price points.

 

[Dr. Dro]

You're crazy. The Rosewill Helium NAS was just released this year, and there's several systems that can take lots of drives at different price points.

Sadly, Rosewill cases never made it to Brazil. Pretty much everything on a budget seems to be an aquarium style case, which are pretty dandy for your average gaming PC, but not for something you wanna install 10+ HDDs on.

 

[TPUnique]

Cooler Master N400 is a better case for less than half the price.

No it's not.

 

[Octavean]

I've been looking for a case to make a JBOD setup here and by god, there are no cases left with any meaningful amount of drive bays. Like, none. If lucky, you get budget cases that can fit two... take care of this one, mate.

I have two of the Antec 900 cases (which have a 200mm top mounted stock fan) but I also have a Zalman MS800 case:

Zalman MS800 and MS800 Plus Cases Detailed

Zalman unveiled a pair of ATX mid-tower cases for stylish gaming PC builds. Measuring 207 x 533 x 541 mm (WxDxH), and weighing about 9 kg, the cases are made of steel and ABS plastic. Although packed with room for standard ATX and micro-ATX motherboards with graphics cards as long as 30 cm, the...

www.techpowerup.com

Zalman MS800 Plus Review

Zalman may have lost some steam in recent times, but the MS800 Plus ends up being one of the best insider tips for a well-equipped chassis at a great price point. We took the MS800 Plus for a spin and found the chassis to include a lot of useful extras without being difficult on our wallet.

www.techpowerup.com

The link is to the Zalman MS800 Plus case, The standard MS800 has 10 front 5.25" bays. The Plus version has three or four 3.5" hot swap bays built in at the bottom. IIRC, I got the MS800 for something like ~$35 new. It sat in its box for years before I used it in early ~2019 to late 2020 for my RyZen 3950X build.

 

[Rover4444]

Sadly, Rosewill cases never made it to Brazil. Pretty much everything on a budget seems to be an aquarium style case, which are pretty dandy for your average gaming PC, but not for something you wanna install 10+ HDDs on.

There's also the darkrock case, though that's not very good.

No it's not.

You're right, it's more like 1/3 the price

 

[Wasteland]

I've been looking for a case to make a JBOD setup here and by god, there are no cases left with any meaningful amount of drive bays. Like, none. If lucky, you get budget cases that can fit two... take care of this one, mate.

Glad to see you're coming around to the church of HDD.

But yeah, I've been complaining about the state of cases and HDD mounts for ages. My Fractal R5s are very nearly still the best budget option on the mainstream consumer market, and that's a case that launched in IIRC 2014. With an adapter for the two 5.25 bays, you can squeeze eleven 3.5" drives in the R5 before resorting to floor or ceiling mounts.

I also had some luck more recently with an off-brand case from GAMEMAX. (Unfortunately my particular variant of the GAMEMAX case, without glass, appears to have been deprecated. I think this is the current version.) With a little elbow grease, you can flatten the sides of the 5.25" bay and toss in a cheap-o drive cage for a total capacity of thirteen 3.5" HDDs before you even think about ghetto-mounting drives on the floor or ceiling, which would probably get you to 17 or 18. (There are two 120mm "pull" fan mounts on the internal side of the drive cages, which is a nice touch for extra airflow, but it also means you could mount two extra HDDs vertically.)

Of course if you're really hardcore you can also grab a server chassis like this one, but you said Rosewill isn't available in your country.

This Silverstone case isn't bad, refreshing to see. If I'm counting right, the case can accommodate twelve 3.5" drives. Could probably squeeze in one more on the ceiling and one (or two if you grab some sort of aftermarket cage) on the floor in front of the PSU.

EDIT: for those who do have access to Rosewill, this one looks interesting. $99 before rebate.

 

[Dr. Dro]

Glad to see you're coming around to the church of HDD.

But yeah, I've been complaining about the state of cases and HDD mounts for ages. My Fractal R5s are very nearly still the best budget option on the mainstream consumer market, and that's a case that launched in IIRC 2014. With an adapter for the two 5.25 bays, you can squeeze eleven 3.5" drives in the R5 before resorting to floor or ceiling mounts.

I also had some luck more recently with an off-brand case from GAMEMAX. (Unfortunately my particular variant of the GAMEMAX case, without glass, appears to have been deprecated. I think this is the current version.) With a little elbow grease, you can flatten the sides of the 5.25" bay and toss in a cheap-o drive cage for a total capacity of thirteen 3.5" HDDs before you even think about ghetto-mounting drives on the floor or ceiling, which would probably get you to 17 or 18. (There are two 120mm "pull" fan mounts on the internal side of the drive cages, which is a nice touch for extra airflow, but it also means you could mount two extra HDDs vertically.)

Of course if you're really hardcore you can also grab a server chassis like this one, but you said Rosewill isn't available in your country.

This Silverstone case isn't bad, refreshing to see. If I'm counting right, the case can accommodate twelve 3.5" drives. Could probably squeeze in one more on the ceiling and one (or two if you grab some sort of aftermarket cage) on the floor in front of the PSU.

EDIT: for those who do have access to Rosewill, this one looks interesting. $99 before rebate.

I scored a whole bunch of cheap HDDs some time ago, i just use them to store anime. My current setup is just using the dock, but due to the high amount of drives, having it all set up on my server would be much more convenient. Gamemax doesn't seem to have that case available here... sad. But that's exactly what I am looking for.

 

[Rover4444]

I scored a whole bunch of cheap HDDs some time ago, i just use them to store anime. My current setup is just using the dock, but due to the high amount of drives, having it all set up on my server would be much more convenient. Gamemax doesn't seem to have that case available here... sad. But that's exactly what I am looking for.

How about the Jonsbo cases? Or a couple of drive cages and some Brazilian engineering?

 

[Dr. Dro]

How about the Jonsbo cases? Or a couple of drive cages and some Brazilian engineering?

LMAOO, that "engineering" is most infamous indeed

I'll just have to wait a little and see what comes in with the next batch of white labels from China I suppose. I just picked up some white label "5400 RPM" 500 GB HDD to write my last batch of anime on and store, turned out to be a 7200 RPM Seagate Barracuda drive. Didn't even know they still made those.