Mini ITX Case with 5 bays?

[ChrisLewis]

Hi,

does anyone know of a mini ITX case which has 5 drive bays? I guess 1 x 2.5" and 4 x 3.5" is what i am after. I have seen the Chenbro ES34069 but at £200 in the UK this is more than i was hoping to pay.

I am not bothered about hot swap capability just the smallest case possible that will fit four 3.5" drives with a intel atom based ITX board.

So, any suggestions?

Chris

 

[Jay_S]

I think the Chenbro ES34069 is about it. MiniITX cases are unusually expensive for what they are. I think the ES34069 holds 6 total drives - 4 hot-swap and 2 more internal drives.

You could also look at eSATA expanders. Something like this (which might be a challenge to find in the UK, but you get the idea). Then you can use whatever mITX case you want for the system.

 

[ChrisLewis]

I think the Chenbro ES34069 is about it. MiniITX cases are unusually expensive for what they are. I think the ES34069 holds 6 total drives - 4 hot-swap and 2 more internal drives.

You could also look at eSATA expanders. Something like this (which might be a challenge to find in the UK, but you get the idea). Then you can use whatever mITX case you want for the system.

I had seen these but then the total size of that plus a Mini ITX box i may as well just go m-atx route and have the choice of any number os suitable cases.

The idea was to produce something very small as my office doesnt have much spare space. I may just have to bite the bullet and buy the chenbro. Failing that i may put a large case in the attic but it get very hot up there during the summer

Oh well thanks for the thoughts any way

 

[ansalmo]

It's incredibly frustrating, isn't it? I've searched for this type of thing several times before, and I would have thought that such a case would be extremely popular. Obviously not!

Other than the Chenbro, the closest option I found was the Tranquil barebone server, which is probably closer to a BYOD NAS as it's already preinstalled with an Atom board (though no OS). The price appears to have gone up recently, but it was never particularly cheap in the first place.

Another alternative is to find a tiny case to house the Atom board and then connect a DAS unit to it, as suggested above. An example of this in the UK is the DAS501T.

 

[ChrisLewis]

It's incredibly frustrating, isn't it? I've searched for this type of thing several times before, and I would have thought that such a case would be extremely popular. Obviously not!

Other than the Chenbro, the closest option I found was the Tranquil barebone server, which is probably closer to a BYOD NAS as it's already preinstalled with an Atom board (though no OS). The price appears to have gone up recently, but it was never particularly cheap in the first place.

Another alternative is to find a tiny case to house the Atom board and then connect a DAS unit to it, as suggested above. An example of this in the UK is the DAS501T.

Frustrating to say the least. I think i have decided to wait a while. I am going to keep my current set up of on old athlon xp1800 with FreeNAS fro now. It does all my storage and backup needs at the moment even if it is nearly full.

Hopefully after xmas i will have some more money (read bonus time ) and i'll go for somethink nicer then. Who knows if the atom boards with the ION chipsets come down in price then i might go for a combined HTPC/WHS affair.

Thanks again for the suggestions

Chris

 

[mamexp]

ITX with 5 bays? Is that already close to mATX? Why not mATX with 6 bays?

ITX isnt meant for thin net top IMO. Thats why no other company is considering making a big ITX case.

Its cheaper to get Acer Easyshare barebone with 4 bays, 1TB included for $299 or even less occasionally onsale.

 

[ChrisLewis]

ITX with 5 bays? Is that already close to mATX? Why not mATX with 6 bays?

ITX isnt meant for thin net top IMO. Thats why no other company is considering making a big ITX case.

Well actually no it isnt as big as an mATX case. The reason for wanting the specific chenbro case i mentioned is due to my very limited space requirements.

Its cheaper to get Acer Easyshare barebone with 4 bays, 1TB included for $299 or even less occasionally onsale.

I agree, and thats exactly what i would do if i could find one for sale in the UK! The ONLY people i can find who sell WHS machine in the UK want silly money for them. I can build one for much less even if i go the route of the expensive chenbro case!

Chris