Currently I'm running 8 SATA drives in my P180 and things are working fine however, I mentioned this in another thread and some people were concerned. I'd like to to discuss alternatives.
Right now 4 drives are sitting in the bottom wind tunnel with a dedicated 120mm fan. The heat from those doesn't seem to reach the rest of the case but I do wonder what might happen if that single fan failed. I don't think I would hear it.
Then I have 2 drives installed using Hardcano 14s. Those have dedicated fans and the case acts as a heat sink. Not great but OK. Then I have 2 drives mounted in the main portion of the case and they use the air flow to cool things down. The system runs 24/7 and there's not a lot of heat coming our of the vents are inside the case when I open it.
I'm buying a new system but I will keep the drives. I was planning on purchasing a cheaper case and putting my current MOBO/PSU in the cheaper case. Then I'd continue using the 8 SATA drives in my P180.
Considering I'm not going to spend $1,000 for a separate rack to store the drives, what's a good recommended case?
Since the Antec keeps 4 of the drives separated from the main area of the case, it seems to be doing a good job.
Buy a second Tt 3-drive cage & fan,
then add 2 x Antec Hard Drive Coolers,
for a total of 8 x HDDs @ 5.25" form factor.
You'll still have 5.25" drive bays left over,
and there is a second 3-drive cage at
the upper rear, because the PSU is rotated
90 degrees: the PSU's intake fan also
cools that upper-rear drive cage.
If you want to remove your motherboard
from the P180, but still use the P180 as an
external storage chassis, you'll need an
AT-style power supply, which comes with
its own ON-OFF switch that does not
need a motherboard to switch it.
Fortunately, you can still purchase AT-style
PSUs, e.g. Antec has a nice 300 Watt model.
And, the mounting holes are the same as
the newer ATX-style PSUs.
Also, you'll need to connect the external
storage case to your new chassis:
consider a Multi-Lane "Infiniband" cable
and matching pair of brackets
e.g. from Addonics www.addonics.com .
At www.cooldrives.com you'll find similar
Multi-Lane cables and brackets, e.g.
I was just looking at the Thermaltake Armor Series VA8000BWS.
1. I don't know that it really offers any advantages over the P180 (accept that I don't think the P180 will hold and EPS PSU).
2. I really dislike the side window of this model. I'm sure they make one without the window but I really don't need to see lights on my computer. I know the Hardcanos came with blue lights but they're behind the case door so I can't see them
I was just looking at the Thermaltake Armor Series VA8000BWS.
1. I don't know that it really offers any advantages over the P180 (accept that I don't think the P180 will hold and EPS PSU).
2. I really dislike the side window of this model. I'm sure they make one without the window but I really don't need to see lights on my computer. I know the Hardcanos came with blue lights but they're behind the case door so I can't see them
EPS PSU means that the CPU connector is 8-pin, for quad cores, rather than 4-pin, for dual cores, there is no size difference.
Message edited by The_Blood_Raven on 04-05-2008 at 06:00:16 PM
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Vision without action is a daydream, action without vision is a nightmare.
Maybe it' just the dimensions on the PSUs that I checked. The ATX PSUs are all under 5.9". The EPS, at least from PC Power are all 7.1" deep.
I only checked units from Antec, Corsair, Seasonic and PC Power so maybe the actual dimensions isn't part of a standard but something that just happens with these vendors.
