>>>>> "Brian" == Brian Allen Vanderburg <brianvanderburg2@xxxxxxx> writes: Brian> OT, but I've got one of those 3x5.25 to 5x3.5 hot swap bays in Brian> my main system and I love it. I'm using it with an LSI 9207-8i Brian> as my motherboard only supports a few SATA connectors with Brian> several already used, so needed something to provide more ports Brian> for future expansion for my main system's storage. Very much like what I'm doing with my LSI board providing most of my data storage, with boot disks (mirrored) on the MB SATA ports. Makes for a simpler setup. Brian> For more drives, you can use one of those external drive shelf Brian> boxes. I currently have the HP M6710 I got off eBay with all Brian> caddies for about $100, which can house 24 2.5 hard drives in a Brian> 2U chassis and I've used an LSI 9201-16e to access it (both Brian> HBAs flashed to 20.00.07 or something like that). I've already Brian> tested it and it works great, though a bit loud on the fans Brian> when powering on. My understanding is also if you have more Brian> than one of these shelves you can daisy chain them via their Brian> ports SAS card -> Shelf 1 -> Shelf 2, etc, even cycling back to Brian> the SAS card for multi-path support (which is at the time over Brian> my head). My plan for it is to put in my network closet once I Brian> get it cleaned out and cabling ran better to provide Brian> whole-house NAS storage. I think there is also an M6720 model Brian> for 24 3.5 drives in a 4U chassis. There is also NetApp shelf Brian> I was looking at but from reading looks like it uses a QSFP Brian> connector on it's IOM, and the cables that converted from Brian> SFF-8088 were quite expensive. This is a nice idea, just not sure I want to go with 2.5" drives since they're expensive per TB of storage. I just want one of those old style monster cases with 8 x 5.25" bays so I can fill it with 3.5" bays. Or there was a review on Phoronix.com about a 4U chassis that looked pretty good, esp with USB3 front ports.
