Question 1

Are the fan speeds adjustable for different HDD temps / is there a way to monitor the HDD temperatures?

Accepted Answer

Unfortunately no, the fans are 2-wire meaning they only have a power and ground connection. No speed monitoring. The good news is my drives run really cool in the bay. In my opinion the fans are a very good balance between performance (cooling) and noise. The fans are audible but not nearly as noisy as your typical rack-mount SAN would be.

I run a NAS box using a 4000 series case, identical but for the hot-swap bays and I installed (1) standalone 4-bay hot-swap to the chassis. I monitor the 4 drives with freeNAS software and the drives run in the low 20's c in my basement where the temp is typically 20c so the drives are running only a few c above ambient temp.

I'm very happy with my server chassis's and I think you will be too. Hope this helps

Question 2

Do people tend to use an external CD/DVD with this?

Accepted Answer

I would think you would. There is really no space to put one in the case. The drive bays if I remember correctly are in batches of 4 so you cant just take one out. So the only real choices you have would be an external optical or put the anything you would want to load on a USB stick.

Hope this helps.

Question 3

I am thinking that it is somewhat expensive to provide 12x sata controller ports to connect this chassis to.  The only way I can think of is using your mobo ports + connecting some additional PCIe controllers.  Am I missing something?  Is there a cheaper way?

Also, how do you make the individual hard drive lights on the front of the case work?  I don't believe that many sata controllers provide individual hard drive activity lights.

Is there any way to get the lights to change color when a drive goes bad?

FYI, I am mostly considering using this as a FreeNAS box.  But I might also consider HW Raid.

Sorry, lots of questions.  I appreciate you anyone taking the time to respond, even if you can't answer all my questions!

Accepted Answer

Well. to start, the individual lights work fine.  nothing special here. 
a bit of information. MOST chassis with this many or more drives use an SFF-8087 link. This one does not. It provides literally 4 individual sata ports for each cluster of 4 drives (i might add, also a very large and quite fan per each cluster of 4). this is in a way nice, albeit a little harder to tidy up.

for the question about the number of sata ports... usually you would use an hba like lsi makes.  and a forward breakout cable that is sff-8087 on one side and sata on the other. be sure you know the difference between reverse breakout and forward.  that said, there are motherboards now days that have 12+ sata ports. but they are generally server boards and usually have some kind of bios fakeraid/ahci mode that you can select.  as for desktop boards, not so much... and the hba isnt bad. one with a single port will be like $100-150 and can be found on newegg. a 2 port one is alittle more.

Another thing to look into, although i have no experience, is a port multiplier. If you try this method, you will want to be sure your controller (whether onboard or pci-e, or whatever) supports a port multiplier.  understand the obviousness that a port multiplier would reduce performance for access to multiple disks at the same time. i assume with freenas you would likely set up some kind of raid6 or raid10 (for performance and redundancy).  so be ready for that if you go this way.

Either way, the case is exceedingly nice. I cannot stress this enough. It is well built. solid. Has feet on the bottom for desk standing, or they can be removed for rack mounting. The inside is very clean and well done. I have had several different storage cases from several vendors and they are generally nice looking, but the way they are built is so "cheap". just metal scratching metal. This case has plastic buffers that smooth this. I am very satisfied. But youll need to make your own decision obviously. Good day.

Question 4

Does this chassis support 4 TB drives?

Accepted Answer

Yes, it does. Note, I am seeing some errors indicative of either cabling or possibly the drive bays. I have a 4 TB and several 3 TV drives in my NAS. I need to investigate further but am away at the moment.

Question 5

Wondering if this will physically accept SAS drives. Product description on the chassis mentions SATA only but the stand alone Rosewill 4 drive hot swap drive cage (which appears to be what is used here) state SAS also. Can anyone confirm for me whether the backplane in this chassis has the correct connectors for SAS?

I just need to know physical compatibility of the connector. I understand the need for correct controller, breakout cables, etc.

Accepted Answer

The backplane might be electrically compatible with SAS commands but I don't think it is physically compatible with the standard SAS interface.  If you look at the TweakTown review of this case there is a picture of the ports on the backplane.

Question 6

Anybody have any idea if this case supports EEB form factor boards?

Accepted Answer

I don;t think so. It is not in the list of Newegg supported list of EEB cases. Find the link to see other cases http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&N=100006644&isNodeId=1&Description=EEB&x=0&y=0&Page=1 I use it with ATX which looks tiny inside the case

Question 7

would this be usable as a standard pc case?

Accepted Answer

It can accept commodity PC hardware but is designed for use in a 4-post server rack. You could tip it on its side and put it on blocks if you really wanted to use it as a "pedestal" style case (a non-rack style server or a floor standing unit). If you're after hotswap, you can buy 4x sata bays that fit into a bank of 3 adjacent 5.25" bays.

Question 8

Specs list mobo compatibility as Micro-ATX and below. Will this case work with a Mini-ITX board?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The case come with extra standoffs not attached, and you can screw them in to the appropriate holes. I also used a mini-ITX board in my NAS build using this case.

Question 9

Can the mounting flanges be removed?  I was thinking about using this case as a vertical tower.

Accepted Answer

Just tried it on mine. There are 4 x screws holding the "rack ears" on, then one more holding the side handle. So looks like you can remove the ears, but if you want the handles removed you will also lose your front cover. Even without the front cover it is still a nice case.

Question 10

Can this support an Asus KGPE-D16 SSI EEB 12.0" x 13.0"?

Accepted Answer

I currently have a standard ATX motherboard in this chassis but it does say it will accommodate an E-ATX.

Questions & Answers