Looking for a Shallow Case with Lots of 5.25" Drive Bays

Thanks for the suggestion, but I should probably say that what I mean by shallow is a case with a low depth (distance from front of the case to the back).

Some may fit a Mini ITX motherboard actually, but fitting a motherboard wasn't a requirement; to add RAID functionality I'm using these. I know they're only eSATA/USB3 but for my needs that's fine, and they supposedly have Thunderbolt devices on the way. These need nothing more than a floppy drive power connector, and are a lot cheaper and easier than setting up a full blown computer for use as direct storage.

I decided against a DVD duplicator case in the end, as they're not all that affordable, and the selection isn't as good as it used to be.


This is essentially what I went for; I opted to buy this case by MS Tech since it's available very cheaply in the UK, and actually has some nice features (the front of the case is offset with mesh and dust-filters for all bays, comes with quick-release brackets for easier installation, mounts for top exhaust fans). My plan is to just chop off the back quarter to a third of the case and add a new plastic back with holes cut, putting the PSU in vertically (mains connector at the bottom with feet on the case so there's room to connect it) and "top" facing out of the back of the machine, and with a single good top exhaust fan. You can see my design here; I'm currently just waiting till I can clear enough space somewhere to get to work modifying the case, and I'll be trying to keep a build-log as I go.

Anyway, just wanted to thank everyone for their answers and let people know what I'm doing; I should really have done so a bit sooner, but I'm still waiting for some components. The top exhaust fan for example has been a pain as I really like the Prolimatech Ultra Sleek Vortex 14 since it's only 15mm thick and fits in the gap on my case between the interior and the outer mesh; but it's only available as a PWM fan and there are no 3-pin equivalents, it's a great fan but it means I'll probably need to make my own fan-controller as no-one really makes one for PWM fans, and the Prolimatech fan only supports full speed or none at all when connected to a 3-pin controller. The other issue is that without a motherboard switching on an ATX power supply requires some trickery. These are things I probably should have expected to be a problem, but for some reason didn't, but all just minor bumps on my path to custom RAID greatness

Tell that to my fan
It definitely only runs at full speed via a 3-pin controller, put anything less than about 90% through it and it just switches off. It's annoying, as I too thought that any PWM fan should work just fine provide the connections are wide enough to plug it in, but is compatibility with voltage control actually a requirement for PWM, or is it just an optional feature that many manufacturers provide? I just can't seem to get it to work with my fan, but there seem to be several good guides for easily making your own PWM fan controller with temperature sensor; other than a PWM specific chip I think I have everything I need so it shouldn't be too hard… hopefully


Yeah I found a guide for that, I'm currently using a paperclip; not the most scientific method but it works for testing. I'm currently waiting for a set of seasonic modular connectors to arrive, as I should then able to make a much neater solution, as well as maybe used the 12v and 5v motherboard pins to give me some more power connectors (without having to resort to splitter cables).