SCSI Trays

[sechs]

I'm finally getting around to getting something other than adapter brackets and rubber bands to mount the drives in my external enclosure. I'm looking for something which will cool them better and be quiet. Other bells and whistles are welcome, however.

I have been looking at several models from Cremax, including this one:
http://www.cremax.com/mb911-scsi.htm


What words of wisdom do the folks here have?

 

[ddrueding]

If noise is important, I'd be wary of anything with small fans in it. I'd prefer anything passive and mounting a 92 or 120mm fan behind them.

 

[Pradeep]

If you have the spare 3.5" bays, a Supermicro 4 or 5 tray enclosure works well (assuming you have 80 pin drives).

 

[sechs]

The drives need to be cooled better than they have now; the drives in my external enclosure are running 10 to 15 degrees Celsius hotter than drives in my computer case.

Whatever I use needs to have ventilation from the front. My enclosure already has a fan on the back, as well as one in the power supply.

I'm not sure of the mechanics of putting an internal enclosure in an external enclosure....

 

[Pradeep]

The supermicro draws air in from the front of the trays, across the drives, and then vents out the back via a 90mm fan. Works well, even in a toasty dual athlon machine, with 3*15K drives adjacent - including that noisy, hot running IBM that you used to have

As long as your external enclosure doesn't have those bastard "tabs" that hold 5 1/4" drives in place, it would work fine. Otherwise, you would need to cut them off.

 

[sechs]

The problem that I see right now with going with something like that is that the cable in my enclosure runs between the two external connectors. From the pictures on Supermicro's website, it looks like there's in "in" connector and an "out" connector on the back of the external enclosure. That won't jive well, unless I replace cables and connectors on the external case.

 

[Santilli]

I've used these with great luck:

http://www.casecooler.com/blaculhardri.html

Used to be 50 dollars.

Supermicro cases are the best solution, I think.

s

 

[Santilli]

(alt+p)

 

[Pradeep]

The problem that I see right now with going with something like that is that the cable in my enclosure runs between the two external connectors. From the pictures on Supermicro's website, it looks like there's in "in" connector and an "out" connector on the back of the external enclosure. That won't jive well, unless I replace cables and connectors on the external case.

The out connector is only if you want to hook up say a second supermicro enclosure on the same channel. However you could do the same in your enclosure (sounds like it has multiple internal connectors) without using "out". In that case just turn off termination on the 1st supermicro, and set the second enclosure to the higher ID range.

 

[sechs]

Santilli, those look interesting as a cheaper solution. Not sure about the mounting, however.

I read throught the manual for the CSE-M35S on the Supermicro website, and I see what you're getting at, Pradeep. My external box only has four 5.25 bays; if I read correctly, this rack takes up three of those. If I terminate the rack, nothing can come after it on the SCSI bus.

More to think about....