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edh
Gerbil XP
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Need some help finding a LARGE full-tower workstation case

Wed Jan 07, 2009 1:04 am

I have a friend/client who wants me to build a new custom workstation for him. He insists that he wants a single, stand-alone chassis similar to a full-tower style case. It needs to house a dual processor E-ATX motherboard, four (4) optical burners and at least sixteen (16) to twenty (20) 3.5" hard drives (huge RAID-50 array). His primary application is video NLE.

I know there are rack-mounts for such things; however, I haven't seen a full-tower style case configured this way (although there is certainly plenty of room, given a reasonable layout). What I envision is a chassis with 16 drive bays in its base (4 columns of 4 drives each would comfortably fit typical full-tower dimensions with room for intake and exhaust fans at the front and rear) and 7-to-9 5.25" front bays, 4 of which would house the optical drives and 3 would house the extra 4 hard drives in a front-mount, 3-bay, 4-drive caddy. Power supply would probably be one of the extended-length 1000-1200 watt models. Video will be one of nVidia's high-end professional graphics cards.

Anyone know of such a monster? Suggestions greatly appreciated.

P.S. His current system is a standard mid-tower chassis with four (4) 4-drive cases stacked next to it -- each housing four (4) 500GB hard drives. We are probably going to replace the drives with 1.5TB Seagate drives, tripling his total array space using the Adaptec 51645 array controller.
pc-v600b, ss-860xp, max V gene, 3770k, 4x8gb ddr3 2400, i520 240gb ssd (os/apps), i520 480gb ssd (workspace), 2x3tb wd30efrx (raid-1) & i525 60gb ssd (cache), 2x GV-R795WF3-3GD, 2x u3014, leopold/cherry brown kb, g400, intuos5 pth650, win.7.x64.ult
 
SpotTheCat
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Re: Need some help finding a LARGE full-tower workstation case

Wed Jan 07, 2009 2:22 pm

It's going to be tough getting that much 3.5" room.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6811112140
That's the biggest case I know of.
 
Rooster
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Re: Need some help finding a LARGE full-tower workstation case

Wed Jan 07, 2009 2:37 pm

MountainMods

I have the U2-UFO and love it. Not sure if any of their cases will meet your specifications, but they're definitely worth a look.
 
SpotTheCat
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Re: Need some help finding a LARGE full-tower workstation case

Wed Jan 07, 2009 3:04 pm

http://www.xoxide.com/lian-li-pc-343b-case.html
http://www.xoxide.com/lianli-ex34nb-hddkit-black.html

One of those cases and four of those adapters would run you quite a bit though. What's the budget here?
 
edh
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Re: Need some help finding a LARGE full-tower workstation case

Wed Jan 07, 2009 4:11 pm

I suppose his budget could accommodate the the PC-343B and all its add-ons (what's $500-600 for a case when you're buying a pair of high-end opterons, a pair of 300GB VelociRaptors (RAID-0), a pair of 1TB RE3's (RAID-1), sixteen 1.5TB Seagates (RAID-50) and $1600+ in array controllers to go in it?); however, as elegant as Lian Li generally is, that case is something of a Frankenstein's monster. He's trying to conserve both desk space and floor space and the PC343B is more a double-wide mid-tower than a full tower. Regardless, it may end up being the way we go.

What I'd really love is a variation on the PC-V1000Z except based on their standard V-series, full-tower scale, making it a bit taller and a bit deeper, front to back (the dimensions of the PC-V2010). The power supply would go above the E-ATX board at the top/rear of the case. And the dual 3-bay hot-swap drive racks in the base could be expanded to four 4-bay units (for the 16 Seagates). The extra height would also allow for several additional 5.25" bays on the front (4 optical drives & 1 EX-34NB for the 4 WD drives). Wouldn't need the window. That hybrid would be the perfect case for this project.

I hate to think what a custom-built case might cost, but I guess a letter w/ diagrams to Lian Li is in order. I'll post their response (if any).
pc-v600b, ss-860xp, max V gene, 3770k, 4x8gb ddr3 2400, i520 240gb ssd (os/apps), i520 480gb ssd (workspace), 2x3tb wd30efrx (raid-1) & i525 60gb ssd (cache), 2x GV-R795WF3-3GD, 2x u3014, leopold/cherry brown kb, g400, intuos5 pth650, win.7.x64.ult
 
flip-mode
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Re: Need some help finding a LARGE full-tower workstation case

Wed Jan 07, 2009 4:31 pm

edh wrote:
He's trying to conserve both desk space and floor space
:lol: With 16-20 drive monster? Beggars cannot be choosers.
 
edh
Gerbil XP
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Posts: 434
Joined: Fri Aug 25, 2006 2:31 am
Location: USA

Re: Need some help finding a LARGE full-tower workstation case

Wed Jan 07, 2009 4:44 pm

Thanks, Rooster. I've called MountainMods and am going to send then some sketches of what I'd like. They seem to think what I want isn't a problem. However, I'm guessing their price estimate is going to be well over $1K which might lead me back to the PC-343B.
pc-v600b, ss-860xp, max V gene, 3770k, 4x8gb ddr3 2400, i520 240gb ssd (os/apps), i520 480gb ssd (workspace), 2x3tb wd30efrx (raid-1) & i525 60gb ssd (cache), 2x GV-R795WF3-3GD, 2x u3014, leopold/cherry brown kb, g400, intuos5 pth650, win.7.x64.ult

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