Hi, sorry if this is the wrong place to put this, not sure if this goes here or not.
So, first a bit of background. I am interested in building a home NAS, but in order to fit a lot of disks, well, the full tower setup seems like the only option. But I hate the full tower setup since it is a *lot* of wasted space.
So then I was thinking, is it possible to go smaller? Ideally, I'd love an ATX form factor with 8 PCIe slots, but the case is pretty much ATX + 2x slim 140mm fans in the front, a Flex-ATX in the bottom, 80mm fan in the back (for positive air pressure) and otherwise just PCIe disks. Except they are 2.5" and mounted on raid cards directly. Maybe I could even design this case myself and hide it in a drawer or cupboard or something.
Looking at the dimensions, it should be possible to fit a two 3.5" drives on a 3 slot bay (mounted with connectors toward the PCIe bracket), or four 2.5" drives on a 2 slot bay (mounted with connectors toward the motherboard). This would then give a total limit of sixteen 2.5" drives or four 3.5" drives (plus four 2.5" drives). No need for massive power supplies as all power is drawn from the PCIe bus, and the electronics would pretty much be a two or four-port SATA RAID card. Surely something similar exists?
Looking around, I found... Pretty much nothing. There are 4 x m.2 cards on the market and while those are nice, I want to have cheaper storage. There are also PCIe brackets that support 3.5" mounting as well as 2.5" mounting, even some brackets that allow hot-swapping of 2.5" drives while still narrowly missing the mark. I want to remove the SATA cords, not add more, so why is it so difficult to set up a PCIe connector...?
So then I come to you fellow enthusiasts. Have you seen the above, and if not, does what I describe even make any sense, or is a bracket good enough for most of you out there?
Or am I just being a crazy person with a hard case of agoraphobia and an unhealthy OCD to maximize every little empty space in a PC system?
So, first a bit of background. I am interested in building a home NAS, but in order to fit a lot of disks, well, the full tower setup seems like the only option. But I hate the full tower setup since it is a *lot* of wasted space.
So then I was thinking, is it possible to go smaller? Ideally, I'd love an ATX form factor with 8 PCIe slots, but the case is pretty much ATX + 2x slim 140mm fans in the front, a Flex-ATX in the bottom, 80mm fan in the back (for positive air pressure) and otherwise just PCIe disks. Except they are 2.5" and mounted on raid cards directly. Maybe I could even design this case myself and hide it in a drawer or cupboard or something.
Looking at the dimensions, it should be possible to fit a two 3.5" drives on a 3 slot bay (mounted with connectors toward the PCIe bracket), or four 2.5" drives on a 2 slot bay (mounted with connectors toward the motherboard). This would then give a total limit of sixteen 2.5" drives or four 3.5" drives (plus four 2.5" drives). No need for massive power supplies as all power is drawn from the PCIe bus, and the electronics would pretty much be a two or four-port SATA RAID card. Surely something similar exists?
Looking around, I found... Pretty much nothing. There are 4 x m.2 cards on the market and while those are nice, I want to have cheaper storage. There are also PCIe brackets that support 3.5" mounting as well as 2.5" mounting, even some brackets that allow hot-swapping of 2.5" drives while still narrowly missing the mark. I want to remove the SATA cords, not add more, so why is it so difficult to set up a PCIe connector...?
So then I come to you fellow enthusiasts. Have you seen the above, and if not, does what I describe even make any sense, or is a bracket good enough for most of you out there?
Or am I just being a crazy person with a hard case of agoraphobia and an unhealthy OCD to maximize every little empty space in a PC system?
