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ssd sata rack w. happy customers?



 
 
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  #1  
Old August 27th 20, 02:22 PM posted to alt.comp.hardware
bad sector
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 32
Default ssd sata rack w. happy customers?


I'm planning my move to ssd's and want to replace my spinners cage rack
with a 4, 6, or 8-bay ssd rack, one of those that stack'em standing on
edge, which is what I have now for the 3.5" spinners with 6 bays. What I
DON'T want EVER AGAIN are the very confusing lights and switches that
are NOT aligned with the bays, as on my present one. A reasonable price
would help too.

--
Artificial Stupidity will never be competitive

  #2  
Old August 27th 20, 05:21 PM posted to alt.comp.hardware
Paul[_28_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,467
Default ssd sata rack w. happy customers?

bad sector wrote:

I'm planning my move to ssd's and want to replace my spinners cage rack
with a 4, 6, or 8-bay ssd rack, one of those that stack'em standing on
edge, which is what I have now for the 3.5" spinners with 6 bays. What I
DON'T want EVER AGAIN are the very confusing lights and switches that
are NOT aligned with the bays, as on my present one. A reasonable price
would help too.


There are still cables present. While you could use
a SATA backplane, the cables still have to connect
somewhere to it. And "8 bays" would be a lot of cables
to be slugging around. You then have to figure out whether
straight, left-angle, or right-angle connectors are
required.

The cage rack is likely proprietary, so if someone
makes a solution, it probably doesn't fit a PC case
unless it's *their* PC case. You would have to be
very careful of dimensions, for it to be compatible
by accident. The cage could always start with the
3.5" formfactor dimensions as an outer dimension and
work inwards. With some loss of volume.

Paul
  #3  
Old August 27th 20, 08:58 PM posted to alt.comp.hardware
bad sector
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 32
Default ssd sata rack w. happy customers?

On 2020-08-27 12:21, Paul wrote:
bad sector wrote:

I'm planning my move to ssd's and want to replace my spinners cage
rack with a 4, 6, or 8-bay ssd rack, one of those that stack'em
standing on edge, which is what I have now for the 3.5" spinners with
6 bays. What I DON'T want EVER AGAIN are the very confusing lights and
switches that are NOT aligned with the bays, as on my present one. A
reasonable price would help too.


There are still cables present. While you could use
a SATA backplane, the cables still have to connect
somewhere to it. And "8 bays" would be a lot of cables
to be slugging around. You then have to figure out whether
straight, left-angle, or right-angle connectors are
required.

The cage rack is likely proprietary, so if someone
makes a solution, it probably doesn't fit a PC case
unless it's *their* PC case. You would have to be
very careful of dimensions, for it to be compatible
by accident. The cage could always start with the
3.5" formfactor dimensions as an outer dimension and
work inwards. With some loss of volume.

Â*Â* Paul


The number of bays is for handy storage, I have 6 now but can only use 4
plugged-in because #5 & #6 are paired and need to be PATA for the
optical disk. Even with 4 available I never have more tha 3 plugged-in
at once (mostly only one, two when making backups or other copies).
Always plugged-in with old PATA drives worked because I had physical
swithches on the power wires. I want physical control over hardware,
that's why I use usb wifi too, after castrating any onboard wireless.

--
If DIY were a religion, hmmm.. I just made it one.

  #4  
Old August 27th 20, 10:22 PM posted to alt.comp.hardware
VanguardLH[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,453
Default ssd sata rack w. happy customers?

bad sector wrote:

I'm planning my move to ssd's and want to replace my spinners cage rack
with a 4, 6, or 8-bay ssd rack, one of those that stack'em standing on
edge, which is what I have now for the 3.5" spinners with 6 bays. What I
DON'T want EVER AGAIN are the very confusing lights and switches that
are NOT aligned with the bays, as on my present one. A reasonable price
would help too.


I don't remember ever buying a computer case that didn't have drive bays
(aka cages) hence I never had to go looking around to see who else might
manufacture drive cages to fit inside whatever computer case I chose.

You didn't mention which mobo you have, or are considering on buying.
Mine came with 3 m.2 slots to mount NVMe SSDs on the mobo. With three 8
TB m.2 NVMe SSDs, I could have up to 24 TB of very fast storage (at
around a cost of $4500); however, using an m.2 slot on my mobo means
sacrificing a pair of SATA ports. I went with just one 1 TB m.2 NVMe
SSD (Samsung 970 PRO @ $350) which disable 2 SATA ports, and kept my
other SATA ports for two HDDs (data, backups), one Bluray burner, one
3.5" SSD, and two spares for later expansion. I had an old 3.5" SSD
that I moved over to the new case, because both its side panels are
removable, and the mobo panel's backside has a slot for a 3.5" drive
(albeit a thin one, like for an SSD). I like having the 2nd side panel,
so I can run cables behind the mobo plate to keep them hidden, so the
inside stays neat (it has a window in the other side panel).

Without knowing what you already have for a computer case, it could,
say, have three 5.25" bays and two 3.5" bays. It might even have a
backside slot on the mobo plate to add one there. You could even mount
a couple cased SSDs at the bottom of the case using self-stick velcro
strips. You also don't say if you're installing 2.5" or 3.5" SSDs (in
cases versus just the PCBs with connectors). With nude SSD PCBs (no
cases), you could probably stick up to 4 onto a 5.25" bay adapter (that
has a solid base instead of just the 2-piece adapter) using self-stick
velcro strips.

Getting a drive cage with a backplane would be neater (providing you
could hide all the cables, or make custom ones at just the distance from
the PSU to the backplane connectors), but you'll have to buy a case that
has a backplaned drive cage. You won't find it separately, though, and
will have to buy a case with that type of drive cage.

Do these drives have to be internal to the computer case? If not, why
not get an external drive case that houses multiple drives and connects
via [e]SATA? Or get an external cage with a SAS controller; see:

https://storage.microsemi.com/nr/rdo...tavalue_13.pdf

If you don't want an external SAS/SATA drive cage, you can get internal
SAS/SATA drive cages that fit inside a 5.25" drive bay and can hold up
to six to eight 2.5" SATA drives. See:

https://www.newegg.com/athena-power-...82E16816119045
https://www.newegg.com/athena-power-...82E16816119044

With 8 of these (https://www.newegg.com/samsung-7-6tb/p/0D9-0009-003T3),
you could have 61 TB of fast storage (but not as fast as NVMe) at a
whopping cost of $9832, and you might have more than one 5.25" drive bay
to use multiple of these bay-mounted drive cages.
  #5  
Old August 28th 20, 12:48 PM posted to alt.comp.hardware
bad sector
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 32
Default ssd sata rack w. happy customers?

On 2020-08-27 17:22, VanguardLH wrote:
bad sector wrote:

I'm planning my move to ssd's and want to replace my spinners cage rack
with a 4, 6, or 8-bay ssd rack, one of those that stack'em standing on
edge, which is what I have now for the 3.5" spinners with 6 bays. What I
DON'T want EVER AGAIN are the very confusing lights and switches that
are NOT aligned with the bays, as on my present one. A reasonable price
would help too.


I don't remember ever buying a computer case that didn't have drive bays
(aka cages) hence I never had to go looking around to see who else might
manufacture drive cages to fit inside whatever computer case I chose.

You didn't mention which mobo you have, or are considering on buying.
Mine came with 3 m.2 slots to mount NVMe SSDs on the mobo. With three 8
TB m.2 NVMe SSDs, I could have up to 24 TB of very fast storage (at
around a cost of $4500); however, using an m.2 slot on my mobo means
sacrificing a pair of SATA ports. I went with just one 1 TB m.2 NVMe
SSD (Samsung 970 PRO @ $350) which disable 2 SATA ports, and kept my
other SATA ports for two HDDs (data, backups), one Bluray burner, one
3.5" SSD, and two spares for later expansion. I had an old 3.5" SSD
that I moved over to the new case, because both its side panels are
removable, and the mobo panel's backside has a slot for a 3.5" drive
(albeit a thin one, like for an SSD). I like having the 2nd side panel,
so I can run cables behind the mobo plate to keep them hidden, so the
inside stays neat (it has a window in the other side panel).

Without knowing what you already have for a computer case, it could,
say, have three 5.25" bays and two 3.5" bays. It might even have a
backside slot on the mobo plate to add one there. You could even mount
a couple cased SSDs at the bottom of the case using self-stick velcro
strips. You also don't say if you're installing 2.5" or 3.5" SSDs (in
cases versus just the PCBs with connectors). With nude SSD PCBs (no
cases), you could probably stick up to 4 onto a 5.25" bay adapter (that
has a solid base instead of just the 2-piece adapter) using self-stick
velcro strips.

Getting a drive cage with a backplane would be neater (providing you
could hide all the cables, or make custom ones at just the distance from
the PSU to the backplane connectors), but you'll have to buy a case that
has a backplaned drive cage. You won't find it separately, though, and
will have to buy a case with that type of drive cage.

Do these drives have to be internal to the computer case? If not, why
not get an external drive case that houses multiple drives and connects
via [e]SATA? Or get an external cage with a SAS controller; see:

https://storage.microsemi.com/nr/rdo...tavalue_13.pdf

If you don't want an external SAS/SATA drive cage, you can get internal
SAS/SATA drive cages that fit inside a 5.25" drive bay and can hold up
to six to eight 2.5" SATA drives. See:

https://www.newegg.com/athena-power-...82E16816119045
https://www.newegg.com/athena-power-...82E16816119044

With 8 of these (https://www.newegg.com/samsung-7-6tb/p/0D9-0009-003T3),
you could have 61 TB of fast storage (but not as fast as NVMe) at a
whopping cost of $9832, and you might have more than one 5.25" drive bay
to use multiple of these bay-mounted drive cages.


Wow, thanks very much for the info, some of those PRICES(!) would dent
my beer budget and that would have to be a no-no

The layout I have in mind would resemble this

https://www.supermicro.com/sites/def...ive-Kits-B.png

I really don't need 8 bays but that's how many there is room for if
using 2.5's and what most come with. It's OK, I use the extra ones to
stow the other drives out of harm's way so to speak. I don't relate to
the other layouts where you have a pair of double bays one on top of
another, as I mostly count from left to right or top to bottom, never a
mix of those or right to left, bottom to top, nor do I count saying zero
when I raise my thumb.

As far as any hardware I prefer the mechanical control of
removing/inserting on need, haven't used an 'inside' drive slot for 30
years and that has saved many of my drives from disaster. Don't need
much speed either, I'm drifting toward ssd's because that's where the
road is going, because I do need to feed new drives to the monster, AND
because I'm up to here with ANY form of noise at all! I use Linux and
you might know that there we mount and unmount things all the time to
access them. This is sometimes done automatically but I try to interdict
that and instead mount on need and immediately unmount after even dozens
of times a session. Finally in today's strangleware snoop-city I start
by castrating any onboard wifi and use only usb dongles that "I" control
and not some (especially closed code) gigavirus called an OS.

What I have now is similar but 3.5" rack which I should have asked
people about before buying it because it's annunciator lights are
completely out of step with the bays so every time I want to put a pen
on one of them tiny switchews I have to count from the left to know
which one is who. And THAT was the puropose of this post, to see if
anyone might have some good words for one make or another, to not repeat
my la$t mi$take.


--
If DIY were a religion, hmmm... I just made it one.


 




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